Looking For a Good Book

Chicago has barely even begun its recovery and clean-up after the Battle of Chicago and already the wizard Harry Dresden is being called away for a different job.  It’s not something he wants to do, but since he owes John Marcone, the Baron of Chicago, a favor (for saving Harry’s life … hardly a favor anyone can ignore), he takes the job.

The job: help the lowlife, former pimp and gambler, Tripp Gregory, go straight. It shouldn’t be too hard – he wants to go straight. He just needs some help understanding what’s right and a few nudges here and there. It would seem he’s off to a good start when he raises money for a charity and doesn’t understand why it was wrong to gamble that money when he hit the jackpot and increased that jackpot many-fold for the charity.

There is a little problem, though … beside the IRS … the man who took the bet isn’t paying out and Tripp needs Harry’s help to get it. There’s just a little problem … while Harry has a Valkyrie as his personal bodyguard, the closed-fisted gambler who owes Tripp a lot of money, is backed by a creature not of this earth that has the capacity to take down the planet, starting with Harry.

This was so much fun. It’s a short book, a novella, meant to fit in between the longer Dresden Files adventures (it’s book #18.75 in the series). With Jim Butcher’s talent at storytelling, the book moves along very quickly, though it doesn’t feel rushed.

I don’t think anyone write paranormal wizarding action scenes better than Butcher. It’s got plenty of CTPP (Cool Things Per Page) and a hero we really enjoy. He’s morally straight, even if he crosses a line or two when it comes to protecting Chicago. We see this in action (literally) in this book.

Given what Dresden’s been through over the course of 18+ books, we don’t really feel like this will be the end of Harry or the series. As bad as our other-worldy creature is that Harry battles in the climax, there isn’t much tension of ‘will he survive?’  It’s more about ‘how will Harry get out of this one?’ And yeah, it’s creative and fun.

For me, this was the perfect length. I was ready for something fast, lively, and fun and this fit the desire perfectly. If you haven’t read a Dresden Files book before, you could certainly pick this up, enjoy it, and you’ll want to go back and read more.

Looking for a good book? Out Law by Jim Butcher is a Dresden Files novella, book #18.75 in the series. It has all the charm (pun in tended) of a full-length Dresden Files novel, but can easily be read in a day.

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

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Out Law

author: Jim Butcher

series: The Dresden Files #18.75

publisher: Podium Publishing

ISBN: 9798347030026

paperback, 204 pages