Grieving for Susan and struggling to find a cure for her condition Harry has almost driven himself from house and home. Then the faeries come along as well as the white council to make things worse. ( )

Jim Butcher begins the latest book in the Dresden series with Harry having been out of sight for months since the end of the previous novel. Life gets steadily worse for Harry as the book continues, eventually finding himself deeper than a city sewer in every kind of supernatural politics you can imagine.

This book takes the fun and interest of the previous book, and continues on the story arcs that were established, as well as creating a stand alone story that doesn't require the other books. Harry, due to lack of sleep and social contact, becomes more of a smart arse in this book, which I enjoy thoroughly. Complexity grew with this book as well, making the culprit more difficult to detect from just a chapter or two. The final twist holds unique Dresden-esque shift. I think the how-deep-can-we-pile-Harry plot gets overdone, which makes me believe that the series can only improve from here. ( )

Faeries and politicking. Who knew it could be so much fun to watch Harry Dresden squirm! Oh wait, that is one of the reasons I keep coming back to this wonderful series. In this fourth installment of how-will-Harry-be-royally(literally)-screwed, he has the White Council with the Sword of Damocles (or Morgan with his axe to grind) on one side, Queen Mab of the icy britches Winter Court on another, and a gang load of hired thugs and nasty types elsewhere trying to off him. Oh, and his dead flame who tried to kill him is back too. What choice a poor wizard to make for his demise?

Even with this doom and gloom storm cloud brewing with a little Faerie magic on a big stone table, Harry battles the good battle, plays the heroic man with a big staff, wears his spiffy coat, and keeps a snarky head above the insanity, even while said head is spinning none too slowly over his unlucky fate.

I sort of really wanted to hug Mr. Butcher after finishing this novel. ( )

Jim Butcher delivers another grand escapade in his Harry Dresden, wizard detective series. With Dresden, there's fun for everyone: lover's of fantasy or mystery need not worry. In this installment the wizards and vampires are at war, the summer and winter faeries are at war and its causing all kinds of trouble in mortal Chicago. With Dresden feeling sorry for himself and looking even worse, he must save the wizards, the faeries, Chicago and himself.

Watch for box knives and .357 Magnums as Dresden makes the reader laugh and want to stomp somebody's face in. This is definitely an adventure worth reading. I'm looking forward to the next one. ( )

The 4th book in the Dresden files series sees Harry recovering from what happened with the Vampire's last fall. He is not taking care of himself and blaming himself for what happened to Susan. Queen Mab then comes to Harry and makes him an offer. Harry is to find out who killed the Summer Court's Knight as the Shide are thinking Mab may have done it. The White Council of Wizards decides this is a good test to determine if Harry should keep his status as a Wizard of the White Council or not. Some of the Council want to turn Harry over to the Red Vampire court for starting the war.

A decent book to the series. Jim's plot lines and mysteries have gotten more complex. And he is bringing in more characters and adding depth to the established ones. After rereading this for probably the 5th or 6th time one thing that stood out to me at the end was Harry never got to see the results of the White Council on his job being done. It seems like that would have been important enough to include in the book. Or if Harry wouldn't have been well enough to go to the council Ebenazer would have shown up at Harry's apt. and let him know the outcome.

But this is still one of my favorite series out there. I recomend it to any and all who are fans or wizards, mysteries, urban fantasy, or just looking for a well written book. ( )

This series is like M&Ms. You start reading and think, just a little more. I like the noir-ish voice of the main character, along with the sense of the ridiculous that makes the horror aspects of the novel not so dark that I won't read it. The continuing thread of the series is beginning to get deeper and more interesting as the main character becomes more important to the "unreal" world and discovers more about himself. ( )

"Your godmother sends her greetings," Maeve called to me. "I'd have acted sooner, but it would have been a fair fight, and I avoid them."

I am weirdly fond of Harry Dresden, it aims for Supernatural-Chandler but tends to stagger over the line into crack.

The previous book in the series, Grave Peril, was the kind of book a fan reads just to find out what's happening next with the characters, so it was with some caution that I picked up my copy of Summer Knight. I was, honestly, afraid that the momentum and pure fun Butcher whipped up in the first two Harry Dresden books was destined to only make for a slow, disappointing slide.

And I was very wrong, thankfully.

