Customer Reviews

Dead Beat (The Dresden Files, Book 7)

5 star:		(98)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Let me say it right off: "Dead Beat" is not the best in the series, but it is damn good nevertheless. In all fairness it has several weaknesses, which I will briefly mention below, but it certainly doesn't betray the usual strong plot, fun adventure and high quality writing we came to expect from Jim.

The previous installment, "Blood Rites", had Harry discover new and disturbing facts about his life. In this book, Harry turns to introspection. Faced with a bunch of necromancers in a mad race after a lost artifact of unspeakable power, all of them much stronger magically than Harry, our hero has to make choices and compromises which are morally ambiguous. As with real life, there are no clear-cut `right' solutions (high points for realism, Jim). But hey, nothing like moral dilemmas to have a character grow. Indeed, here we find Harry gradually losing the naiveté and bumbling enthusiasm of the first volumes; this is a world-weary Harry who has to undergo a painful examination of his weaknesses of spirit in order to be able to live with them. Nicely done.

If the hero gets all the attention he deserves, that can hardly be said about the rest of the characters we came to love, or love to hate. Thomas pops in and out of the plot at random moments; some old characters get cameo appearances, others are conspicuously absent for the entire duration of the plot, which was decidedly odd. Also, there should be a limit to how many artifacts Harry is able to locate during the course of a book ... and then lose to the bad guys rather immediately! I am not saying this makes for a bad plot, but boy was I gritting my teeth in frustration. Finally, some small inconsistencies (an attentive reader will no doubt notice them, so I won't go into that). All these do not change my impression of the series, which is among the best out there now that Anita went bananas and Meredith will soon collapse from sexual exhaustion. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and can't wait to get my hands on the next one. Go Harry!

Kudos to Jim Butcher for getting his first hardcover publication in the Harry Dresden series! Definitely liked the presentation: cover illustration is great and the overall work is of excellent quality.

To the story: Chicago's only Wizard PI, Harry Dresdent's latest story opens up with him agreeing to take care of his cop-friend (who could be more) house while she goes away to Hawaii with another man. Harry wants to stop her. Something tells him Murphy wants him to stop her....but he doesn't....

Then, he's contacted by Mavra, a vampire he thought he'd killed before. If he doesn't get her the "Word of Kemmler" Murphy is going to be disgraced by some seriously incriminating pictures. Murph comes from a cop family and this would destroy her.

So, the chase for the elusive Word begins. In the process, Harry discovers that Kemmler is definitely bad juju. He was a black wizard sho specialized in necromancy--til he died. Now, his disciples are on the chase for the Word, too, competing with each other, hoping to gain the power the Word will provide.

It's a fast-paced story with some really good messages within, particularly relating to Waldo Butters and courage.

I don't think DEAD BEAT is as well-paced as the other Dresden novels. There are some spots that actually drag. Can't decide whether that is the novel length requirement for hardcover or that Jim Butcher is distracted with his new series. I think I could have done without most of a scene with Harry debating with Alterna-Harry, but skimming will get you the drift.

Still, I highly recommend all of Butcher's DRESDEN FILES novels. They are well-written. Since Butcher is a martial artist, the action flows nicely. The characters are folks you care about--interesting, flawed, but worth knowing. I am grateful most of all that Harry has stayed pretty much Harry. He's a good guy, who fights to do the right thing and keep the world safe. HURRAY FOR HARRY AND JIM BUTCHER!!!!

I was going to start this review by saying, "Dead Beat is the best book yet", but I'm not sure if that's true. I mean no criticism though. The quality level of the series has reached the point where every book is such a solid 5 stars that trying to compare them is beyond me.

In Dead Beat Harry once again has to save, if not the world, then at least most of Chicago from an awful fate. Yet Mr. Butcher manages to keep the plot from seeming repeative by throwing some great twists at Harry - some good, some not so good. The climax was delightful and well foreshadowed - no deus ex machina here.

