Tag Archives: the dresden files

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

© James Pyles

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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 “Storm Front” (2000)

storm front

© James Pyles

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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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