Cold Days by Jim Butcher

Cold Days by Jim Butcher is the 14th book in the Dresden Files. By book 14 of anything you'd think a concept would start to become stale. I'm not saying there hasn't been the occasional dip in quality in the Dresden Files (a number of fans weren't keen on Ghost Story, which preceded Cold Days, although I still liked it), but overall it has maintained a freshness that isn't there in other long running urban fantasy series *cough* Anita Blake *cough*.

In Ghost Story, Harry was, as the title indicates, a ghost. This brought with it a host of problems and gave the reader a more passive Harry than they were used to, and I think that caused complications for some.

Of course the main character being dead wasn't going to fly for long, so Butcher had to make Harry corporeal somehow.  He did this by means of something that occurred a few books back and had a great deal of bearing on the events in Cold Days. Harry moves in all sorts of circles: law enforcement, organised crimes, vampire courts, werewolf packs, wizard councils and the courts of faery. His godmother is the Leanan Sidhe. Some time ago the Queen of Winter Mab claimed Harry as her Winter Knight after he killed the incumbent.

It is Mab that has him nursed back to health and activates him as the Winter Knight.  Harry has a number of issues with being the Winter Knight. One is that the previous Winter Knight was a raving psychotic and Harry has been lead to believe it goes with the title. Then there's what Mab asks him to do; kill Maeve, her daughter, the Winter Lady.

Harry tries to go back to his normal life in Chicago and think a way around everything. He connects with his friend Waldo Butters, and Waldo's girlfriend the werewolf Andi, half brother the vampire Thomas, his former apprentice Molly Carpenter and his massive Chinese Foo dog Mouse.

Complicating things is a disturbance on Harry's island in the harbour. The magical energy it contains could explode and it would take most of Chicago with it.

Harry has to deal with all this and examine the nature of his relationship with Karrin Murphy and his daughter Maggie. Both of these issues will play large parts in further books and I do hope at least one of them is resolved in a happy fashion, because Harry does at least deserve that.

Cold Days is, for an urban fantasy book, pretty long at over 500 pages in hardcover. Despite that it doesn't really flag at any point. I appreciated the more in depth look at faery and I loved Butcher's idea of Santa Claus. The pop culture references flow as usual and they're always appreciated, however I felt that the banter was forced at one point between Molly and Thomas.

The mystery surrounding Harry's favourite bartender Mac is intriguing and will hopefully be explored in future books. A highlight for me was the love/hate relationship between Harry's faery commander Toot Toot and the stern female faery warrior Lacuna.

I'm thoroughly satisfied with Cold Days and eager to see what else Butcher can do with Harry.

Ghost Story

Ghost Story is the 13th book of Jim Butcher’s long running and successful Dresden Files. In it’s predecessor; Changes, Butcher finished the book on a cliff hanger (he does say in his introduction that it wasn’t really a cliff hanger, entering spoiler land here, Jim, you killed your title character, if that doesn’t qualify as a cliff hanger I don’t know what does!) with Harry’s death. However Dresden isn’t going to let a little thing like death get in his way.

Harry finds himself ‘in-between’ (a sort of never never land somewhere between true death and life) and is given the opportunity of passing on, in which case he accepts that he is truly dead and can never come back or going back to the world of the living and finding out who murdered him. Although it’s phrased as a ‘choice’, the alternative is allowing great harm to come to some of those Harry holds nearest and dearest, there really isn’t much of a choice in it.

The title kind of gives away what Harry will return as; a ghost. He soon finds out being a spook isn’t much fun at all. He can’t be seen or heard by most people, including some of his best friends and allies, he has no magic and he cannot influence the living world in any physical way. He can however still be killed by some of the things that inhabit the spirit world.

