Summer Knight: The Dresden Files, Book 4

Author Jim Butcher delivers another incredible tale with Summer Knight, Book Four of The Dresden Files. As the story begins, Harry is still reeling from the events of the previous book, wherein he was used by the vampires of the Red Court to initiate a war with the White Council of Wizards. It has been about eight months since then, and to say that Harry is in bad shape emotionally would be an understatement. He has been holed up as a hermit in his apartment, working desperately to cure his girlfriend (ex-girlfriend actually, as she broke it off and left town for his safety) Susan of her partial vampirism, so she can have a normal life and they can be together. The war isn't going as well for the wizards as they may have hoped, though they do have the advantage. Of course, many of his fellow wizards blame Harry for saving Susan at the cost of the conflict. To be fair, they do have a point. Many people are dying due to Harry saving Susan, and in raw terms that means a greater loss of life. Nevertheless, I must say that they are rather more amoral and cold-hearted than I would be. I learned in the Army the lesson that you "never leave behind a fallen comrade", so I'm more on Harry's side, to say the least. Without giving too much away, Harry quickly finds himself in a real bind, as he is forced to accept a case offered him by Mab, Queen of the Winter Fae (winter fairies). In the Dresden Files universe, the fairies vary between the Tinkerbellish ones for the minor fairies, to the major fairies being extremely powerful entities who learn more towards the "fair folk" of older stories. You know, the kind you called "fair folk" for terror of offending so they wouldn't hurt you. Granted, it is more complicated than that, and there are some truly good fairies with morality and views more in line with ours, but overall, Harry has good reason for not wanting to take the case. He is forced to do so, however, to gain the aid of the Winter Court of the fae against the Red Court vampires. If he refuses or fails in Mab's task, he will be turned over to the vamps as a peace offering to end the war. Harry is tasked with finding out who murdered the Summer Knight, and where the mantle of power from said Knight went. The Summer and Winter Knights are the mortal champions of the respective fairy courts. With the death of the Summer Knight and loss of his power, the Summer Court is severely weakened. Fearing total decimation during winter's ascent after Midsummer, the Summer Court will go to go to war with the Winter Court before the end of Midsummer. Of course, winter will have no choice but to fight back. Wars have happened before, of course, but this time it is more serious than previous wars. This time, one court or the other might win, and if that happens, the mortal world will be devastated and millions could die. Someone is driving the courts towards this conflict, and Harry must stop them before it is too late. This book is one moment of awesome after another. It just doesn't stop. From Harry and his mentor, Ebenezar McCoy, telling off the head of the Wizards, to Harry and his friends the Alphas (the group of werewolves Harry met in Fool Moon) fighting against impossible odds for victory, to the heroic sacrifice of another character, everything was just a thrill ride. Yet it wasn't all just "knock-'em, sock-'em" action either. There was character interaction, character development and a great deal of humor (as is typical for a Dresden Files book. This really was my favorite of the series so far, and with good reason. I have to say that I really like the trend started in the third book, and continued into this one so far. That being Harry having friends along for his adventures. Harry is no longer the loner who has no one to care about. Now he has friends, a surrogate family, and loved ones. This adds a layer of emotional depth to Harry that makes these otherwise dark, more noirish stories more bearable. In this case, we had a "team-up" between Harry and the Alphas, lead by Billy. The interplay between them all and Harry was sweet, and it was great to see Harry get sentimental with them and his other friends. At one point, he actually got choked up by the kindness of others. I can't say too much more without giving everything away. I'll just say that this book was terrific, and well-worth a read. Pure awesomeness.

