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From Publishers Weekly
Harry Dresden, Chicago's only consulting wizard, takes on phobophages, creatures that feed on fear who attack a horror film convention, in the diverting eighth installment of Butcher's increasingly complicated Dresden Files series (Dead Beat, etc.). Harry finds that fighting monsters is only the prelude to maneuvers amid the warring wizards of the White Council and the vampire Red Court. Less and less V.I. Warshawski with witchcraft, Harry aims his deductive powers at political intrigues rather than crime solving. The body count from the magical melees, however, would do any hard-boiled gumshoe proud. Butcher's believable, likable set of characters go for the jocular much more than the jugular. Deeper fears do run through the book, and Harry, taking on an apprentice, has to face up to the consequences of his all-too-human failings. Look for the series to really take off with the debut of a two-hour pilot on the Sci-Fi Channel this summer produced by Nicholas Cage. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
The second Dresden Files hardcover finds Chicago wizard Harry Dresden assigned an unpleasant task by the White Council of Wizards. He has to find out where the Winter Fairy Court stands in the White Council's war against the vampires. To make matters worse, he has gotten a missive from a powerful wizard claiming someone is using black magic in Chicago. It doesn't take long for Harry to pinpoint the source of the problem. Molly, the daughter of a close friend, comes to him for help after her boyfriend is accused of attacking an elderly theater owner at a horror-movie convention. When another attack occurs and Harry sees the dangerous type of magic used, he knows he is dealing with a very serious threat indeed. Butcher is in fine form here, and with the Sci Fi channel in the process of turning the first Dresden Files novel, Storm Front (2000), into a TV movie, expect the series' audience to grow. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Blood leaves no stain on a Warden's grey cloak. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Blood leaves no stain on a Warden's grey cloak. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
And I love horror movies because?,
By
This review is from: Dresden Files 08: Proven Guilty (Mass Market Paperback)
Rougly a year after his escapes in Dead Beat, Harry Dresden is back. We open in the middle of a warehouse, Harry and several other Wardens tight in a circle, all staring down at a young man, a wizard who used his magic for darker purposes. Found guilty, he is beheaded, as is the direction of the White Council. If a wizard is proven guilty of breaking one of the seven laws of the White Council, if sentenced to death, it is carried out immediately. And this seriously disturbs Harry. To Harry, the young man was no more than a child in wizard age, and was never taught right from wrong. But a soulgaze on the young man proved there was no helping him and it had to be done. Still, it doesn't sit well with Harry.As he is leaving, he is handed a note from the Gatekeeper. Black magic is afoot in Chicago, and as the regional Warden, it is his duty to find out the who, why and stop them. And just when Harry is about to start his investigation with a new and powerful `toy', Molly, the daughter of Michael, an longtime friend of Harry's, calls, begging for help. And true to Harry's form, he can't pass up a `damsel in distress' and, against his own judgement, runs to her aid. However, she isn't the one in trouble. Her boyfriend, Nelson, is. Seems he was arrested for beating up an older gentlemen, simply because he was the only one in the room. No blood on his clothes, no break in the skin of his knuckles... Something is very strange, and Harry's determined to find out what's going on. The first of many areas, Harry glimpses around the bathroom of a conference centre in a hotel, using his Sight. What's disturbing is the residual reflection he sees - and doesn't like it one bit. The hotel is very busy, what with the SPLATTERCON!!! horror convention going on, and while talking with Rawlins outside the bathroom, something else goes down, and Harry runs to find out what. With more questions and answers, the attacks are made by phonophages, made to look like the `bad guys' fron the horror movies. Phonophages are sprirtual entities that feed on fear and are being either pulled or pushed from the Nevernever. The higher the fear, the more powerful they become. Harry needs to do two things. Stop the phonophages from attacking and find out who's sending them. The deeper we get into the story, the more complicated it gets. Just when Harry thinks he's got it beat, a twist slaps him back - Molly has been kidnapped by more phonophages and is now being held in Winter's Queen Mab's `headquarters', Arctis Tor, and with the help of Molly's mother Charity, Murphy and Thomas, Summer Lady Lily and Summer Knight Fix, they go in and get Molly back. Once they've retreated and hare back with Father Forthill, Molly is given a choice, one that she has to make up herself. Can Harry handle what the Council might do to her? Oh, how I love this series! Nothing is ever as it seems, and Harry is constantly battling others as well as himself. He relies heavily on his instincts and does the best he can with what he's got. Considerate as he is, he'll do whatever is necessary and deal with the consequences later. Non-stop action, the plot not only keeps Harry on his toes, but the reader as well. No one can predict how the story is going to turn. Add in horror movie characters, add in magic and control of that magic and it makes for one heck of a story. What I truly like is how his personal life is entertwined with all that action, between Harry and Murphy, Harry and Molly and her family, Harry and Thomas, and Harry and his feelings of the Wardens and the White Council, Harry and Ebenezer, you not only get a real sense of what Harry's dealing with, but you truly understand what it is about him; why he is the way he is, why he thinks the way he thinks. As a bookaholic who loves many different genres, Harry is one of the top characters where a reader truly gets the `inside look' at the main character. I can't ask for better. I can only ask that Mr. Butcher keeps Harry coming. Serve me up more, please!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.7 out of 5 stars (133 customer reviews) 84 of 89 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dresden takes off yet again,
By Dussan - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Proven Guilty (Hardcover)