Harry’s guide to his new state of being is one of Butcher’s new characters; Sir Stuart Winchester, Captain in the Colonial Marines, he’s about one of the oldest ghosts Harry encounters, but also one of the most powerful. Harry’s bridge and the best way of communicating to those who are not sensitive to ghosts is the ectomancer Mortimer Lindquist. Mort has featured in three previous adventures, but Ghost Story is by far his biggest role and gives the character some genuine depth.

Ghost Story saw a far more reflective and passive Harry, bound as he was by the limitations that had been imposed upon him. Harry had to think his way through a lot more and use his mind and past experiences without his physical size, strength and magic to fall back on. Despite the lack of action, relative to some of the other books, Ghost Story doesn’t really flag at any point. I did find a couple of chapters in the middle a little heavy on the magic explanation and these could have been shortened, by that’s really a minor quibble and other readers may find them quite interesting.

I’ve seen a bit of talk around various forums wondering exactly what it is about Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files that makes it so popular (most of the books reach the higher spots in the Times best seller list), and it’s something I’ve asked myself. There’s nothing truly remarkable about the books, they’re not epic, although they are involving and they’re certainly not life changing, nor do they pose any controversial questions. What they are is: FUN. Butcher knows his audience and he writes for them and to them. As always the pop culture references abound (my personal favourite from Ghost Story is a hilarious Star Trek spoof featuring a USS Enterprise full of Molly Carpenters). Given how many of the references hit my pop culture nerve I get the impression that Jim Butcher, Harry and I, and I suspect a good portion of his audience, are roughly the same age.

Possibly due to the fact that his cast of thousands was getting a little out of hand in Changes, the cast has been pared back a bit for Ghost Story. Aside from Mort and Sir Stuart (who is a new character, I unfortunately don’t think we’ll see him again), readers get plenty of Karrin Murphy, Waldo Butters, Molly Carpenter, Father Forthill, the Leanan Sidhe (she has grown on me so much, I think next to Harry and Murphy she’s my favourite character now) and Bob the talking skull. The villain’s role is taken by the evil spirit Corpsetaker (shades of Glen Cook’s Black Company books there with that name) with help from Bob’s evil aspect (it’s complicated and requires reading Dead Beat). There are also cameos from some of Billy Borden’s wolf pack, another member of the large Carpenter family and Harry’s pet cat Mister and dog Mouse.

While I found the mystery of who killed Harry totally shocking and unexpected, not to mention fairly satisfying, and the second last chapter was a total heartbreaker, I thought the ending was a bit deus ex machina, although not enough to spoil my enjoyment of the book as a whole. Jim Butcher has delivered another solid, enjoyable, readable and gripping entry in the Dresden Files and I’ll be strapping in for number 14; Cold Days, probably about this time next year.

A small note here: while it is not necessary to have read the short story collection Side Jobs to understand Ghost Story there are a couple of references to entries in the collection in Ghost Story. I’d recommend you read Side Jobs in any case as it’s a good read.

Side Jobs

Anyone who has read this blog for any time knows that I'm a fan of Jim Butcher's Wizard for Hire Harry Dresden.

Side Jobs is a collection of short stories that Butcher wrote about Harry Dresden and Co between 2002 and 2010. Two of the stories, the first (A Restoration of Faith) and the last (Aftermath) have never before been published. The stories are presented in chronological order. A Restoration of Faith was the first ever Harry Dresden story that Jim Butcher wrote and it shows, he was still developing the character and the world at this stage. Most of the stories were done for various anthologies and there's a short introduction from the author explaining what he wrote it for and where his head was at when he did.

As the stories progress readers get to see the evolution of Harry and get to spend time with his friends, allies and enemies as they came into the series. Two of the stories: Backup and Aftermath, are not told from Harry's point of view. Harry's half brother; White Court vampire (it's complicated) Thomas is the central character in Backup and Harry's friend and sparring partner feisty little Chicago cop Karrin Murphy is the focus of Aftermath. I felt there was mixed success with these two stories. Thomas as the point of view character didn't really work for me, but I did enjoy seeing things as Murphy did with her front and centre. That probably has a lot to do with Murphy being one of my favourites from the series and me being rather so so about Thomas.

