Dead Beat by Jim Butcher Series: The Dresden Files #7
on May 2nd 2006
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 528
Rating: I'M OBSESSED
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When a killer vampire threatens to destroy head of Special Investigations Karrin Murphy’s reputation unless Harry delivers the powerful Word of Kemmler to her, he has no choice. Now Harry is in a race against time to find the Word before Chicago experiences a Halloween night to wake the dead.
“Polka will never die!”
You’ll have to read it to see why I quoted that.
These reviews are going to get shorter and shorter, or else I’ll just end up repeating myself.
What I will knowingly repeat: These keep getting better and better and they are damn entertaining!
Fast, funny, emotional, and surprising. Even when I get a bad feeling about a character and it pans out, it’s still different from my assumptions. One character I knew wasn’t right, but that doesn’t mean when the secret was revealed that my jaw didn’t drop. Even when you think you know, you don’t know just how messed up it could be. Brilliant. Also, I love how characters don’t fall by the wayside. You might not see them for a book or two, but they seem to always come back. This time, we get to know Butters and I found him to be a great, fleshed out character. Thomas is still around and I’m loving the interactions between him and Harry. All done superbly.
Things are heating up for Harry, and you’re a bystander watching all these decisions that you know will be bad but it’s the only way to go. I’ve never been so vocal at a book before. I screamed at it. I laughed. And yelled several times at Harry. It was a delight to get worked up, despite the worried glances from my husband.
I can’t get enough of this series. In my opinion, reading one a month is the way to go. It breaks up what could teeter near monotony of some recaps and explanations. It keeps my mind fresh and ready for the action, which is never disappointing. I will say the last 20% of Butcher’s books are a whirlwind of action. You can’t put it down nor breath. Brilliant!
So overall, yeah, I guess you could say I like these! I recommend them to everyone!
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.
