Small Favour - Jim Butcher

   2008; 437 pages.  Book 10 (out of 17) in the “Dresden Files” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Paranormal Thriller; Urban Fantasy; Action-Intrigue.  Overall Rating: 9*/10.

 

    It’s all rather bizarre.

 

    Someone has kidnapped Chicago crime boss “Gentleman Johnnie Marcone”.  They literally tore the entire front off the building he was in and whisked him away.  Chicago Police want the city’s resident wizard, Harry Dresden, to investigate.  But that’s not the strange part.

 

    Queen Mab, aka "The Winter Queen", aka "The Faerie Queen", drops in on Harry, and calls in a small favor that he owes her.  She too wants him to investigate Marcone's kidnapping.  That’s the strange part.

 

    Why would the paranormal community care one bit about the whereabouts of a Chicago gangster?  I don’t know, but any mortal, even if he’s a wizard, who sticks his nose into this, will probably get it chopped off.

 

    Good luck, Harry!  You're gonna need it.

 

What’s To Like...

    The title does not contain a typo; the paperback I read was published in England, hence “Favour”.  The text was in “American” though, so I guess Orbit Books prints its books both ways.

 

    Small Favour is an Action-Intrigue story, and there is an abundance supply of both in the storyline.  Harry’s investigation seems to trigger all sorts of attempts on his life, which in turn keeps him wondering whether ulterior motives are in play, and if so, what those are.

 

    A slew of new creatures and characters are introduced here, including Hobs (servants of the Winter Faeries) and Gruffs (as in “three Billy Goats Gruff” and servants of the Summer Faeries).  Those creatures have evil intentions, but are puny in power compared to the Denarians, aka “The Fallen”, who are now demonic in nature but still retain their magical powers.

 

   An impressive cast of recurring characters including Thomas (Harry’s half-brother and a vampire), Michael (Harry’s friend-in-arms and Knight of the Cross), Molly (Michael’s daughter and apprentice wizard being trained by Harry), Ivy (also known as The Archive), and Karrin Murphy (a Chicago Policewoman who looks after the city’s interest in these magical shenanigans).  They all have significant parts in the storyline and do their best to keep Harry alive.

 

    Things build to a nail-biting, twisty, and desperate—for both the Good forces and the Evil ones—ending.  The Good Guys prevail (c’mon, you knew they would) but it comes at considerable cost in terms of bloodshed and trauma.  The last of 46 chapters is 30 pages long, and serves as both an Epilogue for this book and a teaser for the next one, Turn Coat.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.7*/5, based on 8,659 ratings and 691 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.43*/5, based on 112,931 ratings and 3,295 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    Anybody with an ounce of sense knows that fighting someone with a significant advantage in size, weight, and reach is difficult.  If your opponent has you by fifty pounds, winning a fight against him is dubious proposition, at best.

    If your opponent has you by eight thousand and fifty pounds, you’ve left the realm of combat and enrolled yourself in Roadkill 101.  Or possibly a Tom and Jerry cartoon.  (pg. 207)

 

    Thomas frowned.  “You aren’t just running your mouth, here, are you?  You’re serious?”

    “It’s a worst-case scenario,” I said.  “But Nicodemus could do it, so we’ve got to proceed under the presumption that his intentions are in that category.  The Denarians want to disrupt civilization, and with the Archive under their control, they could do it.  Maybe they’d use biological or chemicals weapons instead.  Maybe they’d crash the world economy.  Maybe they’d turn every program on television into one of those reality shows.”

    “That’s mostly done already, Harry.”  (pg. 342)

 

“Punctuality is for people with nothing better to do.”  (pg. 345)

    Small Favour doesn’t skimp on the profanity.  I noticed 20 instances in the first 10% of the book, of which three-quarters reference the Underworld.  But only one of those twenty was an f-bomb.  I’d call this par for the course for a Dresden Files book

 

    It’s difficult to find anything else to whine about.  Nevernever, the Faerie world, and Bob the Skull, which are two of my favorite tropes in this series, play almost no part in the storyline.  That’s all I can complain about.  The lofty Goodreads rating of 4.43 is fully justified.

 

    Small Favour is both a standalone novel and part of a (completed) 17-book series.  I’ve now read the first ten books in the series and Jim Butcher hasn’t lost his knack for spinning out captivating tales of Harry Dresden keeping Chicago safe from falling victim to various Dark Forces.  Heck, Chicagoans aren’t even aware that any paranormal creatures exist.

 

    9 Stars.  One last thing.  I was impressed by the way Jim Butcher portrays the mob boss.  Most writers would just cast him as a ruthless, totally-evil thug; but here we discover that Marcone has a noble side as well, even if he rarely gets to show it.  I love it when the characters in a story are “gray”.