The collection would an excellent jumping off point to introduce someone to the series, as most of the stories are self contained and not very spoilery. The one exception is Aftermath which takes place after the most recently published book of the Dresden Files; Changes, and does have some minor spoilers for that entry, which ended on a cliffhanger. For the most part the stories have a lighter hearted feel than the books and it's nice to see Harry kicking back and enjoying life with his friends. Any fan of the series will also enjoy the collection as it's a chance to spend more time with Harry and learn something about him and the wide and varied group of people with whom he associates.

There's a brief exchange between Harry and Murphy in Something Borrowed which captures some of the things I like so much about the books, Harry's outlook and the relationship between he and Murphy:

"Feel like saving the day?"
Her eyes sparkled, but she kept her tone bored "On the weekend? Sounds too much like work."
We started from the apartment together. "I'll pay you in doughnuts."
"Dresden, you pig. That cop-doughnut thing is a vicious stereoptype."
"Doughnuts with little pink sprinkles." I said.
"Professional profiling is just as bad as racial profiling."
I nodded. "Yeah. But I know you want the little pink sprinkles."
"That isn't the point," she said loftily, and we got into her car.

If you're a new fan this is a good one to dip your toes in the water with and if you're an existing one you're gonna love Side Jobs.

Changes

Changes is the 12th book in Jim Butcher's highly successful Dresden Files urban fantasy series. In the previous book Turncoat Harry was working to save the Wizard's White Council from itself. It's not clear exactly when Changes begins, but it seems to be business as usual for the Wizard for Hire until he gets an urgent phone call from his former girlfriend; Susan Rodriguez. The call contains news that shocks Harry and will also have the jaws of readers dropping.

Jim Butcher announced not long ago that there is a finite end to the Dresden Files, he's put it at book 20, there is evidence in Changes that he's building towards a slam bang finale. As with a couple of previous installments Butcher adds in various characters from the previous 11 adventures. Harry will be forced to team up with Susan, her offsider Martin (both are Red Court vampires, but on the outer with the court because of their apparent refusal to give into their natures), his regular police contact the feisty little Karrin Murphy, his apprentice Molly Carpenter, who Harry frequently refers to with the endearments 'grasshopper' or 'padawan' in some of the book's many pop culture references, his magical dog Mouse (there are revelations about Mouse's true nature in Changes, too), his half brother Thomas a vampire of the White Court, warrior of the Lord the Russian Sanya, his mentor Ebenezar McCoy and his fairy godmother the Leanan Sidhe. It's an eclectic bunch and they're going to war for a little girl that none of them know, but is important to them all. Well maybe not Lea, I think she's just in it for the potential of mayhem.

There are a lot of high octane action and magical sequences that lead to the blazing finale with the Red Court at Chichen Itza as the wizard/vampire war ratchets up a notch or twelve.

The pop culture references that Butcher litters the Dresden Files with are always a feature and the one where the group debated and about which members equated to various members of the Fellowship of the Ring was a particular highlight for me.

This time Harry has to make some deals that could have far reaching consequences for himself and his ever widening circle of allies and enemies.

Butcher has produced another winner, although be warned this one has a cliffhanger ending, however the conclusion should be contained in Ghost Story due out in in July of this year. There is also a collection of short stories featuring Harry Dresden called Side Jobs that is currently out in hardcover. Be warned that Side Jobs does contain some spoilers for Changes so should not be read until after completing Changes. July can't come quick enough for me.

I have one complaint, and this is the same as last time. That bloody authors note! I don't mind it being there and I do understand why, but either update it or remove it altogether.

Turn Coat

Turn Coat is the 11th book in Jim Butcher’s Urban Fantasy series The Dresden Files.