I’m In Okay, Summer Knight sealed it for me. I’m in for the series. If you read my other reviews of the Dresden books, you’ll discover that after book two I wasn’t sure if I would continue the series, but because I bought them, I decided to read Grave Peril(#3) and Summer Knight(#4). Book four is the best so far. Pretty much everything gets a better in Summer Knight. Harry Dresden’s world is more developed. He gets honest and up-front with Murphy, his cop friend, which I wanted him to do much earlier. Spoilers ahead: if you don’t like spoilers, skip the Brief Summary. Brief Summary Okay, here we go. At the end of the last book, Susan, Dresden’s girlfriend, has become a vampire and left town. Summer Knight opens with Dresden depressed and as low as low can be. He’s been trying to find a cure for Susan. He’s desperate for rent money, so he agrees to meet a client, but the client turns out to be Winter’s Queen Mab. His fairy godmother sold his contract to Mab, who hires him to find out who killed the Summer Knight, the Summer Queen’s knight. Things are pretty much a mess. Dresden is now contracted to Mab. As bad as his fairy godmother is, she’s preferable to Mab, who is far more devious and dangerous. With the Summer Knight dead, there’s an impending war among the fairies, which has already started to upset the balance of nature and could lead to the destruction of the world. The Red Court of the vampires is on the war path, a conflict from Grave Peril–they want Dresden delivered to them. Most of the White Council wants to strip Harry of his wizard title and turn him over to the Red Court. Someone’s put a hit out on his life. If things could get worse, I’m not sure how, but of course, they do get worse. As you might imagine, Harry’s in deep, deep dodo and all hell breaks lose. There are lots of fights, werewolves, fairies, an evil unicorn, vampires, and sundry creatures. The White Council of Wizards continued to be pedantic, dangerous nincompoops. Enemies might be preferable to the White Council. It’s a fun, sometimes frightening ride, and Harry comes to terms with some of his past. And, no I’m not going to tell you who killed Summer Knight. What I Liked 1) The story is fast paced and complex. 2) World building: things are getting fleshed out. We learn a lot more about the faeries, which probably isn’t exactly what people into faeries would expect or like. I liked the faeries. They are dangerous, unpredictable, and zany. Zany matters. 3) The puzzle is coming together. I could be wrong, but I think we’ve got the major puzzle pieces of the series in place: the wizards’ White Council, the vampire’s Red court, an archenemy lurking in the background, the Faerie Courts (winter and summer), the Never-never, and the werewolves. 4) Butcher does an excellent job of linking all these groups and creating complex characters. 5) As I said above, I like that Dresden is finally opening up to Murphy and the werewolves. For the most part, the White Council members are jerks, and keeping Murphy in the Dark was causing more harm than good. 6) The plot is tightly woven and fast paced. Negatives Either I’ve gotten used to his sexism or it was toned down in this one. I think it was toned down a bit, but he does have a knight in shining armor complex, poor man. Let’s hope that Harry keeps growing up into a man instead of staying a thirteen-year-old boy. Since I’ve mentioned this about each book, this is going to be my last hurrah about Harry’s sexism. I think he’s probably going to continue to be an ass, but I’m hoping for better. For the most part, I became so engrossed in the story that I didn’t get too picky, which is always good.

