"Hell's Bells" count: 26If you're reading this series in sequence (which you absolutely should be, or things will stop making sense very quickly), you've got a good handle on how the world of Harry Dresden operates. He's a lone wolf, so to speak, standing up to the Occult Forces of Chicago with only the support of his contact in the Chicago PD, Lt. Karrin Murphy. There's also intrepid investigative reporter Susan Rodriguez, for whom Harry's feelings are slightly more than professional. There's also the mysterious White Council of Wizards. While you may think that belonging to a worldwide magical fraternity might be a good thing, Harry Dresden would most certainly disagree. To be fair, he has a history - he did kill his mentor using black magic, which is something so bad that it's number one on their list of Things a Wizard Must Not Do, which comes with one free beheading. His associates in the White Council barely tolerate him, and make it very clear that he's worth more to them dead than alive. But more about this in other books....The point is that Harry so far has been a fairly small-time operator. Yes, he takes down evil sorcerers and vicious werewolves, but mostly on his own. In this book, the camera pulls back a little and we learn more about his world and his connections, and a broader story starts to emerge.The most interesting of these additions is Michael Carpenter, an associate of Harry's whose view of the world comes from a very different place. Michael is a religious man, a committed Christian who sees Harry's use of magic as impure and sullied, but associates with him anyway because they have a shared goal: the elimination of evil. Michael Carpenter is the Fist of God, one of the three Knights of the Cross. As such, he wields a faith powerful enough that even Harry can feel it. Oh, and he also wields a giant sword. With one of the nails from the True Cross worked into it. Amoracchius is a powerful weapon against evil, and a prize that anyone would be glad to have.In this book (as in all his books), Harry is given more trouble than he can handle. It begins with ghosts, as so many things do. The ghosts of Chicago are being stirred up by something - they're acting out in ways they would never act, causing an above-average amount of chaos and disorder in the city. And when there's ghosts around, tearing up the pediatrics ward of your local hospital, who is it you're going to contact telephonically? That's right - Harry Dresden.The ghosts are the least of his worries, however. The force behind them, the malicious entity that is driving the ghosts mad, is of far more concern to him. There's something out there, a Nightmare, that is out for blood. It's attacking Harry and his friends, and doing it through their dreams. Not just Harry's friends who are in good with the supernatural, but some of his Muggle buddies as well. This thing is angry, evil, and can tear a person's soul apart, leaving an empty husk that does nothing but try to scream.As if that weren't enough, the Red Court of Vampires is having a party, and they want Harry to come. Sounds lovely, right? A costume party with the vampires, a promise of protection to all invited guests - how can you have a better night? Myself, I'd start by not hanging around a house full of vampires and their allies. Especially when the hostess, a high-ranking member of the Court, has a serious personal grudge against me. The vampire Bianca wants Harry deader than dead, and she manages to set of a complex series of events to make sure it happens.This book, as I said, expands the Dresden universe a bit. It assumes that the readers are fairly comfortable with what we know, and gives us a lot more to think about. The world-wide spread of vampires, the hide-bound White Council, and the ramifications of having a Faerie Godmother. In the previous books, we saw Harry come out on top against small-scale foes - now the camera pulls back to show us how he goes up against larger institutions.In this book, Dresden is almost always out of his league - although I can't imagine who would be in their league while facing a hoarde of really pissed off vampires while being on the brink of death already. Buffy, probably. Or River Tam. Anyone written by Joss Whedon, I guess. But Dresden makes it through. Not in the "Finding reserves of strength you never knew were there" style found in the Whedon Supergirls, but more in the "This just might be crazy enough to work, unless I kill myself doing it in which case it might not go so well after all" style.Plus, it has my favorite trope of modern fantasy fiction - even if the hero wins, he doesn't actually save the day. In fact, things get a whole lot worse. Which is all gravy for Jim Butcher, because it means he has all the more material to work with for the rest of the series.
Grave Peril3 StarsMany have stated that Grave Peril is the turning point in the series for the better. After considering the plot and the characters, I must confess that I found Fool Moon to be far more entertaining. Don't get me wrong. Harry and his quirks are very endearing but a number of issues irritated me in this installment. First, Murphy barely makes an appearance and the absence of a strong willed, take no prisoners, female character detracts from the overall effect of the story. Second, the criticism surrounding Harry's chauvinism finally makes sense. In the first two books, his attitude toward women comes across as gallant and even chivalrous, but the chauvinism is front and center in this one as Harry fixates on the breasts and luscious curves of virtually every female character - is this really necessary? Third, while the basic plot is compelling and the action scenes exciting, the execution is repetitive. How many times must Harry battle the Nightmare before he defeats it? How many times must he get round the machinations of his fairy Godmother? How many times must he be exposed to the lustful effects of vampire venom? How many times must his powers fail him precisely when he needs them the most? Come on already, get some new material. Finally, Harry constantly blames himself for the choices others make that get them into trouble. While this overdeveloped sense of guilt may have its place in the portrayal of Harry's internal struggle with his own conscience, it starts to grate on the nerves after a while. On a more positive note, the secondary characters both old and new are very engaging. Michael, a Knight of the Cross, constitutes an intriguing counterpoint to Harry's irreligious personality, and the manner in which Butcher depicts the power of Christian artifacts adds another layer of complexity to the world building. That said, Michael is a little too self-righteous and condescending for my tastes. There are also some poignant moments between Harry and his reporter girlfriend, Susan Rodriguez, although her misguided Lois Lane routine is getting old and she has never really appealed to me as Harry's love interest.The most interesting characters, however, are Lea, Harry's rather scary fairy Godmother, who serves as a cautionary tale about what happens when one makes ill advised bargains with the fae, and Thomas, the morally ambiguous vampire who plays a pivotal role in Harry's conflict with the various villains in the story. All in all, the world building is strong, the story has potential and the unanswered questions are interesting enough to keep on with the series.
