quippe | Entries tagged with jim butcher

The Blurb On The Back:

Faeries.

Black magic.

And a genuine fallen angel living inside your head.

It never rains but it pours.

Harry Dresden is the only wizard in the Chicago phone book. He consults for the police department on 'unusual' cases, and has even appeared on talk shows. And this makes him no friends on the White Council of Wizards, who find Harry brash and undisciplined. However, now that vampire wars have thinned the ranks of wizards, they need him, and he's assigned to investigate rumours of black magic.

Harry's other problem is an old friend's daughter, all grown-up and already in trouble. Her boyfriend insists he's innocent of what looks like a supernatural assault straight out of a horror film. This impression turns out to be ... well, pretty accurate, as Harry discovers malevolent entitites feeding on fear in Chicago. All in a day's work for a wizard, his faithful dog, and a talking skull named Bob ...

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The Verdict:

Not very good. This is a rushed and botched attempt to give the reader the information needed for the next book in the arc, i.e. it's filler - and not particularly entertaining filler at that - cliche packed and ripe with stereotypes. Avoid.

The Blurb On The Back:

There's an entire world that exists alongside the everyday life of mankind. Vampires. Werewolves. Faeries. Demons. Monsters. They're all real.

Harry Dresden is the only professional wizard in the Chicago area phone book, and paranormal investigations are his stock-in-trade. Luckily, he's not alone. Although most people don't believe in magic, the Chicago PD has a Special Investigations department, headed by Dresden's good friend Karrin Murphy. They deal with the ... stranger cases.

It's because of Karrin that Harry sneaks into Graceland Cemetary one night to meet a deadly vampire named Mavra. It seems Mavra has some incriminating evidence that would destroy Karrin's career. The vampire's demand is simple: find her the Word of Kemmler and all the power that comes with it. But first, Harry would kind of like to know just what the Word of Kemmler is. Before long, he's in a race against time - and six necromancers - to get the Word. And to prevent the good people of Chicago from experiencing a Halloween night that will truly wake the dead ...

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The Verdict:

A solid read that's entertaining and Butcher handles his backstory in a competent and interesting way. One of the best in the series with some good set-ups for the future books, albeit I have concerns that Butcher could take a lazy way-out with some plot strains and I'm not happy with the Dresden/Murphy story-line.

The Blurb On The Back:

Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

For Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, there have been worse assignments than going undercover on the set of an adult film. Dodging flaming monkey poo, for instance. Or going toe-to-leaf with a walking plant monster. Still, there's something more troubling than usual about his newest case. The film's producer believes he's the target of a sinister entropy curse - but it's the women around him who are dying, in increasingly spectacular ways.

Harry's doubly frustrated because he got involved with this bizarre mystery only as a favour to Thomas, his flirtatious, self-absorbed vampire acquiantance of dubious integrity. Thomas has a personal stake in the case Harry can't quite figure out, until his investigation leads him straight to Thomas's oversexed vampire family. Harry's about to discover that Thomas's family tree has been hiding a shocking secret: a revelation that will change Harry's life forever.

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The Verdict:

The story arc looks promising and Butcher finishes the book in a way that leaves interesting options for the future books. However, he definitely has difficulty keeping his timelines and 'canon' in check and because he's focused on his story arc, the main plot of this book is somewhat cursory. It's still an entertaining way to pass a few hours, but because of the complicated arc, I suspect it will be difficult for readers entirely new to the series to dive in and start with the later books.

The Blurb On The Back:

Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden, Chicago's only practicing professional wizard, should be happy that business is pretty good for a change. But now he's getting more than he bargained for: a duel with the Red Court of Vampires' champion, who must kill Harry to end the war between vampires and wizards ... professional hit men using Harry for target practice ... the missing Shroud of Turin ... a handless and headless corpse the Chicago police need identified ...

Not to mention the return of Harry's ex-girlfriend Susan, who's still struggling with her semi-vampiric nature. And who seems to have a new man in her life.

Some days, it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. No matter how much you're charging.