White Night - Jim Butcher

   2007; 495 pages.  Book 9 (out of 17) in the “Dresden Files” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Urban Fantasy; Paranormal Thriller.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    At first glance it looked like just an ordinary suicide.  There was even a plain-as-day suicide note.  It read: I’m so tired of being afraid.  There’s nothing left.  Forgive me.  Janine.

 

    All so very tidy.  Almost a bit too tidy.  Sergeant Karrin Murphy of the Chicago PD wonders whether some paranormal activity isn’t involved.  So she’s asked Chicago’s resident wizard, Harry Dresden to come have a look.

 

    Harry does some magical sleuthing and sure enough, there’s a hidden second message near the corpse.  Ordinary humans can’t see it, but wizards can.  All it says is Exodus 22:18.  Harry knows the verse.  Suffer not a witch to live.

 

    Someone apparently has gone out of their way to deliver a message to Harry.

 

What’s To Like...

    White Night has the standard Harry Dresden structure, and that’s a compliment, not a criticism.  The single murder investigation rapidly expands into a serial killing spree, which then further spreads out into a complicated game of paranormal politics.  Harry has to sort through all three levels, as well as figure out why his brother Thomas is acting so strange and withdrawn lately.

 

    It was nice to see the Wiccans get some attention, even if they are badly overmatched against their paranormal predators.  I also liked the deepening of the character Johnnie Marcone, the local gangster kingpin.  And the rebellious streak in Molly, Harry’s recently-acquired apprentice, made me chuckle.

 

    Action and intrigue are both present in satisfying quantities.  Alliances within the vampire community are rather “fluid”, which makes for plenty of deception and bloodshed.  Harry gets lots of chances to cast lots of spells, and even uses his soul-gazing talent at one point.

 

    As always, the story is told from the first-person point-of-view, Harry’s.  The chapters are relatively short, with 43 of them covering 495 pages, so there’s always a good place to stop for the night.  Jim Butcher’s stellar musical tastes once again shine through, with nods along the way to an eclectic assortment including Weird Al Yankovic, The Police, Santana, Aerosmith, Metallica, and one of my favorite classical composers, Vivaldi.

 

    Everything builds to a drawn-out (80 pages or so), exciting ending.  Plot twists abound, and both Harry and the Vampire factions bring hidden resources to the final confrontation to aid in their cause.  The last chapter serves as an epilogue, which I thought was a really nice touch.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.8/5 based on 4,530 ratings and 698 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.39/5 based on 113,896 ratings and 2,926 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    Anna’s eyes suddenly widened.  “You two were together.”  She turned to Elaine.  “That’s how you know him.”

    “It was a long time ago,” I said.

    Elaine winked at me.  “But you never really forget your first.”

    “You never forget your first train wreck, either.”

    “Train wrecks are exciting.  Fun, even,” Elaine said.  She kept smiling, though her eyes turned a little sad.  “Right up until the very last part.”  (pg. 112)

 

    A large man came through the door.  He was built like a bulldozer made out of slabs of raw, workingman muscle, thick bones, and heavy sinews.  He had a neck as thick as Murphy’s waist, short red hair, and beady eyes under a heavy brow.  His expression looked like it had been permanently locked into place a few seconds after someone had kicked his puppy through a plate-glass window.

    "Hendricks," I greeted Marcone’s primary enforcer with convivial cheer.  “’Sup?”  (pg. 279)

 

“I’m getting dumber by the minute,” I confirmed.  “Ask anybody.”  (pg. 358)

    There were about a dozen cusswords in the first 10% of White Night, which is about normal for the series.  There were no rolls-in-the-hay or other adult situations, which was much to Harry’s dismay since his ex, Elaine, plays a prominent role in the story, and he still is fond of her.

 

    One of my favorite characters, Bob-the-Skull, doesn’t get much ink, and we don’t spend much time in the always-interesting parallel dimension called The Nevernever.  But that’s offset by Harry’s dog, “Mouse”, having a major role in the story.  I remain convinced that Mouse is no ordinary canine.

 

    That’s about all I can think of to gripe about.  Overall, I found White Night to be a solid addition to the Harry Dresden series, full of thrills, spills, and chills and above all, replete with Jim Butcher’s wry wit and masterful storytelling.

 

    8 Stars.

Furies of Calderon - Jim Butcher

   2004; 502 pages.  Book 1 (out of 6) in the “Codex Alera” series.  New Author? : No, but the series is new to me.  Genres: Epic Fantasy; High Fantasy; Roman Empire Fantasy; Coming of Age.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

 

    Poor, poor, pitiful Tavi.  Fifteen years old and not a trace of furycrafting in him.  Such a disability.  Indeed, in the entire realm of Alera, you’ll not find one another adult without a trace of magical ability.

 

    At least Tavi has a good homelife: he lives with his Uncle Bernard on a steadholt, and spends most of his time herding the sheep.  If all goes well, someday Bernard will give him a flock of his own, and Tavi can settle down to a comfortable, if utterly prosaic, life of sheepherding.