I read the first four of the Dresden Files books right in a row and made myself promise to catch up on book reviewing before continuing the series (I took advantage of a Kindle daily deal to get the first 7 books but will be buying the rest at regular price...)! As has been a theme in previous books (with vampires and werewolves), we get more information on a paranormal "species" in this volume -- the Summer and Winter Courts of the faeries, including their members and powers, their seasonal conflicts, their governance, the existence of changelings (half-fae/half-human kids), and so forth. I'm glad Butcher pulled back in this volume to focus pretty much only on the faeries because book 3 got a little complicated with fae, ghosts, faith-based power, and vampire politics. I feel like I have a better grasp of what was going on, supernaturally, with this book. One of my favorite scenes so far also occurred in this book (it was the one at the Wal-Mart; I won't say anything else because I don't want to spoil anything). I thought the action was described, the danger was real, and I liked that Dresden had to work with Murphy and didn't solve everything himself with fire (for once). In general, he is forced to accept help here -- both from people he has reason to trust and from those whose motives he questions. I preferred this over the hero complex of book 2 and the rather spectacular magical ending of book 3. I also thought characterization continued to improve in this book. Dresden has really let himself go at the beginning, and we hear a little bit of Murphy's background as well. Dresden has to confront his past in this volume, and he finally opens up about some of what happened to him as a teenager. This turn is taking the series a little bit away from the hardboiled detective style of story that we saw before (especially in books 1 and 2), but I like where it's going. Despite the turn away from the hardboiled style, there's still a mystery in this book -- someone has killed the Summer Knight -- a mortal individual who was affiliated with the Fae Summer Court -- and Dresden gets roped into looking for the killer. I feel like the writing style has improved, as well. It's still first-person POV, but there's more humor in this volume than in past books (book 3 had a fair amount, as well), and it works very well with the character and story. Once again, this book is easy (and quick) to read. There are a few 4-letter words but they don't break immersion; they feel totally plausible coming from someone like Dresden who lives in the modern era (even though I would assume he doesn't have a lot of access to media, what with his very presence causing electronics to malfunction). I can't help but draw a comparison to Harry Potter #5, since this book opens with a wizard (named Harry, who has a last name that is a famous type of pottery) being called before other wizards to defend himself and his actions (complete with Latin words and robes...). I'm sure this is deliberate since the Harry Potter book was released about 6 years before this one. Personally, I find it humorous (your mileage may vary). We learn more about the Wizards' White Council in this book, although those scenes are short and mostly kept to the beginning of the book. The setting is the same as always (i.e., Chicago and environs) and works as well this time as it has in the other books. Some characters from previous books appear here (Karrin Murphy, Morgan, Billy and his werewolf friends, etc.) so it is definitely beneficial to go back and read volumes 1, 2, and 3 before picking up this one. Another great thing about this series is that individual volumes are self-contained in terms of an overall plot, but that each contributes something to worldbuilding and to the overall story arc of the series. The backdrop of this book is the war between wizards and vampires that is brewing following the conclusion of book 3; the wizards need to be able to travel through Fae lands and must do a favor for the Faeries in return. That's where Harry and his quest to figure out who murdered the Summer Knight come in (if he solves the case, the wizards get their access). I think Jim Butcher has done a great job of bringing all the elements together -- a mystery, furthering the series' story arc, adding humor, character development, and worldbuilding. This is definitely my favorite Dresden novel yet. Even if you're not enthralled by the first two books (I thought they were good, but not as good as this one), stick around for The Summer Knight. I definitely felt it was worth my while.

Summer Knight is the fourth book in Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series of novels. It was originally published in 2002. Things haven't been going well for Harry Dresden, Chicago's resident wizard. Ever since the events of Grave Peril, the Red Court of vampires has been pretty much out to get him and he's been juggling trying to find a way to save his sometime girlfriend from fully turning into a vampire and staying alive despite the Red Court's assassins. To make matters worse, he is visited by a client who later turns out to be Queen Mab of the Winter Court herself. She has purchased Harry's debt from his godmother and is prepared to grant him his freedom for as long as he fulfills three favors, the first of which is to investigate the murder of on Ronald Reuel, who turns out to be the Knight of the Summer Court. He's initially reluctant to make any sort of a deal with the Sidhe, but then the White Council of wizards obligates him to assist the Winter Court or he'll be stripped of his title as a wizard. This book truly has it all. We have the intricacies of the Faerie realms in the Nevernever and the politics of the Summer and Winter Courts. We have a murder mystery that only magic can get to the bottom of. We have intrigues and complicated plots both in the White Council and the Faerie Courts. And we have a good mess of werewolves, vampire agents and other magical creatures out to make Harry's life a living hell. Now I was beginning to get a little worried that the books were starting to follow a sort of formula with Harry always being brought to a point of physical exhaustion that later affects his ability to use magic while fighting the bid bad guy. And while Harry had a lot to deal with in this book, the situation didn't quite follow that exact same path of plot development. And things certainly got pretty hairy at the end. The book had a lot of characters to juggle, especially with some folks from Harry's past coming into the mix. But I never felt overwhelmed with all the names and such since Butcher has a way of breaking down scenes so you only have maybe 3-4 talking heads at most. Bigger sequences like fights and moments of action tend to not have much dialog and focus more on Harry's thinking when he deals with challenges in his way. I envy the seeming ease of his writing. We're reading about Harry dealing with some pretty fantastical stuff and it yet it feels like it's just another afternoon in the city. I really enjoyed this book. You get a sense that the Dresden universe and the characters in it are really maturing and by this time Butcher has a good idea of what he wants to accomplish and he knows what each of the characters would do given this or that situation. And the fact that the characters are so well-developed and fleshed out is really where the strength of his writing lies. Summer Knight is a great book that further explores the role of Faerie in this world and also reveals more about Harry's past. The action is great and the the detective piece was very well done and the ending will just blow you away.

