After a brief interlude in the afterlife, Harry Dresden’s new job makes him wonder if death was really all that bad in this novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series. Harry Dresden is no longer Chicago’s only professional wizard. Now, he’s Winter Knight to Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness. Her word is his command. And her first command is the seemingly impossible: kill an immortal. … impossible: kill an immortal. Worse still, there is a growing threat to an unfathomable source of magic that could mean the deaths of millions.
Beset by enemies new and old, Harry must gather his friends and allies, prevent an apocalypse, and find a way out of his eternal subservience before his newfound infinite powers claim the only thing he has left to call his own…
His soul.
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I’ve just finished reading all of the Dresden books and what a ride that was.
Like my own book, Dead & Talking, Fool Moon and its companion volumes, mix up real life and fantasy.
Harry Dresden is a PI wizard in Chicago and like the Muggles unaware of magic in their world, he has to do his job with the real world (mostly) unaware of the demons and vampires that live around them.
These are first person narrations and after 15+ books, I feel that I’ve spent enough time in Harry’s head for him to have become part of my own DNA.
All the books are imaginative, full of suspense and confrontation, and populated by the most amazing and diverse group of supernatural beings you could imagine.
Start at the beginning and go for it.
what more can i say than i’m madly in love with harry dresden!
So…Cold Days deals with faeries in general and the faeries of the Winter Court in specific. The politics in the Winter Court are convoluted and downright murderous, but Harry is now the Winter Knight. As such, he is obligated to navigate these dangerous waters, always at the end of the Winter Queen’s leash.
I love the way Butcher depicts the world of faeries and their interaction with humanity. That is to say: it’s rarely good. Even when the faeries are technically “the good faeries”, a human interacting with them is going to get the short end of the stick.
Of course, Dresden’s world is colored with his own point of view, and after all of the emotional tortures, bullet wounds, drownings, knife-stabbings, hand-maimings, and back-crunchings that Harry has endured, his perspective is justifiably cynical.
Over the course of the story, Harry must wrap his mind around the Winter Court’s nuances in time to save himself, his friends and all of Chicago. Everything moves at a breakneck pace as the characters continue to deepen, which is one of the things I love best about this series.
I also love it when Butcher throws in a random, seemingly ridiculous side character that ends up playing a key role. In Cold Days, it’s Santa Claus. And that just makes me grin from ear to ear.
Seriously, read this series. Urban fantasy that will change your life!
As with everything Butcher writes….AMAZING!
If you like Detective novels then you will love this imagine having a detective that is also a mage in modern day some of the books or hard to stay with but I have followed this Siri from the beginning and I would say 90% of all the books are great but this one I suggest you start with the first book in the series which is Stormfront
Back from the dead (literally), Harry is learning the ropes of the Winter Fairie court, and the costs he still has to pay for his actions and deals in previous books.
I’ve been binge reading the whole series in order, and reviewing as I go. My reviews focus on setting readers’ expectations, rather than summarising plots. The most important aspect a new reader needs to know is that the series has an over-arching story arc, with roots starting at book 3 (Grave Peril) but only becoming visible as more and more of the series unfolds. It’s a great thing, but there’s a lot of history and references that you’ll miss without reading in order.
*** What to expect
This volume places Dresden in the Winter Faerie court, as he comnes to terms with his ‘deal with devil’ in previous books. We learn more about the faerie courts, and about Outsiders – a theme that has been building in the background of previous books for a while.
It’s a thriller-paced urban fantasy, with fast moving intrigue, action, and many plot twists. Though Harry spouts his usual brand of flippant humor in the face of the supernatural, this novel is darker than most.
*** What I liked
I like Harry’s wise-cracking attitudes towards life, and in dealing with supernatural horrors. I like the supporting characters in general, and I find Butcher is doing excellent job in characterising and building recurring cast and introducing new characters. The long-running support cast are especially complex, and one can see them maturing between books. The borderline characters, those with an ‘evil’ side, always make the best ones – to say nothing about the spirit that inhabits Dresden island getaway. All the characters work together to deliver emotional payoffs for dedicated readers, with their lives and deaths having meaning.
*** Be aware
This is part of a series, and you really need to read them in order.
Butcher has Harry’s mental dialogue to recap previous events and dialogue for those who read the series in breaks, which can feel like he’s talking too much (and also may grate on some reader’s nerves as a “telling” style, or simply for being repetitive). It’s just a function of a long-running series, but as entering the series mid-way is not recommended anyway it doesn’t offer much to new readers while could be distracting to fans.
Also, some readers may find Dresden attitudes chauvinistic and misogynistic, though that is a both a trope of the genre and something of a failing of his.
*** Summary
This is another great book in an excellent series. Butcher keeps building up the world with more and facests, both deepening our knowledge of previously introduced entities and foreshadowing more to come in the future.
This is a great, fast-paced, emotional, urban-fantasy thriller. If you want a blend of modern-day thrillers with dark fantasy, this is the series to read – just start at Storm Front.
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Assaph Mehr, author of Murder In Absentia: A story of Togas, Daggers, and Magic – for lovers of Ancient Rome, Murder Mysteries, and Urban Fantasy.
Great series!
I love all of the Dresden books and have recommended them to those I know who would enjoy them. Harry is a great characters and I love the magic.
Great series- Harry Dresden is a fantastic character, and is realistic from the start. The supporting characters take some time to really develop, but it’s worth getting to know them as they do get deeper. Highly recommend.
One of my favorite authors & series
One of my favorite book series!
One of my favorite Butcher books
Wish he would write more of these.
The Dresden Files are funny,entertaining and a good read
I probably should have started with his first books because I didn’t know some of the characters.
I really enjoy this series of books. The characters are great and the stories grab you and keep you reading.
This was actually the first HARRY DRESDEN book I read, and I enjoyed it very much. That led me to go back and read the earlier ones. I plan to read the rest, though I admit I got distracted by Kevin Hearne’s books and slowed down.
this series has been great. i bought the first of them as paperbacks and have been getting them as hardbacks as they come out. i am slowly building my iPad library
Pretty good, but not his best work.