A Haunted City

Ghost Story, by Jim Butcher. Book thirteen of the Dresden Files.

Look, I know I said I was leading up to book fifteen, but Side Jobs only got me so far. There’s still a couple more I want to read, okay? I’ll forgo the series recap this time, since it’s been done.

Ghost Story deals with a lot of things that we haven’t seen before in the Dresden Files, some because they’re new as a consequence of events in Changes. This time, the focus is ghosts (the title being a reliable indicator of story contents in this series at least fifty percent of the time).

Throughout the book, the rules governing spirits are revealed. They’re different from what’s been revealed of the mortal world, but they still make sense. They also lead to some very awesome scenes indeed.

Ghost Story also introduces Mort, an ectomancer. I feel he deserves special mention based on the fact that you could almost see this as his story rather than Harry’s. Almost. I’m hoping he’ll make a comeback in a later book, since his abilities and personality are pretty unique amongst the usual crowd of supporting characters.

The villain of the piece returns from a previous book (as villains are wont to do), and does not disappoint. There’s also a lot of setup and foreshadowing for the future of the series, as the overarching plot slips from the shadows and prepares to rear its head.

Interestingly, the villains from Aftermath (the final novella in Side Jobs) are still around and, while they’re not really a threat to the Harry at this point, still seem to be building up to something terrifying in a few books’ time.

Overall, a very different book to others in the series. Thoroughly enjoyable, and though it ends on a cliffhanger the events of the book which aren’t threads for plots in later books are wrapped up nicely. I enjoyed it more on a re-read, I think.

Up next, the next book.

Catching up

Side Jobs, by Jim Butcher. A collection of short stories and novellas from the Dresden Files.

Harry Dresden is a wizard. He is also a PI. Not a skeleton though. Working out of Chicago, he also fights off supernatural threats and villains in his spare time. The series does have an overarching plot, though it’s more about the growth of the various characters than events transpiring. At least at first.

In this series, magic is all about willpower and emotion, at least for humans – various supernatural beings play by slightly different rules. It’s not simple, and much is made of the training required to both be good at it and not blow yourself up.

I’m reading Side Jobs again again in lieu of reading the first twelve books in the series again. Book fifteen’s been on my reading list for a while, and I wanted to reacquaint myself with the world and events before diving straight in. This book managed that wonderfully, and also saved you having to read fifteen reviews in a row about the same series.

Rather than a timeline, each story is labelled as to where it appears in the series, making it nice and easy to read the whole series in order should you want to. I also really appreciate the author’s comments before each one, saying where it was first published and why it was written. Anyway, onto the individual stories!

A Restoration of Faith – Takes place before the series, while Harry is still training for his PI licence. A nice piece of background and kind of heartwarming. Shows that it’s the author’s first work.

Vignette – A very short story, consisting of a conversation between Harry and his research assistant. Amusing, and as long as it needs to be.

Something Borrowed – Covers the wedding of two side characters, and everything going wrong (of course). This one’s a good story, and I’m not sure what else to say about it.

It’s My Birthday Too – The irony in this story is strong. Very, very strong. Adding a lot of normal humans into the mix lends itself to making a situation which is both funny and tense at the same time.

Heorot – A kidnapped newlywed, missing mead, and a race against time! This one’s a little dark, but also very awesome. As a bonus, we learn a bit more about a minor character, which is… well, that’s where the awesome comes in.

Day Off – The funniest story in the collection by a long shot. Also probably my favourite. Poor Dresden…

Backup – The viewpoint character for this one isn’t Harry for once. This gives a unique perspective on the world, and hints just how much the perceptions that he reader has are influenced by Harry’s opinions. It also introduces the concept of the Oblivion War, which is one of the coolest bits of universe background that I’ve read in a long time. Plus the story’s really good.

The Warrior – A hunt for the man threatening one of Harry’s friends is interspersed with a bunch of seemingly innocuous encounters. It’s a good story about the consequences of actions, and how even the smallest act of kindness can change the world for the better.

Last Call – A lighthearted story about spiked beer, mass injuries, and a threat to the safety of hundreds of people. Not much more to say for this one, except that the villain is taken out in a way that made me chuckle.

