Dead Beat by Jim Butcher
Jun. 9th, 2007 02:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
There's an entire world that exists alongside the everyday life of mankind. Vampires. Werewolves. Faeries. Demons. Monsters. They're all real.
Harry Dresden is the only professional wizard in the Chicago area phone book, and paranormal investigations are his stock-in-trade. Luckily, he's not alone. Although most people don't believe in magic, the Chicago PD has a Special Investigations department, headed by Dresden's good friend Karrin Murphy. They deal with the ... stranger cases.
It's because of Karrin that Harry sneaks into Graceland Cemetary one night to meet a deadly vampire named Mavra. It seems Mavra has some incriminating evidence that would destroy Karrin's career. The vampire's demand is simple: find her the Word of Kemmler and all the power that comes with it. But first, Harry would kind of like to know just what the Word of Kemmler is. Before long, he's in a race against time - and six necromancers - to get the Word. And to prevent the good people of Chicago from experiencing a Halloween night that will truly wake the dead ...
See my reviews for Stormfront, Fool Moon, Grave Peril, Summer Knight, Death Masks, and Blood Rites because I think that my comments on the secondary characters, trend towards emphasising Harry's coolness, and the problems Butcher has in keeping his timelines and canon straight continue to apply.
Saying that, I thought this book was one of the most interesting in the series because he's more successful in keeping his on-going backstory (specifically the war between the Red Court and the White Council) integrated with his front-story (i.e. the recovery of the Word of Kemmler) and his current arc theme (namely the Lasciel storyline). I was particularly interested in the politics of the White Council and thought that the move to make Harry a Warden was a good development, which sets up tensions whilst also keeping him involved in the White Council machinations. Butcher is clearly setting up a storyline regarding a traitor on the White Council, which gives him a lot of scope for the future books and we see Harry having much more of a dark side than was previously the case - particularly his final scene with Mavra and the return of Cassius which is a very brutal scene and hints at the lengths that Harry can go to and his weaknesses. I was particularly impressed with what he did with Bob - giving him a dark side that highlights how much power he actually has and making the reader see him as more than just the wise-cracking sidekick and I liked the Shiela interlude, which was unexpected and quite sinister.
There were some problems with the book. Firstly, whilst having six different necromancers gunning for the Word of Kemmler was interesting, it's a shame that Butcher didn't give them more page-time to develop the internal feud between them and their individual characters. In particular, I think that they didn't get the ending that they deserved - Corpsetaker and Grevane in particular are despatched in a brisk fashion. Secondly, the storyline with Mavra - both the set up for the main plot and the ending - are unconvincing and it ties in with Butcher's time-line/canon problem. We're asked to believe that she had someone taking photographs when Harry, Murphy and Kincaid raided a Black Court hideout in Blood Rites, even though there was nowhere for such a photographer to hide and no hint of any kind of flash being used. I also thought that the ending was kind of a cop out - Harry gives her the Word of Kemmler, obviously setting up a return of necromancy in a future book in a way that feels lazy. Fourthly, Butcher is starting to build a possibly love story between Dresden and Murphy which, to my mind, is a big mistake. Whilst being the main plot motivation for the book, Murphy actually spends most of it off-page in Hawaii with Kincaid and Harry has jealousy issues. Given the previous platonic relationship between them, this has come somewhere out of left field, not least because Butcher also wants you to believe that there are feelings on Murphy's side as well. For me, it seems to be an unnecessary complication between the two characters and given that Butcher isn't so hot at portraying relationships, I worry that it will result in the weakening of Murphy as a character and leading to some seriously wangsty scenes for Harry himself.
The Verdict:
A solid read that's entertaining and Butcher handles his backstory in a competent and interesting way. One of the best in the series with some good set-ups for the future books, albeit I have concerns that Butcher could take a lazy way-out with some plot strains and I'm not happy with the Dresden/Murphy story-line.
Harry Dresden is the only professional wizard in the Chicago area phone book, and paranormal investigations are his stock-in-trade. Luckily, he's not alone. Although most people don't believe in magic, the Chicago PD has a Special Investigations department, headed by Dresden's good friend Karrin Murphy. They deal with the ... stranger cases.
It's because of Karrin that Harry sneaks into Graceland Cemetary one night to meet a deadly vampire named Mavra. It seems Mavra has some incriminating evidence that would destroy Karrin's career. The vampire's demand is simple: find her the Word of Kemmler and all the power that comes with it. But first, Harry would kind of like to know just what the Word of Kemmler is. Before long, he's in a race against time - and six necromancers - to get the Word. And to prevent the good people of Chicago from experiencing a Halloween night that will truly wake the dead ...
See my reviews for Stormfront, Fool Moon, Grave Peril, Summer Knight, Death Masks, and Blood Rites because I think that my comments on the secondary characters, trend towards emphasising Harry's coolness, and the problems Butcher has in keeping his timelines and canon straight continue to apply.
Saying that, I thought this book was one of the most interesting in the series because he's more successful in keeping his on-going backstory (specifically the war between the Red Court and the White Council) integrated with his front-story (i.e. the recovery of the Word of Kemmler) and his current arc theme (namely the Lasciel storyline). I was particularly interested in the politics of the White Council and thought that the move to make Harry a Warden was a good development, which sets up tensions whilst also keeping him involved in the White Council machinations. Butcher is clearly setting up a storyline regarding a traitor on the White Council, which gives him a lot of scope for the future books and we see Harry having much more of a dark side than was previously the case - particularly his final scene with Mavra and the return of Cassius which is a very brutal scene and hints at the lengths that Harry can go to and his weaknesses. I was particularly impressed with what he did with Bob - giving him a dark side that highlights how much power he actually has and making the reader see him as more than just the wise-cracking sidekick and I liked the Shiela interlude, which was unexpected and quite sinister.
There were some problems with the book. Firstly, whilst having six different necromancers gunning for the Word of Kemmler was interesting, it's a shame that Butcher didn't give them more page-time to develop the internal feud between them and their individual characters. In particular, I think that they didn't get the ending that they deserved - Corpsetaker and Grevane in particular are despatched in a brisk fashion. Secondly, the storyline with Mavra - both the set up for the main plot and the ending - are unconvincing and it ties in with Butcher's time-line/canon problem. We're asked to believe that she had someone taking photographs when Harry, Murphy and Kincaid raided a Black Court hideout in Blood Rites, even though there was nowhere for such a photographer to hide and no hint of any kind of flash being used. I also thought that the ending was kind of a cop out - Harry gives her the Word of Kemmler, obviously setting up a return of necromancy in a future book in a way that feels lazy. Fourthly, Butcher is starting to build a possibly love story between Dresden and Murphy which, to my mind, is a big mistake. Whilst being the main plot motivation for the book, Murphy actually spends most of it off-page in Hawaii with Kincaid and Harry has jealousy issues. Given the previous platonic relationship between them, this has come somewhere out of left field, not least because Butcher also wants you to believe that there are feelings on Murphy's side as well. For me, it seems to be an unnecessary complication between the two characters and given that Butcher isn't so hot at portraying relationships, I worry that it will result in the weakening of Murphy as a character and leading to some seriously wangsty scenes for Harry himself.
The Verdict:
A solid read that's entertaining and Butcher handles his backstory in a competent and interesting way. One of the best in the series with some good set-ups for the future books, albeit I have concerns that Butcher could take a lazy way-out with some plot strains and I'm not happy with the Dresden/Murphy story-line.
