Blood Rites by Jim Butcher on August 1st, 2004
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 372
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For Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard, there have been worse assignments than going undercover on the set of an adult film. Dodging flaming monkey-poo for instance. Or going toe-to-leaf with a walking plant monster. Still, there’s something more troubling than usual about his newest case. The film’s producer believes he’s the target of a sinister entropy curse-but it’s the women around him who are dying, in increasingly spectacular ways.
Harry’s even more frustrated because he only got involved with this bizarre mystery as a favor to Thomas, his flirtatious, self-absorbed vampire acquaintance of dubious integrity. Thomas has a personal stake in the case Harry can’t quite figure out, until his investigation leads him straight to Thomas’s oversexed vampire family. Harry is about to discover that Thomas’s family tree has been hiding a shocking secret: a revelation that will change Harry’s life forever.
Oh how I love these books. The week has been a bit stressful so in a desperate ploy to escape, I read this book. It worked like a charm. I thought of nothing and lived in a different world for a while.
I couldn’t put this one down. Not only did it move at neck-breaking speed, but we learned a heck of a lot about Harry’s mother. I can honestly say I was surprised by every twist Butcher threw at me. I was doing this read with a friend of mine and had to email him right away when I learned one secret. I was seriously thrown by the revelation.
Even with all we uncovered in this book, there’s still a lot that’s a mystery. I honestly thought Butcher would wait to reveal some stuff he did in the book since he has tons left in the series. Because he did, I’m dying to know how he keeps this going.
My favorite parts of the book were when Harry was with Murphy. They spent tons of time together in this book (finally!!!), and I couldn’t have been happier. For those of you looking for more Murphy time, this book delivers. Their interactions were great!
So overall, Butcher has once again nailed it for me. I was beyond satisfied with this book and am doing everything within my power not to snatch up the next one right away.
About Jim Butcher
Jim Butcher read his first fantasy novel when he was seven years old–
the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. By the time he turned eight,
he’d added the rest of the Narnia books, the Prydain Chronicles, every
book about Star Wars he could find, a great many Star Trek novels and
the Lord of the Rings to his count.
So he was pretty much doomed from the start.
Love of fantasy, his personal gateway drug, drew him toward a fairly
eclectic spread of interests: horseback riding (including trick riding,
stunt riding, drill riding, and competitive stunt racing), archery,
martial arts, costuming, music and theater. He played a lot of role-
playing games, a lot of fantasy-based tactical computer games, and
eventually got into live-action roleplay where players beat each other
up with boffer weapons.
So, really, he can fly his nerd flag with pretty much anyone, and
frequently does.
He took up writing to be able to produce fantasy novels with swords and
horses in them, and determinedly wrote terrible fantasy books until,
just to prove a point to his writing teacher, he decided to take every
piece of her advice; fill out outlines and worksheets, and design
stories and characters just the way she’d been telling him to do for
about three years. He was certain that once she saw what hideous art it
produced, she would be proven wrong and repent the error of her ways.
The result was the Dresden Files, which sure showed *her*.
She has not yet admitted her mistake and recanted her philosophy on
writing.
Jim has performed in dramas, musicals, and vocal groups in front of
live audiences of thousands and on TV. He has performed exhibition
riding in multiple arenas, and fallen from running horses a truly
ridiculous number of times. He was once cursed by an Amazon witch
doctor in rural Brazil, has apparently begun writing about himself in
the third person, and is hardly ever sick at sea.
He also writes books occasionally.
Jim stands accused of writing the Dresden Files and the Codex Alera.
He’s plead insanity, but the jury is still out on that one. He lives in
Missouri with his wife, romantic suspense and paranormal romance writer
Shannon K. Butcher (who is really pretty and way out of his league),
his son, and a ferocious guard dog.
