Tag Archives: jim butcher

Review of “Summer Knight” (2002), Book Four of “The Dresden Files” Series

summer knight

© James Pyles

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After getting a nasty flu bug last Thursday, I had plenty of time to power through Jim Butcher’s fourth installment of “The Dresden Files” series Summer Knight (2002). It’s just as exciting, compelling, and funny as the previous three books which I have also read and reviewed.

Some authors tend to cut back on the quality (probably not on purpose) as a series progresses, but not Butcher. He also seems very keen on adhering to a master plan, in which the elements of this story fitting neatly into what has happened previously. There’s also plenty of new mythos and adventure to be had.

As I tell my fifteen-year-old grandson who is also a fan of “Dresden,” it’s amazing our protagonist manages to stay alive. His life just gets worse and worse with the passage of time.

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Book Review of Jim Butcher’s “Grave Peril” (2001)

grave peril

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I just finished reading Jim Butcher’s fantasy/horror novel Grave Peril, book number three in the Dresden Files series.

Harry Dresden is the only professional wizard listed in the Chicago phone book. He’s like a private detective, but the mysteries he’s called to solve always involve the supernatural and usually something very, very nasty.

While he’s on retainer with the Chicago P.D. “Special Crimes” unit, he often goes out on his own when something deadly threatens the community, or often himself and those he knows and loves.

“Grave Peril” started differently than the previous two books I’ve read. Harry was in the middle of confronting a hostile ghost with a very unlikely ally, Christian and Knight Michael Carpenter (the last name is especially cheesy given his faith).

Something has stirred up the spirit world and weakened the barrier between our reality and the Nevernever, the realm of ghosts, demons, fairies, and darkness. Ghosts are being brutally tormented by a mysterious “Nightmare,” something from Harry’s past. He and Michael confront the spirit of a maniacal nurse from Chicago’s 19th century in the maternity ward of Cook County General, and unless Harry and Michael can stop her, she will murder scores of newborn infants.

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Book Review of “Fool Moon” (2001) by Jim Butcher

Fool Moon

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If you read my review of Jim Butcher’s novel Storm Front, you know I love not only his writing, but the beginning of his “Dresden Files” series.

Last night, I finished off book two in the series Fool Moon. As you might imagine, the primary “baddies” are werewolves, but it’s not that simple. Nothing is ever simple in the life of the world’s only openly active and investigative wizard Harry Dresden.

We pick up about six months after the first novel when once again, head of the Chicago P.D. Special Investigations unit Karrin Murphy calls Dresden in on a series of particularly gruesome murders, ones that look to have been committed by wolf-like creatures.

The victims again throw Harry in the path of the city’s most dangerous gangland boss “Gentleman” Johnny Marcone.

Murphy is in plenty of hot water with internal affairs after the events of the previous novel and to make matters worse, the FBI have an interest in the “Lobo murders.” Special Agent Phil Denton leads a team of federal investigators which includes Deborah Benn, who upon first meeting Murphy almost shoots her.

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Book Review of “Storm Front” (2000)

storm front

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When I was seven years old, I got a bad case of strep throat and was out of school for a whole week. During that time, my sisters bought me my first fantasy and sci-fi novels: the boxed set of Lord of the Rings and the boxed set of the Han Solo adventure novels by Brian Daley. I devoured them all during that week.

My first love as a fan is swords-and-horses fantasy. After Tolkien, I went after C.S. Lewis. After Lewis, it was Lloyd Alexander. After them came Fritz Leiber, Roger Zelazny, Robert Howard, John Norman, Poul Anderson, David Eddings, Weis and Hickman, Terry Brooks, Elizabeth Moon, Glen Cook, and before I knew it I was a dual citizen of the United States and Lankhmar, Narnia, Gor, Cimmeria, Krynn, Amber — you get the picture.

-Jim Butcher from the Acknowledgements section of his 2000 novel Storm Front

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that I’ve become a fan of Jim Butcher’s Cinder Spires series, having reviewed both The Aeronaut’s Windlass and The Olympian Affair.

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Review of “The Olympian Affair: Book Two in the Cinder Spires Series” (2023)

olympian

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Yesterday, I finished reading Jim Butcher’s 2023 novel The Olympian Affair. It’s the second in his Cinder Spires series and the sequel to The Aeronaut’s Windlass which I read and reviewed.

Butcher doesn’t disappoint. This is another terrific adventure novel set (supposedly) in the far-future where our own civilization has long-since fallen. People live in floating cities called “Spires” ruled by various presidents, kings, and such. Trade is conducted by skyships powered by fantastic crystals. Those, and many other things, including meat, are grown in vats ruled over by powerful (and not-so-powerful) family houses.

The central character in these tales is Captain Francis Grimm, commander of the light-trader “Predator.” He was once in the Albion Navy but sacrificed his career and his honor for a close friend.

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Book Review of “The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass”

aeronaut

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I was at the public library weeks ago looking for another book when I came across Jim Butcher’s novel The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass. It was published in 2016 as the first of a series, but according to Butcher’s website, the second in this collection will probably be published this year.

I’d never heard of Butcher before, but he’s been Hugo nominated more than once and has written the well-known (to everyone but me) Dresden Files novel series. I’ve been criticized by “real science fiction fans” that I’m not a “true fan” because I don’t have an encyclopedia-like  knowledge of all things SciFi. Oh well.

At 630 pages, it took me a while to read, especially since I can’t always find large blocks of time for reading. So after renewing it once, I finally finished it off this morning. I’m really glad I came across it. I was attracted to the cover mainly and checked it out on a whim.

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