Summer Knight (The Dresden Files, Book 4) by Jim Butcher Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Summer Knight (The Dresden Files, Book 4)
Book Review: The best yet
Summary: 5 Stars
The Summer Knight of the faerie is dead, the Winter Queen is blamed and wants Harry to clear her. The White Coucil is in town and wants to serve Harry in a to-go box to the Reds (vampires). It is raining toads and gathering a heck of a snow storm in the middle of June. Someone has hired a hit-ghoul to bump him off. Some strange characters want him to find a missing girl. His fiance is still missing, but his first love is back, and working for the Summer Lady. And, just to make things really fun, Summer and Winter are gathering forces to go to war. If he manages to pull it all off, Harry will be cleared by the White Coucil, one step closer to being free of the faerie for good, he and his friends will be alive, balance will be restored, and the world, as we know it, will be saved. This book is a rolling thrill ride. It is fun, funny, adventurous, and wildly exciting. Though the danger is very real, the book isn't quite as grim and dark as GRAVE PERIL. Harry has time to take a breather between crises (though no time to get a haircut), and it was good to see old friends like Murphy, Toot Toot and Billy the werewolf. Harry learns to trust them and lean a little when he can't handle everything. himself.
Book Review: Faerie and Foul
Summary: 5 Stars
In the previous volume of this series, 'Grave Peril,' Harry Dresden's heroics had ruined a relationship, made enemies of just about every vampire in the world, and put all his fellow wizards at considerable risk. It is no surprise to find this volume opening with Harry succumbing to severe depression, hiding in his basement laboratory desperately seeking a cure for Susan's vampire curse, while his life gradually crumbles around him. Nothing is worse than a guilt filled wizard who has given up on housecleaning.Harry's life being what it is, in no time at all things get very much worse. First, a little old lady turns into a ghoul and nearly eats him, then Queen Mab of the Faerie's Winter Court informs him that she now holds his debt, and then the White Council of the wizards comes to Chicago to have a wee chat with their most wayward member. The only way Harry can avoid becoming toast is to make a deal with (you guessed) Queen Mab herself. This will provide the wizards have another option besides offering Harry up as a blood bag. Mab doesn't want much, she just needs Harry to find out who killed the Summer Knight before Armageddon breaks out all over.
Other than some assistance from a troop of pizza eating pixies, a den of young-adult werewolves, and a few faerie may-not-wannabees, Harry is on his own in this one. Unless you want to count the people (and not quite people) who are trying to kill him as company. Whatever the reason for the murder was, no one wants Harry to find it. Out of the six queens who rule Faerie, one has hired him and the other five just might kill him on sight. Yet he must talk to them all, as well as their supporters. Sometimes it seems that the vampires would have been a better choice.
I grumbled a bit about Harry's haplessness in my review of 'Grave Peril,' and 'Summer Knight' started out the same way. Harry has this compulsion to be a hero. And this continually gets him in trouble. Unlike the previous volume, however, the crises of this one seem to make Harry begin to pull himself back together. He develops enough gumption to keep him from always playing the role of victim, and this makes 'Summer Knight' a very likeable effort. The result is an interesting story with a rich variety of characters. A good read all around.
Hard-boiled, tongue-in-cheek, wizard detectives are a rare commodity, and need to be nurtured. The dash of grittiness that Butcher used is just what is needed to keep the fantasy from becoming overblown. Harry's spell casting is a bit too theatrical for me (everyone else waves a hand, Harry uses a wand AND a staff, as well as shouting in Latin). But a wizard has to do what a wizard has to do. I believe that Jim Butcher has begun to show the quality of which he is capable. This bodes well for the future of the series.
Book Review: Wonderful!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been reading Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" since the first book, and this is the best yet. It has been a real pleasure watching Harry Dresden develop as a character, and the author develop as a craftsman.Things are heating up in Harry Dresden's Chicago. The White council is in town, and Harry is in trouble. The Vampire Reds are gunning for Harry, over a spot of arson last season. There is a rampant ghoul-cum hit man out there lurking, and Harry isn't completly sure who did the hiring. To top it all off, the courts of the fey are about to go to war, and it looks like Harry is the only one that can put a stop to it.
Harry just may survive this one , with a little help from his friends (the Alphas, Toot, Murphy) and some unexpected help from a few surprise sources.
I would highly reccomend this book!
To anyone looking for a terrific new series - Pick up a copy of "Storm Front", "Fool Moon", "Grave Peril", and "Summer Knight". Lock the doors, turn on the answer machine and have yourself a merry little weekend.
Congrats to the author on another great read. I just wish I didn't have to wait another year for the next one.
Book Review: Wow, an ultra-fun romp with a wizard, right in Chicago!
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't know how Jim does it, but he just keeps topping himself. This book got me breathing hard and my heart racing. My hubby thought I had come to the juicy parts in (please pardon the expression) a bodice ripper, but I explained I was just spending time with my favorite wizard, Harry Dresden. Hubby says I then started babbling about rainbow colored blood,pixies, and fairies, and ogres, oh my! After which he claims I passed out from over-excitement. He poured a glass of cold water on me to bring me back and told me I was not allowed to read another Jim Butcher book. Fortunately hubby has a very short memory and a very wily wife. I am already dreaming, or maybe night-mareing about Death Masks, Jims next addition to the Harry Dresden Files!Book Review: A Keeper-Upper!
Summary: 5 Stars
I need to set this up properly. I picked up the book last weekend while at DragonCon. I have a booth in the art show, which means I work the show. That also means my sleep is really important.However, after getting back to the room that night, I had to start reading. That was around 10 pm. I finished up around 2:30 am. I was racing with my friend Glennis (the one who hooked me on the Dresden Files in the first place) but she was five chapters ahead of me, and we kept quoting parts from where we were, laughing and commenting. It was hard getting up at 7 the next morning, but we groggily discussed the book most of the day.
How can a writer manage to top himself without taking the main character over the edge? I don't quite know, but Jim Butcher does it. Summer Knight was an excellent read, a fast read, an addictive read. Harry is at the bottom of the ladder when we find him, everything in the first three books having finally caught up with him. Unshowered, unshaved, and uncivilized, he's alienating his friends and putting himself out of business. Then he finds himself some trouble, courtesy of the Sidhe courts. After that, he walks in to some more trouble, this time with his fellow Wizards. Of course, the Vampires are still after him, and he's not too popular with anyone else. And when things can't get any worse, they do. It's marvelous.
Ok Jim, you've cost me a night's sleep because of your excellent writing and page turning plot. When will you show up at a convention so your admiring fans can harass you in person?