Small Favor (The Dresden Files, Book 10) by Jim Butcher
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Book Reviews of Small Favor (The Dresden Files, Book 10)
Book Review: Fun to Read, But Missing Depth
Summary: 3 Stars
"Small Favor" is the 10th in Butcher's "Dresden Files" series (which starts with Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1) if you haven't read any of the series). While I was reading the book, I was thoroughly engrossed in it (action-packed and fast-moving that it is). But, once I finished it and sat down to write this review, I realized something: the story is missing all the interpersonal relationships that give it that "Dresden" feel (looking at some of the lower-rated reviews here confirms that). It seems that Butcher chose quantity over quality regarding the characters in this story. Instead of keeping things in a tight-knit group and fully utilizing each person's character and abilities, Butcher uses just about every character he's ever developed, introduces a few more, and just leaves them as cameos. There's no depth to anyone in this book. On the plot level, there's also the problem of why Summer is trying to kill Harry. For the life of me, I can't come up with any reason for it. And, since that's one of the main drivers of the book, it's a bit irritating. So, I have to dock the book a star and give it a merely OK 3 stars out of 5 rating: it's fun to read but it's just not Dresden.Book Review: Phoned it in
Summary: 3 Stars
In any series, some books are going to be better than others. Book 9 (White Night) was one of the best in the series. Book 10 falls a little flat.
It has all the right pieces, a few memorable moments, but somehow it just lacks the heart of the previous entries. It felt a bit like he took every character he could remember creating and tried to find a way to fit them all into a single plot line.
Of course, a so-so Dresden novel is more entertaining than most anything else you'll pick up at a book store, and if you skip this one you'll miss out on some developments in the peripheral characters.
Book Review: Abnormal paperback size really irks me!
Summary: 2 Stars
I love the series, have followed it since Butcher only had the first book out. I have to lower my rating though as the size of this paperback is extremely disappointing. I have custom bookcases covering an entire wall and they are sized for normal paperbacks, this book has to be stored in the spare bedroom closet because it won't fit. It also looks like we aren't going to even see a normal size in this edition so I'm stuck with it now. Why, why, why did the publisher do this??!! I'm not even going to buy any further books now for fear of getting stuck with odd sizes, I'll use the library from now on.