MINI REVIEW | Cold Days by Jim Butcher

Where to start with the latest Dresden Files? The 14th in fact. This is one of the longest series I've ever stuck with. The total word output from other series I read might be longer, but this is definitely the longest number of volumes. 14 books is quite an amazing accomplishment and the fact that most are better than good is astounding.

I had quite a few quibbles with the last volume, Ghost Story (reviewed here), so I started Cold Days with lowered expectations that it more than surpassed them bringing Harry back to form and thrown into the thick of all things paranormal. So my greatest fears that the series was ruined for me are unfounded at this point.

Dresden awakens inside Faerie's Winter Court with new powers and new debts that must be paid. Summer Knight was the volume that made me love the series since it broadened the Dresdenverse so much and Cold Days explores the politics and inhabitants of Faerie deeper than ever before. We see Mab in all her crazy glory along with nearly every other important figure including many unexpected personages of a magical persuasion. And when Harry is given a seemingly impossible task from Mab, of course, he gets drawn into even greater problems and old grudges back in the real world.

Harry has always been thought of a strong power in the past, but this supercharged version would have stomped on the young Dresden. There is still a heavy reliance on past associates including some that might have been better left out, but outside of that the action and detective work was incredible. Harry's magical island, Demonreach is vividly explored with many of its secrets finally unveiled. Cold Days more than most any other volume has payoff and reveals galore for long-term series fans. Many of the dots that have been tossed Harry's way over the length of the series are connected to great effect and seemingly disparate cases finally make sense.

So if you're still hanging in there for the series, which I expect most are, Cold Days brings the series back to a nice high with plenty of laughs and things are on track for plenty more action.

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NEWS | Jim Butcher's Cold Days Coming in November and What is Coming Next

Jim Butcher's 14th novel of the Dresden Files, Cold Days, has been officially given a publication date of November 27th. Below is the spoiler heavy description, so beware unless you're up-to-date on the series.

After being murdered by a mystery assailant, navigating his way through the realm between life and death, and being brought back to the mortal world, Harry realizes that maybe death wasn’t all that bad. Because he is no longer Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard.

He is now Harry Dresden, Winter Knight to Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness. After Harry had no choice but to swear his fealty, Mab wasn’t about to let something as petty as death steal away the prize she had sought for so long. And now, her word is his command, no matter what she wants him to do, no matter where she wants him to go, and no matter who she wants him to kill.

Guess which Mab wants first?

Of course, it won’t be an ordinary, everyday assassination. Mab wants her newest minion to pull off the impossible: kill an immortal. No problem there, right? And to make matters worse, there exists a growing threat to an unfathomable source of magic that could land Harry in the sort of trouble that will make death look like a holiday.

Beset by enemies new and old, Harry must gather his friends and allies, prevent the annihilation of countless innocents, and find a way out of his eternal subservience before his newfound powers claim the only thing he has left to call his own…

His soul.

Butcher is currently at work on his Steampunk series, which is being called The Cinder Spires. The first book is tentatively titled The Aeronaut's Windlass. He is hoping to have it done by the end of the year so a publication next year seems very likely. After that it is on to book 15 in the Dresden Files.

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Update on Cold Days by Jim Butcher

One of the most searched terms that lands people here are Dresden Files queries and the Cold Days search is getting ever more popular. My Dresden Files Has Jumped the Shark post has gotten so crazy I shut down the comments as I was just tired of being the place where people went to argue about it. I stand by that post and still feel very much the same way. I've discussed the story with a lot of other people in person and I'm not the only one who feels the same. Don't get me wrong some of my friends loved it too. But I digress...

Anyway, this was supposed to be an update on Cold Days. Well, there is no firm update. Butcher started writing the book in earnest around the beginning of the year after finishing a trio of Bigfoot/Dresden short stories. So it is coming, but being a 2012 release is pretty out the door. I tweeted back and forth with Jim's US editor briefly and she said it has not been decided/announced yet. There is a 2013 listing for Cold Days on Amazon UK with a January 2013 release, but I wouldn't set that in stone until Jim says so. January is probably the hope, but we'll see.

