Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, Book 6) by Jim Butcher
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Book Reviews of Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, Book 6)
Book Review: An excellent installment in the life of Harry Dresden
Summary: 5 Stars
Once again, Jim Butcher does not disappoint. This series has evolved into a riveting read. I will not summerize the plot, since other reviewers have done it so well, but I would like to comment on the type of story.
This books begins to read like the original Anita Blake books did, only without the repetitive phrasing. It is a great blend of humor, adventure, and action. There is action galore in this book. So much action, in fact, that when reading before bedtime I couldn't find a good stopping point. I had to just keep reading and reading until I fell asleep in the middle of a chapter. It was a very entertaining read.
In the previous books, Harry was the only well-defined character, while all the supporting cast seemed rather cardboard. In Blood Rites, Mr. Butcher begins to flesh out the supporting characters. Thomas, Murphy, and Ebeneezer begin to act more like real "people" as opposed to the one-dimensional things whose only purpose is to push the plot along. I also found Kincaid to be a great addition to the cast. I look forward to seeing more of him in the future, hopefully with an unraveling of his history.
Finally, I would like to say that I was hooked from the first book in the series, but I found Blood Rites to be the most well-written in the series. I eagerly await the next installment in the Harry's saga.
Book Review: Ties of Blood
Summary: 5 Stars
This book opens with a trademark Harry Dresden move: fleeing a burning building. It's the fault of the giant monkey demons who are hurling napalm pooh. Harry races to his car, which has been eaten by mold demons...With a chortle of laughter, the reader settles in for another wild ride in Chicagoland as imagined by Jim Butcher.
Harry gets to live every boy's dream: he's hired to help out on the set of a porn picture because the director thinks someone has cursed him. In previous books the bad guys popped up with such monotonous regularity one could mark one's page with them. There's more focus and a greater sense of urgency to this plot.
BLOOD RITES is the sixth in the series but it is the first to link strongly to the previous books and the first to explore Harry's past. Harry was given a little more depth in book five, but in this book, without any break in the action, Harry learns things he didn't know and confronts unpleasant truths about his mentor Ebenezar McCoy. I don't want to give any spoilers so all I will say is that Harry helps out his half-brother and gets adopted by a puppy. The ending is solid and as happy as anything ever gets for Harry, but certain elements provide great foreshadowing and sent me racing down to the bookstore to get the next one. Thanks, Jim!
Book Review: So far, the best in the series.
Summary: 5 Stars
I really enjoy this series, but I agree with the other reviewers that Harry didn't really seem to have much of a life. In this book he finally discovers his family, learns disturbing things about someone he loves, and adopts a puppy that has foo heritage.
Very cool.
As usual, lots of humor, and several laugh-out-loud funny moments help to balance the darkness and bloodshed.
In addition, the character of Murphy also continues to develop and she makes the story richer. She is no longer the Xena-cop of the first books. Instead, she is developing more of an emotional life and a past. We meet one of her exes and her family, and see her relationship with Harry deepening. Who knows how things will develop.
We also learn more about the 3 vampire courts. Very interesting, in a disturbing kind of way. The Red court are demons in a shell of human flesh, Black vampires are more traditionally Stokerish, with rot and decay thrown in, but in many ways, the White court is the creepiest. They draw their power in through lust and seduction, making thier victims want to die, writhing in pleasure. Yikes.
I started reading this this morning and couldn't put it down until I'd finished it. Now I am tempted to read it all over again.
This book would make a great addition to your library!
Book Review: Best so far
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the sixth book in the Dresden series. Harry Dresden is Chicago's only practicing wizard investigator and is listed in the yellow pages. He's young, single, and good-hearted. A vampire friend (there are three kinds of vampires, Red, White and Black Court) wants him to investigate a case for him. A movie producer is being cursed, and the women around him keep on dying in strange ways. As usual, Harry jumps right in, is chivalrous and heroic to the end, and there's plenty of action on every page. Demons, puppies, vampires, police, mysterious assassins, wizards, succubi, it's all there. However, this book was different from the previous five because at the end of the book, Harry and his life had changed forever. This series used to be frustrating to read because each book would end with very little changed about the character or his circumstances, like a sit-com. But with this latest installment, there was more heart, non-stop action as usual, and new relationships being formed, so that it was more like an exciting installment of a dramatic series. Butcher writes very well, there's no mad clap farcical world (Terry Prachett or Christopher Moore) or weird angst - Harry's just a regular guy with bad luck days - just that his bad lucks tend to include demon assassins, homocidal succubi...Book Review: More Harry situations...
Summary: 5 Stars
Wowsers. Mr. Butcher just keeps raising the bar in this series. I found this book to be the most rewarding and tightly-plotted of the Dresden books so far. Lots of questions are answered, while dangling plot threads from two and three books ago are woven back in. And yet, the more that's revealed about Harry's world (and his place in it), the more mysteries arise.
One particularly interesting and insightful bit (especially in a "fantasy" novel with vampires, magic and whatnot) is the commentary on the porno industry and its shaping of human expectations of sexual behavior and relationships for malevolent purpose. Some of the earlier books might be merely "fun reads," but this one tackles some issues that are worth talking about, and does so intelligently. And it does so in a, well, fun read.
Not to mention the characters' growth! Sheesh! Six books of Harry and Murphy, and we're still just scratching the surface. Well, we're a little deeper than the epidermis at this point (might actually be drawing blood, if you'll forgive the analogy), but you get the sense that there's still a long way to go yet before we really get to the meat...