Another month, another Dresden Files book. This one really picked up for me after the last one and I might have been one of my faves so far. Read on for my thoughts and then hop over to Stormi's at Storm Reads to see what she has to say.
TITLE: Summer Knight
AUTHOR: Jim Butcher
PUBLISHER: Dutton/Signet/span>
PUBLISHING DATE: May 31, 2003
PAGES: 446
SOURCE: Library
FROM GOODREADS: Ever since his girlfriend left town to deal with her newly acquired taste for blood, Harry Dresden has been down and out in Chicago. He can't pay his rent. He's alienating his friends. He can't even recall the last time he took a shower.
The only professional wizard in the phone book has become a desperate man.
And just when it seems things can't get any worse, in saunters the Winter Queen of Faerie. She has an offer Harry can't refuse if he wants to free himself of the supernatural hold his faerie godmother has over him--and hopefully end his run of bad luck. All he has to do is find out who murdered the Summer Queen's right-hand man, the Summer Knight, and clear the Winter Queen's name.
It seems simple enough, but Harry knows better than to get caught in the middle of faerie politics. Until he finds out that the fate of the entire world rests on his solving this case. No pressure or anything...
MY THOUGHTS: I'm not big fan of fae in books. I like them well enough but there has to be something else in the book grabbing my attention for me to enjoy the book overall. Luckily, Butcher seems to have that format down pat.
Once again, the book opens up with Harry is a big load of trouble. This is par for the course with Harry so I'm thinking I might be repeating that sentence a lot as I progress with my series read. Harry is still reeling from what happened to his girlfriend in the last book and the vampires which appeared in Grave Peril have a bounty on Harry's head. Harry's fairy godmother, who basically "owns" Harry should he ever land in the Nevernever has sold her interest in him to Mab, the Queen of Winter Fairies. Mab needs Harry's help finding out who killed the Summer Knight because all fingers are pointing at her. In addition, the young lady Harry grew up with and died years ago shows up very undead and Harry spends the whole book wanting to help her while struggling with how much he can actually trust her. Throw in a bunch of other fairies, the young gang of werewolves led by Billy from book two, and the Council, who always wants to put Harry out of commission, and you have a wonderful installation to the series.
I think I recall Stormi telling me I would probably love Toot the fairy and she wasn't wrong. He and Billy were my favorite characters in this book besides Harry. I'm glad to see the werewolves reappear and it was a nice change of pace to have Murphy, the detective from the Chicago Supernatural Division, show up to assist Harry. I missed her in the last book. If you love urban fantasy, they definitely give this series a chance.
MY RATING: 4 PAWS
Man, how is this series over 20 years old already?!
ReplyDeleteyes! I love this series. It is generally thought it improves from here forward. I've thought about doing a RA but it's so many books now.
ReplyDeleteAnne - Books of My Heart