Jim has said that he is also working on a pitch for a Steampunk novel, which seems likely to be his next project after Cold Days. Those hoping he would do a run of a couple Dresden books in a row will have to be disappointed. Butcher mentioned many times he needs to take a breather from that world every other book. Before the Alera books did this. I was mostly hoping for his Sci-Fi cop series United System Marshalls to be the next, but I certainly wouldn't turn a Steampunk read down.

And for all those fans that can't wait for the next Dresden files I point you towards Kevin Hearne's Hounded, Benedict Jacka's Fated, and Seanan McGuire's Rosemary and Rue. Those series should definitely tide you over.

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The Dresden Files Has Jumped the Shark

Beware I will be talking about Ghost Story pretty in-depth so spoilers are bound to appear unless you've read it and the previous volumes in the series.

The Dresden Files has been one of my favorite long running series ever. I'd even consider myself a proselytizer of the books. I've blogged lots of Butcher news since I started here. Turn Coat was my first review ever posted on Mad Hatter's, but not the first written. I've turned many friends on to the series, probably buying the first volume Storm Front at least 5 times and lending my copy out at least as much. Heck, I even own the RPG, which is gorgeous by the way, along with most of the anthologies that have had Dresden shorts. Suffice to say I've bought and sold quite a few Jim Butcher books. I even enjoyed the TV show for what it was.

Changes was the culmination of a lot of story-lines over the course of the series (12 books long) so far and remains one of the most satisfying high points. Perhaps THE high point. Butcher risked a lot with Changes and I and most fans are happy with where he had brought us so far. Yet 13 is a very cursed number for the Dresden Files. With Ghost Story nearly all the good-will that had been developed over the series has been washed away. And no it isn't because Butcher killed his main character, which was a very brave stroke. Not many authors are willing to sacrifice to such a degree forcing themselves to rebuild and Butcher should be lauded for that alone. Yet it still comes down to what you do from there. Ghost Story fails for a lot of reasons. The biggest being Ghost Story amounts to what is a pointless time waste that will have nearly no bearing on the series.

Ghost Story returns to the detective style format we've known for most of the books. Harry is trying to solve his own murder yet spends less than two dozen pages actually doing so. Dresden, or the Ghost of Christmas Past as I think of him in this volume, saunters around peeking in at all of his friends most of whom have no idea he is there. And the ones that can communicate somehow don't seem very interested in hearing from him. So much has changed in the world yet post Changes events are mostly glossed over and amounts to: "The world has gone to hell since you killed the Red Court with all powers are trying to grab territory. You left the world in a shit storm, Harry." "Oh, my bad."

Ghost Story is essential a recapping of past events and does nothing more than reintroduce major and minor characters. Some that have even been dead for more than half a dozen books. If you cut out all the recapping the book would most likely be half of the size, possibly even smaller. Sure there are some decent reveals with Harry's early time with Justin Dumorne, but it is just one episode that could have been an earlier short story and doesn't seem to warrant a novel length work. The whole point of the Ghost Story could have been summed up and executed as a few chapters to a much larger story that actually moved things along.

With some long-running series authors try to include recapping to some extent for new readers that pick up later books as a starting point, but Ghost Story is about as far from a starting point as you can get, so much of the recapping is not only unneeded, but insulting to long-time readers. This also caused a very stop, go, stutter, and go feeling throughout as once things get moving some sort of flashback or remembrance is brought up, which kills momentum.

Ghost Story is about the consequences the world must now face because of Harry's actions in Changes. This is an introspective Harry, which was probably necessary for him to develop further as a character if he's to go on, but it goes on ad nauseum about how he made tough choices and he couldn't see beyond that day. All of which leads to a very self-centered Dresden. But, hey he is dead so we should just accept that...

There are some more specific problems as well having to do with continuity. One section in particular that made no sense addresses Thomas and Justine's relationship problems, which amounts to her being poison to him since they love one another. The "cure" ends up not making sense given what we've learned about how the White Court acts and if this was a solution why wasn't it brought up many books ago? "Oh, if I just have sex with someone else the stink of love will be washed away and than you can have me." Really? In the long life spans of these vampires no one has ever figured that out? Won't the same thing happen again once you make love again? And don't get me started on the Bob subplot, which was needlessly complicated.

