#3 Small Favor by Jim Butcher
This review may have what some people consider spoilers for the previous books in the series, so under a cut it goes!
One thing should be obvious to fans of the Dresden Files by the time they get to Small Favor: Harry does not get any time to relax. In this book, the tenth in the series, Harry doesn’t even get five pages of calm before he’s attacked by strange creatures from faerie. Harry does a little digging and discovers that he’s been targeted by the summer court, and the Summer Queen has sent out none other than the Billy Goats Gruff to take him down (note: they’re a lot tougher than that sounds). Harry’s life is further complicated when the Winter Queen, Mab, calls in the second favor he owes her. His new task is to find and rescue kidnapped gangster Johnnie Marcone. As Harry digs deeper into this new case, he finds that things are more difficult than he suspects when he learns that he’s not only up against the Gruff but Fallen Angels as well.
The best way to describe Small Favor would be fast paced. We get thrown into the action right in the beginning and the story does not let up much for its 400+ page length. The thing I enjoyed the most about this particular volume was the fact that so many of my favorite characters return. We get to see Sanya, the Russian Knight of the Cross, Kincaid the Mercenary, and Ivy the Archive among many others. We also get satisfying development on certain underlying plotlines (one, as you can probably tell from above, Harry paying off the second favor he owes Mab). One thing I did not expect was a small romantic subplot involving Harry and a particular female character. This added a nice spice to the novel. Still, Small Favor is not all fun and games. With Harry up against some of the biggest bads of the series, a few characters that have seemed untouchable up until now get hit very hard. I’ll be interested to see how these developments impact future books in the series.
Small Favor is probably one of my favorite of the Dresden Files, with only Summer Knight and Blood Rites ranking above it. I eagerly look forward to Turn Coat, the eleventh book in the series, which is set to be released this April.
Rating: five out of five stars
Length: 423 pages
Source: borrowed from Tanner
TBR Pile: 155 books (recieved another book from paperbackswap)
Similar Books: The Signs of the Zodiac series
Other books I've read by this author: Storm Front, Fool Moon, Grave Peril, Summer Knight (my review), Death Masks (my review), Blood Rites (my review), Dead Beat (my review), Proven Guilty ( my review), White Night ( my review)
I'm currently rereading Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde. Since it's so short, I'll probably have another review by tomorrow!
xposted to temporaryworlds and bookish
One thing should be obvious to fans of the Dresden Files by the time they get to Small Favor: Harry does not get any time to relax. In this book, the tenth in the series, Harry doesn’t even get five pages of calm before he’s attacked by strange creatures from faerie. Harry does a little digging and discovers that he’s been targeted by the summer court, and the Summer Queen has sent out none other than the Billy Goats Gruff to take him down (note: they’re a lot tougher than that sounds). Harry’s life is further complicated when the Winter Queen, Mab, calls in the second favor he owes her. His new task is to find and rescue kidnapped gangster Johnnie Marcone. As Harry digs deeper into this new case, he finds that things are more difficult than he suspects when he learns that he’s not only up against the Gruff but Fallen Angels as well.
The best way to describe Small Favor would be fast paced. We get thrown into the action right in the beginning and the story does not let up much for its 400+ page length. The thing I enjoyed the most about this particular volume was the fact that so many of my favorite characters return. We get to see Sanya, the Russian Knight of the Cross, Kincaid the Mercenary, and Ivy the Archive among many others. We also get satisfying development on certain underlying plotlines (one, as you can probably tell from above, Harry paying off the second favor he owes Mab). One thing I did not expect was a small romantic subplot involving Harry and a particular female character. This added a nice spice to the novel. Still, Small Favor is not all fun and games. With Harry up against some of the biggest bads of the series, a few characters that have seemed untouchable up until now get hit very hard. I’ll be interested to see how these developments impact future books in the series.
Small Favor is probably one of my favorite of the Dresden Files, with only Summer Knight and Blood Rites ranking above it. I eagerly look forward to Turn Coat, the eleventh book in the series, which is set to be released this April.
Rating: five out of five stars
Length: 423 pages
Source: borrowed from Tanner
TBR Pile: 155 books (recieved another book from paperbackswap)
Similar Books: The Signs of the Zodiac series
Other books I've read by this author: Storm Front, Fool Moon, Grave Peril, Summer Knight (my review), Death Masks (my review), Blood Rites (my review), Dead Beat (my review), Proven Guilty ( my review), White Night ( my review)
I'm currently rereading Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde. Since it's so short, I'll probably have another review by tomorrow!
xposted to temporaryworlds and bookish