What do You think about Grave Peril (2001)?
Hey Dresden Files,Listen. I know my trusted friends set us up, and they have really good taste and usually know what I like, but it's just not going to work out between us. I like awesome, interesting female characters, and while I will give you that Murphy is awesome, the rest aren't cutting it for me. (Never mind that every time a female character DOES show up, no matter how dire the peril, Harry makes sure to describe the precise way whatever she's wearing cups her breasts. If she is, in fact, wearing that much clothing to begin with.)And, you know, everyone's been telling me I should just wait it out with you. That the books that come later are much better and SO worth it, but frankly, I heard you have a kid, and a vampire ex-girlfriend in the refrigerator, and that's just not part of my 5-year plan. I'm sure that somewhere out there is an amazing reader who loves you for who you are - 300 pages of a main character who has worse days than Jack Bauer, constantly finding that LAST OUNCE of strength to fight, and then another ounce, and one more ounce, and an ounce in the back pocket you were holding onto for the penultimate chapter.So, you know, it's not you; it's me. I'm just not jiving to what you're offering. We can still stay friends, though, because I've heard your friend Codex Alera is kind of cool, and I wouldn't mind hanging out with him maybe.And if anyone tells you that this is because I've already been hanging out with a different wizard named Harry, you leave that sweet British boy out of this, Dresden.
—Casey
NB: This review contains spoilers for the FIRST THREE BOOKS of the Dresden Files series.I have now read the first two books of The Dresden Files and started the next in the series, Grave Peril. I am not going any further than this. While I have enjoyed the basic plotlines, Harry Dresden himself is a disappointment to me. I don't want to say that he's a Gary Stu, but at the very least it feels like Jim Butcher identifies with him a little too closely. That always makes me uncomfortable.More impor
—Hunter
These books just keep getting better: stronger writing, tighter plotting, more and more female characters kicking all kinds of ass. Actually, what I liked most about this book is what a great variety of female characters it offered, without coming off as some sort of feminist UN experiment. The reason Butcher was able to have so many different kinds of women in this story is that he just plain has one heck of a lot of female characters; and it feels completely unforced because it turns out that (male writers who aren't named Terry Pratchett, take note) there are actually a lot of women in the world. Srsly. We do all kinds of stuff. We have all kinds of different experiences. And one writer who had me worried sick that he'd turn out to be kind of a sexist pig decided to – hey, why not! – have a lot of female characters. And it's awesome.I don't mind if your story includes damsels in distress as long as that's not the only danged kind of woman I'm reading about. I don't mind having sinister female villains (heck, I kind of love them) as long as that's not the only kind of grown-ass woman you have to offer. (Could somebody wake up C.S. Lewis and deliver this message? No? Well, keep poking him. You never know.)And it turns out that I can forgive a male main character for griping in previous books about hating to be rescued by women if his author then sentences this guy to spend pretty much the whole story being rescued by women.Okay, that's not quite true. I mean, it is. Harry Dresden is rescued by women in this story at least three times I can think of, including once by a woman in active labor (yay!). But he does a lot of rescuing as well. After a while, you can just sit back and relax and stop keeping score, even if you're a screaming redhead feminist like me. It all evens out in the end.I do think it was odd for Butcher to start this book off with a totally new character and then just never ever ever explain what the heck he's doing there. I guess he wanted it to seem as if Michael had always been there, but there are ways of doing that kind of thing, and Butcher didn't avail himself of any of them. He pretty much literally just said, "Oh, this guy? He's my best friend. He's always been my best friend. You didn't know? Funny you never noticed that." I actually consulted Google twice and my husband once to make sure I hadn't picked up the wrong title (I'm reading this series in order, and my husband's the one who introduced me to it). I think it's a mistake to make your reader so worried she's in the wrong book that she's not paying proper attention to the story you're telling her. But the awesome in this book outweighs any such initial flaws. I was especially impressed by the ending, which would have been incredibly easy to fumble. Butcher handles it with great skill and delicacy. I'm excited to continue my adventures with this series and see what happens next.
—Deborah Markus
