Looking For a Good Book

The city of Chicago has gone through a lot, recently – having nearly been completely destroyed. But the wizard Harry Dresden has been through even more, being the man who practically single-handedly saved (most of) Chicago but lost a number of good friends in the fight. It’s taken a toll, but the process of recovery and cleaning up needs to be done (as well as ‘charming’ all the citizens of Chicago so that they don’t know there are so many … ah … paranormals … in their midst).

What Harry Dresden definitely, no way, not all, doesn’t have time for, is the ghouls who are prowling the city and killing civilians.

And just to complicate matters – because Harry needs complication in his life, the Winter Queen has allied with the vampires and Harry’s been betrothed to the deadly vampire Lara Raith in order to seal the deal. This doesn’t sit well with everyone and one particularly nasty and powerful ‘baddy’ is going to test Harry’s mettle, but after all he’s gone through, Harry doesn’t have much left.

You don’t really need a review of a new Harry Dresden book (but I’m grateful to have the opportunity to do so prior to the book release).  I mean … it’s Harry Dresden! Probably one of the best urban fantasy series of all time!

What impresses me here is that here, book #18 in the series, author Jim Butcher still manages to find a way to keep up the energy and the drama.  The stakes need to be high in order to make our semi-reluctant hero stand out. But how do you keep putting him in such extremely high stakes?  Butcher knows and has the ability to make it happen.

The action isn’t quite as intense as it was in the previous book – though that was five years ago so most readers won’t remember, but those new to the series and binging (binge-ing) the books will notice. But that’s okay. We can’t maintain the intensity of battle, even in reading.  I’ve noticed this with other long-running book series (like the Longmire westerns and the Cork O’Connor mysteries) – sometimes our literary heroes need to have a different sort of adventure. For Dresden, this time it’s an introspection – trying to cope with a dying brother and the death of friends, and what he maybe could or should have done differently to protect the masses.

The last two Jim Butcher books I read were part of a different fantasy series which were fine, but didn’t have the rugged charm of Harry Dresden. Getting this new book is a real gift from Butcher to his fans and readers.

The story is pretty straight-forward. No sub-plots to speak of. Harry looks forward to rebuilding Chicago. Harry thinks about what was lost. Harry struggles with what is coming. Harry challenges authority. Harry backs up his challenge with might and skill. Harry has a surprise waiting for him. And it’s fun.

This doesn’t read like it’s almost 500 pages.  This was a very quick read.  In large part because I didn’t want to put it down. I wanted to see what happened next, so I kept reading. This makes the time go very quickly.

If you haven’t read a Harry Dresden novel before, you probably don’t want to start here.  This feels like a denouement, which is a terrible time to start something. But do start the series. If you enjoy urban fantasy, or are curious about it, this is the series to start.

Looking for a good book? Twelve Months is the 18th book in the Dresden Files series. It’s a welcome tome to fans, who won’t be disappointed.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Twelve Months

author: Jim Butcher

series: The Dresden Files #18

publisher: Ace

ISBN: 9780593199336

hardcover, 480 pages