 

    Right now, however, he's in a bit of a bind.  While minding the flock yesterday, his attention strayed to a local lass that Tavi’s sweet on.  And while he was focusing on his puppy love, some of the sheep wandered off.  Uncle Bernard won’t fail to notice that.  Perhaps if Tavi slips out of the house early this morning, he can go round them up, bring them home, with nobody the wiser.

 

    The worst-case scenario is if Tavi is unable to find the lost sheep.  His uncle will not be pleased, and Tavi will have to accept whatever punishment is meted out.  I beg to differ, Tavi, that’s not even close to being the worst that can happen.  You have no idea how bad things are going to get.

 

    But you’re about to find out.

 

What’s To Like...

    Furies of Calderon is the first book in a (completed) six-volume high fantasy series called The Codex Alera, published in the 2004-2009, one book each year, by Jim Butcher and alongside his bread-&-butter series, The Dresden Files.  Good grief, that’s a lot of writing.

 

    The magic system is not complex.  Every Aleran, Tavi excepted, can “craft” (invoke and control) “furies” (think “ethereal familiars”) from one of the six elemental realms: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Metal, and Wood.  Most Alerans have just a single fury, although a few have two.  As with any wizardly system, summoning and controlling a fury takes it out of you: the longer you're wielding an active fury, the longer it will take you to recover.  The only other magical ability, at least thus far, is “truthfinding”, which is sort of a walking, talking human lie detector.

 

    In addition to the magic, there are a bunch of new creatures: (gargants, slives, Knights Aeries, herdbanes, wax spiders, and more), all of which to meet and flee from.  Don’t let that term “wax spider” fool you, they might be the most dangerous in the menagerie.

 

    The writing is superb, which is the norm for Jim Butcher: witty, exciting, and well-paced once the obligatory world-building has been accomplished.  The character development is phenomenally deep and fluid: Tavi, Doroga, Kitai, Isana, Bernard, Fidelias, Odiana, Fade, and quite a few others, both good guys and bad, are all three-dimensional, yet this doesn't bog down the storytelling.

 

    The ending is well-crafted and epically long (100+ pages!), although it's been used a lot before: hordes upon hordes of baddies are besieging our hopelessly outnumbered good guys, with seemingly only one outcome possible.  Shades of Helm’s Deep from Lord of the Rings.

 

    Yet here, despite the reader knowing that our heroes will prevail (elsewise, how could there be five more books in the series?), Jim Butcher somehow convinces you that all is lost.  Still, most of the baddies will live to fight and furycraft another day, and in another book in the series.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 1,914 ratings.

    Goodreads: 4.10/5 based on 102,021 ratings and 4,263 reviews

 

Things That Sound Dirty, But Aren’t…

    “Bernard.  Why is there a girl in your bed?”  (pg. 181)

 

Excerpts...

    “How will Aquitaine react?”

    The big man pursed his lips.  “It depends.”

    “On what?”

    “On what he is doing when we interrupt him with bad news.”

    “Is it all that bad?”

    Aldrick smiled.  “Just hope he’s up drinking.  He’s usually in a pretty good mood.  Tends to forget his anger by the time the hangover has worn off.”

    “It was an idiot’s plan to begin with.”

    “Of course.  It was his.”  (pg. 81)

 

    “Trouble, Tavi,” Fade said, his tone serious.  “Trouble.”

    “I know,” Tavi said.  “Don’t worry.  We’ll figure a way out of this.”

    Fade nodded, eyes watching Tavi expectantly.

    “Well not right this minute,” Tavi said, after a flustered moment.  “You could at least try to help me come up with something, Fade.”

    Fade stared vacantly for a moment and then frowned.  “Marat eat Alerans.”

    Tavi swallowed.  “I know, I know.  But if they were going to eat us, they wouldn’t have given us blankets and a place to sleep.  Right?”

    “Maybe they like hot dinner,” Fade said, darkly.  “Raw dinner.”

    Tavi stared at him for a minute.  “That’s enough help, Fade.”  (pg. 257)

 

“She kissed me, and my brains melted and dribbled out my ears.”  (pg. 161)

    The quibbles are minor.  There were a couple of typos, which is a couple too many for a published book (mass market format, by Ace Fantasy): Aldrick/Aldrik; Aldrick/Aquitainus, tread/trod, and the ubiquitous lead/led boo-boo.

 

    Most of the occasions that called for cussing made clever use of the word “crow”.  Examples: “bloody crows” (bloody heck), “crow fodder” (BS), “crows and bloody furies”; yet on two occasions, “b*tch” snuck in.  There’s a lot of blood and gore, which I expected, but also rape, forcible assault (via a slave collar), and even cannibalism, all of which surprised me a bit.  It makes me wonder who the target audience is.  Perhaps it’s for readers like me: adults who still like to read fantasy novels.