Not enough time was spent with any of the characters we've come to know except for Molly and a little Butters action. I did however like Mort's development and can see him becoming more of a player and greatly enjoy the big Molly scene at the end. That was just plain cool. Given Murphy's importance during the course of the series and especially the last book she gets severely cut short and turned into a caricature of "a tough lady who has been through hell." But most of all the Winter angle was very predictable as was the very end, which I saw coming within pages of starting.

All may not be completely lost. There is potential for an author saving throw.  Butcher might even have earned an automatic +2 for past success. Given the state of Harry in Ghost Story, Butcher could certainly turn things around and even act like this episode didn't happen. This will be a dividing book for many fans of the series. Some are still bound to love it just because Harry is in it and also lovers of clip shows. Others will be totally turned off the series.

I guess the big question is will I still read the next Dresden Files Cold Days next year? Well, yes. But it certainly won't be a "must-buy the day of release" or even something I feel the need to read as soon as a buy it, which has been the case for at least the last 5 or 6 books in the series. For me, at least, the spell of the Dresden Files is broken. My days of being addicted to the Dresden Files like pancakes on a Sunday morning are done...for now...


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VIDEO | Dresden Files Storm Front Animation

VIDEO | Dresden Files Storm Front Animation

The Dresden Files: Storm Front (Animation) from kennyG.

This is a fun view of Mac's bar and showcases James Marster's work on the Dresden Files audio books quite well. As this post goes live I'll hopefully be immersed in Ghost Story.

So, would you watch a full Dresden Files cartoon? I know I would.

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NEWS | Jim Butcher's Ghost Story Delayed

Jim Butcher has announced that Ghost Story the 13th novel in the highly popular Dresden Files series would be moved from its April, 2011 release date to July 26th.  Jim said something along the lines of:

“It came down to, readers could either get a half-assed story in April, or a full-assed one in July!”

Seems like Harry's current state of affairs is causing Butcher some writing problems. I'd like my Dresden fix sooner but I'd rather wait for a damn good book.

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New York Comic Con: A Photo Essay (w/ Harry Dresden, Space Marines, and Yes the Elusive Yeti!)

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New York Comic Con: A Photo Essay (w/ Harry Dresden, Space Marines, and Yes the Elusive Yeti!)

The fifth annual New York Comic Con was this past weekend. I only attended on Friday despite it going on all day Saturday and Sunday for which my feet are eternally grateful, especially since Saturday was sold out to a capacity crowd of 80,000 people. I arrived during the relatively sedate Professional Hours, which gave me 3 hours of wandering time before the general public could enter. I had no luck getting a copy of The Heroes or Side Jobs, but I did see a real copy of the latter. I managed to meet Joe Abercrombie at his signing.  He was quite a nice fellow and I was surprised to learn he knew of Mad Hatter's Bookshelf. We took a picture together in which he was caught caressing my hat.  I hope it was as good from him as it was for me. Soon after entering I spotted this harry fellow.

Much later in the day I spotted the Yeti's North American cousin Bigfoot who was quite nice and not at all animal like.

But, man. I don't understand how someone could walk around all day in these outfits despite it being a relatively cool day. Next up are a couple photos taken right before the Fantasy author panel.

Priscellie from Jim-Butcher.com

The lovely Priscilla was dressed as Queen Mab from The Dresden Files. The next day she dressed as Molly, but I haven't found a picture. But look over her shoulder and you'll get an impossibility.

Yes, that is Harry Dresden with a cell phone of all things. Wizards can't use cell phones! How sparks weren't popping off him and that phone I'll never know, but he looked spot on with a hand that clearly is still healing and a rune inscribed staff.

Warhammer was promoting its online version with my favorite outfits of the show. This Space Marine was life size and clocking it at probably six and a half feet tall and his eyes friggin' glowed and a massively cool sword.

This is an Ork from Warhammer as well who was nearly as impressive as the Space Marine.

The next few pictures are from The Art of the Brick by Nathan Sawaya who does the most amazing things with Legos.  This was basically a mini exposition of his best work.

Han in Carbonite

This was as large as a  4 person breakfast table.

This is Sawaya's most famous piece "Yellow."

