Blood Rites: Book six of The Dresden Files [Formato Kindle]

This is the sixth book in the Dresden series. Harry Dresden is Chicago's only practicing wizard investigator and is listed in the yellow pages. He's young, single, and good-hearted. A vampire friend (there are three kinds of vampires, Red, White and Black Court) wants him to investigate a case for him. A movie producer is being cursed, and the women around him keep on dying in strange ways. As usual, Harry jumps right in, is chivalrous and heroic to the end, and there's plenty of action on every page. Demons, puppies, vampires, police, mysterious assassins, wizards, succubi, it's all there. However, this book was different from the previous five because at the end of the book, Harry and his life had changed forever. This series used to be frustrating to read because each book would end with very little changed about the character or his circumstances, like a sit-com. But with this latest installment, there was more heart, non-stop action as usual, and new relationships being formed, so that it was more like an exciting installment of a dramatic series. Butcher writes very well, there's no mad clap farcical world (Terry Prachett or Christopher Moore) or weird angst - Harry's just a regular guy with bad luck days - just that his bad lucks tend to include demon assassins, homocidal succubi...

I'm not sure that it is technically accurate to label this latest stanza in the 'Dresden File' series a pleasant surprise, since all of the books have been enjoyable reading. But author Jim Butcher has managed to take a series that was showing signs of being pleasantly predictable and up the level just a bit. Much of this has been accomplished by developing Harry Dresden into something more than a Chicago wizard with an overly developed sense of responsibility (and possible an overactive thyroid). He has developed more of the sense of self-awareness I would expect from a professional wizard, although I would say that Harry's judgment is still has a bit of adolescent about it.

Another part of this growth stems from the fleshing out of the basic Dresden plot, which is Harry in trouble with the wizard's White Council and hunted by the various vampire courts. That hasn't changed much. This time Harry is trying to put a stop to a new Black Court effort to end his life while keeping a deadly evil eye curse from bankrupting a porno film startup company. The latter effort puts Harry at odds with the head of the Vampire's White Court. We get to experience both the delights of the film stage and the wild action of a raid on a Black Court lair.

Butcher makes this come alive by filling in a lot of the blanks about his vampire's society and politics, while stepping up the heat on Harry's relationship with Lt. Karrin Murphy, the head of Special Investigation. Throw in the development of several other collateral characters and you have an action story with interesting characters. This works well, because Butcher seems to know when to back off from the melodramatic and let people behave like people (or vampires) in a serious conflict..

Of course, the usual spookiness and ritual magic are there as always. Magic works in Butcher's alternate reality, and it sometimes works with a vengeance. The author sometimes takes a moment to explain how such things are supposed to work, but wisely, he avoids creating a formal system that would limit story development. Instead he blends magic, supernatural, and the occult as needed to get the right effect. I'm not a purist, and Butcher manages to avoid glaring self-contradiction. Keep in mind that this genre is beginning to get crowded with Harry Dresden's and Anita Blake's. Butcher's stories maintain a distinct identity and style that is beginning to be imitated, which is the best recommendation of all.

Wowsers. Mr. Butcher just keeps raising the bar in this series. I found this book to be the most rewarding and tightly-plotted of the Dresden books so far. Lots of questions are answered, while dangling plot threads from two and three books ago are woven back in. And yet, the more that's revealed about Harry's world (and his place in it), the more mysteries arise.

One particularly interesting and insightful bit (especially in a "fantasy" novel with vampires, magic and whatnot) is the commentary on the porno industry and its shaping of human expectations of sexual behavior and relationships for malevolent purpose. Some of the earlier books might be merely "fun reads," but this one tackles some issues that are worth talking about, and does so intelligently. And it does so in a, well, fun read.

Not to mention the characters' growth! Sheesh! Six books of Harry and Murphy, and we're still just scratching the surface. Well, we're a little deeper than the epidermis at this point (might actually be drawing blood, if you'll forgive the analogy), but you get the sense that there's still a long way to go yet before we really get to the meat...