We’re pleased to welcome today one of the defining authors of epic and urban fantasy. Jim Butcher has thrilled fans for a decade and Beth and her husband Gert were happy to chat with him about his work. Mr. Butcher recently published the final volume of his high-fantasy series CODEX ALERA. The twelfth volume of THE […]
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Storm Front by Jim Butcher It is hard to believe that Storm Front, the first book of the Dresden Files, came out more than a decade ago. Jim Butcher introduces his scrappy wizard-detective in this inaugural adventure. That was a more innocent time, and Harry was a more innocent character back then. Harry is a […]
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Fool Moon by Jim Butcher In Fool Moon, Harry Dresden’s second adventure, Jim Butcher gives us four flavors of werewolf — or five, if you want to be flexible. Harry, Chicago’s only practicing wizard-detective, is called to the scene of a gory murder by his friend and client Karrin Murphy. Murphy, a Chicago police detective, […]
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Grave Peril by Jim Butcher Someone is torturing the ghosts of Chicago, driving them mad and juicing up their power. Harry Dresden, wizard, is the best person to handle this, but even a wizard needs back-up sometimes. In Grave Peril, the third book of The Dresden Files, Jim Butcher introduces Michael Carpenter, a Knight of […]
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Summer Knight by Jim Butcher As Summer Knight (2002) opens, Harry Dresden’s true love, Susan, has left town, the Red Court Vampires have declared war on him and someone’s shooting at him. Oh, and it’s raining toads. To top it off, Mab, the Faerie Queen of Winter, wants to hire him to investigate the murder […]
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Death Masks by Jim Butcher With Death Masks, the fifth Dresden Files novel, Jim Butcher returns to Chicago-noir. Harry Dresden, that city’s only advertising wizard, is simultaneously challenged to a duel by a duke of the vampiric Red Court and hired by the Vatican to find the missing Shroud of Turin. The search for the […]
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Blood Rites by Jim Butcher Harry Dresden never knew his mother Margaret. He knows that she was a wizard, that she used the last name LaFey, and that before she married Harry’s father she hung out with some shady characters. In Blood Rites, he discovers something about Margaret that changes everything he believes about himself. […]
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Dead Beat by Jim Butcher Mavra, Queen of the Black Vampires, is after “The Word of Kemmler,” the ultimate how-to on being an all-powerful necromancer. Mavra wants it, and is blackmailing Harry into getting it for her. Harry must find this book, while dodging a whole collection of black wizards who are also seeking the […]
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Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher After decades of reading SFF, and after stuffing hundreds of fantasy novels under my middle-aged belt (it occurs to me that this is not the most attractive metaphor), it surprises me when I finish book eight in a series and am eager to acquire book nine. It rarely happens anymore. […]
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White Night by Jim Butcher White Night is the ninth novel in Jim Butcher’s DRESDEN FILES series. If you haven’t read up to this point in the series yet, please stop here and go away… Well, now I’m sure that I’ve been left talking to myself because nobody who’s read this far is going to […]
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Small Favor by Jim Butcher “You’re hitting the big time, Harry!” ~Bob the skull Small Favor is book ten in the DRESDEN FILES. If you haven’t read this far, go back! You Shall Not Pass! Harry thought his life was getting a little calmer when Karrin Murphy calls him in to look at a really […]
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Turn Coat by Jim Butcher I like Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden series. I like the idea of a wizard-detective in novel-noir Chicago, VI Warshawski with testicles and a magical staff instead of high heels. I liked the wise-crackery of the early books, I appreciated the whimsy of Harry’s potion-making, and I loved his brown leather, […]
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Changes by Jim Butcher I love Harry Dresden like he’s the crazy scary magical uncle I never had. My wife (The Asian OverLord™) gets annoyed at my exclamations of “Hell’s Bells!” and my constant need to tell people that a scar on my hand came from “Hell Fire” rather than a childhood bicycle wreck. The […]
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Ghost Story by Jim Butcher Writing this review is going to be impossible without spoiling some of the series for those who have not read through Changes, just a little warning. The title of this book, Ghost Story, does a pretty good job of revealing the entire premise of the story: Harry is a ghost. Like all ghosts […]
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Cold Days by Jim Butcher If the Harry Dresden stories have ever had a problem (reflecting, I think, an issue with urban fantasy in general), it’s that they can tend to feel a little repetitive. A monster of the week shows up, and Harry goes through hell both emotionally and physically to stop him. Along the […]
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Side Jobs by Jim Butcher Side Jobs is a collection of short stories from The Dresden Files. Some of the stories have been previously published in other collections, and some are being published for the first time. The timeline for the stories range from before Storm Front to after Changes, so aspects from every possible […]
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Skin Game by Jim Butcher Reading a DRESDEN FILES book at this point is literary equivalent of sky-diving. I think I’ve compared the experience to a roller coaster before, but I was in error. Roller coasters, in the main, start off with a slow clickety-clack up a steep slope, and you sort of bob up […]
