Book Review Wednesday: Dresden Files: Summer Knight (5 stars)

This is book four of the Dresden Files series. For my reviews on books one, two and three, check out the following links: https://samaustinwriter.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/book-review-wednesday-dresden-files-storm-front-5-stars/ and: https://samaustinwriter.wordpress.com/2014/07/02/book-review-wednesday-fool-moon-dresden-files-4-stars/ and: https://samaustinwriter.wordpress.com/2014/07/16/book-review-wednesday-dresden-files-grave-peril-4-stars/?preview=true

I’m really enjoying this series, and I think this one is my favorite since the first book. The bad guys are at their biggest and scariest, and everyone seems to be gunning for poor Dresden. The plot is awesome, the action is awesome, and the lines are really funny.

Here’s the blurb:

HARRY DRESDEN — WIZARD

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 in Chicago. 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 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. Until he finds out that the fate of the entire world rests on his solving this case. No pressure or anything…

After the events of the last book Dresden is at his lowest. Then of course he finds himself in the middle of a war that will determine the fate of the world, not to mention that other war he set off in the last book that everyone is still all angry about. Not a good time for Dresden, but it makes for an action packed book.

We finally get to see the White Council in this book – something that’s been mentioned for a while. Plus we meet our old friend Morgan: enforcer for the White Council, who is just as pigheaded as ever. The Council doesn’t disappoint. Wizard politics is scary!

While the plot is great, the characters really make this book. We get to see Toot Toot the fairy and his friends. They’re awesome and so cute. They have adorable military rank names like Caption and Star Jump, salute by slapping themselves on the forehead, and carry around random scavenged things as weapons.

The bad guys are definitely bad. The vampires fit into this category, as do some of the White Council, plus we have the faeries. The faerie queens are great; scary, but different enough from each other to be interesting.  They’re tricky things, and it seems like all of them could be hiding something. There’s also an interesting parallel between some of them and various myths that I noticed, as well as stories (like Alice in Wonderland – there’s the Summer and Winter queens for one thing, and the epic faerie battle takes place on a giant chess board). The world the author has been building in the previous books really gets shown off here. I’m fascinated with all the links to various other myths and stories he’s made possible. Did anyone who read this book or the previous one notice the link to Peter Pan? The ghostly realm the faeries live in is called the Nevernever. Sound like Neverland to you? And there are all kinds of worlds there, so it’s plausible one of them could have lost boys, pirate ships and mermaids.

We also meet changelings in this book which we haven’t come across yet. There’s a female changeling who is not stunningly beautiful like a lot of the females we’ve met so far in this series. She turned out to be one of my favorites and plays a big role in the finale.

So, plot = great, characters = great, world = great, action = great. Five stars. Nothing bad to say about this one. For more reviews on this book, go to the following link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/91478.Summer_Knight

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Book Review Wednesday: Dresden Files: Storm Front (5 stars)

I’ve been meaning to read these books for a while. I mean, a wizard detective? What’s not to like? Started the series just over a week ago, and I’m already on book three. So yeah, I found a winner and will probably guzzle up the whole series and then be disappointed because it’s all gone.

Book one I thought did a good job introducing us to Harry Dresden without too much telling. He’s got a mysterious mystery to solve for a woman whose husband has gone missing, and no sooner is he off the phone with her than he gets another phone call about a couple murders. Busy life for a wizard, but he can use the money.

The book drew me in from the first paragraph and I was entertained all throughout. There’s a couple of big mysteries in here to solve and a lot of interesting characters to meet along the way. Vampires, faeries, lots of dark magic, a nasty gangster dude, and a surprising amount of people who hate Dresden’s guts. Seriously, this guy doesn’t make friends well. He should think about enrolling in a class or something.

I really enjoyed the humor in Dresden’s voice. He’s got this dry wit that helps in all the dire situations he finds himself in. Some reviews didn’t like the book because sometimes Dresden is old fashioned to the point of sexism, but I didn’t find the book too sexist. Sure Dresden seems sexist at times, but he respects women, he just thinks they need saving and it’s his job to do it.  It’s a character flaw, and there’s even this fiercely independent detective woman who repeatedly challenges him on it. He questions his overly protective instincts at times and does acknowledge that some of the women he comes across are strong and admirable.

The plot worked well, building to a huge climax with a whole lot of action and creepy creatures you do not want to come across in real life. The story is very self contained and wraps up nicely, so you don’t have to worry about cliff hangers. All in all I can’t think of anything to say that’s bad about it. Maybe a couple scenes felt a bit flimsy, but that’s a maybe. Definitely five stars.

In case you want to read more reviews on this book, go to the following link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47212.Storm_Front