In Summer Knight Butcher hits that perfect stride between adventure, mystery, a touch of romance and plenty of humor that was off in Grave Peril. It opens with Dresden, nearly mad and driven to his own destruction over the tragedy that befell his girlfriend Susan in the last book, investigating a literal rain of toads at a Chicago park. While there Dresden barely escapes a hit, aided by a werewolf buddy, and returns home to meet a would-be client. Only the client turns out to be none other than the Winter Queen of the Fairies, who has bought his debt to his fairie godmother and in return wants three favors from him.

The first, which he is told he has full permission to decline, is to seek out the true killer of the knight of the Summer court, clearing the Winter Queen's name. But while still considering whether he'll take the task or not Dresden meets with the White Council, part of which is trying to blame him for starting the war between wizards and the Red Court of vampires. The Winter Queen, the Council finds, is willing to give the wizards aid in their fight against the vampires, if Dresden completes a task for them. Conveniently enough the White Council, less friendly than Harry would like to admit to, demands that he fulfill the Winter Queen's task as he never did have a proper quest to become a full wizard in the first place. The quest will kill two birds with one stone, if it doesn't kill Harry first.

Only the quest isn't as simple as find the killer, something neither the White Council nor the Winter Queen (or even the Summer Queen) realize is going on, and Harry, the only one who can find the truth, is facing a full on Fairie War as well as a magical imbalance of the seasons that could rip the mortal world apart.

As always Dresden is in over his head, but is stubborn, sarcastic and determined to do what is right by the people around him, the people who depend on him one way or the other.

Summer Knight comes together with smoothness and wholeness that Grave Peril lacked. The stakes are just as high, the losses potentially just as bad, but the parts all fit together in a way that makes this addition to the Dresden Files an incredibly satisfying read. ( )

"Summer Knight", the fourth Harry Dreseden novel from Jim Butcher, kicks things up a notch for Chicago's favorite (and only) Wizard P.I. This battle isnt' just about Harry living through it, but its about saving all of Chicago and possibly the world. Harry is about as depressed and rundown as could be after the events in "Grave Peril". He is haunted by his failure to save Susan and his obsession with trying to find a 'cure' to remedy that sitution. The vampiress are gunning for him and his own magical "White Council" is about to cast him out or hand him over to the vamps unless he proves his worth. Then his 'godmother' sells his contract to the Summer Queen and what she demands of him makes all the other stuff look like a vacation. This was a great installment in the series. I read through it like I was eating chocolate. The story seemed more cohesive than previous volumes. Dreseden and the wolves were witty and fun. The scene in the Wal-Mart is my favorite of all the Dresden action scenes. That is not to say that this was a perfect book. I was sympathetic the first four or five times Harry sobbed, but after that it felt redundant. I felt for him, really, but it was overkill for this PI to cry so frequently. Also, Bob wasn't in the story enough for my liking! The story could have been a little bit clearer on certain points as well. A few times I got confused over how Dresend put something together and I had to read through it again. Overall this is probably the best in the series thus far and I look forward to my future visists with Harry as I run across him in my TBR stack. ( )

Maybe Harry Dresden is finally coming around. I was worried that the small weaknesses of the earlier Dresden books would accumulate as the series progressed. Harry was in danger of becoming a one-man idiot plot generator, due to his apparent inability to communicate and trust others.

In Summer Knight, Harry appears to have learned when to ask for help and, as a result, the sequence of plot events feels more natural than in previous volumes. The number of characters and encyclopedic scope of Butcher's world-building are rich, but occasionally befuddling. I struggled at times to keep track of the names of the various Fairy Queens and the changelings. It's not helping that I'm not reading directly though the series, in order to keep a fresh perspective.

Finally, kudos go to Butcher for developing Karryn Murphy's character more in Summer Knight. She's coping with the psychic damage from book three and seems to snap out of it when the situation gets dire at the Battle of Wal-Mart, which I'm sure will prove to be a pivotal turning point for Dresden and Murphy's partnership. ( )

Harry Dresden becomes embroiled in the world of faerie and faerie politics. This isn't good, for anyone involved.

Harry is busy keeping himself alive, some of the decisions he's making are very complicated.

Interesting and involved Harry is quite an interesting character and I look forward to reading more in this series. ( )

As much as I love this series, this was my least favorite so far. It wasn't as interesting as some of the other storylines have been. However I cannot wait to read the rest of the series! ( )

[Amy] Well, I think they're finally growing on me - at least, this is the first instance of the Dresden books for which I have reached the end without feeling vaguely guilty about having just devoured the whole thing. I don't know what's changed (either with them or with me), but there y'go. And I'd obviously acknowledged that I was going to keep reading the things anyway, as I'd bought all of them through White Night when I saw them all arrayed in a used bookstore, sometime after reading Grave Peril.

