Skin Game

Skin Game by Jim Butcher is the 15th book in The Dresden Files series.

For a quick recap, Harry Dresden is a wizard for hire. Look him up in the Chicago Yellow Pages. Magic is real. Ghosts are real. Fairies are tall, so beautiful it’s almost painful to look at them, and are so divorced from mortals that they seem evil. All the gods you’ve ever heard of are real. All the things that go bump in the night are real too…

In this book Harry is forced to work with some of his enemies to pull a bank job with a difference!

I love Harry Dresden and I love The Dresden Files. The books are always fast and furious, sometimes a little predictable, but in a good way, and ultimately really fun. I think every book has also had moments that have been genuinely emotional and inspirational.

If you liked the previous books you will love this. If Harry Dresden is not your kind of guy, there is something wrong with you… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Inspirational Quotes : Skin Game

I’m reading Skin Game by Jim Butcher and a couple of things jumped out at me last night. First, one about interpreting facts.

“You have an array of facts in front of you that can fit any of several truths. You have to choose what you’re going to allow to drive your decisions about how to deal with those facts.”

The next one is about fear.

“… fear is a terrible, insidious thing… It taints and stains everything it touches. If you let fear start driving some of your decisions, sooner or later it will drive them all. I decided that I’m not going to be the kind of person who lives her life in fear…”

Nothing really new here, but occasionally your hear the right words at the right time and they hit you with extra meaning…

Cheers

Tim…

Cold Days…

Cold Days is the latest book in The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.

So Harry is alive again and now he’s the Winter Knight. The enforcer for Mab, the crazy queen of the Winter Fairies. Maybe staying dead was the better option. So what’s the first thing Mab orders Harry to do? Kill an immortal, whilst fighting an army of other-worldly beings, all the time trying to keep his friends safe and prevent Chicago from being leveled. Another day in the office for Harry Dresden.

I must admit this was a little struggle for me at first. The characters of Repairman Jack, Felix Castor and Harry Dresden have all merged in my head. Coming back to Harry confused me at times because I expected a different pattern of behavior from him, only to realize I was thinking about how one of the characters from one of the other authors would react. Once I got locked into Harry-mode, it was all guns blazing.

The pattern is very similar to the other books in the series. There are predictable story lines you can see from a mile off, with a number of curve balls thrown in along the way. There were definitely a few OMG moments in this book. Especially towards the end. I’m looking forward to the next book to see how some of this pans out. I can tell you now, Harry is going to have some serious ear-ache from some of his best friends!

Cheers

Tim…

The Dresden Files: Ghost Story…

Ghost Story is the latest book in The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.

Spoiler Alert. Don’t read on if you are currently reading the series and haven’t got to this book yet. It’s hard to talk about the book without doing a bit of a spoiler.

 

At the end of the last book Harry Dresden died. At the start of this book he comes back as a ghost and is sent back to Chicago to help his friends. The fact that there is another book planned makes you think one of two things are going to happen.

  1. He will be so successful as a ghost version of himself he will be able to carry on in that capacity.
  2. He will somehow be ressurected.

This book is more predictable than any of the other books in the series, but that’s not a bad point. The outcomes of certain situations are predictable, but the journeys to those outcomes are far from predictable, which is half the fun. You are sitting there thinking, I know how this is meant to pan out, but how the hell is he going to get there? 🙂

It was a great story, and well deserving of its place in the series. I’ve now got a really long wait for the next book (Cold Days) to be released. 🙁

Cheers

Tim…

The Dresden Files: Side Jobs

Side Jobs is a collection of short stories about characters from The Dresden Files series. Many of the stories have been published previously on the internet or in anthologies, so it’s not really new.

It’s kinda hard to describe the book because it contains a mix of stories of varying length and quality. Some are very weak and could be removed from the book at no loss. A couple are very good and show the characters they reference in a new light. One of the things with The Dresden Files series is it is all from the perspective of Harry, so you only know as much about other characters as Harry does. Some of these stories are told from other characters perspectives, so that quite literally changes your view point considerably.

If you are a Dresden fan I’m sure you’ll love it. If not, you will probably do well to avoid it.

BTW. The last story in the book takes place between the end of the Changes and the soon to be released Ghost Story. It kind of revved me up and got me exited about the new release again.

Cheers

Tim…

First Lord’s Fury…

First Lord’s Fury is the sixth (and final) book in the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. The book follows on from where the Princep’s Fury ended.

This book returns to the juggernaut pace of Captains Fury. I mentioned previously that some parts of the series were quite predictable, but that didn’t detract from the enjoyment and expectation. That is also true of this final book. You are pretty sure where you would like things to end up. The question is, how are you going to get there?

Part of me is very sad it’s over and part of me is relieved as I don’t think I could cope if it carried on. It’s an awesome series, but I quite draining because it is so intense. If this were a 38+ series like Discworld, I think I would have to retire on medical grounds… 🙂

It’s about 4 months until the next Dresden Files book is released, so I think I will have a rest and maybe look at the Earth’s Children series, suggested by @Boneist.

Cheers

Tim…

Princep’s Fury…

Princep’s Fury is the fifth book in the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. The book starts a few months on from where the Captain’s Fury ended.

This book seems a little calmer in comparison, mostly because I was still recovering from the onslaught of the previous book I guess. Each book in the six part series only tells a fraction of the whole story, but the previous four books were written in such a way that they also felt reasonably self contained. Princep’s Fury in comparison feels like the author was planning for the last book more than concentrating on this one. That sounds kinda damning, but even though it drifts a little at times, it was still cool.

Cheers

Tim…

Captain’s Fury…

Captain’s Fury is the fourth book in the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. The book starts two years on from where the Cursor’s Fury ended.

I mentioned in my previous post that the last 100 pages of Cursor’s Fury was exiting. Captain’s Fury makes the previous book seem tame in comparison. It’s like a juggernaut ramming into your head for 600 pages. I felt physically drained by the end of it. Totally cool.

Cheers

Tim…

Cursor’s Fury…

Cursor’s Fury is the third book in the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. The book starts two years on from where the Academ’s Fury ended.

I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting the last hundred pages of this book were. I was totally freaking out. I finished the last page at about 02:00 in the morning, got out of bed with an exited giggle and ran into the next room to grab the next book in the series. I read that for a couple of hours more before I finally gave up and went to sleep.

If you are thinking about reading this series, please don’t read any spoilers. Jim Butcher has done an brilliant job of mixing predictability and complete surprise. The predictability of the plot works really well because you have a good idea what is going to happen, but you are desperate to see if it does because there are enough surprises to keep you guessing, or questioning what you think is coming round the corner.

Love it.

Tim…

Academ’s Fury…

Academ’s Fury is the second book in the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. The book starts two years on from where the Furies of Calderon ended.

I’m now totally invested in the characters. They are real to me. I’m already thinking I will miss them (as I do Harry Dresden) when I finish the series and there is another 4 books to go. If you like the first book you will love this. If not, then give it a miss.

Cheers

Tim…