Book #46

Small Favor
by Jim Butcher

Small Favor came in the mail! Two months before we expected it, since we ordered it bundled with Stephanie Meyer's new book, which isn't due out until August. So, the Dresden series now having become my very favorite paranormal books, of course I read it as soon as I got the chance. Finished it pretty fast, too, since I had to stay up late Saturday night to let my mom in when she came back from square dancing, and she was late because she had lost the keys to her car. But anyway, it was as excellent and fun to read as the rest.

I will say that the feel of it was different. There was much less humor in this one than in several of the others. It seems that, with each book, Harry grows in maturity, in power and influence, and also in pessimism -- because how can you not be a little dark in your outlook, when you're facing necromancers who are immensely more powerful than you, the entire Red Court and much of the White and Black Courts, the Fae, the Black Council (or at least the disapproving White Council), and, of course, the Knights of the Blackened Denarius? But as Harry grows, he becomes too self-conscious of his own smartass defense mechanism, and so loses his flair for it. The comment is made at one point that he is actually left speechless by an enemy, and that seems to be happening throughout the book, and the series. I wouldn't be surprised if part of it is Butcher getting burnt out on making up witty sarcastic repartee -- which I should take as a hint for my character. Although I would guess that any character trait would get somewhat tired after ten books. Maybe I should just worry about publishing an incredibly successful series and making it to ten books, huh?

Anyway, there is some wittiness, and there are some really funny parts -- the moment when Harry raises a fist in praise of the ugly dolphins, the ones who didn't sell out to a plastic surgeon to be on Flipper, and says, "Represent," cracked me up. And there is also a lot of banter between Harry and Thomas, which seems a good place for it. But there is a new romantic entanglement for Harry, which is excellent since the poor guy is so lonely and yet so surrounded by incredibly beautiful and monstrously evil temptresses; and there is some good progress made toward endgame. Though we don't find out anything new about the Black Council, apart from them being even more powerful and nasty than we may have thought. And the good side takes some serious losses as well, so it isn't all wine and roses. Which just makes me eager to read the next book, of course.

As a side note, after finishing this one I tried reading Shadow Play by Charles Baxter, who also wrote Feast of Love, which was turned into a terrible movie despite having an excellent cast. And now I see why: this was a terrible book, despite the fact that Baxter is an excellent wordsmith. I guess that really isn't enough to make you a good writer. It cracks me up, though, to see that truly talented storytellers like Jim Butcher and Robert Jordan and Charlaine Harris and Diana Gabaldon are relegated to the pulps and thus dismissed, while hacks with half their talent are given National Book Awards for their crap-ass novels just because they can turn a phrase and write "MFA" on their resumes. Stupid literary establishment.