For those out there that haven’t yet met Wizard for Hire Harry Dresden I’ll see what I can do to bring you up to speed. The books are narrated by the title character. Harry is a somewhat down at heel modern day wizard who makes a living by hiring out his rather specialized services. As Harry is mostly based in Chicago the majority of the books are set in the mid western metropolis. I can’t find any information indicating that Butcher has ever spent any length of time in Chicago (he lives in Independence, Missouri), but Harry’s descriptions of the city display a good deal of knowledge about it and deep affection. As a wizard Harry Dresden owes more to Philip Marlowe than he does to Gandalf and for that reason the books have a rather noirish feel to them. Butcher’s dialogue, however is more inspired by Joss Whedon than Raymond Chandler, and is liberally littered with pop culture references. Harry refers to his teenage apprentice; Molly Carpenter, as ‘grasshopper’ and in Turn Coat Harry compares his own intellect with that of Wile E. Coyote. Over the course of the previous 10 books readers have met the White Council of Wizards, 3 separate Courts of vampires (White, Red and Black, mention has also been made of the Jade Court, but they’ve yet to appear), at least one loosely organised pack of werewolves and various faerie organisations, to name a few. Butcher has also developed a large cast of supporting characters to help or hinder Harry and move the narrative along. The supporting cast is now large enough that the author can drop even a fan favourite for a book or two and still keep most of his readership happy. In Turn Coat Harry’s familiar Bob the talking skull only appears briefly and isn’t really missed.

Turn Coat begins with one of the White Council’s most trusted soldiers; Warden Donald Morgan, turning up seriously wounded at Harry’s apartment. To say that the relationship between wizard and Warden is strained would be understating it somewhat. The Wardens are the Council’s enforcers. Harry was once a wanted wizard and the man most after his head was Donald Morgan. The Warden claims to have been framed for the murder of a prominent Council wizard and has the Council’s attack dogs out for his blood. He came to Harry for two reasons. One is that it would be the last place anyone would expect, and two, Harry has a strong sense of justice because he himself was once unfairly accused, and he’s had success with similar cases in the past.

Once Harry agrees to help Morgan he puts himself and his apprentice in danger from the Council and unwittingly draws a number of his allies; feisty, little Chicago detective Karrin Murphy, his half brother White Court vampire Thomas, the Alpha pack of werewolves and his army of faery solidiers, led by the unforgettable Toot Toot, into a web of intrigue and stalking death in the form of a ‘skinwalker’ (an ancient Native American legend known as a Naagloshi). Only Harry can prove Morgan’s innocence and at the same time prevent the Council from destroying itself from within.

11 books in and Jim Butcher has not lost his touch. I’ve liked the stories about Harry ever since I first met the wisecracking wizard in Storm Front (the first of the Dresden Files) and he is still going strong. There are hints in Turn Coat, as there were also were in its predecessor; Small Favor, that other adventures Harry has had are all leading to one giant climax. It is possible that Butcher will wrap it all up somewhere in the future, although the 12th of the Dresden Files; Changes, is out in hardcover and a 13th instalment; Side Jobs is planned for release in November of this year to be followed by a 14th; Ghost Story at an as yet unknown time in 2011.

One small criticism is that at times instalments of The Dresden Files seem like they are being written on auto pilot. Given that since 2004 Butcher has been averaging 2 books a year (he generally releases a Dresden and a volume of his ‘swords & sorcery epic’ The Codex Alera each year) this probably isn’t all that surprising, it’s a punishing schedule for any author to stick to.

I also have one other small point to make and this is not an author fault, but rather a publisher one. Since the 7th book of The Dresden Files they have taken to advertising the author’s other series; The Codex Alera, by way of an author’s note at the end of the story. I have no problem with that, I don’t have any real interest in The Codex Alera myself, but that’s just me, what I would like to see is for them to at least change the note. I can almost recite from heart this particular author’s note.

Other than that I urge people to give Harry Dresden a try. I don’t think you’ll regret the decision. He’s a fun guy and you’ll love his friends.