Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, Book 3)
by Jim Butcher
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Book Reviews of Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, Book 3)
Book Review: I guess I am one of the only ones ....
Summary: 3 Stars
I cannot believe this book got such good ratings. It was poorly written, with such a scatterbrained plot that I could barely follow the story...in fact, I even skimmed over pages that got too windy, just to keep the story flowing. And for the love of God, we are in the third book already, I think we all know that Dresden is a GREAT wizard, more powerful than most...blah, blah, blah...I don't need to keep reading his self-centered rambling every other page on how good of a wizard he is. We get it, he is the poo...move on and stop stalling the story with his mental ego-stroking every chapter. Oh, and teach the man some other catch phrase than "Hells-bells" already. Jesus, he says it like 20 times in the book, sometimes in consecutive sentences! He sounds like a 5 year old that just learned a new "bad" word. And finally, the climax of the novel to the end of the story is less than the last 1/4 of the book. It needed to be a little more developed than just bringing the story to a crashing end in as few pages as possible. Maybe if Harry had not been so caught up in telling us over and over how great he is, there would have been more room for a properly paced progression from the climax. Maybe.
Now before someone comes in and tries to tell me that I am just hating and all...I loved the first book in this series, the second was not bad either...but this, the third one, sucked. I thought I would try ordering #4 and #5 since they had good reviews, but then I saw the reviews for this one and have decided to punt. There is too much other good fiction out there to waste time on a chance like this.
And what really kills me, is I loved the show on Sci-Fi, and they cancelled it. I wanted to love this series, but I am afraid that this series and character needs more refinement. Maybe that is why it is not offered in hardcover or trade paperback.
Book Review: Dresden taking on ghosts...
Summary: 4 Stars
Harry Dresden takes on ghosts, vampires and faeries this time around. Ghosts have emerged from the Nevernever, wreaking havoc among humans. Harry has to find whatever is responsible for stirring the supernatural creatures and threatening the lives of his friends. To make matters worse, he has made a bargain with his Godmother -- a beautiful, yet sadistic faerie who wants him under her command. Also, vampire Bianca has sought out revenge against him for having angered her (in Storm Front) and an evil spirit is possessing souls by way of nightmares. Harry, with the help of Michael, a God-fearing Knight, and Thomas, a sneaky vampire, must put a stop to things while avoiding death. There are various twists throughout the novel.
Grave Peril, the third installment of the Dresden Files, is somewhat different from the first two efforts. First of all, characters like Michael and Lea (faerie) are thrown into the story without so much as an introduction. The abruptness of the aforementioned characters' sudden appearances confused me at first. Also, the novel's execution is somewhat different from the first two offerings. The plot twists are downright over the top and overwhelming at times. Sci-fi/fantasy novels are full of action and twists, but this one has a little too much of those things. But I still enjoyed the novel. There are lots of witty passages and the dialogue is sharp and crisp. The characters are also great. Harry is still self-deprecating and that makes him all the more fun. I also liked Michael and his bantering with Harry. Bob was great, as usual. Lea was not developed enough. I hope I will read more on her in future novels. And I also hope that there will be more Murphy in the next installment. All in all, Grave Peril is another action-packed Harry Dresden novel and I look forward to reading Summer Knight.
Book Review: Interesting, entertaining and action-packed
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the third book in Jim Butcher's Dresden files, and I have yet to read the first two, but I did enjoy this urban-scape detective of the supernatural fantasy. Dresden's first person narrative keep this story full of dry humor and film noir feel. Dresden is a PI/wizard who's middle name is trouble. This time his supernatural snafu is a ghostly being that is able to rouse other ghosts and harm Dresden's friends. It's up to the only wizard in town to discover who's behind it all.
This series has been pegged as similar to Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series, and on the surface, that's a fair comparison. Both deal with urban societies and parnormal baddies. Both have a tough edge, supernatural powers, and a penchant for violence. Both have a tough time in their love lives. That being said, Jim Butcher's novel has a distinctly male flavor to it. There is far less relationship time and sensitivity, more interest in action, gadgets and intrigue--this is not a bad thing, but the overall result is you care about the characters less (they're distanced) and you have more interest in the mechanics of the supernatural. Those who enjoy Butcher's books might want to try STALKING THE UNICORN by Mike Resnick, about a gumshoe who gets hired by goblin to find a kidnapped unicorn. For those who like both Hamilton and Butcher, I also reccomend Tanya Huff's Vampire series. There a tough lady PI teams up with a romance-writing vampire to hunt down some supernatural baddies.
I'm intrigued to see where Dresden's story is going. Perhaps my biggest gripe with the whole book was that at the end the hero appears to be in deeper problems than he was at the beginning and I want to know what happens. But, that's the curse of series books...guess I'll just have to wait for the next one.
Book Review: Readers finally get to see the Nevernever
Summary: 4 Stars
Harry Dresden (wizard for hire) often refers to the Nevernever in the first books of the Dresden Files series, but in this book he pulls the reader straight into it. A realm of all sorts of spooks and even fairies, the Nevernever follows an esoteric sort of dream logic that might make some readers shy away. But this journey is one of hard, willful and fantastic magic, set in motion by a complicated twist of plotting that only immortal beings would have the patience for.
Readers are thrown right into the action, which at times can make them feel as if they are missing something (they are, as far as I can tell some of the events referred to aren't experienced by the reader except for as flashbacks and Dresden's nightmares.) Harry and his friend, a true Knight of the Cross, Michael, are in their fourth or fifth night of hunting down a series of powerful ghosts who are attacking the real world with a strength that seems unprecedented, even so close to Halloween. But fighting specters that are trying to punish people long dead, for deeds long lost to history, is only the beginning as Harry discovers a strange spell, woven into the very being of the ghosts, that appears to be manipulating them into their attacks.
What follows is an almost painful series of events with so many possible bad guys that one has to wonder how Harry has survived so long at all. An iron will and indomitable stubbornness are threaded into Harry as firmly as the barbed wire-shaped torture spells are threaded into the human and ghostly victims of this book's Big Bad. A book that revels in loose ends, it leaves more than a few set ups for further books but it also brings the Nevernever solidly into the Dresden world, giving reader's imaginations and Dresden more territory to play in.
Book Review: Series is (slowly) starting to pick up.
Summary: 3 Stars
Jim Butcher, Grave Peril (Roc, 2001)
Grave Peril, the third book in Butcher's Harry Dresden series, is the book where Jim Butcher finally seems to get it all to fall into place. There's always been something not quite right about the books; either the pacing was off in one section, or the characters hadn't quite come into their own, or the description didn't quite ring true, or any of a number of other things. But here, it all works. We're introduced to a foil for Harry (and, from what I've read in some book communities, he's a lasting one), we have a plot that actually seems to work, as well as one that draws together a few threads from the previous books, we have a lot more background on some of the big meanies, we have great setting and excellent characterization, we've got just about everything. And it's probably not coincidence that this is the book that reads most like a Spenser (of Robert B. Parker fame) novel, either.
As we open, Dresden and his friend Michael (is he that Michael? We don't know... yet) are battling a ghost in a nursery. Yes, in a nursery. Which seems like it's going to be a one-shot deal, after which Dresden can go home and get some much-needed sleep and Michael can go back to his sharp-tongued wife. Unfortunately, though, the ghost is symbolic of a larger problem-- the fraying of the barrier between our world and the nevernever. What's a wizard and his big, burly friend to do?
This one flew by much faster than the first two, both compulsively readable and very well put-together, with a greater command of plotting and the first glimmerings of real character depth. If the series continues to improve at this rate, I'll be able to see why it got optioned for TV eventually. ***