 

    Finally, and most nitpicky, there were no maps, at least not here in the first book.  We'll see if that holds true throughout the series.

 

    The quibbles notwithstanding, overall, Furies of Calderon fully met the high expectations I have for anything written by Jim Butcher.  I’ll defer on whether The Dresden Files outshines The Codex Alera, or vice versa until I’ve read more of this series.  But I’m guessing my answer will be “they’re both fantastic”.

 

    8½ Stars.  One last bit of trivia.  According to the Wikipedia article, Jim Butcher penned The Codex Alera based on a bet that he couldn’t write a good story based on a lame idea.  Butcher responded that he could do so based on two of the challenger’s lame ideas.  The ones chosen?  “Lost Roman Legion” and “Pokemon”).  I’m not kidding; you can read about it here.

Proven Guilty - Jim Butcher

   2006; 547 pages.  Book 8 (out of 17) in the “Dresden Files” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Urban Fantasy; Paranormal Thriller.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    Harry Dresden is certainly not the most popular member of the White Council of wizards.  He the newest Warden of the group, seems to have an attitude against blindly trusting the decisions of his peers, and is positively disrespectful of the senior council.

 

    But he also happens to be a private investigator by trade, and that always comes in handy, particularly when it comes to keeping tabs on the White Council’s deadly enemies, the vampires of the Red Court.

 

    For instance, right now a sudden spike in Black Magic has been detected in Harry’s hometown of Chicago.  That’s a capital offense with the punishment, decapitation, usually carried out at the first opportunity.  The White Council thinks it would be convenient if Harry could determine who the practicing black mage is.

 

    And while he’s at it, could he also investigate why the Faeries haven’t fought back against those nasty Red Court vampires who recently trespassed into the Faerie kingdom?  Such an infraction is usually met with instant and forceful retaliation, yet for some reason the Faeries seem to be uncharacteristically forgiving.  The White Council’s war against the Red Court is going badly, and it would be nice to have the Faeries as an ally.

 

    So dust off your duster and hit the streets of Chicago, Harry.  See what you can discover.  And you'd better hope that whoever is casting all that black magic juju isn’t some acquaintance of yours.  That would likely be the straw that breaks the White Council’s back when it comes to tolerating your uppity attitude.

 

What’s To Like...

    Proven Guilty is the eighth entry in Jim Butcher’s 17-volume paranormal urban fantasy series “The Dresden Files”.  It’s action-packed and fast-paced, and includes an extended foray into the Faerie parallel realm of Nevernever, which I always enjoy.

 

    The two tasks given to Harry, and the complications that arise therefrom, are not exactly epic in scope, but that’s okay.  The focus here is more on his relationships with Michael, a devout Knight of the Cross, Michael’s wife and daughter (Chastity and Molly), and Harry’s Chicago PD best bud, Lieutenant Karrin Murphy.  It was fun to see each of these characters get fleshed out, and I suspect it’s a sign that the Carpenter family will be playing a greater part in the next few books in the series.

 

    There’s a bunch of new magical critters to meet and be scared to death by, among which are Phobophages, Janns, Scarecrows, Ogres, and Fetches.  It might come as a surprise that of that beastly bunch, the Scarecrows are the most lethal.  My favorite supporting character, Bob the Skull, is back but doesn’t get a lot of ink, but Harry’s dog, Mouse, does, and both Harry and the reader begin to get the impression that Mouse is no ordinary canine.

 

    As always, the story is told in the first-person POV (Harry’s).  The chapters are short-to-moderate in length, 47 of them encompassing 547 pages.  There’s also a quite a bit of cussing, but that's the norm for a gritty urban fantasy.

 

    Everything builds to a climactic and prolonged magical battle.  Our heroes’ plight looks hopeless, but they accomplish their basic mission and flee to fight another day.  Proven Guilty is a standalone story, as well as part of a series.  I definitely recommend reading this series in order.  Harry makes a lot of references to past episodes during this tale, many of which I’d forgotten all about.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.8/5 based on 1,888 ratings.

    Goodreads: 4.38/5 based on 108,848 ratings and 2,881 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “You would be wise not to anger me, wizard.  You’re hardly in a position to make demands.”

    “If you were going to kill me, you’d have done it already.”

    Crane let out a rueful laugh.  “I suppose that’s true enough.  I was going to finish you and drop you in the lake, but imagine my surprise when I made some calls and it turns out that you’re …”

    “Infamous” I suggested.  “Tough?  A good dancer?”

    Crane showed me his teeth.  “Marketable.  For an insignificant young man, you’ve managed to irritate a great many people.”  (pg. 271)

 

    “What would happen?” Charity asked quietly.