Next up are a couple photos I snapped at the Fantasy Author Panel, which should have been called: Giants of Fantasy what with the star studded panel. We had Joe Abercombie's (First Law) first American appearance as an author as well as Jim Butcher (Dresden Files), Naomi Novik (Temeraire), Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn), Peter V. Brett (The Painted Man), and newcomer Deborah Harkness (A Discovery of Witches). The panel was housed in a room far too small to the point that fans were turned away.  I barely got in and I was there 45 minutes early. A lot of love was thrown around for George R.R. Martin and Tolkien and much of the discussion skewed to writing habits and influences.

Below is video for the event, but for those preferring to read the discussion visit this run down by Tor.com, but keep in mind the videos are much more complete.

NYCC Panel Video: Fantasy Authors from Suvudu on Vimeo.


NYCC Panel Video: Fantasy Authors Part II from Suvudu on Vimeo.

Video games are very important to the show as well and I was able to play Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (PS3), Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii), Redemption (X-Box), and Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii). Kirby's Epic Yarn will be a must for me when it is released and M v C 3 brought me back to the arcade version. I got in a couple games of Magic: The Gathering both against players and their online version, which was a bit clunky. I also managed to meet many of my favorite current comic creators including Bryan J.L. Glass writer for The Mice Templar, Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener creators of Atomic Robo, and David Petersen creator of Mouse Guard.  Signed copies of all their graphic novels were had by me.  I also went to a Marvel panel where I learned one of the Fantastic Four will be dying in their recently launched storyline.  It was weird seeing the FF logo with a 3 in it.  The issue with one of the character's dying will be sold in the famous death bag most famous from when Superman died. 

Plenty more went on while I was there, but you can only get a small taste. I'll definitely try to go back next year.

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Cover Unveiled for Ghost Story (Dresden Files 13) by Jim Butcher
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Cover Unveiled for Ghost Story (Dresden Files 13) by Jim Butcher

WARNING: For those fans who haven't read Changes yet don't look too closely at this cover.

After the amazing and life changing events of Changes we have to wait a little while until the next volume Ghost Story is released in March 29, 2011.  Again the art by Chris McGrath Dresden illustration regular is veering away from the alleyways of Chicago as was done with Changes for something a bit different. At first glance I thought it was a bit too close to White Night, but the position and detailing make it work.

To tide us over for our Dresden fix we'll have the short story Dresden Files collection Side Jobs to look forward to this October 26th, which has a post Changes short called "Aftermath" from Murphy's point of view. Also for those hardcore fans and RPGers out there we have the Dresden Files RPG debuting any day now.  I just got my preview PDFs and they look quite amazing. I can't wait until the final printed book shows up.


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MISHMASH | Scott Lynch, Tad Williams, Jim Butcher, & updatery

I finally finished my review of Blake Charlton's Spellwright, which will go up tomorrow. Also, Blake and I have something special in store for you lucky readers so stayed tuned. This past weekend I zoomed through Joe Hill's Horns, which just may be the best book I've read this year. Horns is a Horror story with a devilish heart, which is hard to come by. Hill has certainly grown as a writer with impeccable plotting and endearing characters. I devoured it in 3 sittings and nearly didn't go to a friend's party just to get further. Yeah, it is that good. Any loss of sleep that ensues is worth every second.

I've also got a review brewing for Lavie Tidhar's very strange yet entirely enjoyable The Bookman, which didn't come as too big a surprise given his work thus far. Lastly but certainly not leastly, I'm a third of the way through Sam Sykes's debut Tome of the Undergates.   Not nearly as bloody as I thought it would be, at least to start. So far I like the characters despite them acting like a group of unruly fifth graders. The style reminds me a bit of Abercrombie with a dash of Lynch thrown in for good measure, but still wholly different. If it is gritty Fantasy you've been dying for than Tome will certainly be the answer for you as Sykes has made the name Adventurers out to be a very bad thing.

As announced from Wert Scott Lynch has officially submitted the long awaited The Republic of Thieves to his publishers. Publication is slated for Spring 2011 on both sides of the pond. I'm a little surprised Lynch hasn't made mention of this on his blog. Hopefully his bout with swine flu didn't knock him down too hard as it did with my wife.

