White Night (The Dresden Files, Book 9) by Jim Butcher Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of White Night (The Dresden Files, Book 9)
Book Review: Dresden Isn't the Only Wizard
Summary: 5 Stars
I've never, in my life, ever said this about anyone, ever.
I am a FAN of Jim Butcher.
He has consistently written top notch novels, one right after the other. He's managed to build multiple, detail-rich over-arcing storylines, significant character change and growth, emotionally-laden highs and lows and the evolution of a world so complete that I have to remind myself to eat, sleep and go to work whenever I get started on a new Dresden Files novel. They are, intentionally speaking, mesmerising, pure magic every time.
As I said, Dresden isn't the ONLY Wizard when it comes to these books.
Book Review: Classical Dresden, Classical Jim Butcher (Awesome)
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are into modern day swords and scorcery or if you just want a little escapeism. This is the way to go. Butcher starts off with a bang and never lets up. The only thing is you will need to have read the rest of the series to understand some of what is going on. Other than that it rocks.White Night (The Dresden Files, Book 9)Book Review: takes my breath away
Summary: 5 Stars
You know a book is good when you've picked it apart, word by word, you know it inside and out, and it still takes your breath away when you re-read it.
This is the ninth Dresden Files book, and yes, it's White Night, not White Knight or White Nights. Easy way to remember: every single one of the Dresden Files titles is two words, with the same number of letters in each word--which is why Death Masks isn't Holy Sheet.
Anyway. The have-nots of Chicago's magical community--those people with just a bit of power--have been going missing. Several have turned up dead, mostly in apparent suicides. And somebody's left a message with the bodies: Exodus 22:18. Harry Dresden isn't religious, but that's a verse he knows by heart: "suffer not a witch to live."
And what makes things worse, for Harry at least, is that a lot of the missing women were last seen with either a very handsome man with dark hair or a very tall man in a gray cloak. Wardens of the White Council wear gray cloaks, which makes Harry himself a suspect, and the other man sounds very much like his brother Thomas, who's been secretive about his new job.
The plot is convoluted, but it makes sense once you get all the pieces, and what's really cool is that it's convoluted because that's the way the people involved do things. It's that level of detail that prompts the five stars. Everything in the book has a reason for being there, usually several reasons.
Harry's still training his new apprentice Molly, and that's got a bunch of layers as well--her strengths fit everything we know about her from previous books, and the effects on Harry show, too. It's not just "let's give Harry a teenage girl for a sidekick." It has so much consistency you'd believe they were real people.
Several characters from earlier books show up, ones we haven't seen for a while, and that's fun, and completely plot-driven. No Mouseketeer role calls here.
As you can probably guess from the fact that his brother is a suspect, the emotional intensity is up there. There's also a lot of emotion involved with Harry dealing with anger issues and with Lash, the shadow of a fallen angel who's living in his head. I needed tissues.
There were also plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, and dozens of quotable lines, like "...age is always advancing and I'm fairly sure it's up to no good."
And some very cool special effects, which the TV show will never get a chance to use because it's been canceled, darnitall. Ah, well, they probably work better in my head anyway. Stupid SciFi Channel.
One caveat: this is a planned series: 20 books and then a big old apocalyptic trilogy, because who doesn't love apocalyptic trilogies? Which means that even though the books are complete in themselves, there is something going on that's leading to that apocalyptic trilogy. In other words: read the series in order. You'll get more out of it that way.
Book Review: wonderful
Summary: 5 Stars
Great author and a wonderful book. keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole way.Book Review: Hard Luck and Humor
Summary: 5 Stars
My wife convinced me that we should give the books a try after the SciFI Channel wimped out on the series. We read White Night first, then we went back to the beginning. Now we're on Small Favor and I feel deep anxiety as we come to the end of the canon . . . thus far.
Harry Dresden presents a clinic/seminar/example on how to face life's little troubles while staying cheerful. Once acquainted with the supernatural existential predicaments of the wry wizard, one finds it easier to cope with dyspeptic middle managers and blithering bean counters.
These books represent an anthem for the downtrodden, lovelorn and heroically unlucky plain folk of the world yearning to breathe the sweet air of fantastic realms . . . like Chicago.