Off the Bookshelf: FOOL MOON, Jim Butcher

Book 2 of the Dresden Files.

Moon refers to werewolves.
Lots of werewolves.
It's like a crash course in the types of werewolves, how someone becomes one, and especially how to fight a werewolf -- and survive.

Our hero almost doesn't.

Regulars in the series are being established -- the spirit adviser residing in a skull. The reporter for the newspaper specializing in arcana. The tough lady cop stuck in a rough situation, caught between the FBI and Internal Affairs. The big-time, heavy-handed mob-type boss who wants Harry to be his personal specialist in the weird and otherworldly.

It's the full moon and people are dying. Just like people died last month. There's a pattern. Harry goes investigating, and because people are keeping secrets and manipulating others, of course he walks into dangerous situations where people are immediately out for his blood. Literally. Along with large amounts of his flesh.

He goofs up. He hacks off people. Potential allies turn out to be the worst possible enemies he could ever have, and someone he's trying to help nearly kills him. Plus some dollops of more of Harry's interesting back story -- and things he never knew about dear old Mum.

It's gonna get interesting for Harry Dresden. I'm really looking forward to finally having time to watch the TV series based on the books. One of these ... decades, maybe.

Off the Bookshelf: SOMETHING BORROWED, Jim Butcher

I needed a Harry Dresden fix.

I read the first Dresden Files book a while ago, STORM FRONT, by Jim Butcher, and I've been trying to find the next book, FOOL MOON. (without paying full price -- I want to get it used, because that's the only way I can justify buying a book when I have about 90-some sitting in my to-be-read bookrack) I have 2 Dresden books that I found in hardback for the unbelievable price of $2 each (see my previous parenthetical), but doggone it, they're both about 10 books further along in the series. I like to read books in the order they're written, so I can follow the character development.

So ... I cheated a little. SOMETHING BORROWED is actually a short story, in an anthology called MY BIG FAT SUPERNATURAL WEDDING. If it sounds like a movie by a similar title, you're right. Can you guess the themes tying all the stories together? I thought you could!

I'm learning the joys of borrowing books from the library in e-book version. Especially when I can download an anthology, read just the story I want to read -- although I must go back someday and read the stories by other favorite authors -- and then "return" the book within half an hour.

Fun stuff. Harry Dresden standard fare, dealing with the unfriendly supernatural with some uncomfortable, slightly messy/disgusting, "I can't believe this stuff always happens to me" tone of narrative voice that I came to love in the first book. Harry has to pinch hit as best man at the wedding of two werewolf friends. The stepmother of the bride has a bridezilla attitude -- and the bride is missing. Seems there's this really nasty faerie with a grudge against the werewolves, and a wedding is the perfect time to get some revenge. Enter: one wizard, aided by a tough lady cop, and the chorus of "Get me to the church on time" silently playing at the back of his mind.

Fun. Of course.

Off the Bookshelf: STORM FRONT, by Jim Butcher

Thanks to Patrick Carr for recommending the Dresden  Files series during a workshop he taught last year at Realm Makers. Harry Dresden, private investigator and wizard, is a fascinating character you can't help rooting for -- and wincing along with -- as he deals with magical problems and bureaucracy of all kinds, and hopeful allies who might be helpful, might be a royal pain and a liability.

When the story starts, Harry needs work fast, because he's behind on some bills, starting with the rent. Then there's the constant lack of respect. People think when he advertises as wizard in the phone book that he does party tricks. Far from it. Fortunately, one police detective believes in his ability and values his talent. She's got problems of her own, starting with police superiors who don't quite respect her job of investigating the weird and dark and dangerous. Magical things. Harry's specialty. Unfortunately, Harry has some problems with other wizards that kind of tie his hands and effectively enforce a gag order on him. When he has to refuse to help and refuse to explain why he can't help, he damages a valuable friendship.

Then there's the rogue wizard using magic to kill people. The problem is that Harry is already under suspicion for being a rogue and a danger himself, and simply trying to figure out how this wizard is killing people could push him over the line, and result in a termination order. Then there's the reporter for the local newspaper devoted to the dark and magical and inexplicable, who could turn into a romantic interest, if she and Harry don't get killed at the start of a date he forgot they had.

Lots of twists and turns and I'm hooked after the first book! I'm interested enough to look into the TV series based on the books. Not sure if they're available on DVD, if I can borrow them from the library, or if I can find them on iTunes, but well worth ... ahem ... investigating. Check out STORM FRONT, and don't blame me if you get hooked immediately