Turn Coat (The Dresden Files, Book 11) by Jim Butcher
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.50 You Save: $23.45 (90%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.11 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Turn Coat (The Dresden Files, Book 11)
Book Review: The Best Dresden Files (So Far)
Summary: 5 Stars
The first week of April is no longer just the time of year to look forward to silly pranks. Now it's the time of year to look forward to our annual check-in with Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden.
I've said before that I believe Butcher's series about Chicago-based wizard Harry Dresden to be the best on-going fantasy series on the market today. I've even gone out on a limb and said that I think the series is better than a certain other best-selling series about a wizard named Harry.
And with the latest entry, "Turn Coat," Butcher once again reinforces those assumptions.
When his old nemesis, Morgan turns up on his doorstep, wounded and fleeing the Wizard's Council, Harry Dresden is caught in a dilemma. Morgan is wanted for a murder he insists he didn't commit and is asking Harry for his help. Morgan is clearly counting on the fact that Harry will know the horrors of being wrongly accused of a crime and assist him. Morgan is right and before long Harry finds himself drawn into a web of conspiracy at the heart of the Wizard's Council and battling a shape-shifting monster with supernatural powers far beyond anything he's encountered before.
In short, it's just another day at the office for wizard and Warden Harry Dresden.
"Turn Coat" is the Dresden Files at their very best. It's got equal portions of character development, expansion of the universe and hints about the overall plot arc that has bubbled under the surface since our first meeting with Dresden back in "Storm Front." Butcher's strength is that he's able to take all the recurring storylines and keep them firmly in the reader's mind without bogging the story down in huge passages of info-dumps. The cues and call backs to previous novels are done well enough that new readers will be able to follow the storyline (though I don't recommend you start here if you've not read the series before. Start at the beginning and savor the journey) while long-time readers will be given a richer and deeper understanding of Dresden and his universe.
All that and I defy you to read put this book down in the last 100 pages. The final fourth of the novel, when events all culminate is some of the most entertaining I've read all year. There are a number of fascinating revelations in the final quarter of this book--not just about the central mystery, but also about some long-term storyline events.
It all leads up to one thing--one of the most satisfying Dresden Files novels yet. And a huge empty feeling as I realize I will have to wait until next April for the next installment...
Book Review: This Series Continues to Entertain
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to give Jim Butcher credit. Few authors can maintain a long running series that's into its eleventh book and keep audiences entertained. I grew annoyed with Robert Jordan around book 7 and only forced myself to read the remaining books because I had invested so much in the story and characters. Well, I've invested an equal amount of time and enjoyment in the adventures of Harry Dresden and Butcher never seems to disappoint.
As others have stated, this book is a turning point in the series. Relationships end, people are irrevocably changed (in both good and bad ways), and a character who's been around since the beginning dies. Butcher crams so much into the story, but it never feels rushed. As with most Dresden novels, there's a lot of action, but the action is never at the expense of story and character development. In this novel, characters we've come to know over the span of many books reveal new facets to themselves, which is a feat for any series with eleven novels behind it.
There are two major plots to this novel. As the book description states, Harry's old nemesis, Morgan, shows up beaten, battered, and accused of killing a wizard of the White Council, a senior member of the White Council of Wizards. In true Harry fashion, he takes in a man who once wanted to chop his head off and attempts to prove his innocence. Along the way he has to fight an ancient, semi-divine skin walker out of Navajo legend.
The second, and to me the most interesting, involves the internecine politics of the White Council and the threat of the Black Council. In reading this novel, it may seem this is not nearly as important as the Morgan plot, but the two are tied together, and Harry's interaction between the Senior Council members is interesting in how the opinions of the senior wizards may be changing toward Harry. Many in the wizard community may still think of Harry as a warlock for having killed Justin DuMorne (even if it was self defense). But by the end of this novel several members of the Senior Council have developed a grudging respect for Harry; chief among them Listens-to-the-Wind and the Gatekeeper (two important wizards to have on your side).
Turn Coat is one of those novels that sets the stage for something even bigger to come, and if the hints we have so far are any indication, there are exciting times ahead for Harry and his fans. I'm already wishing book twelve was here.
Book Review: You can't win them all.
Summary: 5 Stars
"You can't win them all. But that doesn't mean that you give up. Not ever."I think that the above line from the book says it all. I have loved every book of this series so far but I feel like Turn Coat could very well be the most important book in the series as far as Harry's growth as a charater is concerned. Pretty much all of us are happy and secure when our lives are going well, and our enemies fall at our feet. But I beleive that people are defined by how they react when things don't so go well. When the fight is over and you know that you didn't win, how you deal with it decides the type of person you are. Pretty much all the the other books in the series ened with Harry the big hero of the day and every pretty much in a good place for the most part.
