Dead Beat

What is the ultimate weapon against necromancers?  I don’t want to give it away, but it is as tall as a 2-story home, as long as a bus, and eats zombies like they are animal crackers.  To find the whole answer, you will need to read Jim Butcher’s seventh addition to The Dresden Files – Dead Beat.  In this volume, our intrepid Harry finds himself thrown into the middle of a conflict between several wielders of the dead.  And in the midst of dealing with the drama associated, he does not go without being accused of going a little nutty.

As usual, Dresden finds himself dealing with a case he can’t turn down regardless of the risks involved.  Harry also comes to find himself getting tangled up with the wardens again, but in a way entirely different than even he could have suspected.  Plus he has to contend with an annoying roommate in the form of Thomas Raith (his half brother, half incubus), a lead weight around his neck (paranormally squeemish medical examiner Waldo Butters), and a puppy that grew a lot bigger than anticipated (the name Mouse would be more accurate if the u were to change to an o).

As expected, Harry deals with the punches and manages to win the day a number of times against enemies bigger and badder than him.  He also manages to do a good job protecting a number of people who need it along the way.  But if the twists and turns of figuring out who the bad guys are and what they’re up to aren’t enough, Harry finds himself dealing with some unusual internal issues.  And in the end, Harry wins the day, but very few good graces for the path of destruction it took to do so (collateral property damage seems to be one of his strong suits).

Blood Rites

Okay – after five books, there are too many different enemies that Harry Dresden has gone against to list.  I wasn’t sure that there could be many more unique supernatural elements with which he could face off.  Enter a troop of purple gorillas flinging flaming, well, I’d imagine you could guess – and this is just in the first few pages!  Through the rest of Blood Rites, Jim Butcher pits our tall, lanky hero up against succubi, black vampires, and … porn stars?

Blood Rites finds Harry relying on some less likely side-kicks including an incubus who turns out to have an interesting secret, a fellow wizard and former mentor, a mercenary, and a fiesty puppy.  He has been avoiding one of his friends – Michael Carpenter, a Knight of the Cross – due to the fact that he had picked up a coin containing a fallen angel and worried how Michael, a hunter of fallen angels, might react.  And he takes on a case where it seems a string of porn stars have been dying in bizarre accidents that may be black magic.  in his downtime, he opts to take on a nest of black vampires camping out in the Chicago slums.  He doesn’t come out of either debachle unscathed (nor do these two incidents add up to all the strife Harry must diffuse/survive).

Six volumes in and Jim Butcher continues to impress and amaze.  There seems to be no winding down for this series and I wouldn’t want to see it end.  The series has always been cohesive and fluid, but it is interesting seeing the greater arc beginning to develop.  Plus the fact that wizards tend to live for centuries, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this series survive its author (though that would be a long way off).  I know I’ve said it before, but I will say again that I can read this series forever.

Death Masks

The tally continues – so far Dresden has help his own against demons, sorcerers, mobsters, vampires, fairies, ghouls, ghosts, and werewolves (not necessarily in that order).  For Jim Butcher’s next trick, he will take on angels (fallen angels to be specific) … while still occasionally dealing with the usual vampires and mobsters, etc.  In Death Masks, Harry finds himself re-teamed up with Michael Carpenter – one of the three Knights of the cross.  And once he has a couple run-ins with some Denarians (fallen angels who partner with human hosts for a corporial form), he finds himself playing backup to all three of the Knights. Read more “Death Masks”

Summer Knight

I have to give Jim Butcher credit for his punny titles – I almost wonder if he starts with the title and develops a story to fit it.  In this fourth volume of The Dresden Files, Harry finds himself getting perhaps more deeply involved than he would prefer with the realm of the fairies.  While most of the books in this series so far have featured fairies to some extent and certainly set the baseline definition of what these creatures are in the Dresden-verse, Summer Knight puts Harry right in the middle of a fairy-realm power struggle. Read more “Summer Knight”

Grave Peril

Demons and sorcerers?  No problem.  Werewolves of several varieties?  Piece of cake.  Now how about some ghosts, a conniving fairy godmother, and a den of vampires – maybe a little more challenging than usual.  But at least this time Harry gets a little help from some friends (which seem to include a reporter/girlfriend, a holy knight, and an incubus).  In Jim Butcher’s third installment of The Dresden FilesGrave Peril – Harry once again starts off in the heat of the action.  And as usual Harry’s luck tends to carry him from one frying pan into yet another inferno. Read more “Grave Peril”