This is the second in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. Overall, I liked the book, but it has some weak spots.
Before I forget, if you have not seen the TV series, I highly recommend it. I think only Book 1 actually was made into an episode, but the other episodes followed the basic plan of the book series. Too bad there was only one season. So much bad TV, and this gets canceled - go figure!
Back to the book. In this installment, Harry Dresden, a wizard detective, gets involved in a case involving different sorts of werewolves. I never knew this, but there are more or less four types: classic werewolf, hexenwolf, lycanthrope and loup-garou. The classic transforms via simple magic, while the hexenwolf transforms via a charmed wolf skin belt; the lycanthrope is human in appearance, but acts wolf-like and beserker. The loup-garou is the most dangerous and is a truly monstrous wolf creature. All four are in the book.
Needless to say, there are dead bodies all over the place with all these werewolves running around, although, some aren't as bad as others. There is a lot of description of the killings, but the author does know how to stop before going too far. He had to explain it in some form, or the book would lose its punch.
I really liked the Dresden character as I did in the first book and the TV series. He is a powerful wizard, but somehow still a regular, good guy. He does need to get his act together, but this may be one reason he is so likeable. It is the way his life is off kilter that makes this so; he is not a loser. Read the books, and you will see what I mean.
The Murphy character is great in the TV series and OK in Book 1, but I wanted to strangle her in this book. She was a total unreasonable witch. I hope Butcher fixes this in later books. Enough said.
Maybe it was just me, but I thought I detected inconsistencies in this book and between it and Book 1. They were not major, but see what you think.
The book was well written, however, at least in the sense that it made me want to keep reading. How is Dresden going to get out of this situation? I kept asking myself over and over. Somehow he did.
Mostly the way was clever and still believable, but a few times, it seemed a bit contrived. It was also a little bit tiring as there were a few too many of these situations, and the fight scenes went on a little too long in some cases. Also, Harry just got beat up too many times in too short period of time. I think the author should have cut the book down 50 pages or so, and it would have been a much better book. Or, he could have filled the space made this way by having Dresden interact more with Bob - their interactions are always great. Of course, this is an early book in the series and maybe the author has gone a better way in later books. Still, the story as written did hold my attention and was very entertaining.
The parts of the book written from or describing the viewpoint of the werewolves was really well done. However, this was also very disturbing in what it showed. You just have to read the book to see what I mean.
All in all, it is a good story, and I recommend it.
Before I forget, if you have not seen the TV series, I highly recommend it. I think only Book 1 actually was made into an episode, but the other episodes followed the basic plan of the book series. Too bad there was only one season. So much bad TV, and this gets canceled - go figure!
Back to the book. In this installment, Harry Dresden, a wizard detective, gets involved in a case involving different sorts of werewolves. I never knew this, but there are more or less four types: classic werewolf, hexenwolf, lycanthrope and loup-garou. The classic transforms via simple magic, while the hexenwolf transforms via a charmed wolf skin belt; the lycanthrope is human in appearance, but acts wolf-like and beserker. The loup-garou is the most dangerous and is a truly monstrous wolf creature. All four are in the book.
Needless to say, there are dead bodies all over the place with all these werewolves running around, although, some aren't as bad as others. There is a lot of description of the killings, but the author does know how to stop before going too far. He had to explain it in some form, or the book would lose its punch.
I really liked the Dresden character as I did in the first book and the TV series. He is a powerful wizard, but somehow still a regular, good guy. He does need to get his act together, but this may be one reason he is so likeable. It is the way his life is off kilter that makes this so; he is not a loser. Read the books, and you will see what I mean.
The Murphy character is great in the TV series and OK in Book 1, but I wanted to strangle her in this book. She was a total unreasonable witch. I hope Butcher fixes this in later books. Enough said.
Maybe it was just me, but I thought I detected inconsistencies in this book and between it and Book 1. They were not major, but see what you think.
The book was well written, however, at least in the sense that it made me want to keep reading. How is Dresden going to get out of this situation? I kept asking myself over and over. Somehow he did.
Mostly the way was clever and still believable, but a few times, it seemed a bit contrived. It was also a little bit tiring as there were a few too many of these situations, and the fight scenes went on a little too long in some cases. Also, Harry just got beat up too many times in too short period of time. I think the author should have cut the book down 50 pages or so, and it would have been a much better book. Or, he could have filled the space made this way by having Dresden interact more with Bob - their interactions are always great. Of course, this is an early book in the series and maybe the author has gone a better way in later books. Still, the story as written did hold my attention and was very entertaining.
The parts of the book written from or describing the viewpoint of the werewolves was really well done. However, this was also very disturbing in what it showed. You just have to read the book to see what I mean.
All in all, it is a good story, and I recommend it.
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