    “We’d die,” I said.  “We’d be trapped in deep Faerie, near the strongholds of all kinds of trouble, with no way to escape but to try to find our way to the portions of Faerie that are near Earth.  The locals would eat us and spit out the bones before we got anywhere close to escape.”

    Thomas rolled his eyes and said, “This isn’t exactly helping me keep my mind off my fear, man.”

    “Shut up,” I told him.  “Or I’ll move to my second initiative and start telling you knock-knock jokes.”  (pg. 377)

 

“Wizards is the kway-zee-est people.”  (pg. 204 )

    I enjoyed Proven Guilty just as much as the earlier books in this series but I have to admit to finding the ending to be both weird and a bit disquieting.

 

    First of all, it’s a stutter-step ending.  The epic battle of good-vs-evil is over, the good guys make it home safely, yet there’s still a hundred pages left in the book.  I was left wondering what details still needed resolving.  On the plus side, there’s a trial which neatly ties into the book’s opening scene.  Things look bad for Harry and his charge, but impeccable timing saves the day, and Harry ends up with an apprentice.

 

    That's when the weirdness set in.

 

    Harry and Michael engage in a long dialogue about faith versus magic.  Neither changes his view because of this, but it was strange to see Jim Butcher getting just a tad bit preachy.

 

    Then comes an underage come-on scene.  Other Amazon and Goodreads reviewers have pointed out how awkward the whole thing is.  Yes, Harry responds appropriately, but still, it was a yucky touch to an otherwise captivating tale.

 

    Finally, Harry and his former mentor discuss several loose ends that weren’t tied up in the book, including the possibility that there is an unknown “puppet master” who’s manipulating all the strife between the good guys and the baddies.  Is this a teaser for the next book or a recap of just how many details weren’t addressed in this one?

 

    Nevertheless, let’s be clear.  For the first 500 pages, Proven Guilty kept me thoroughly enamored with its tale of the paranormal.  Jim Butcher is an excellent writer and I see no hint of him “just mailing it in”.  The final fifty pages do get a little weird, but that doesn’t ruin the fascinating story he’s laid down up to that point.  I’ll no doubt be reading the next book, White Night, in the near future.

 

    8 Stars.  One last thing.  I liked the mention of a Barnes & Noble bookstore.  Local places to buy books, both new and used, are dying out (where have you gone, Border’s Books?), which is a shame.  Along with libraries, they constitute some of my favorite places to hang out.  It’s nice to see them getting a nod.

Dead Beat - Jim Butcher

   2005; 513 pages.  Book 7 (out of 15) of the “Dresden Files” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Urban Fantasy; Humorous Fantasy; Urban Mystery.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

    Halloween is just three days away, and in Chicago, Harry Dresden’s stomping ground, just about everyone’s excited.

    For most Chicagoans, it’s time to stock up on candy, buy or make some costumes for the kids, and get ready for a night of trick-or-treating.  For a few, with a New Age-y bent, it means preparing to celebrate a sacred event, Samhain.  Harry Dresden, however, is filled with a sense of foreboding.

    Because, as Chicago’s resident (and only) practicing wizard, Halloween is the time of year when the barriers between our “real” world and the spirit world (known as the “Nevernever”) are at their weakest.  That means a sharp increase in otherworldly creatures, including demons and faeries, crossing over from the other side to our neck of the multiverse.

    This year, that includes a small band of necromancers, who have their own agenda for this Halloween.  They are up to some sort of deviltry, Harry isn’t sure exactly what, and they need a human to do their bidding: to find and bring to them something called the “Word of Kemmler”.  No later than Halloween night.

    Someone like Harry Dresden.  Who has just been blackmailed by one of the necromancers into taking this assignment.  If he doesn't do it, incriminating photos will get sent to the wrong people.

    Three days is an incredibly short time to do the job.  Especially since Harry has no idea what the Word of Kemmler is, let alone where to find it.

What’s To Like...

    Dead Beat is my seventh book in Jim Butcher’s fantastic ”Dresden Files” series, which means I’m about halfway through it.  There are lots of characters to keep track of, some new, some recurring.  Bob the Skull is back, and he’s one of my favorites.  So is Mouse, who I gather is recurring but who I’ve apparently forgot.  Sue is new, but here’s hoping she’ll get called on again.  Ditto for Waldo Butters, who’s my kind of hero.

    This is vintage Jim Butcher – the snarky wit starts immediately (roommate issues), and the action kicks in shortly thereafter.  As expected, there’s lots of magic involved and a slew of baddies to keep Harry and friends in peril up to their ears.

    If critters are your cup of tea, you’ll love Dead Beat.  I remember faeries, vampires, werewolves, and fallen angels (now demons) from before, along with maybe ghouls, zombies, specters, and an incubus or two.  Now we have necromancers, ectomancers (say what?), Ninja ghouls, a Renfield, corpsetakers, and a reptile added to the menagerie.

