Author: Jim Butcher
Title: Blood Rites
Series: The Dresden
Files (#6)
ISBN: 9780451459879
Publisher: Roc (August
2nd 2004)
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My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, takes on a case as a favor to his friend Thomas-a vampire of dubious integrity-only to become the prime suspect in a series of ghastly murders." GoodReads’ blurb
The blurb does almost
nothing for this particular volume of Dresden Files. It’s like saying a cupcake
is a lumpy spherical thingy. Well, yeah, but it’s so much more!
Thomas turns out to
be a lot of things, but what he is for sure is a White Court vampire. Remember,
those who feed on sex? So, what does this favor entail, hmm?
Well, picture Harry
as assistant in a porn movie shooting.
I laughed so hard at
some of the scenes in Blood Rites that I was afraid I’d end up waking someone
(you know I listen to this series at night).
As is the patter,
Butcher throws Harry in way too many problems to solve in the first few scenes
and then, little by little, he works on solving them.
Well, other than solving
the mysterious porn murders, Harry has got to take care of the vampire war,
kill off a black court vampire who’s ready to chew his head off, and somehow
find the funds to pay the mercenary who will have his back while he does that.
Oh, and Murph is
back. With a family reunion she wants to avoid, so can Harry please prepare his
vigilante assault to be on Saturday, please?
All in all, this is
yet another fun, crazy adition to the Dresde universe. The most noteworthy
things, besides from the wry humor that never gets old, is the coherent world
Butcher is building here. By this point, he can call up former characters
mentioned in passing, and use them to weave new stories. And that’s what he
does—to the point that I sometimes had to scratch my head and think, wait, who
was that again? But it feels good, to have a world real enough that it has
inhabitants beyond the main character, and where everyone changes and evolves.
On the topic of
changes, there’s something pretty daring happening in this book. Something
related to Harry, fire, and his hand. It was almost painful to listen to, but
afterwards, I loved him all the more.
And them, something
else about Harry and Thomas that explains a lot of things...
If you still haven’t
started with this series, what are you waiting for? If you’re working your way
through it, this volume won’t disappoint.
LOL porn murders! Sounds like fun! I have seen this series around but haven't really put much thought into it. Maybe I'll pick this book up...
ReplyDeleteTalk Supe
This is probably one of the best Urban Fantasy series ever! I think you should pick it up... it has such great moments! Plus, if you enjoy audiobooks, James Marsters does a superb job with this one :)
DeleteHarry shooting a port? Or assisting, at least? This I've got to read! I stopped at book 3 for now, mostly because I always have something for review and when I get really caught up in an UF series I tend to get lost in it and forget about everything else, but I will definitely continue it as soon as I find some time.
ReplyDeleteHarry is an interesting character and even though he sometimes drives me crazy, he's easy enough to like.
It's a loooon series. When I started, I almost got lazy just thinking about how many titles I had ahead! So taking it slow is just fine... but yes, I get that it's difficult to stop reading the series once you get going, and that books for review stand in the way sometimes!
DeleteStill, you have to read the whole thing. I'm up to the next one already, number 7, and it's getting better and better!
(yup, the scene where he arrived to his new job actually made me laugh out loud!)