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White Night by Jim Butcher (2007)
May. 16th, 2007 01:10 pmNinth Dresden Files book (click author link for the first eight) in which Harry begins investigating the deaths of a number of local small-time magical practitioners and, say it ain’t so!, ends up in the middle of a massive vampire power struggle with wide-ranging implications for the continuing war.
I’m almost tempted to re-skim Storm Front, the first book in the series, just for the purpose of enjoying how much Butcher’s talent has grown. His writing is smoother (if not, you know, particularly beautiful), his dialogue downright sparkling in places, his plots much less contrived, his jokes funny-lame instead of stupid-lame. And he’s discovered subtlety in character work, which is worth a cheer all in and of itself.
All of which sounds a lot more disparaging than it’s intended. Seriously. This series started out as a mildly diverting bunch of adventures with average writing and the occasional irritating element. They’ve morphed into smooth, funny, creative stories which are indulging in the sort of very long-range plotting that really pushes my buttons. There’s a really excellent and diverse supporting cast, and Harry is developing in believable and impressive ways (the apprentice angle is awesome) as both a wizard and a person, and somewhere in the past three books I started being emotionally engaged by him on levels that the first few books didn’t permit (see above re: subtlety in character work).
Harry’s chauvinism is still irritating (nope, sorry, not cute, not funny, and, most damning of all, not illuminating of character in a meaningful way). I was also a bit disappointed by the ending to this book, which returned to the old pattern of lining up the good guys and the bad guys and having them whack at each other with swords and magic and rifles until things go badly for both and the good guys pull a rabbit out of their hats. Ho-hum. This sort of thing can only really be saved for me by the delightful creativity Butcher has demonstrated himself more than capable of (resurrected dinosaur! Plant monster in a garden store!) that simply wasn’t present here. Otherwise, it reads like a description of a tabletop RPG. Which, uh, it well might be.
Anyway. Strong series that I’m glad I stuck with, because the good stuff took a while to hit me. And I have a feeling there’s a lot more of it coming.
Which, by the way, can also be said of the new TV show – I was reasonably entertained by the first few episodes, then something shifted and went click and the last few installments have been nothing short of delightful.
I’m almost tempted to re-skim Storm Front, the first book in the series, just for the purpose of enjoying how much Butcher’s talent has grown. His writing is smoother (if not, you know, particularly beautiful), his dialogue downright sparkling in places, his plots much less contrived, his jokes funny-lame instead of stupid-lame. And he’s discovered subtlety in character work, which is worth a cheer all in and of itself.
All of which sounds a lot more disparaging than it’s intended. Seriously. This series started out as a mildly diverting bunch of adventures with average writing and the occasional irritating element. They’ve morphed into smooth, funny, creative stories which are indulging in the sort of very long-range plotting that really pushes my buttons. There’s a really excellent and diverse supporting cast, and Harry is developing in believable and impressive ways (the apprentice angle is awesome) as both a wizard and a person, and somewhere in the past three books I started being emotionally engaged by him on levels that the first few books didn’t permit (see above re: subtlety in character work).
Harry’s chauvinism is still irritating (nope, sorry, not cute, not funny, and, most damning of all, not illuminating of character in a meaningful way). I was also a bit disappointed by the ending to this book, which returned to the old pattern of lining up the good guys and the bad guys and having them whack at each other with swords and magic and rifles until things go badly for both and the good guys pull a rabbit out of their hats. Ho-hum. This sort of thing can only really be saved for me by the delightful creativity Butcher has demonstrated himself more than capable of (resurrected dinosaur! Plant monster in a garden store!) that simply wasn’t present here. Otherwise, it reads like a description of a tabletop RPG. Which, uh, it well might be.
Anyway. Strong series that I’m glad I stuck with, because the good stuff took a while to hit me. And I have a feeling there’s a lot more of it coming.
Which, by the way, can also be said of the new TV show – I was reasonably entertained by the first few episodes, then something shifted and went click and the last few installments have been nothing short of delightful.