    I enjoyed learning about anthropomancy (huh?), and the Vader syndrome, and got a chuckle out of a bad case of “ergot poisoning”.  I liked the literary nods given to Fahrenheit 451 and Watchers, the latter being my favorite Dean Koontz book.

    Interwoven amongst all the mayhem was an interesting bit of situational ethics for Harry to ponder:  Do the ends (saving lots of lives) justify the means (using a kind of magic he’s sworn never to dabble in)?  I appreciated that the author wasn’t afraid to let Harry resolve that question.

    Exciting endings are a Jim Butcher specialty, and he comes through yet again with this one.  It’s both twisty and tension-filled.  A couple plot threads remain open, those involving Cowl and Kumori, the Erlking, and Harry’s mangled hand.  I’m sure all will get addressed down the line somewhere.

Kewlest New Word...

Tulwar (n.) : a curved saber or scimitar used in the Orient and northern India.

Excerpts...

    “Your timing is improbable.”

    He sounded amused.  “In what way?”

    “Coming to my rescue just as someone was about to punch my ticket.  You must admit, Marcone, that it smells like a setup.”

    “Even I occasionally enjoy good fortune,” he replied.

    I shook my head.  “I called you less than an hour ago.  If it wasn’t a setup, then how did you find me?”

    “He didn’t,” said Gard.  “I did.”  She looked over her shoulder at Marcone and frowned.  “This is a mistake.  It was his fate to die in that alley.”

    “What is the point of having free will if one cannot occasionally spit in the eye of destiny?” Marcone asked.  (pg. 209)

   “I hear some crazy things.”

    “Like what?” I asked.

    He shook his head.  “That terrorists blew up the power plant.  Or maybe set off some kind of nuke.  How would we know?”

    “I think someone might have noticed a nuclear explosion,” I said.

    “Oh, sure,” he said.  “But hell, maybe somebody did.  Practically no phones, radio is damned near useless.  How would we know?”

    “I dunno.  The big boom?  The vaporized city?”

    The vendor snorted.  (pg. 341)

“Life is a journey.  Time is a river.  The door is a jar.”  (pg. 179)

    The nitpicking is minor, and similar to what I listed in my previous Dresden Files review (shown here).  The title didn’t seem to have any tie-in to the book, but that’s not important.  Michael's MIA, and Murphy was a late-show, but I'm sure both will be back, and there were lots of other people and creatures to keep my interest.

    There seemed a bit more musing and explaining than usual, but I suspect those give vital insight into Harry’s mindset for anyone who isn’t reading the series in order.  A case could be made that the plotlines in these books are formulaic.  For instance, I’ve noticed that if there’s an aged White Wizard in the storyline, his chances of surviving the tale are pretty slim.

    And hey, even if it is formulaic, I like Butcher’s formula.

    9 Stars.  The Amazon and Goodreads overall ratings for this book are 4.7/5 and 4.43/5 respectively.  Those are impressive rankings for both sites, but IMHO completely deserved.  I had high expectations for Dead Beat, and it fully lived up to them.

Death Masks - Jim Butcher

   2003; 379 pages.  Book 5 (out of 15) of the “Dresden Files” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Urban Fantasy; Murder-Mystery.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

    The Shroud of Turin has been stolen!  It’s thought that a group who call themselves the “Churchmice” did it, since they are known to be thieves who specialize in robbing sanctuaries and cathedrals.

    Since the Shroud was being kept in Italy, you might ask what that has to do with Chicago’s one and only resident wizard, Harry Dresden.  Well, word has it that the thieves are coming to the Windy City to unload the merchandise.  The Roman Catholic Church is worried about nefarious supernatural creatures getting their hands on it, since many believe the Shroud has magical powers.  Hence they’ve hired Harry to do his best to find it, procure it, and return it to them.

    But there appear to be other prospective buyers, including, strangely enough, some Chicago gangsters.  Lord only knows what they want it for, but they have no qualms about sending their thugs to get rid of the competition.

    Harry’s happy for the work; he can certainly use the money and the Church is willing to pay him generously.  Unfortunately, he has other obligations that take priority, most notably an official challenge to a duel by one of the deadliest vampires of the infamous Red Court.  His opponent has hundreds of kills in duels over the centuries.

    And an official challenge is not the sort of thing one can refuse.  Best of luck, Harry.  You’re gonna need it.

What’s To Like...

    The action is fast and nonstop in Death Masks as Jim Butcher smoothly jumps around among no less than five storylines.  They are:

1.) Harry’s magical duel with the Red Court vampire champion.

2.) Trying to keep the gangsters’ hitmen from killing him with very non-magical bullets.

3.) Recovering the Shroud of Turin.

4.) Helping the Chicago PD ID a handless, headless corpse that looks like a ritual slaying.