I do have a complaint for Mr. Butcher. Harry's supporting cast is too diverse and interesting, so I am inevitably dissapointed when one of my favorites doesn't appear. Thankfully we get an appearance by some old friends who we haven't seen in a while, and Thomas gets quite a bit of screen time, but it's not enough! I almost hope we get a book at some point where Harry goes missing and all of his friends need to work together to find him.

Overall Dead Beat is another fantasic addition to the series, and I can't wait for the next one.

This is Jim Butcher's seventh foray into the darkly magical modern world of the Dresden files. As the seventh book in addictive and entertaining Dresden Files, Dead Beat contains characters and relationships that have had a great deal of time to mature and crystallize. Like a fine wine, the characters of Dead Beat in particular and of Dresden's world in general have aged not just gracefully but impressively.

Throughout Dead Beat Butcher keeps us tightly focused on Dresden, the entire novel unfolds from his sardonic, witty, and occasionally grim perspective. Seeing the world through his eyes, with his mind as subtext and narrator is vastly more entertaining than doing so on our own or as apart of some disembodied third person perspective. Dresden isn't just the protagonist of the book and thereby the world; he's its tour guide, news anchor, and occasionally bitter revolutionary all in one.

Within the pages of Dead Beat Dresden must face deadly and disturbing new foes wielding a dangerous and dark form of magic, grapple with unknown rivals who could be friend or foe, struggle with his own place in the hierarchy of wizards, come to terms with his own inner demon, and do his best to stay one step ahead of the vastly powerful beings who seek to garner his service or enslavement. Between the violence, the desperation, the passion, the fear, and glimmers of hope Dead Beat is a truly immersive and exciting experience.

I read this book straight through the night and found myself reading chapters over again.

In this latest installment, Dresden must contend with necromancers to stop their deadly struggle for dominance in the mortal world.

It's more of Harry Dresden going up against impossible odds to do the right thing. Along the way, the man grows, and not just him. Butcher takes the most minor characters of previous books and fleshes them out VERY nicely. This is not a book to start the series on, but long time fans will get a kick out of some old aquantinces popping in. They not only make appearances, but they save the day on more then one occasion. For a loner, Dresden picks up some great friends.

As the plot of the book ticks along, other plot threads from previous books are picked up and woven into this story. I can no longer honestly compare it to Hamilton's Anita Blake series anymore. It's moved so far beyond that series, even in it's prime, that it is not funny. Not just in quality, but in scope. We get glimpses of the Vampire War that the White Council is waging, a new romance that takes an unexpected turn, and we see Harry laying not just his life, but his heart and soul on the line to save....well everyone.

Dresden is not some lone crusader out to stop all evil in the world. He takes help, and cuts deals, some not too smart, but wholly within the charcter. Butcher doesn't intentionally make Harry a heavyweight superhero, but somehow you can't stop thinking of Harry Dresden as anything else. Rather than force Dresden's outstanding skill and power down the readers throat (Anita Blake anyone?), he tosses Dresden into the fire and takes the pains to craft a story that requires him to fill those shoes. And it works.

This book is not perfect, I wanted to see something happen in this book between Harry and another character, and it was not meant to be. And I got a "rushed" feeling during some portions of the book, as if Butcher was going for something more but didnt' have the time or didn't know how he wanted to go with it. But I give it five stars anyway because it has me drooling for the next Dresden Files installment.

I bless the day I walked in a bookstoore on a boring Monday evening after work 5 years ago and picked up Storm Front on a complete and total whim. Butcher has not let me down, and he shows no signs of doing so in the future.

Jim Butcher remains consistently interesting across his novels. Astonishingly, Jim has refrained from making the common mistake - having his novels degenerate in quality as more of them come out.

He's almost singular in this; certainly singular in this sub-genre. Another similar author, Laurell K. Hamilton, hasn't been able to retain the quality of her novels. In contrast, Jim's novels actually increase in quality as he becomes a better author.