Book arrived on time, this is the second one of this title I've ordered I ruturned the first one couldn't read the first page of every page in the whole book wording ended at the spine. this ONE IS PERFECT & I'm happy I was able to get one I could actually read without breaking the spine. I will order from this company again... 5 stars All around...

These stories are so much fun to follow because I’m interested the character. Harry is terrific. The peripheral things going on in his life are just as engaging as the adventure they’re on.

Susan Rodriguez left Chicago as she was a vampire and her feelings for Harry Dresden made her too confused. Ever since she left Harry has been in a downward spiral and his mind is focused only on finding a cure to make his girlfriend human once again. But his mind is stable enough to know making a deal with a faerie is not something a sane person does. However, Harry finds himself having to find who killed the Summer Knight for Queen Mab because if he doesn't the White Council will hand him over to the vampires as a peace offering. The book really goes into detail to show the reader how much Harry has changed for the worse. There is still a good person inside of him but he is extremely apathetic at the start. Billy and the other good werewolves from Fool Moon provide him with much needed support. It was really good to see how the werewolves had become much more experienced. It turns out that Harry's faerie godmother sold his debt to Queen Mab. This, therefore, allows Mab to get Harry to do what she wants. She says he can refuse to solve the mystery of the Summer Knight's murder, but she leaves out the part about the White Council wanting to sell out Harry. Therefore the only way he can live is by solving the mystery. This book really focuses on faerie politics. As the Summer Knight has been killed everyone is suspicious of Mab who is the Queen of Winter. While faeries can't tell lies, they can hide the truth. Which forces Harry to use all of his wits to figure out what is actually going on. As Harry had to solve the mystery of a murder, readers got to see how faerie hierarchy works in the series. Excuse me, Sidhe. Sidhe appear to be very high ranking faeries. So calling them faeries is a really big insult. Anyways...there are two faerie courts: Summer and Winter. Each representing their seasons so that Winter appears mostly cruel and Summer appears mostly kind. But that doesn't mean Summer is all good and Winter is all bad. It's much more complicated than that. This book introduces the idea of changelings who are half-human and half-faerie. Eventually they have to decide whether to become mortal or faerie. This ends up providing both an interesting sub-plot as well as making the mystery even more complicated. In this book we finally encounter Elaine Lilian Mallory. What we knew of her before Summer Knight was she was Harry's first love and betrayed him leading him to kill her. However, there were hints in the previous books that indicated she wasn't actually dead. Elaine was not how I had pictured her in my mind. I thought she'd be an outright villain and would use Harry for her own purposes. Yet in parts of the book she seemed kind and I could see how Harry would fall for her. This book does a good job with having her not be evil and not good either. And before I finish this review: Murphy was a total badass in this book! She's not in it much but she is able to fight along side Harry in one scene! I would recommend Summer Knight to fans of The Dresden Files and lovers of urban fantasy mysteries.