The lovely Mrs. Tad Williams has announced that the fourth Shadowmarch book titled Shadowheart will be published in November simultaneously with the paperback edition of Shadowrise. Mrs. Williams has been a veritable font of info regarding Tad and his work through her twitters. It has been interesting to read about an author through the eyes of someone so close.

Next up we have the covers to the Evil Hat production of the Dresden Files RPG, which are quite colorful and action oriented when compared with the series books..

Also, Jim Butcher often pops on to his forums to answer questions and one in particular got him talking about the history of the White Council and why they don't just run the world.  It is well worth checking out if you are a Dresden fan. His post is at the bottom of the page so scroll down.  Butcher has also confirmed that the Dresden short story collection Side Jobs will be out October 26th in the US.  And below is the tentative table of contents sans the new work, which is still in progress.

• *  "Restoration of Faith"
• *  "Vignette"
• *  "Something Borrowed" -- from My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding
• *  "It's My Birthday Too" -- from Many Bloody Returns
• *  "Heorot" -- from My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon
• *  "Day Off" -- from Blood Lite
• *  Backup -- novelette from Thomas' POV, originally published by Subterranean Press
• *  The Warrior -- novelette from Mean Streets
• *  "Last Call" -- from Strange Brew
• *  "Love Hurts" -- from Songs of Love and Death

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NEWS | Jim Butcher's Dresden Files Short Story Collection-Title/Release

According to Amazon the title to the Dresden Files short collection will be Side Jobs: Stories from the Dresden Files. The title is in keeping with the format for the rest of the series except for the forthcoming Changes. Side Jobs is slated for a October 26th release date in the United States.
So far Jim Butcher has only hinted at what the new stories will be.  Recently in twitter he said he was most likely doing 3 short stories from the points of view of Murphy, Thomas, and Molly which could be really interesting, especially given what Thomas is going through presently.

UPDATE: Butcher has commented on his forums about the Murphy story:

Aftermath--Murphy (That one will be exclusive to SIDE JOBS, is set forty five minutes after the end of CHANGES, and is turning into a novella on me, rather than a short story.)

I wonder if this means he won't do the other two stories now as he mentioned in the past he would do 3 shorts or one novella/novellette for Side Jobs?  In the same link Butcher discusses other stories he may tell, but he also makes it clear that he has not decided what book or series he'll do other than more planned Dresden files novels. It looks like alterntive points of view might come into play down the line from some other Dresdenverse characters.  Here are the rest of the contents of Side Jobs:

* "Restoration of Faith"
* "Vignette"
* "Something Borrowed" -- from My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding
* "It's My Birthday Too" -- from Many Bloody Returns
* "Heorot" -- from My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon
* "Day Off" -- from Blood Lite
* Backup -- novelette from Thomas' POV, originally published by Subterranean Press
* The Warrior -- novelette from Mean Streets
* "Last Call" -- from Strange Brew

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MISHMASH | Dresden Files RPG, ToC for Running With the Pack, and Free Bacigalupi

Four years into development and Evil Hat Productions has finally announced the impending publication of The Dresden Files RPG.  The RPG will be based off the FATE system which I am not familiar with, but it certainly sounds workable for this world.  The game has now grown into at least two volumes: The Dresden Files RPG: Volume 1 – Your Story and The Dresden Files RPG: Volume 2 – Our World.  Fred Hicks from Evil Hat has this to say:

“Originally, we were planning to do this game in a single volume. As time went on and word count grew…so did the amount of flat-out awesome we knew we had on our hands. And so our game grew out of the confines of one book, into two gorgeous volumes.”

Ryan Macklin, head developer-wrangler of Evil Hat added:

"The thing is jam-packed with great rules for making your campaign & playing all sorts of different beasts and badasses from the Dresdenverse, supported by loads of advice for players & GMs as well as a lot of characters and creatures from the books statted out. (To give you an idea of what we mean by A LOT, Fred got to about the 75% mark on the first pass through layout and saw he already had 460 pages of material. The final combined page count of the two books together could break 600. Over 140 pages of that is our comprehensive tour of the characters of the first ten novels, complete with stats where they’re stattable.)"