After the events in Dead Beat, Harry Dresden is now a Warden of the White Council, and one of his first official acts you see him perform is to bear witness to the execution of a young warlock, no more then a child, corrupted by his own power. From that moment on you should be able to chart where the book will take you.If you know anything about Harry Dresden you will figure out his feelings about what happened to that young man. If the previous novel was a showcase Harry's slow decent to darkness, then this book will show his firm resolve to the do the right thing and accept the consequences for all of his actions. Like Dead Beat, Butcher takes pains to pick almost forgotten threads from previous novels and weave them into his story with great care, this time it is not quite as obvious. This time out Harry is warned of dark magic being afoot, and a request for help by the daughter of the last man on earth he wants to be involved with, Michael Carpenter Knight of the Cross. With Harry sharing his brain with one of the Denarii, Lasciel he fears that Michael may take issues with this as well as the recent events and his downward spiral to darkness. Harry reluctantly gets involved, and nothing plays out the way he thinks. The book is shorter then some of the previous installments, that only means Butcher cut out a lot of loose talk and got right too it, Zelazney style. He manages to flood in detail after detail without drowning you in it. New readers beware, while Butcher attempts to get people caught up by giving brief recaps, they do not do the stories justice. Butcher also dusted off a couple of unused characters and made them shine like jewels, just as he made Waldo Butters a hero in Dead Beat. He is absent in this book, but you can feel the polka beat whenever you turn the page. The humor level is high, and while things are grave, it is nowhere near as grave as they are in Dead Beat or Blood Rites. Proven Guilty did not give us that feel of time running out and the world would end soon. It forshadows, very effectively, that things in Harry's world will become very, very big and even more dangerous in the near future. As again the traitor in the White Council seems to strike, the Vampire War takes another turn, the affairs of the Sidhe are revisited with catastrophic consequences for those involved, and Harry's personal life.....well you will have to read the book for more. Without a doubt this is my favorite novel beside Summer Knight, and it may even surpass it. The story was well told, dialogue was spot on. Murphy seemed a bit too relaxed but after her disappearance in the last book I didn't realize how much I missed her presence. Once again I thank whatever muse made me pick up that loneley looking paperback sitting on a bookshelf six years ago in Waldenbooks. Well done Mr. Butcher. 17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fast-paced and utterly enjoyable!,
By Howard D. Fisher "kahohito" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Dresden Files 08: Proven Guilty (Mass Market Paperback)
The latest book in the Dresden series is a real treat. Dresden receives a warning that black magic is heading for his hometown, and he heads out to stop it. On his way, though, he gets sidetracked into helping a friend's daughter who has a ton of problems of her own. In typical Dresden fashion, he spreads himself too thin, tries to help too many people, gets beat up almost as much as Bruce Willis in a Die Hard movie -- and he does it all with a grin on his face and a snappy one-liner that usually relates to a horror or SF movie.The plot's a tad obvious (I called several twists by halfway through the book), and some of the dialog with Murphy is annoyingly awkward, but Harry has the heart and soul of a hero, and he's a fantastic character to join on a good romp through dark magic and the weird Nevernever. Some have compared this series to the Anita Blake series, but Harry is far more likable, heroic, and mythic. He's just a lot more enjoyable to be around than Anita ever has been. One cool -- and totally unexpected -- surprise.... This book contains one of the best expressions of Christian faith I've read in a fiction novel ever. Don't be fooled and don't let that turn you off if you're not a Christian. This is not a "Christian" novel -- those are notoriously poorly written -- and Dresden, with a fallen angel swimming around in his head, never claims to be a Christian himself. But some of the characters in this book are Christians, and I appreciated seeing them portrayed realistically and with respect to their faith. If you've never read a Dresden book, you could pick this one up with little problem. The cast of characters may feel a little overwhelming since they've been building from the previous seven books, but they're distinct in their own rights, and Butcher does a good job recapping each when they first show up. Overall, another fantastic entry in a wonderful series of books. 23 of 28 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everyone Dumps on Harry,
By Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Proven Guilty (Hardcover)
I've been with this series from the beginning and sometimes it's been a rough ride. I love the concept, a wizard for hire in contemporary Chicago, and Butcher's writing always works, but I don't always like Harry Dresden. Sometimes he plays the heroic victim, and I've always felt that characters who set themselves up get what they deserve when it hits the fan.Initially this story came close. Harry is now a warden for the White Council but they don't like him much and several are waiting for the opportunity to take his head. And then there's the vampire's Red Court that has gone to war with the wizards, mostly thanks to Harry's ineptness. And then there's the Summer and Winter Courts in Faerie. Right again, Harry has few friends there. When he is asked to investigate why the Fae haven't come to help the wizards, and is warned that black magic is being worked in the city you know it's going to be a difficult week. Especially when it starts right out with someone trying to run Harry over while he's in his VW bug. Harry does have friends - and oversexed skull (Bob), a dog that eats vampires (Mouse), a holy knight (Michael), a tough police lieutenant (Murphy), and a fallen angel (Lasciel). That's right, a fallen angel, not the best thing to have as a friend. One of Harry's worst problems problem is that he hates asking for help, and, no surprise, he volunteers for everything. So when Michael's daughter's boyfriend gets in trouble at a horror convention that suddenly turns real it's Harry to the rescue. And the problems get worse and worse. Just when I thought Harry was going to get eaten by a film monster as he so richly deserved, the story swerved and became one of Butcher's best. Frankly, I can't explain it. Something about the characters or the plot gelled. Or maybe Harry became more of a player in his own life. But the story picks up pace and then keeps on running at top speed. Hooray for Jim Butcher, who has worked hard for his success. And hooray for me, who deserves a good book now and then. |
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