Small Favor by Jim Butcher Series: The Dresden Files #10
on March 3rd 2009
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 560
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THE New York Times Bestseller Harry Dresden’s life finally seems to be calming down until a shadow from the past returns. Mab, monarch of the Sidhe Winter Court, calls in an old favor from Harry, one small favor that will trap him between a nightmarish foe and an equally deadly ally, and that will strain his skills, and loyalties to their very limits.
Holy crap! This book was frikkin’ insane!
Harry’s got himself in a pickle this time! We’ve got Summer and Winter, some old foes, and a heck of cast taking up the pages of this installment. Again, my reviews of Butcher’s books will be short and sweet as I can’t say much without giving away spoilers.
I’ve found that Butcher’s books range from fast paced to warp speed. This book was one of the warp speed ones. Something was always happening. It was tense and even threw a punch to the gut toward the end. I couldn’t find a spot to put it down because the amount of fighting in this book is just insane. I. Loved. It! Books like this make everything else seem soooooooo slow, though. And it’s why I sometimes say one of Butcher’s books is slower compared to his others. That also means that the book I’m currently reading is suffering because of Butcher. What probably isn’t that slow of a book just feels slow.
There were some great creatures in this book straight from the Fae. I’ll just say Tiny was awesome! And the fight scenes were incredible with loads of tension. I love it when I can put myself in an action scene, and Butcher made it so. There’s a lot going on in this book, a lot of side roads. I wasn’t trying to figure out what was happening because there were so many players. I just read and was never disappointed.
So overall, yet another great Butcher book.
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.
