I really can't remember the last time I read a book that was this much fun. It seemed like at least once every four pages something happened that made me want to smile or even laugh out loud. The Dresden books followed a monster-of-the-week format for the first 10 or so volumes, changing in 11 when they dealt with a traitor in the White Council and then, apparently, ditching that format entirely with Changes. The old books were great fun, but I gotta say... I prefer the new Dresden.
Ghost Story was something of a miss, in my opinion, except for some scintillating details about how things worked on the angel's side of the curtain in the Dresdenverse. Cold Days is much more like it. The first 50 or so pages, which the other reviewer slams as being unimportant to the plot, function as something of an overview of what life is like in Winter. After that, the story launches into an epic confrontation that ties together a surprising number of past Dresden stories, fires a number of Chekov guns, and gives a strong indication of where things are going to go from here.
While the book is great, at this stage of the game it can only be recommended to a real Dresden fan, so I'll try and contrast it with the older books from that point of view. This book seems substantially darker in tone; the new impulses the Winter Knight mantle give Dresden are a little disturbing. I don't remember anybody saying "fuck" in previous Dresdens, and it happens in this book on a fairly regular basis. It has gotten more explicit in other senses too - Dresden was always given to lurid descriptions of the females in his life, and that has intensified in this new book but at times it comes across as extraneous fanservice. It ties together and explains a large number of different forces at work in Dresden's world (about damn time), moves all his personal relationships forward (in one particular case, ABOUT DAMN TIME) and then drops some Changes-level ... changes ... on some of his supporting characters.
All in all, this book is a great read but more than anything makes me very excited for the next few volumes. Even if it returns to a monster-of-the-week format again, this book shows that Dresden is swinging in a totally different weight class now, with stakes higher than ever.
Great fun to read, and fills in a lot of lore
I really can't remember the last time I read a book that was this much fun. It seemed like at least once every four pages something happened that made me want to smile or even laugh out loud. The Dresden books followed a monster-of-the-week format for the first 10 or so volumes, changing in 11 when they dealt with a traitor in the White Council and then, apparently, ditching that format entirely with Changes. The old books were great fun, but I gotta say... I prefer the new Dresden.
Ghost Story was something of a miss, in my opinion, except for some scintillating details about how things worked on the angel's side of the curtain in the Dresdenverse. Cold Days is much more like it. The first 50 or so pages, which the other reviewer slams as being unimportant to the plot, function as something of an overview of what life is like in Winter. After that, the story launches into an epic confrontation that ties together a surprising number of past Dresden stories, fires a number of Chekov guns, and gives a strong indication of where things are going to go from here.
While the book is great, at this stage of the game it can only be recommended to a real Dresden fan, so I'll try and contrast it with the older books from that point of view. This book seems substantially darker in tone; the new impulses the Winter Knight mantle give Dresden are a little disturbing. I don't remember anybody saying "fuck" in previous Dresdens, and it happens in this book on a fairly regular basis. It has gotten more explicit in other senses too - Dresden was always given to lurid descriptions of the females in his life, and that has intensified in this new book but at times it comes across as extraneous fanservice. It ties together and explains a large number of different forces at work in Dresden's world (about damn time), moves all his personal relationships forward (in one particular case, ABOUT DAMN TIME) and then drops some Changes-level ... changes ... on some of his supporting characters.
All in all, this book is a great read but more than anything makes me very excited for the next few volumes. Even if it returns to a monster-of-the-week format again, this book shows that Dresden is swinging in a totally different weight class now, with stakes higher than ever.