I’ve been reading the Dresden files for a while now, so I’m really hooked.
“Blood Rites” is by no means the latest book in the series, it’s simply the latest one I’ve read and I really liked it.
Harry Dresden: Wizard. That’s what the sign says and that’s exactly what Harry is – a Wizard. Well, he’s more than that, really. He’s a detective too. And a good one to boot. It’s just that he’s always managing to piss everyone off so the list of people who want to kill him is longer than the list of people who don’t.
In “Blood Rites”, Harry’s still got troubles with the Vampire Courts over that pesky little war he started, or that they tricked him into starting when he killed Bianca and all hell broke loose. They want him dead and they have no problems whatsoever sending in the heavy hitters to get the job done.
Trouble is, Harry still needs to pay rent. And, much to his surprise, there’s at least one Vampire that he likes, even get’s along with mostly: Thomas. Thomas has a job for Harry and though he’s wary of the Vampire despite his repeated attempts to help Harry out, it comes down to helping people who are being hurt and that’s what Harry does best, right?
Someone’s using some bad magic to kill people, innocent people as far as Thomas is concerned. Harry takes the job but, like so many other jobs he’s accepted, there’s more to it than the client is telling him. In this case, the job is working for a movie mogul wannabe who is making a porno, and the people dying? Well, they’re the women working for the mogul wannabee.
Once again, Harry finds himself in trouble; protecting the movie set from a nasty entropy curse while having to fend off heavy hitters from the Black Court who are gunning for him, getting involved with the internal political struggles of the White Court vampires and, of course, he has to meet Mama Murphy and the whole Murphy clan at a family bbq.
All in all, this is another fantastic romp through the streets of Chicago as we follow one of the most screwed up Wizard’s of all time. Harry has a certain blindspot that all too many people seem capable of exploiting and it always ends up hurting him in the end, and though this book ends on a high note (sort of), it does have some pretty dark times in it as well. We see that Harry might be developing some feelings for Murphy, imho, and I’m not sure if that’s good or bad for the seires really. Harry needs to be close to someone again and I don’t think he’ll let himself, not after what happened to Susan.
Jim Butcher is a master at telling a strong, compelling detective story with a heavy dose of magic, fun and fantasy built in for good measure. If you like your magic and fantasy set in ‘the real world’, you’ll enjoy this book (and the previous 5). Extra points for the use of ‘Bolshevik Muppet’ in the book!
Click the image above and order yourself a copy. They’re fairly quick reads for all the complexity within the covers. Easily done in a week or two depending on your schedule and speed. 🙂
~P
