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Good work and keep Harry coming to his fans Another very readable and fun book.
Start at book 1 and you won't be sorry or lost. You canNOT start this series at this point or even 1 or 2 books back - you will get lost because stuff in previous books is not really recapped and for that I am actually happy. I am anxiously awaiting the next book. Plain and simple - I love this series. Usually I will listen to it and the narrator they got is great.
It's a very good addition o the continuing story of Dresden. Agree with most other posters.
But it also contains references back to several previous books in the series. And with this volume, he has opened up so many new opportunities that the coming books promise to be only bigger and better. When Harry Dresden's greatest rival and gadfly turns up on his doorstep, demanding sanctuary, what's a guy to do. But when the victim and the chorus of accusers are also wizards, it isn't long before Harry finds himself neck-deep in conspiracies reaching back centuries, with the potential to transform his world.It's not hyperbole to say that Dresden is the best thing I know of going on in current fantasy fiction. Each time I think Butcher has crested and has pushed the story as far as he can, I realize he's just getting started. What is this hierarchy he's resisted for years. This book grows right out of bits and bobs from the previous novel, and is probably the closest he's yet come to a direct sequel.
He also has to realize the fact that, sometimes, being right isn't the same as being correct.I said this on the last Dresden novel, and I say it again: this is the best one yet. Some gains Harry has worked to achieve for years now slip from his fingers, and some of his trusted allies turn on him hard.
Harry starts to find out certain truths he maybe would rather not know: why are the wizard laws so unjust. Every character in the book has to make hard choices, and every character has to suffer loss.
When that guy is a wizard and a PI, he uses magic to clear the frame job and find the real criminal. It feels as though Butcher has planned for this novel for years, and now it has come to fruition.This novel doesn't pause, it doesn't stint, and it doesn't let anybody off easily.
Dresden is an iron-fisted sucker punch that drives spirit right up into you where you need it most. In terms of philosophy this is certainly the most complex and inexorable novel yet in this series.
And what if he's on the wrong side of the conflict.I really appreciate that, when Jim Butcher drops bread crumbs, he doesn't let them lie untouched for years.
Maybe we'll all end up thinking he was brilliant. Harry is shown to be a good guy, despite all of his darkness, by his actions in this book, but that is contradicted by Michael's plot-line in this book.The writing, as usual, is fine. in Chicago, was a great character. All the character growth is negated.Welcome to TURN COAT.That isn't to say the book doesn't have redeeming qualities. Harry Dresden, the Wizard P.I. Book 10 came out, and though it felt like nothing but pure setup for the rest of the series, I forgave Butcher. So instead of writing it in, he is just going to rehash what has been done in the series already. No spoilers.It is with irony that I feel betrayed by Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novel, TURN COAT.
After all, Butcher wouldn't put out two poor novels in a row right. We get to see some of the characters that we don't see much of, like Listens-To-The-Wind, for example who is a complete BAMF in this book. I wonder if Butcher realized he was only 11 books into a 22 book serious and ran out of ideas for conflict. This hurts the entire ending of the novel.The bottom line. Then TURN COAT came out. Back when I used to manage a bookstore, one of my regular customers said he wouldn't read another recommendation until I read the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. There were only seven books out in the series at the time. As for books 10 and 11, if you feel like reading novels that make you pissed off, borrow them from a friend or library.
The plot is centered around the search to uncover a traitor among the Wizards Council. Harry's werewolf buddies have some real development, as well as a slew of other characters that have long since needed some attention.There are moral questions raised by multiple characters that would have been interesting had they been compounded with actual character development (See above for the magic reset button). Have you ever watched a TV show (*cough*smallville*cough*) or read a comic where after all hell breaks loose, and all the important people die (or everything seems to get better, even), the show/book hits the Magic Reset Button. Otherwise, leave them be until some solid reviews of the 12th book are published later this year.
I just wish he could have done that without deciding to ignore the development of the previous 10 books.Here is what I recommend: books 1-9 are great, read them and enjoy them for the popcorn-novels they are. But really, I'm extremely disappointed that Butcher decided to reset nearly all of the character development.If the next book, CHANGES, doesn't fix this problem, I'm done with Butcher. There is an awful lot of setup for the obviously massive conflict coming, and for that I thank Butcher. I read them, and thought they were great fun.
The mystery style of the book is well done, as I have come to expect from Butcher, though I nailed who the traitor was from his/her (don't want to spoil it) first appearance. Suddenly everything is back how it was at the beginning. Books 8 and 9 were released, and I figured I had found a golden series. So that you can understand my displeasure about the end of this novel, let me pose a question.
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