Cold Days (book 14 The Dresden Files) -- Jim Butcher

HARRY DRESDEN LIVES!!! After being murdered by a mystery assailant, navigating his way through the realm between life and death, and being brought back to the mortal world, Harry realizes that maybe death wasn’t all that bad. Because he is no longer Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard.
He is now Harry Dresden, Winter Knight to Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness. After Harry had no choice but to swear his fealty, Mab wasn’t about to let something as petty as death steal away the prize she had sought for so long. And now, her word is his command, no matter what she wants him to do, no matter where she wants him to go, and no matter who she wants him to kill.
Guess which Mab wants first? Of course, it won’t be an ordinary, everyday assassination. Mab wants her newest minion to pull off the impossible: kill an immortal. No problem there, right? And to make matters worse, there exists a growing threat to an unfathomable source of magic that could land Harry in the sort of trouble that will make death look like a holiday.Beset by enemies new and old, Harry must gather his friends and allies, prevent the annihilation of countless innocents, and find a way out of his eternal subservience before his newfound powers claim the only thing he has left to call his own…His soul.

It is hard for me to give an honest review of this book as I am a bit of a fanboy about the series. I have long awaited this release with baited (insert Tim Curry voice) antici-pation.

Harry Dresden is back, now with an actual body! Not unlike HBO's True Blood, at the end of the last book I was left with more questions than answers.

• Will Harry live?
• Will he keep his old friends?
• Will he fundamentally change now that he has signed on with the Queen of Darkness?
• Will Harry's daughter show up in the story?
• How do I get a dog like Mouse?
• How did Mac get his bar listed as neutral territory under the Unseelie Accords?
• Will Jim Butcher ever release a recipe for some of Macs beers?

The answers are as follows:

• Yes
• Yes
• Yes/No (HA! How do you like THAT ambivalent answer?)
• Not yet
• I can't (the Landlord doesn't want me to have pets)
• Unanswered (STILL!!!!)
• I'm waiting Jim... I'm waiting.

There isn't much I can really write about on this book without severely giving away the plot twists. The few things I can say is that Jim Butcher wrote Harry with the same nerdy/wise-ass dialogue that he always has which is to say: Kind of formulaic. 

Please don't get me wrong, the book stands on its own in the series. One of the things I love about this series are the ancillary characters. Jim is one of the few authors that I've found that invests almost as much time developing the supporting cast as the main characters.

I truly look forward to book 15. Hopefully, Jim can get better soon (he is currently suffering from gastroenteritis) so that he can get back to entertaining me!

Artist profile: Virgil Finlay

Dearest Dope fiends,

I just got my copy of Cold Days (Book 14 of the Dresden files) by Jim Butcher, and am diligently working through it. In the meantime I thought I would share a comic book artist with you that I have loved.

Virgil Finlay

Virgil Finlay (July 23, 1914 – January 18, 1971) was an American pulp fantasy, science fiction and horror illustrator. Finlay specialized in, and became famous for, detailed pen-and-ink drawings accomplished with abundant stippling, cross-hatching, and scratchboard techniques. Despite the very labor-intensive and time-consuming nature of his specialty, Finlay created more than 2600 works of graphic art in his 35-year career.

A few of my favorites to share with you:

Caption:  Abruptly the mesh cloth which was the dancer's only garment seemed to crawl over her body...

this is an illustration from H.G. Wells Time Machine That thing carrying the girl whose chest-icles are about to fall out... yea, that's a Morlock

I would seriously get this next one as a tattoo... 

The Dresden Files-Patiently waiting

Reciepe for a Harry Dresden book:

2 parts Hard-boiled detective gumshoe novel
2 parts Low fantasy
1 parts Star-Wars references

 fill shaker with ice, add all ingredients, shake vigorously until you hear cussing.

I am a big fan of the Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher. He writes these books as a easy read, but not so easy that you would see the books in the YA section of a Library.

synopsis of Dresdens world taken from the great wiki:

In the world of The Dresden Files, magic is real, along with ghouls, vampires, demons, spirits, faeries, werewolves, and other mythical monsters.Harry Dresden works to protect the general public, who are ignorant of magic and the dark forces conspiring against them. This makes it difficult for Harry to get by as a working wizard and private eye. The Chicago PD's Special Investigation unit, when led by Karrin Murphy, regularly employs Dresden as a consultant to help solve cases of a supernatural nature.

The White Council, the recognized governing body of Wizards, has decreed the Seven Laws of Magic, which all magic users are expected to follow. Breaking any of the laws carries a death sentence except under very rare and special circumstances.

In The Dresden Files universe, each species (humans, faeries, vampires, etc.) has its own political and societal rules and organizations. The human wizards depend on the White Council, while faeries may belong to either the Summer or Winter courts, or they may belong to neither court, in which case they are known as Wyldfae. Vampires may belong to any of three vampire Courts, be it the White, Red, or Black Court. There are rumours of a Jade court based in the far east.

Jim Butcher has created a world where I not only hope Harry wins, I have a sick curiosity about just much abuse Harry can take before he reaches through the computer and beats his author on the head with his own keyboard.

So far there have been 13 novels written about Harry and 1 book of short stories. the next book set for release is November 27. I have been waiting a while for this one and can guarantee that you will be getting a full write up on this book.