5.) Helping Harry’s ex-GF Susan cope with, or counteract, her vampiric nature.

    These are not spoilers; they’re listed on the back cover of the book.

    There’s a plethora of critters to meet and flee from.  The vampires, wizards, and knights are recurring characters in the series, but we (and Harry) are now introduced to a formidably evil bunch of demons called “The Fallen”, aka “The Denarians”.  “Bob the Skull” is back, although he doesn’t have much to do this time around.  “The Archive” is an interesting newcomer, who I hope will show up in future stories.  And finally, I had never heard of “homing ducks”, although now that I think about it, ducks do have that innate ability.

    We get some hints about Harry’s parents, and I suspect this will be developed more as the series progresses.  There were some similarities to Harry Potter’s folks, and I’ve come to the conclusion that if you find your toddler happens to display some magical talents, whatever you do, don’t name him Harry!  

    Harry is asked why he chose to be a wizard (pgs 109-110), and the answer is rather interesting.  So is the conversation he has with Molly, Michael’s daughter (pages 179-181).  It’s fun to watch how Jim Butcher continues to develop Susan’s character, and I liked the concept of “magic germs”.

    As is true of any book in this series, there’s a fair amount of cussing, lots of violence, and at least one roll in the hay.  The story is told in the first-person POV (Harry’s), and the chapters average out to about 13 pages in length.  The characters come in three shades: black, white, and gray.  I’m always most fascinated by the gray ones, particularly when they are “dark gray”.  It was great to see one of the baddies have a sense of honor, and another one showing a “tender” side.

    The ending is suitably exciting and climactic.  Most of story threads are tied up.  Susan’s vampire issues remain unsolved, and one of the main baddies lives to slay another day.  I suspect both of these threads are continued in subsequent books in the series.  Death Masks is a standalone tale, as well as part of a series.

Kewlest New Word...

Tenebrous (adj.) : dark, shadowy, or obscure.

Others : Chivied (v.)

Excerpts...

    I’d lost my .357 during a battle between the Faerie Courts hosted on clouds over Lake Michigan the previous midsummer, so I’d moved my .44 from the office to home.  It hung on a gun belt on a peg beside the door, just over a wire basket I’d attached to the wall.  Holy water, a couple cloves of garlic, vials of salt, and iron filings filled the basket, intended to be door prizes for anything that showed up in an attempt to suck my blood, carry me off to faerieland, or sell me stale cookies.  (pg. 123)

   “You’ll have to forgive them,” said Nicodemus.  He came through the door and into the torchlight, freshly dressed, shaved, and showered.  He wore pajama pants, slippers, and a smoking jacket of Hugh Hefner vintage.  The grey noose still circled his throat.  “I like to encourage discretion in my employees.  Sometimes it makes them seem standoffish.”

    “You don’t let your goons talk?” I asked.

    He removed a pipe from his pocket, along with a small tin of Prince Albert tobacco.  “I remove their tongues.”

    “I guess your human resources department isn’t exactly under siege, is it,” I said.

    He tamped tobacco into his pipe and smiled.  “You’d be surprised.  I offer an excellent dental plan.”  (pg. 266)

“You’ve no idea how difficult it is to waylay an angelic messenger.”  (pg. 269)

    It’s difficult to think of anything negative to say about Death Masks, hence the stellar rating.  I never did suss out the reason for the title.  There were some masks mentioned late in the story, but they weren’t of major importance.  Maybe I missed something.

    I suppose I would’ve liked to see Bob-the-Skull get more ink, mostly due to the witty dialogues he and Harry engage in, but that’s a personal taste only.  Also, we don’t get to visit the Faerie dimension called Nevernever at all, a place I like but which Harry would be content to never, never see again.

    One last note: I recommend that you read the series in order.  I read the next book in the series, Blood Rites, way back in 2013, and while I enjoyed it, there was a bit of a disconnect because I’d “jumped ahead” 5 books.  That’s my fault, not Jim Butcher’s.

    9 Stars.  After now having read the first six books, this series still sparkles for me.  Lots of action, lots of wit, lots of otherworldly thrills and spills, and no feel of Jim Butcher “just cranking another book out”.  It's highly recommended and highly entertaining.

Summer Knight - Jim Butcher

   2002; 379 pages.  Book 4 (out of 15) of the “Dresden Files” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Urban Fantasy; Murder-Mystery.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

    Someone has slain the Summer Knight, the reigning champion of the Summer Faeries.  They stole his mantle as well, which is a source of great power.  Suspicion naturally falls upon Mab, the Winter Queen of the Sidhe (Faeries), and she’d like someone to find proof that she didn’t do the dirty deed.

    Who better to turn to than Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only wizard that has a listing in the Yellow Pages, and extensive experience with the Windy City’s “other world”?  It also helps that Mab has just purchased Harry’s “debt” from his fairy godmother, a debt she’s willing to rescind if Harry does her three favors.