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The Verdict:

It's an entertaining plot with a somewhat hokey central hook. I was happier with the characterisation of some of the secondary characters and am hopeful for the new ones that we meet. This is clearly a set up for the next story arc and whilst I have some concerns about the way Butcher is handling that, I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

The Blurb On The Back:

Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Ever since his girlfriend left town to deal with her newly acquired taste for blood, Harry Dresden has been down and out. He can't pay his rent. He's alienating his friends. He can't even recall the last time he took a shower. The only professional wizard in the Chicago phone book has become a desperate man.

And just when it seems things can't get any worse, in saunters the Winter Queen of Faerie. She has an offer Harry can't refuse - if he wants to free himself of the supernatural hold his faerie godmother has over him, and hopefully end his run of bad luck. All he has to do is find out who murdered the Summer Queen's right-hand man, the Summer Knight, and clear the Winter Queen's name.

It seems simple enough, but Harry knows better than to get caught in the middle of Faerie politics. Then he finds out that the fate of the entire world rests on his solving this case. No pressure or anything ...

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The Verdict:

If you're reading the Dresden books, then skip Grave Peril and go straight to this - you'll get a recap of the important events in that book anyway, so you'll be saving yourselves a lot of pain. Otherwise, this is a return to Butcher's popcorn fiction style and if you put aside the character problems, it's an enjoyable enough read with a lot of thought having gone into the world building.

The Blurb On The Back:

Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden's faced some pretty terrifying foes during his career. Giant scorpians. Oversexed vampires. Psychotic werewolves. It comes with the territory when you're the only professional wizard in the Chicago area phone book.

But in all Harry's years of supernatural sleuthing, he's never faced anything like this: the spirit world's gone loco. All over Chicago, ghosts are causing trouble - and not just the door-slamming, boo-shouting variety. These ghosts are tormented, violent, and deadly. Someone - or something - is purposely stirring them up to wreak unearthly havoc. But why? And why do so many of the victims have ties to Harry? If Harry doesn't figure it out soon, he could wind up a ghost himself ...

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The Verdict:

I'm only going to read the remaining books in the series because they've been lent to me and a friend says that Book 4 is a better read. If I'd been buying these for myself, then this would have been the drop-dead point because whilst I think there's a lot of potential in the series, the characterisation of the supporting characters and the overall plotting are just complete crap and it's a shame because there's a lot of interesting world-building going on that could have been handled so much more convincingly. If you've started the series, then definitely give this one a miss.

The Blurb On The Back:

Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Business has been slow lately for Harry Dresden. Okay, business has been dead. Not undead - just dead. You would think Chicago would have a little more action for the only professional wizard in the phone book. But lately, Harry hasn't been able to dredge up any kind of work - magical or mundane.

Just when it looks like he can't afford his next meal, a murder comes along that requires his particular brand of supernatural expertise. A brutally murdered corpse. Strange-looking paw prints. A full moon.

Take three guesses. And the first two don't count ...

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The Verdict:

If you take this as the popcorn fiction that it's intended to be, it's fast-paced, fairly well written and entertaining. If however you like your fantasy to have a little more depth, then you'll find the female characters frustratingly two-dimensional and find yourself wishing that Butcher took a little more time to write them to get rid of the clunky dialogue, exposition and plot signposting. It's cheeseburger fiction - you'll enjoy it but sometimes you wish you'd gone for something more substantial.

The Blurb On The Back:

Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does - and not just because he's the only one who does it. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal capabilities, they come to him for answers. Because the everday world is not as 'everyday' as it seems. It's actually full of strange and supernatural things - and most of them don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a - well, whatever it is the police are having trouble with this time.

There's just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name. And that's when things start to get ... interesting.

Magic. It can get a guy killed.

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The Verdict:

Entertaining and well paced, this is a good introduction to the world of Harry Dresden and it does its job in that I'm intrigued enough to want to read more. The supporting cast of characters really needs to be fleshed out more in order to counterbalance the strength of Dresden's own character and I usually prefer my mysteries to be less roadmapped but it's enjoyable enough for me to stick with it.