So here's the deal . . . I saw a lot of improvement in SUMMER KNIGHT. A LOT. I was introduced to several new characters whom I instantly loved: Ebenezar, Listens to Wind, the Gatekeeper, Meryl . . . a couple old favorites made appearances: Billy the Werewolf and Toot, but better than the well-loved characters, both old and new, was the dramatic rehabilitation of Murphy. I know I mentioned in my review of FOOL MOON that I was not a fan of Murphy . . . that was a gross understatement. She was obnoxious and mistrustful. She was violent and irrational. She was just unlikable. I wrote her off as one more attractive female who Harry made himself an idiot over. Normally when there's as dramatic a change as what happened with Murphy, it's unbelievable and feels forced. You don't trust it and you wait to see what their game is . . . but Butcher made it work. Her brand of snark blends well into the mix that makes up a person who can lose their mind when pushed too far. Her violent response to having information withheld in dire circumstances paves the way to a cease fire when Harry finally begins to reveal the secrets of his world, and even if those things weren’t true, giving us insight into her emotional state made me want to cut her some slack anyway. Which is good b/c this new, improved Murphy is friggin' hilarious. And Murphy and Harry together . . . well, I could get used to this: “You did what?” “Put on the boots,” Murphy said. “I put on the boots and kicked some monster ass. I dropped the ghoul, and I’m the one who rammed a chain saw through the head of that plant monster thing. Crippled the ogre, too. What did you do? You threw a can of Sterno at him. That’s barely an assist.” “Yeah, but I soaked him in gasoline first.” She snorted at me, around more pizza. “Shutout.” “Whatever.” “Murphy three, Dresden zero.” “You didn’t do all of it.” “I put on the boots.” I raised my hands. “Okay, okay. You’ve . . . got boots, Murph.” She sniffed and took an almost dainty sip of Coke. “Lucky I was there.” And we all know that I love the Fae. The Dresdenites who already make a habit of telling Dresden noobs that the series starts "getting good" at book 4 were full of Harry-like glee in anticipation to my reaction to Butcher's Fae. And they were good Fae. They were. I liked them. BUT. Butcher somehow managed to make them wonderfully tricksy Fae . . . without making much use of their tricksy Fae-ness, and Harry, despite having years of knowledge from study and experience with the denizens of the Nevernever . . . seems quite hapless about them in many ways. I mean, COME ON. An unbelievably beautiful woman with WHITE hair (who isn't old) and WINTER coloring who smells of flowers and WILDNESS walks into your office, and you don't figure out she's Fae until you cobble together something about your office door being unlocked, and ultimately it's built on suspicions about your Faerie Godmother? He should have just looked at her and thought, "FAE." He didn't need to make up reasons why, who cares why? An obviously Fae woman is in your office. The end. But that was just irritating. The real problem was the plot line. There are half a dozen good options for Bad Guys that I can name off the top of my head, and (view spoiler) isn't one of them. Not only was Bad Guy a seriously lame choice for the Bad Guy, but the reason behind he/she/its Bad Guy-ness . . . didn't hold water for me. (view spoiler) <------b/c it's lazy and a cop out. Basically, I'm loving the characters, but the lack of a truly great plot line . . . even a character-driven reader like myself can only give a series the benefit of the doubt for so long. So far only one of four (FOOL MOON) has been really good. Maybe I wouldn't be so burned out if it weren't for the occasional rearing of Butcher's inner-adolescent on the humor front: "You are, I take it, Harry Dresden?” “If I’m not, he’s going to be upset with me when he catches me running around in his underpants.” *rolls eyes* And don't even get me started on (view spoiler) <------riddikulus. So yeah, without the teenage boy humor, maybe the characters would be enough to keep me going. As it is, you've got one more book to convince me that this series is worth it, b/c so far . . . I'm not seeing it.

Love the way this author writes every book gets better, can't wait to read the next one