This installment gives more insight into the workings of the Faerie courts in this universe, as well as a bit more about the other wizards. I'm not really making much effort to keep track of all the bits and pieces of the worldbuilding, though, because I'm getting the impression it doesn't really matter that much, and I don't want to have the enjoyment of the fluff spoiled by noticing inconsistencies in it. If I turn out to be wrong, well, one thing that has been annoying me already is the ungodly repetition of assorted salient points of backstory and world-rules, so I feel confident that anything I particularly need to remember will be delivered to me at the appropriate time, all wrapped up with a shiny bow.

That said, I'm still having a grand time with them, so what the hell.
[http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/ze...]

With this fourth book Butcher has addressed all of my grievances with the first three books to craft a very strong story. The story opens with a Dresden still reeling from the events of book three and draws in a host of characters from previous books in a story that is packed with both action and a capable protagonist.

I am looking forward to the fifth book, which I am told continues the events of books 3-4, and I hope that Butcher finds time to have Dresden grow his powers some. I am getting tired of his single wind spell. ( )

For the past couple of months or so, I have been indulging myself with The Dresden Files Series. It is pretty much a thriller with a twist. Featuring Harry Dresden, a private detective, who also happened to be the only um... "known" wizard in the mortal world. He also works as a consultant for SI (Special Investigations), which specialised in unsolved cases. He has a ghost who inhabited a skull, named Bob, and a pet cat (that's pretty much abnormal as size), and they live in a basement somewhere in Chicago. The series pretty much pulling me into the story from one book to another and I can't seem to stop! The series, currently, is at it's 11th book in publication. It also has it's own TV Series, if anybody is interested.

So about Summer Knight. The story just continues off from the last book 'Grave Peril', and yes you have to read from the first book cause it would just confuse you if you start reading from middle of nowhere. Harry Dresden faced the White Council for what he did in the last book and is also in the middle of a beginning of a breakdown. (sort of). The Seasons are running havoc, his werewolves friends are his sidekicks, and of course there's a girl involved to make things interesting. To make him more busy, he has to look for a missing girl so he could pay for his rent!

Things I've enjoyed: How the events just won't slow down and fast pace for read. Danger after danger and complication after complication. It's not too much but it's good enough to get through you as a reader and not put it down. Plus Harry just have a good sense of weird humor here and there.

Things I didn’t enjoy: Well.. nothing so far.

Reason for reading: I love it! I would like to finish the series hope Jim Butcher won't end it any soon.

Rating: Pretty high. Recommending it to Pre-Us up.

Recommends to: Harry Potter, Laurell K. Hamilton and Tanya Huff fans would love this. ( )

Book 4 of the Dresden Files - in which the Summer and Winter Sidhe Courts are about to go to war because someone has killed the eponymous Knight of the Summer Court and stolen his mantle; and again, Harry has to find out who and why. I can see the beginnings of some interesting long term story arc development with this book, but unfortunately, I felt as though it had lost a little of the immediate intensity that drew me in to Fool Moon so strongly. That's not to say I didn't enjoy this one - I did - probably as much as Book 3... but so far, Fool Moon has been my favourite. And again, I'd give this one a 7.5/10 overall. ( )

I’ve really enjoyed the prior books in this series, but this one was pretty flat for me. Harry is even more of a mess than usual, and the faerie politics were just a little too complicated. There are a few decent spots of action, and the climactic final faerie battle is written well enough that I could picture it in my mind, but overall I was left wanting more. It may be that there just wasn’t enough of Harry’s supporting cast here… Murphy only plays a small part, and Bob, one of my favorite characters, is only in one scene. I do plan on finishing this series, so I hope they pick back up! ( )

Fantastic! ( )

The last book of the series, 'Grave Peril,' had Harry Dresden making enemies of just about every vampire in the world, and putting all his fellow wizards at considerable risk. As this book opens Harry is very depressed, hiding out in his basement, smelly, unshaved and unclean. He is called to the White Council to defend his actions and find out his fate, however there is the little matter of his evil fairy godmother selling him to the Faerie Queen of the Winter Court, Queen Mab. Mab has been accused of murdering the Summer knight and she wants Harry to find the real murderer. Trouble is there are other beings in the faerie world who have their own reasons for preventing the truth coming out. What with fanatical faeries, warring wizards and virulent Vampires - Harry has to keep his wits about him to save himself and both the magical and human world. It will also give him a special tool that will help in the upcoming fight against the vampires.