In this novel, Harry Dresden is once again forced to save the world agianst impossible odds. Jim reaches back for elements from his earlier books, tying plot elements together quite neatly. There are a few "happy coincidences" which are, perhaps, a bit too happy. Despite these (very minor) flaws, the book is very entertaining: Harry has changed enough, but not too much, from the previous novels - and all the characters seem to flow naturally.

The novel is quite complex; in addition to an interesting plot, the character struggles Jim portrays are engrossing. It, like its predecessors, is a novel to pick up to relax with: entertaining and a page turner.

I'd recommend you read it.

Dead Beat (2005) is the seventh urban fantasy novel in the Dresden Files series, following Blood Rites. In the previous volume, Harry burned his hand rescuing children from the Black Court vampires. He also discovered that paintball guns work well against the Black Court when loaded with holy water.

Lara Raith discovered the results of the curse on her father and Thomas learned that Justine is not dead. Jake decided to go into Feng Shui consulting while he took care of Emma's kids. Harry named the puppy "Mouse" and wondered why Thomas had bought large breed Puppy Chow.

In this novel, Thomas is living with Harry in the basement apartment. Thomas is frustrated because he cannot find a permanent job and Harry is frustrated because he cannot find a permanent girlfriend. Mister and Mouse are frustrated because they don't get fed on time and they are both oversized enough to really need the food.

It doesn't help that Thomas has women coming into the apartment when he should be running errands for his brother. Maybe Thomas and his lovers have a great time, but they do trash the place. Even the books are pulled out and scattered on the floor. And Thomas doesn't clean up behind himself.

After Thomas bares his soul and leaves in a huff, Harry takes Mouse out for a walk and Murphy pulls up just as he returns. Karrin is going on a vacation -- the first one in forever -- to Hawaii with Kincaid and wants Harry to water her plants. Harry tries to talk her out of doing anything with Kincaid, but doesn't try that hard since Karrin is not his girlfriend. Later, he wonders if Murphy had wanted him to try a little harder.

After pocketing the keys to her house, Harry goes inside the apartment and heats up some soup. Sitting down to eat, Harry checks his mail and finds one envelope with only his name and address on it. He checks it out for magical spells and, finding nothing harmful, opens it and slides out two photos and a note.

The photos show Murphy blasting some vampire minions with a shotgun. Harry knows that the public will only see human shaped bodies in the photos. The note threatens to send copies to Murphy's bosses if Harry doesn't appear at a specified time and place. The note offers a truce for the parley and is signed "Mavra". Dresden has little choice in the matter.

At the meeting, Mavra demands that Harry find a book -- The Word of Kemmler -- or the photos get mailed. Mavra has also taken precautions to ensure that the photos will be mailed if Harry destroys her. Harry still doesn't see any way out of this mess.

In this story, Harry gradually finds out more about Kemmler and his books -- at least two earlier works had been self-published -- and he soon discovers that Kemmler had been the most dangerous necromancer suppressed by the White Council. They had finally terminated Kemmler himself and several apprentices, but they hadn't gotten them all. Now the last work of Kemmler has suddenly reappeared and Harry soon runs into three separate necromancers looking for the book.

The first necromancer encountered is Grevane, who raids the Forensic Institute -- commonly called the morgue -- looking for something. The security guard is the first through the door into the examining room, his throat cut from ear to ear. Then Grevane and two other zombies enter and face Butters, the medical examiner. Harry intervenes to save Butters and they barely escape from the dead men. Harry takes Butters home to his warded apartment.

Later, Harry meets Shiela -- a clerk at Bock Ordered Books -- and buys a copy of a rare book that he needs for his research. When he steps out of the bookstore, two hooded figures are waiting for him. They both know who he is, but the taller one introduces himself as Cowl and calls the shorter one Kumori. Dresden drops a Toyota on Cowl, but only the local pack of werewolves saves him from the more powerful wizard.