A preview of Harry Dresden's character sheet is available here.  Evil Hat is hoping to have pre-orders up in June so be on the lookout, but it seems like you may not  have product in hand until July as they are first releasing it at a convention.  Visit the official site for the game for more details as they are released as they've gone all out on the development details.




Ekaterina Sedia has released the table of contents for her second anthology Running With the Pack, which will be released this May from Prime Books.

INTRODUCTION

WILD RIDE by Carrie Vaughn

SIDE EFFECTS MAY INCLUDE by Steve Duffy

COMPARISON OF EFFICACY RATES FOR SEVEN ANTIPATHETICS AS EMPLOYED AGAINST LYCANTHROPES by Marie Brennan

BEAUTIFUL GELREESH by Jeffrey Ford

SKIN IN THE GAME by Samantha Henderson

BLENDED by C.E. Murphy

LOCKED DOORS by Stephanie Burgis

WERELOVE by Laura Anne Gilman

IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING by Molly Tanser

ROYAL BLOODLINES by Mike Resnick

DIRE WOLF by Genevieve Valentine

TAKE BACK THE NIGHT by Lawrence Schimmel

MONGREL by Maria Snyder

DEADFALL by Karen Everson

RED RIDING HOOD'S CHILD by N.K. Jemisin

ARE YOU A VAMPIRE OR A GOBLIN? by Geoffrey Goodwin

THE PACK AND THE PICKUP ARTIST by Mike Brotherton

THE GARDEN, THE MOON, THE WALL by Amanda Downum

BLAMED FOR TRYING TO LIVE by Jesse Bullington

THE BARONY AT RODAL by Peter Bell

INSIDE OUT by Erzbet Yellowboy

GESTELLA by Susan Palwick

Stories by Jesse Bullington, N.K. Jemisin, and Amanda Downum definitely move this collection up on my list. Also, I love the title of Geoffrey Goodwin's story Are You a Vampire or a Goblin?

iO9 in conjunction with Night Shade Press is giving away the ebook version of Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, which keeps garnering praise left and right.  So if you haven't picked it up yet now is your chance to grab it for free.  This looks to be a limited time offer to coincide with iO9's book club event for The Windup Girl, so put a request in while you can.

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Dabel Brothers Sells All Properties to Dynamite Including Dresden Files, WoT, and Mercy Thompson

In a not all too surprising development Dynamite Entertainment has bought the rights to all existing and in-development projects from Dabel Brothers.  This includes the graphic novel adaptations of The Dresden Files, The Wheel of Time, Anita Baker's Mercy Thompson, Warriors, and GRRM's Wild Cards.  Here is a bit from the press release:

Dynamite Entertainment announced today that they have signed a comprehensive agreement with Dabel Brothers Publishing to transition all of their titles to the Dynamite brand.

Dynamite will immediately assume creative development, production, printing, marketing and sales for all titles handled by Dabel Brothers Publishing. This includes books that were in the works and projects not yet announced. For the bookstore market, all graphic novels (unless pre-existing agreements prohibit from doing so) will be published by Dynamite and distributed through Diamond Book Distributors. The first books will be shipping in April 2010, with subsequent titles shipping thereafter.

This is most welcomed news.  Dabel Brothers has always put out a very high quality product, but they've always been plagued by mismanagement with creators and artist being paid very late and projects continually slipping months in production. The whole Song of Ice and Fire calendar debacle also comes to mind, where people didn't get a 2009 calendar until a couple months after the year began. Also, Dabel already once sold some properties to Marvel including George R.R. Martin's Hedge Knight adaptations from the A Song of Ice and Fire prequels.  I was hoping the worst was over when Dabel signed with Del Rey for distribution, but it appears things didn't even after the huge success of The Dresden Files adaptations. 

Hopefully, with the change over all hiccups with production will smooth out.  Dynamite is already well respected in the comics industry known for graphic novel adaptations of other properties such as Army of Darkness, Buck Rodgers, Battlestar Galactica, RoboCop, and Highlander.  Dynamite also publishes many original series such as Garth Ennis's dark The Boys and Alex Ross's Project Superpowers centered on public domain superheroes.