I love Harry Dresden - he is such a laid back, witty, theatrical wizard. He rights wrongs his way without regard for the establishment. He is a true and loyal friend - and a tenacious enemy. Jim Butcher has created a very special character, and there are quite a few more books in the series for me to read. This book won't set the world on fire - but is a good, although not cosy, read. ( )

I love reading these books, I got into the dresden files watching the series on sky 1, the book are a bit different, but I prefer them. I'm working my way through the series.

Continuing the run of the supernatural cataloguing, but still a good read, the best of the series so far in fact.

Harry vs. the Sidhe, with blasts from the past when Elaine turns up. Harry is asked to solve a murder by Mab, which gets him horribly entangled in Faerie politics, but also helps save his life when senior bodies at the White Council try to throw him to the Red Vampires.

The story twists and turns as Harry tries to understand what is going on, it has to be said without much success until it's almost too late. There's a lot more supernatural than is normal, with several trips to Faerie and the like, and relatively time for mundane allies, although Murphy and the Alphas both get to play significant bit part roles - the Alphas rather more than Murphy.

Although I'm sniping about the "ticking the catalogue boxes" feel when I read it through with time between books waiting for them to be published this hadn't really occurred to me. That's a testament to the fact that the writing is good and engaging, and the author makes each new supernatural group interesting and talks about their varieties, within the context of the story in enough detail to make it fun. ( )

Really liked this one. Harry is hired by Mab, Queen of the Winter Faeries to prove she didn't kill the Summer Knight. At the same time, he has to prove to the White Council that he is worthy of being a wizard - by getting Mab to agree to safe passage through the Nevernever. We delve more into Harry's past and he runs into interesting situations. ( )

Summer Knight fits a bit more in the fantasy side of the line and a bit less on the detective story side compared to the earlier books in the series (with the exception of the required string of beautiful women in distress/causing distress). A different feel from the earlier books, but still full of the same wonderful action and humor. ( )

With the Dresden Files, Jim Butcher is doing the impossible–writing a series that gets more entertaining with every book. Easily the best fantasy series on the market today, I’d even go so far as to say that the Dresden Files novels are as good as, if not better than another series of books with a guy name Harry in them.

The fourth book in the series “Summer Knight” is one that will not disappoint readers. Picking up a few months after the events of “Grave Peril” in which Harry lost a girlfriend, made a deal with his faerie godmother to save himself and his friend and precipiated a war between the White Council and the Red Council, Harry starts the novel in a bad place. He’s obsessed with finding a cure for his lost love Susan, he’s barely been in the office in months, he’s aliennating his friends and he’s got a price on his head by the Red Council. And that’s even before he finds out that his faerie godmother sold the favors he owed her to another and the White Council is coming to town.

The story unfolds at a natural but rewarding pace. Butcher has a natural ability to have events build on each other and he pays off hints from previous novels as well as dropping in hints of things to come. And this book feels like just a snapshot of a few of the big events in Harry’s life over the course of a couple of days from the grander scheme of things. The strength in these stories is they’re rewarding to read just as stand-alone novels, but taken within the greater context of the series, they add even greater layers. And while I will recommend reading them in order, Butcher does enough to bring in new readers that you can drop in on Harry at this point and not feel hopelessly lost. All the while, he doesn’t aliennate long-term readers with pages of recap.

A great series of books that only gets better. This is the best I’ve read in the series and I can’t wait to start the next one.

Oh one word of warning: Don’t start any of the Dresden books if you’ve got things to do like sleep, go to work, spend time with the family. These are the types of books that will consume you, demanding your attention to savor every page and anticipating what will come on the next. ( )

Absolutely the best of the series so far, the writing style has settled and the continuity with the past is good - though I wish he's decide whether is was a brass or copper circle, more or less the same colour, very different metals - a minor gripe. The plot is lsightly less convoluted, which makes the story flow better for the reader.

Harry is in his darkest days, beset by his responsability to Susan he abandons work, and hygine, searching for a cure, hence he's hardly in the best of states when the White Council deem him responsible for the vampire war. Can he win the aid of the faeries? Ever the sucker for a damsel in distress he does his best. A great take on A Midsummer Night's Dream set in Chicargo with clever twists and loyalty to friends.

After re-read:
Oh yeah, the vampires still aren't happy with him personally, his faery godmother has sold his debt to her, and Murphy is becoming afraid of the dark - because of him.

We learn lots more about Harry's past, and the Council, I love the slow leaking of backstory into the novels which provides a realy sense of depth oterwise lacking in these light but entertaining tales.
( )