Summer Knight (Feenzorn) setzt neun Monate nach den Ereignissen aus Grave Peril (Grabesruhe) an und bringt einen neuen Plot mit, der gleichzeitig an einen der vielen losen Fäden aus Harrys Vergangenheit anknüpft. Auch der Krieg zwischen dem Weißem Rat und dem Rotem Hof ist ein Thema, wird als nun übergeordneter Handlungsstrang jedoch eher beiläufig zu einem Stein, der die aktuelle Handlung ins Rollen bringt. Das zentrale Thema aber ist ein bevorstehender Krieg zwischen den Fae-Königinnen von Sommerhof und Winterhof. Mit der Einführung dieses keltisch verwurzelten Sagenlandes kommen viele märchenhafte und phantastische Figuren und Elemente zum Einsatz: Hochelfen, Feen, Oger, Trolle, Wechselbalge, Einhörner, Satyrn und etliche andere Fabelwesen haben ihren Auftritt in einem gelungen Mix aus Sagenwelt und moderner Realität. Man streift durch Faerie oder dunkle Gassen unterhalb Chicagos und findet verborgene Eingänge in fremde Reiche. In einer wunderbar stimmigen Atmosphäre kommt der Fan von Urban Fantasy mit Summer Knight voll auf seine Kosten. Neben neu eingeführten Charakteren, die sich neben einigen Mitgliedern des Weißen Rats vor allem aus dem Feenreich der Sidhe rekrutieren, treffen wir auch auf alte Bekannte. Billy und seine Werwolfgang, die Alphas, aus Fool Moon (Wolfsjagd) beteiligen sich aktiv an Harrys Fall. Dafür muss der Leser auf Michael, der in Grave Peril eine prominente Rolle einnahm, gänzlich verzichten. Was unseren Protagonisten Harry Dresden angeht, so erfährt der Leser einiges mehr aus dessen Vergangenheit und lernt sowohl den Weißen Rat als auch Personen aus seiner Zeit als Lehrling kennen. Insgesamt ist es sehr schön, wie Summer Knight die oft angedeuteten Begebenheiten aus der Vergangenheit des Magiers aufgreift und weiter ausbaut. Hierdurch gewinnt der Charakter ebenso an Substanz wie auch die Geschichte an Überzeugungskraft. Die Handlung wirkt insgesamt deutlich homogener als der Vorgänger, was nicht zuletzt einem souverän konstruierten Plot zu verdanken ist, der sich auf eine Haupthandlung konzentriert. Auch der Humor des Autors und seiner Protagonisten ist wieder erfreulich stark präsent und sorgt für zusätzliche Leseanreize. Ein bisschen trocken, ein bisschen schwarz und auch reichlich selbstironisch kommt Summer Knight mit flotten Sprüchen daher. Ein paar Figuren neben Harry verstehen durch bloße Anwesenheit zu amüsieren. Hier sei vor allem der kleine Toot Toot, der zum ersten und letzten Mal in Storm Front (Sturmnacht) einen kurzen Auftritt hatte, hervorgehoben. Was beinahe von der ersten Seite an zu herzhaftem Lachen verführt, steigert sich im Laufe des Buches proportional zu Harrys langsam beginnender seelischer Heilung. Während Grave Peril da insgesamt weniger Gefahren bot, sollte man Summer Knight daher möglichst nicht in öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln lesen. Schiefe Blicke, verursacht durch spontanes Auflachen, sind bei diesem Roman vorprogrammiert. Bei all dem Lob sei darauf hingewiesen, dass auch Summer Knight gelegentlich noch an der ein oder anderen Kinderkrankheit leidet und stellenweise etwas bemüht wirkt. Doch der Roman hat viel zu bieten, was diese kleinen Mängel unwichtig erscheinen lässt. Magie, keltischer Mythos, ein Harry, der sich von ganz unten langsam wieder hocharbeitet, auch seine oftmals überspitzten Leiden kommen ein wenig realistischer daher – so wie Harry Dresden seinen Fokus in diesem Roman wiederfindet, so scheint sich nun auch Jim Butcher in seine Serie eingefunden und eine stabile Linie angepeilt zu haben. Sofern es in diesem Stil weiter geht, darf man von dem Folgeband, Death Masks, nur Gutes erwarten.

Une nouvelle aventure de Harry Dresden, qui tel un John McLane (Die Hard) se prend des raclées (magiques), se relève, fait face à ces ennemis, et finit par arracher la victoire. Excellent.

Hooked on wizardry. On to book 5! Here are more words to meet the minimum required number of needed words

Mutio bom