Covers and Descriptions for Changes (Dresen Files 12) and 3rd Remy Chandler

Firstly, the Changes description has a big spoiler.  So if you like to be surprised pass this over. Also, Dresden is finally leaving the US and that is not the spoiler. But if you're a big Dresden/Jim Butcher fan you'll want to check it out.

Long ago, Susan Rodriguez was Harry Dresden's lover-until she was attacked by his enemies, leaving her torn between her own humanity and the bloodlust of the vampiric Red Court. Susan then disappeared to South America, where she could fight both her savage gift and those who cursed her with it.

Now Arianna Ortega, Duchess of the Red Court, has discovered a secret Susan has long kept, and she plans to use it-against Harry. To prevail this time, he may have no choice but to embrace the raging fury of his own untapped dark power. Because Harry's not fighting to save the world...

He's fighting to save his child.


Next up is Thomas E. Sniegoski's third Remy Chandler novel Where Angels Fear to Tread.

Six year-old Zoe York has been taken and her mother has come to Remy for help. She shows him crude, childlike drawings that she claims are Zoe's visions of the future, everything leading up to her abduction, and some beyond. Like the picture of a man with wings who would come and save her-a man who is an angel.

Zoe's preternatural gifts have made her a target for those who wish to exploit her power to their own destructive ends. The search will take Remy to dark places he would rather avoid. But to save an innocent, Remy will ally himself with a variety of lesser evils-and his soul may pay the price...

Both books are scheduled to be published in April 2010.


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Cover Unveiled for Jim Butcher's Changes (Dresden 12)

Thanks to SciFiGuy.ca for first posting. Chris McGrath has yet again provided another great cover for The Dresden Files. It is nice to see Harry not in an alley for a change. The little tidbits Butcher has mention have indicated Changes will take place outside of the greater Chicago area. Most likely he'll be headed to Susan's neck of the woods in South America. This idea is supported by the Pyramid on the cover. Changes is scheduled for an April 6, 2010 release.

REVIEW | Turn Coat (the Dresden Files Book 11) by Jim Butcher (Roc)

As with all previous books in the series Turn Coat does not disappoint. It is action packed from start to finish. The story picks up with the Warden Morgan coming to Harry for aide. Morgan has been accused of a most grievous crime. The murder of a senior white council member. As is typical Dresden style he comes to Morgan's aide, because Harry loves lost causes and thinks that no matter what what's right is right. It is a rocky journey for Harry. Possibly the hardest of the series so far as Butcher attempts to throw bigger and harder curve balls at Harry to keep him on his toes.

Turn Coat mostly has to deal with The Black Council story line that has been ongoing for sometime along with the White Council. That plot thread is advanced quite a bit as more people are brought into the fray of the Black Councils plans. Harry is battered by all sides from NeverNever zombies to a Skinwalker all while trying to avoid the other Wardens who are searching for the rogue Morgan. Butcher's treatment of the Skinwalker was the best use of the Native American mythology I've ever seen. The Skinwalker is the most formidable creature Harry has faced so far.

Harry's connection to the mysterious island is also made stronger as he delves into its secrets. Thomas seemed a bit lost in the story, but he has for a few books. Without spoiling all I can say is Thomas is a different man (or monster) by the end of the book. Turn Coat also sees the development and testing of Harry's young and nubile apprentice Molly. Molly has to learn to use her ever-strengthening skills more and more, but her dark past comes back to haunt her.

My favorite parts of the last few books has been Dresden's growing interaction with the White Council. Turn Coat sees Harry visiting White Council HQ which only intrigued me more about their history and true strength. We finally get to see some of the Senior Council member show their true strength. Injun Joe is amazing impressive so it makes we wonder what The Merlin could do since he is supposedly the most powerful. Also, a few small tidbits come up about Ebenezer's history and duty for the White Council, which will hopefully be expounded upon in future books.

All in all Turn Coat is a great read and advances Dresden's world more. That said there are still dozens of plot lines up in the air such as the swords and who else is on the Black Council. I have great hope that Butcher can keep up the action and intrigue for the remaining books. I give Turn Coat 9 out of 10 hats.

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REVIEW | Ghost Story by Jim Butcher