Today I am a Small Blue Thing
Sep. 12th, 2008 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
debithaAnother one off the list! That's three. I'd feel better about that if another three hadn't somehow managed to tack themselves on the end of the list.
I just really love the Dresden Files. It's an urban fantasy, the protagonist, Harry Dresden, is Chicago's only advertising Wizard. Needless to say this is not the most lucrative career ever, so he struggles to make ends meet. He's an imperfect kind of a guy with some anger management issues and a tendency to talk himself into even deeper shit than he was already in. My kind of hero.
Small Favour is the tenth book in the series, and I'm still feeling good about them. The cast is fairly small, and rotates so while there are new characters coming in, other characters go out, thereby avoiding the "Cast of Thousands" issues which can arise in a long series. (I'm looking at you, Robert Jordan.) Each book is set a year apart, so although something new always comes up, and he develops skills along the way it doesn't generally feel like, "Oh look, Harry has a new superpower. What a surprise." (I'm looking at you, LKH.)
The dialogue is great, snappy and humourous, I really like the writing style. He also has great perspective control - it is kept tight, so things that surprise Harry surprise you as the reader. Clues are usually there if you realise what you're looking at, which I find very engaging, even if I've completely missed it till the Big Reveal. (Which I totally did this time. I knew something was going on, but missed the clues and was on totally the wrong track. I kind of like it when an author can throw me like that actually, so long as they're not smug about it.)
In terms of the series this is a book where lots of threads are starting to come together, which I've been looking forward to for a while - it is very clear that it is all leading up to something big. As an individual book, it's hard to say anything much without going into the plot of the last 9 books, and nobody wants that so I will just say another great read from Jim Butcher.
The Prince - Machiavelli (This is a small book but fairly hard going, being an academic translation of a 15th century Italian text.)
The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden - Morgan Spurlock
Personal Demon - Kelley Armstrong
An Utterly Impartial History of Britain - John O'Farrell
The Lantern Bearers - Rosemary Sutcliffe
Small Favour - Jim Butcher
Lean Mean Thirteen - Janet Evanovich
The Incredulity of Father Brown - GK Chesterton
Tithe - Holly Black
Red Seas Under Red Skies - Scott Lynch
The Mark of the Horse Lord - Rosemary Sutcliffe
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling
Freakonomics -
A Snowball in Hell - Christopher Brookmyre (Hey, where did these sneak in from? Oops.)
I just really love the Dresden Files. It's an urban fantasy, the protagonist, Harry Dresden, is Chicago's only advertising Wizard. Needless to say this is not the most lucrative career ever, so he struggles to make ends meet. He's an imperfect kind of a guy with some anger management issues and a tendency to talk himself into even deeper shit than he was already in. My kind of hero.
Small Favour is the tenth book in the series, and I'm still feeling good about them. The cast is fairly small, and rotates so while there are new characters coming in, other characters go out, thereby avoiding the "Cast of Thousands" issues which can arise in a long series. (I'm looking at you, Robert Jordan.) Each book is set a year apart, so although something new always comes up, and he develops skills along the way it doesn't generally feel like, "Oh look, Harry has a new superpower. What a surprise." (I'm looking at you, LKH.)
The dialogue is great, snappy and humourous, I really like the writing style. He also has great perspective control - it is kept tight, so things that surprise Harry surprise you as the reader. Clues are usually there if you realise what you're looking at, which I find very engaging, even if I've completely missed it till the Big Reveal. (Which I totally did this time. I knew something was going on, but missed the clues and was on totally the wrong track. I kind of like it when an author can throw me like that actually, so long as they're not smug about it.)
In terms of the series this is a book where lots of threads are starting to come together, which I've been looking forward to for a while - it is very clear that it is all leading up to something big. As an individual book, it's hard to say anything much without going into the plot of the last 9 books, and nobody wants that so I will just say another great read from Jim Butcher.
The Prince - Machiavelli (This is a small book but fairly hard going, being an academic translation of a 15th century Italian text.)
Personal Demon - Kelley Armstrong
An Utterly Impartial History of Britain - John O'Farrell
The Lantern Bearers - Rosemary Sutcliffe
Lean Mean Thirteen - Janet Evanovich
The Incredulity of Father Brown - GK Chesterton
Tithe - Holly Black
Red Seas Under Red Skies - Scott Lynch
The Mark of the Horse Lord - Rosemary Sutcliffe
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling
Freakonomics -
A Snowball in Hell - Christopher Brookmyre (Hey, where did these sneak in from? Oops.)