Love Hurts – I’m not sure what to say about this one. I guess it left me a little sad, given that the evil plot made a lot of people very happy. A good story, though I’m not entirely sure whether the villain thought their plan through…

Aftermath – Takes place after Changes. There’s a different viewpoint character for this one again, with the advantages that brings. This also introduces the paradigm shift that Changes brought about. I’ll say no more here, save that this story is an excellent conclusion to the collection.

So, conclusions. Go read this series. Start with book one, Storm Front, and go from there. I’m not sure I’d advise reading Side Jobs along with your first reading of the series, but it couldn’t hurt. Just remember that each story is likely to contain spoilers for those in the main series that come before it.

Next up, the next three in the series. And then something completely different, I promise.

Crime. Magic. Skeletons.

Armageddon Outta Here, by Derek Landy. A collection of short stories and novellas from the world of Skulduggery Pleasant.

I think the last collection review went okay, so here we go again! First, I’ll give a quick overview of the series, and then I’ll dive into the individual reviews.

The Skulduggery Pleasant series is set in Ireland, and focuses on the adventures of Stephanie Edgley, and her immersion in the world of magic. They also focus on Skulduggery Pleasant, the Skeleton Detective. They Fight Crime. Things escalate rather quickly from there, of course, but that’s not important for the purposes of this review. Suffice to say that the world is often at stake, and that the series gets much darker as it goes on. Fun times, and genuine tension!

Because it’s important to me, I’ll also say that the rules of magic are fairly clear-cut in this series. I mean, it’s apparently possible to specialise in anything (from laser eyes, to mind reading, to sword fighting), but the process of using magic is described whenever a viewpoint character does it.

There’s a timeline at the start of the book, listing its contents, the main series, and The Maleficent Seven (bad-guy focus, very good), which would make reading the whole thing in order both straightforward and something I might do at some point. Anyway, let’s get on to the contents!

Across a Dark Plain – A western. I was very impressed that Landy was able to write a story in the style of an old western while still keeping the humorous tones which fill the series. This one also explains the animosity between two characters later in the series. Pretty good.

The Horror Writers’ Halloween Ball – Gordon Edgley tries to have fun at a party, and things go south from there. Entertaining, and we get to see more of a character with not nearly enough screentime in the series (what with being murdered before the start of book one). Probably the lightest story in the collection.

The Lost Art of World Domination – The other contender for the lightest story in the collection. The protagonists accidentally wind up captured by a villain bent on world domination while trying to capture someone completely unrelated. Not complex, but funny.

Gold, Babies, and the Brothers Muldoon – Rescuing babies from monsters! Heroic stuff! Also raises the question of why non-magical people in the setting are called “mortals”, when nobody is really immortal. This question is never answered. Has its moments, but nothing special by the standards of the series.

The Slightly Ignominious End to the Legend of Black Annis – Not much to say here, really. It fills in a gap in the series, where we were told something happened but weren’t shown.

Friday Night Fights – Fills in the major missing link of how two characters meet between books three and four, and does it in style. Has enough tension that you don’t know how it’s going to end until it does. Very good.

Death and Texas – One of the bad guys plays hero while his magic is crippled. It’s actually… really, really cool. I think this might be my favourite in the collection.

Myosotis Terra – The titular character’s power is to be immediately forgotten as soon as she can’t be seen, which is both awesome and incredibly lonely. The story is pretty good, but mostly it just made me want to see more of Myosotis in the series.

The Wonderful Adventures of Geoffrey Scrutinous – Trying to solve the mystery of how a man was hit by a train in his own living room. That’s all that really needs to be said about this one. Pretty funny.

Just Another Friday Night – Minor characters trying to solve a zombie problem in Australia. Gives a nice perspective on what it’s like to be the minor characters left in the dark by the protagonists.

The End of the World – The first of two novellas in the collection, this story covers the resolution of a minor crisis (i.e. the end of the world) from the perspective of a new character tagging along with Skulduggery and Valkyrie. Plenty of threat, fighting and plot twists! Most exciting!

