Death Masks (The Dresden Files, Book 5)
by Jim Butcher
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Book Reviews of Death Masks (The Dresden Files, Book 5)
Book Review: On to the next challenge!
Summary: 4 Stars
It is safe to say that Harry Dresden jumps from one challenge to another. After taking on faeries and two battling councils in Summer Knight, he has to endure various new dilemmas in Death Masks. He has been given the task of finding the stolen Shroud of Turin before either drug lord Johnny Marcone or a dangerous creature get a hold of it. To make matters worse, he has been challenged to a duel with a powerful vampire in order to end the war between the Red Court and the White Council. In better news, Susan is back in Chicago, but will she and Harry get together again? There are various twists throughout the novel.
Death Masks does not have as many overwhelming, over the top action and horror scenes in this book as the previous four books. That made this book somewhat better for me. The ending was filled with the aforementioned scenes though. I also liked that Harry resolved some of his personal issues regarding his relationships with the people he cares about and his feelings for Susan. And there are more hints in this book regarding Harry's past. His family remains an enigma, one that I would love to discover in the next book. I hope Jim Butcher does not drag that secret out for much longer. I was glad that some great characters were back in this installment, like Johnny Marcone, Susan and Michael. The one bad thing was that Murphy only appeared in a few scenes this time around. The humor remains fresh and Harry is as goofy as ever. The one thing I didn't like about this offering is that there are a few inconsistencies -- things that were mentioned and then forgotten coupled with some disjointed scenes. All in all, Death Masks is another fun Dresden book. Butcher's series has not disappointed me. I look forward to reading Blood Rites.
Book Review: Wonderful supernatural novel!
Summary: 5 Stars
The author's writing style draws you in from the beginning and keeps a hold on you until the very last page. I wasn't able to put this book down! It flows nicely from one scene into the next and leaves you wondering what will happen. I often find myself wanting to know who is the antagonist by the time I hit the 6th chapter of the book and my husband hates telling me the ending! This particular novel didn't leave any mystery as to the antagonist like the other books in the series, though. The author revealed everyone from the beginning, but the ending is not without its surprises!
In this particular novel, Harry goes up against a scourge of demons, their leader being a man named Nicodemus, who is cunning, sly, and loves to trap his victims into making a choice that leaves them choosing between two evils. One particular example of this is when Nicodemus trapped Harry and told him to choose the coin (which would allow a demon to manipulate Harry for eternity) or death. Harry was lucky when a Knight of the Cross showed up and made Nicodemus an offer he couldn't refuse.
But it isn't all about the demons. Harry has to go up against the Red Court vampires again, one in particular named Ortega that challenges him to a duel. Harry is allowed to choose the weapon (a first choice and second choice since Ortega is allowed to decline the first choice if he so chooses, which he does). They wind up in a duel where the weapon is Will. To find out what happens, read the book! If you enjoy supernatural thrillers, you will not be disappointed.
Book Review: A Wizard, A coin, A Shroud
Summary: 4 Stars
This is Book # 5 from the Dresden Files series. This time out, Harry is up to his eyeballs in treachery, hidden agendas and those who hide their true identities.
He is hired to find the Shroud of Turin, which has been stolen from Italy and brought to the United States to be sold to a collector. Of course the collector is not a friend of Harry's, Mob Boss Marcone. Harry is being involved from several areas : The Red Court challenges him to a duel with one of their best Vampires, Susan is back in town to help out in any way she can, Three Knights get involved to help stop the sale of the Shroud. And there are those who want the Shroud for devious purposes, for personal gain, and for personal reasons.
Harry is torn from all directions; it's hard to tell the bad guys from the worse guys in this one. But our hero prevails, with a lot of help from his friends, and we find him tempted by a coin of the Denarians, and ancient group of bad souls who can wreck havoc everywhere they wish to go.
The Archive, herself a formable character, looks deceivingly like a child, but wields much knowledge and power over many groups of Good and Evil. I am hoping that she will make future appearances since she has so much to give to the stories.
In the end everyone goes their own way to lick their wounds and plot and plan for future mayhem coming to Chicago. The only winner this time out is Harry, who manages to hang onto his life, though the temptation of the Denarians will sit and stew for a time.
Book Review: A Very Good Book with Some Caveats
Summary: 4 Stars
"Death Masks" is the 5th in Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" series. It looks like it picks up about a year after the previous book (Summer Knight: A Novel of the Dresden Files. If you've read the previous books in the series, you know just about what to expect (if you haven't read them, you'd be better off finding them and reading them in order). The book isn't in the same league as "Summer Knight," but it's still very good to read. My only real complaint with the book is that the "action" stuff in the last couple of chapters is a bit corny and has almost all the players out of character. There are also some smaller things that grate:
- Harry's "chivalry to the point of stupidity" is getting out of hand. He knowingly lets bad people do bad things to him SOLELY because they're female. Repeatedly.
- As a counterpoint to that, near the end he drops entirely out of character when he "convinces" a bad guy to give him some information. I'm pretty sure the normal Harry wouldn't behave like that. But, most especially, I wonder how he would have behaved in this case if the villain had been female instead of male?
- And, finally, Butcher provides too much detail during the "intimate" scenes with Susan. A few suggestions followed by a "fade to black" would have been perfectly fine.
But, all of that is minor and the book is engrossing and fun to read. So, I'm happy to rate it at a Very Good 4 stars out of 5.
Book Review: Dia de los Dresden.
Summary: 4 Stars
Jim Butcher, Death Masks (Roc, 2003)
Harry Dresden has himself a problem. Well, a trio of problems, really, but the big one is that someone has stolen the Shroud of Turin, and a priest has traced it to Chicago. Who better to pick up the trail from there than Harry? Of course, other things get in the way, like a company of thirty demons who want to either exterminate Harry or recruit him--he's not sure which--and a Red Court vampire from South America who's challenged Harry to a duel, which Harry's accepted. After all, the alternative is all-out above-ground war between the vampires and the wizards.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about this series is that, while the fantasy was obvious and way-out at the beginning, it's actually gotten to the point where this stuff seems kind of plausible. Suspension of disbelief has gotten really easy here, probably because Butcher interweaves the magic and the religious with all the intimate geographic and historical details you expect from a good hardboiled detective story. It also helps that Chicago isn't as overused a private-eye destination as LA or New York, so some of this stuff is less played-out than it would be in a more well-used city. Butcher keeps the pace fast, and the characters are well-grounded enough now that we can talk about them in terms of acting in character rather than being three-dimensional. Butcher stretches that a few times in the relationship between Harry and Susan, but in the end, suspension of disbelief wins out. *** ½