    It is hard for Harry to turn down a prospective client; he can certainly use the business.  But Queen Mab, or any faerie for that matter, is not the sort of customer anyone would want.  When you strike a deal with a member of the Sidhe, you just know you’re going to regret it.  Better to walk away from this one, Harry.

    And Mab is famed for her resourcefulness, with lots of friends on the Wizards Council.  So watch your step, Mr. Dresden.

    Oh, and one other thing, Harry.  Please note that Mab didn’t exactly ask you to find out who the killer was.  She just asked you to come up with proof it wasn’t her.  Those aren’t the same things.

What’s To Like...

    Summer Knight is the fourth book in Jim Butcher’s incredibly popular series “The Dresden Files”, and focuses primarily on the goings-on of the Sidhe (“Faerie”) Kingdom.  This is a nice variation; earlier books in the series focused on Vampires, Werewolves, and Wizards, so it’s fun to see the author develop yet another aspect of the magic world.

    Besides investigating who killed the Summer Knight, Harry also takes on a second case (and a paying one!) of finding a Changeling named Lily.  Not surprisingly, the two threads eventually merge.  There are critters aplenty to meet and defeat: ghouls, werewolves, faeries, ogres, pixies, changelings (half mortal, half faerie), a chlorofiend (say what?), trolls, sylphs, and a unicorn and a centaur that you do not want to mess with.

    As always, the action starts right away and doesn’t let up.  The story is told from a first-person POV (Harry’s), and there’s a fair amount of cussing.  I liked the concept of the Undertown; it reminded me of Preston & Child’s Reliquary.  I also was delighted to come across the fable “The Fox and the Scorpion”; it’s been a lifelong guiding principle for me.

    There was only one bout of Bob and Harry engaging in witty repartee. These conversations are probably my favorite parts of this series, but at least it was a fairly long session.  We and Harry spend a fair amount of time in the Nevernever (the Spirits’ home dimension), and that was a treat, at least for the us readers.  Everything builds to a suitably exciting ending.  This is a standalone story, as well as part of a series.

    A couple threads remain unresolved.  Harry still owes a debt to Mab (two more favors), and he still hasn’t found a vampire cure for his girlfriend, Susan.  I don’t really have any quibbles with Summer Knight.  The worst I can say is the book’s overall structure is formulaic, but since I happen to like the formula, I’m okay with that.

Excerpts...

    “Mab?  The Mab, Harry?”

    “Yeah.”

    “Queen of Air and Darkness?  That Mab?”

     “Yeah,” I said, impatient.

    “And she’s your client?”

    “Yes, Bob.”

    “Here’s where I ask why don’t you spend your time doing something safer and more boring.  Like maybe administering suppositories to rabid gorillas.”

    “I live for challenge,” I said.  (loc. 1871)

   “A guardian?”

    “Obviously,” Elaine said.  “How do we get past it?”

    “Blow it up?”

    “Tempting,” Elaine said.  “But I don’t think it will make much of an impression on the Mothers if we kill their watchdog.  A veil?”

    I shook my head.  “I don’t think unicorns rely on the normal senses.  If I remember right, they sense thoughts.”

    “In that case it shouldn’t notice you.”  (loc. 4299)

Kindle Details...

    Summer Knight sells for $9.99 at Amazon.  The pricing structure of the rest of the series is this: Book One @ $2.99; Book Two @ $5.99; the rest of the books @ $9.99.  Jim Butcher is the author of another series, The Codex Alera, which has an identical price structure.  I think it’s a fine marketing strategy for a top-tier writer.

 She was also mad.  Loopy as a crochet convention.  (loc. 5174)

    “The Dresden Files” is one of the most enduringly popular urban fantasy series out there.  The books/e-books are almost always borrowed at my local libraries, and I was lucky to snag this one for free when it became providentially available.

   Jim Butcher is a gifted writer, and that’s certainly a factor.  But so is his attention to details in the world-building.  Anyone can write in a werewolf, a faerie, or a wizard to a fantasy story.  But Butcher develops complex hierarchies for each genus of magical beings.

    Here, the Faeire Hierarchy is comprised of three sets of dual (Summer and Winter) rulers: Those Who Were (the Mothers), Those Who Are (The Queens), and Those Are To Come (The Ladies).  You also have Lord Marshals for each side, as well as their champion Knights.  I remember when I was reading Fool Moon (reviewed here) that the Werewolf society was equally complex.

   It’s got to be an art to create these intricate orders while avoiding getting bogged down in the minutiae.  The fantasy authors who can pull that off are few, but Jim Butcher is one of them.

    8½ Stars.  Subtract 1 Star if you aren’t reading the books in this series in order.  I made the mistake of reading Book Six (reviewed here) immediately after Book One, and I was at times rather confused.