When he later returns to the bookstore, the front windows have been replaced with plywood. Bock asks him to never return, but Shiela asks him for a date. Then the third necromancer -- Corpsetaker -- comes into the store asking about the buyer of the rare book and Harry steps out to confront her. She almost snares him with her mind magic, but he gets away with a little help from John Marcone.

This story has Harry facing three necromancers who are each much stronger than him. Moreover, he doesn't know what they want and how they expect to get it. Obviously, The Word of Kemmler is important, but so is the other book. He desperately needs more information.

Harry spends some time explaining the facts of the preternatural world to Butters. At first, Butters is skeptical, but too much is happening around him to deny the facts. Harry also divulges various White Council secrets and even shows Butters how to power a magical circle.

Harry also has several frank discussions with the shadow of Lasciel dwelling within his mind. Naturally, Dresden knows that the fallen angel is trying to seduce him to the dark side, but she is so convincing. He is definitely NOT going to dig up the blackened denarius in the cellar, but maybe they can work out a compromise to help protect his friends and neighbors.

Highly recommended for Butcher fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of magical powers, dinosaur skeletons, and other exotica.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Halloween is only weeks away and Harry finds himself being blackmailed into finding a legendary necromantic text by the vampire Marva of the Black Court. Then the zombies and their makers hit town and Harry will find that there are some things even he can't deal with by himself, no matter how good his magic is. The consequences of his actions in previous books will also come back to haunt him.

As usual Jim Butcher provides a tension ridden and very active novel for Harry's stories. Harry is starting to get weighed down by the things he's done in the past, but the series continues to have a good cast of characters who all have a life of their own and continue to grow and change, which stops these books getting stagnant.

I continue to look forward to new novels in this series, and as usual, enjoyed this new outing, and its good to see that the author has finally graduated to hardcover with this novel. In the supernatural-thriller section of the book store these novels stand out from the crowd.

...with the writing style and the characters and the atmosphere and oh... everything. highly enjoyable series - now Harry just needs to get his head on straight and ask Murphy out! Dead Beat is a little darker than the earlier books and a lot more introspective, but that's kind of to be expected at this point - Harry just found out crazy stuff about both his biological family (mom's past anyways) and his emotional family (Ebenezer), not to mention burned his hand beyond recognition all in the last book - the boy has got a lot to think about. All in all, an excellent, if expensive, addition to the Dresden files.

Necromancy is one of the crimes for which the White Council will destroy a wizard. While it is technically not black magic, its effect on the wizard's ethics and outlook are so great that it might as well be. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop some very talented people from following the dark path to unimaginable power. So it is no surprise that Harry Dresden, practicing wizard should run afoul of those who draw their power from the dead. After all, Harry has a real knack for getting in trouble and nearly ending the world.

This time Mavra the vampire behind the Black Court tricks Harry into a hunt for the last book written by Kemmler, the very worst of the black wizards. Kemmler was destroyed by the White Council, but his students escaped to continue his plans. Now Mavra wants in on the secrets and by threatening to ruin detective Karrin Murphy, forces Harry to cooperated in the hunt. No one realizes just how bad the situation really is until Harry discovers he is fighting with a whole platoon of deadly necromancers and half the dead of Chicago.

The resulting tale is classic Harry Dresden, the wizard who has no sense of self preservation. Harry is one of those few characters who know very well they are about to make a deadly mistake and, by dint of careful planning, manage to make it any way. Even with the help of a talking skull, a vampire brother, and a puppy the size of a water buffalo, Harry bounces from one wizardly confrontation to another, none of which leave him entirely in one piece. Harry is supposed to be a pretty good mage with a wand, but this time everyone has him outclassed.

Even though the story is the magical equivalent of a Korean fight film, and the plot is predictable, Dead Beat still displays Jim Butcher's ability to snatch victory from Harry's defeats. The wizard has learnt from his mistakes, even if he still insists in making them. The end result is that the interior monologue manages to stay interesting. The addition of brother Thomas , Butters the cowardly medical examiner, and Lasciel the fallen cutie round out the story neatly, making this another enjoyable tour of Chicago's 'otherworld.'