This latest book gave Harry his greatest setback. I believe that Harry could be one of two people when the next book is realeased. He could be a broken man hiding in some hole. A man who has given up on himself and doubts weather good can ever triumph. But that doesn't sound like the Harry I have grown to love and respect. No I think the next book will feature a Harry that is even more determained to do good. A Harry that is far more confident. A Harry that will be spitting so many wise cracks at the enemy that he just might defeat them with that alone. You might notice that call called this Harry's greatest "setback". Why? because Harry has never been defeated, Harry has never lost. You can't lose until you give up. You can't be defeated until you decide not to fight anymore. No matter how many times you get you butt handed too you, the battle is still waiting. You either give up; you die fighting, or you fight till you win. In my eyes only one of those is true defeat. I'll let you guess which one.
I play video games, watch movies,and read books and I have come across lots of great charaters. Harry has been one of my favorites for awhile now. However if the Harry I think will be coming in the next book does indeed show up. Harry will be my favorit charater. Not my favorite charater in a book. My favorite charater period. No pressure Jim. I very much look forward to the next book but when we look back on this series years from now and try to figure out when Harry truely got firmly on the path to being one of the most important and powerful beings in the world of The Dresden Files, most of us will look back to Turn Coat as that moment.
Book Review: Finally the Black Council emerges
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow I can't believe this is already the 11th book in the Dresden Files series. It's amazing how great these books are and this one doesn't disappoint.
When Morgan turns up almost dead on Harry's doorstep, Harry doesn't know what to think. I mean of all the people to come to for help, why would Morgan chose him? Morgan has been accused of murdering a member of the White Council and Harry knows Morgan didn't do it. Morgan has been able to lead the White Council on a wild goose chase but that will only last for another 48 hours. So Harry has 48 hours to find out who did frame Morgan; after all if Morgan can be wrongly accused how long will it take someone to accuse Harry of murder given his shady past with the Council? Things get more difficult when Harry is attacked by an ancient and evil shapeshifter. All you can do is hold your breath and go along for the ride as questions spin through your head: Will Harry clear Morgan? Will the Black Council finally be recognized as an entity and the Wizards Council torn apart?
This book was excellent and is on par with all the other books of the Dresden series. Action is non-stop, Harry has the stuffing kicked out of him (like usual), and things come to a head with mysterious unacknowledged Black Council. The characters are awesome, the fight scenes fantastic, and the plot complex and interesting. The overall aspects of this story are nicely wrapped up but the mystery around the overall story arc involving the Black Council are still developing at the end of the book. The biting sense of humor that these books are famous for is still there and help to make the books amusing and break up the tension a bit.
Thomas and Molly are in this book quite a bit as are the rest of the White Vampires. You learn quite a bit more about Thomas's family. Michael is conspicuously absent as are the Fallen.
This is a great book and I am disappointed I am finished with it; I am already looking forward to the next book. The next book is supposed to be entitled "Changes" and is scheduled to release April 2010. So far I know Orbit has purchased Dresden books 12 and 13; whether there will be more books after that point I don't know.
Book Review: Iron-Fisted Punch
Summary: 5 Stars
When Harry Dresden's greatest rival and gadfly turns up on his doorstep, demanding sanctuary, what's a guy to do? When that guy is a wizard and a PI, he uses magic to clear the frame job and find the real criminal. But when the victim and the chorus of accusers are also wizards, it isn't long before Harry finds himself neck-deep in conspiracies reaching back centuries, with the potential to transform his world.
It's not hyperbole to say that Dresden is the best thing I know of going on in current fantasy fiction. In terms of philosophy this is certainly the most complex and inexorable novel yet in this series. Harry starts to find out certain truths he maybe would rather not know: why are the wizard laws so unjust? What is this hierarchy he's resisted for years? And what if he's on the wrong side of the conflict?
I really appreciate that, when Jim Butcher drops bread crumbs, he doesn't let them lie untouched for years. This book grows right out of bits and bobs from the previous novel, and is probably the closest he's yet come to a direct sequel. But it also contains references back to several previous books in the series. It feels as though Butcher has planned for this novel for years, and now it has come to fruition.
This novel doesn't pause, it doesn't stint, and it doesn't let anybody off easily. Every character in the book has to make hard choices, and every character has to suffer loss. Some gains Harry has worked to achieve for years now slip from his fingers, and some of his trusted allies turn on him hard. He also has to realize the fact that, sometimes, being right isn't the same as being correct.
I said this on the last Dresden novel, and I say it again: this is the best one yet. Each time I think Butcher has crested and has pushed the story as far as he can, I realize he's just getting started. And with this volume, he has opened up so many new opportunities that the coming books promise to be only bigger and better. Dresden is an iron-fisted sucker punch that drives spirit right up into you where you need it most.