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Peace Talks by Jim Butcher Fans of Jim Butcher’s DRESDEN FILES have been waiting for the sixteenth novel, Peace Talks (2020), for six years. It’s been so long that I actually had to go back and re-read the last few novels to get back up to speed on Harry’s life. Was Peace Talks worth the […]
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Battle Ground by Jim Butcher THE DRESDEN FILES is a weird series, even for urban fantasy. My go-to example for non-aficionados is a wizard riding a polka-powered zombie T-rex through downtown Chicago, and that’s not even the wackiest thing that’s happened. So it’s saying something when I have to acknowledge that the series is in […]
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Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher CLASSIFICATION: If you’re a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hellboy, or the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter comic books, then The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle will be perfect for you. Like those, Welcome to the Jungle boasts a fun mix of fast-paced supernatural action, humor and […]
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Working for Bigfoot: Stories From the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher Most DRESDEN FILES fans probably didn’t know that one of Harry’s occasional clients is a Bigfoot named Strength of a River in His Shoulders. River has a half-human son named Irwin Pounder whom he has never met. Whenever River senses that Irwin needs help, […]
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Brief Cases by Jim Butcher Magic is well and good, but bullets are often swifter. Brief Cases (2018) is a collection of a dozen short stories set in the world of Harry Dresden, a private investigator and talented wizard living in Chicago. Harry is the main character in most of the stories, but not all; […]
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Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher I read Furies of Calderon while waiting for Jim Butcher’s next DRESDEN FILES novel. Butcher’s little blurb at the end of his books had convinced me to give it a whirl. Let it be known, this is not to the caliber of THE DRESDEN FILES. It is a good […]
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Academ’s Fury by Jim Butcher Academ’s Fury is the second book in Jim Butcher’s CODEX ALERA series. It takes place two years after the events in book 1, Furies of Calderon. Tavi, who feels like a “freak” because he’s the only Aleran who doesn’t have any magical connections with the elemental spirits called Furies that […]
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Cursor’s Fury by Jim Butcher After having dealt with the Vord horde in Academ’s Fury, there are new worries in Cursor’s Fury, the third novel in Jim Butcher’s CODEX ALERA saga. The rebel uprising has gained strength and the aging and heirless First Lord of Alera is in danger of being overthrown. Those who are […]
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Captain’s Fury by Jim Butcher Warning: Contains spoilers for previous books, though probably nothing you didn’t already guess. Captain’s Fury, the fourth book in Jim Butcher’s CODEX ALERA series, takes place two years after the events we read about in Cursor’s Fury. Tavi is still the captain of the Alera’s First Legion which is still […]
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Princeps’ Fury by Jim Butcher Tavi and his companions are escorting the Canim back to their home across the sea. When they arrive they find that the Canim’s land has been invaded by the Vord. Back home in Alera, unbeknownst to Tavi, his countrymen are also being overrun by the Vord and Amara, Isana, Bernard, […]
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First Lord’s Fury by Jim Butcher Grab your helms, shields and swords, fantasy fans. In First Lord’s Fury, Jim Butcher is taking you to war! In the 6th and final book in the CODEX ALERA series, Butcher not only takes you to war, but makes you laugh and cry along the way. First Lord’s Fury […]
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The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher Fans of Jim Butcher (including myself) were thrilled to see that he’s started a new series called THE CINDER SPIRES. This one is quite different than his previous works. THE DRESDEN FILES, for which Butcher is best known, is a modern-day urban fantasy with a first-person narrator and a […]
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Strange Brew by P.N. Elrod (ed) The theme of Strange Brew is witchcraft. This anthology features nine well-known urban fantasy authors, each with their own spin on the theme. Some of these stories feature well-known characters. Others focus on characters who are secondary in the author’s series, or characters who are entirely new. Glancing at […]
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Songs of Love and Death edited by George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois Songs of Love and Death is the third anthology that George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois have edited together. Like Warriors and Songs of the Dying Earth, Songs of Love and Death brings together some of the biggest names that SFF has to offer and they set these authors to work on […]
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Magic City: Recent Spells edited by Paula Guran Things you should know: 1. This is a reprint anthology. If you read a lot of anthologies in the field, you will probably have read some of these before. I had read three, though two of them were among the best ones, and I enjoyed reading them […]
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Shadowed Souls edited by Jim Butcher & Kerrie L. Hughes Shadowed Souls is an invitational anthology edited by Jim Butcher and Kerrie L. Hughes. Butcher is the author of three fantasy series: THE DRESDEN FILES, THE CODEX ALERA, and THE CINDER SPIRES. Hughes is an established short fiction writer who has edited several anthologies including […]
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Just reports about his visit to GenCon. Comment for a chance to win a FanLit bookmark signed by R.A. Salvatore. Each year in Indianapolis, thousands gather for what’s called “The Best 4 Days in Gaming.” Gencon Indy was held from August 5th to August 8th, 2010. This gathering of nerds is the largest of its […]
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