Trick or Treat – Bad guys interrogating a psychic on Halloween. Ends poorly for everyone except the kids who come around trick-or-treating. Pretty funny, in a gruesome kind of way.

Get Thee Behind Me, Bubba Moon – A departure from the usual in the setting, this novella focuses on spooky supernatural events purely from the perspective of a normal human being. It’s so different from the usual I forgot that it was part of this series. That’s not to say that it’s bad, just different. It takes on more of a horror style than usual, with the protagonist not having superpowers of any kind. Very well done indeed.

Theatre of Shadows – A serial killer, mysterious ghost, and parallel dimension. What could possibly go wrong? Short and straightforward, but doesn’t really come to a conclusion.

Eyes of the Beholder – Billy-Ray Sanguine looks for an engagement present for his fiancee, murders a bunch of people, and finds a terrifying gift. I wasn’t that keen on Billy-Ray when he first showed up, but as the series has progressed he’s had more characterisation and really grown on me as a character and a villain. This tale gives a little of his backstory in addition to the murder, which is nice.

The Button – Preventing the apocalypse, from the perspective of the man who’s going to unleash it. This story manages to capture the mind of someone on the edge of insanity very well, and ends with a thoroughly unexpected twist. Good, overall.

And that’s the lot. Phew. Overall, I’m fond of this collection. If I seemed a little ambivalent or repetitive it’s because I’m not sure that all of the stories add anything to the overall series. It doesn’t stop them being good reads, just from sticking in my mind the way that “Death and Texas” and “Get Thee Behind Me, Bubba Moon” did.

This series is absolutely worth a read. I started with book two (thinking it was the first), then went back to the first and read them in order. Definitely start at the beginning, since characters don’t tend to get introduced in as much detail in subsequent appearances. Also, since the series is very much in Anyone Can Die territory (unusual for a children’s series), there are major spoilers later on. If you’re unsure, the first book stands alone pretty well, and the first three make up a pretty much complete story arc. Give them a shot.

Next up, an actual wizard! Really!

Logic and Sorcery

The Ripper Affair, by Lilith Saintcrow. Book three of the Bannon and Clare Affairs.

Set on the smog choked streets of Londinium, where the irrationality of magic clashes with the industrial revolution, this is an interesting spin on the stories of both Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes. Archibald Clare is a human logic engine – a mentath – who finds himself thrust yet again into a case which just isn’t logical. Teaming up with the Sorceress Prime Emma Bannon, he must help uncover the root of a plot that threatens to bring Brittania to her knees!

Actually, the point of view is shared about equally between Banon and Clare, but I believe that Clare’s viewpoint is the more interesting, if only because he doesn’t have the ability to bend reality to his will.

The mystery of this novel is, of course, based on the Ripper murders. I won’t go into details as that might spoil the fun of trying to solve it, but there’s definitely more to the case than meets the eye.

Honestly, I’m struggling to think of what to write for this one. It seems like it should have everything I like in a novel (i.e. magic, intelligent protagonists, and a cool setting), but I couldn’t really get into it. Annoyingly, I can’t seem to pin down why.

Possibly it’s because of the gratuitous replacement of words for no reason. Brittania gets a free pass, as it’s the name of the ruling spirit (it’s complicated). Londinium is a well known latin name for London. The river Thamis is less forgivable (I confess, I couldn’t double check my own spelling on this one). Hunting for clews is right out (interesting fact: a clew is part of a sail).

Another issue I have with this entry in the series is the introduction of a replacement character for a fairly major secondary character killed in the opening chapter. It’s not so much that he got killed off that I object to, more that it was both in a way unconnected with the main plot (or any sub-plots) and that he was immediately replaced with a similar character. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that the actor was arrested on drug charges.

Overall, I think the lack of explanation for how things work and what they are hurts the series – perhaps the mechanics of magic and the reason for some of the city’s streets being covered in a flesh-eating substance sludge were explained in an earlier book, but they’re not in this one. Not a good starting point for readers new to the series, but if you’re a fan of steampunk you might want to give The Iron Wyrm Affair a look.

Up next, more short stories!