Customer Reviews

Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, Book 2)

5 star:		(87)
4 star:		(61)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There are many kinds of wolves in the world, and not all of them are human. Not even those that walk on two legs.

Someone, someTHING, is shredding people in Chicago, leaving behind huge doggy footprints painted in the blood of the victims. Oh, and of course, it's round about full moon time. Reluctantly Karrin Murphy, Director of Special Investigations for the Chicago P.D., has had to call in Harry Dresden, professional wizard. Not that she trusts him much anymore after the way he left her hanging the last time they worked together. But he's the only with the knowledge and special skills she'll need if she has to deal with a werewolf on the loose.

In this second volume of his exciting new "Dresden Files" series, Jim Butcher has packaged up another action-filled detective story with a mystical twist. Like any good gumshoe thriller, "Fool Moon" has a plot full of peril, false leads, near misses, and all the usual (and unusual) suspects. Like any good fantasy tale, it has a believable, well-developed mythology. The reader comes away with an arcane education--werewolf lore, potion-cooking, demon-summoning. As narrator, Harry Dresden lets his audience in on all the little trade secrets of the practicing mage. Now, if only he could learn to be so candid with his colleagues and friends....

In the final analysis, "Fool Moon" is more about learning to trust than about foiling werewolves, more about self discovery than arcane knowledge, more about the demons in Harry's heart than those in his summoning circle. In other words, it is about Harry Dresden himself, a hero of pure intention, tremendous power, and courage in the face of unspeakable danger, who just happens to be afraid to meet his own eyes in the mirror. He infers the blackness of his own soul from the reactions of others brash or foolish enough to meet his gaze. And he fears that the kind of knowledge that has so blackened him will be at least as destructive to others. Harry's struggle to come to terms with himself and those he cares about, his faltering advances and all-too-frequent backslides, are what really keep the reader turning the pages. They are also what keep Harry half a step behind the villains until it is almost too late.

If you like action, mystery, magic, or just watching the growth of a compelling character, you'll want to read "Fool Moon."

After reading the first in this series "Storm Front" I had come to believe that the comic ineptness of Harry Dresden, the only wizard in the Chicago phone book (or any other phone book for that matter) was due more to the inexperience of the author than it was intentional. At that time, I thought the basic premise of the plot was serious. After all, people die when Harry gets things wrong. Well, it appears that I was wrong. Jim Butcher has clearly created one of the strangest wizards in detective fiction.

Actually he is a wizard/gumshoe with the kind of do-gooder streak that is a cinch to cause trouble. In this volume Dresden is trying to solve a serial killer problem which seems to involve several different kinds of werewolves. These range from nasty people who think they are wolves right up to the honest-to-God tear-you-and-all-your-friends-to-pieces loup-garou. Inevitably Harry goes into each struggle well armed with wands, charms, and even guns. And inevitably he drops or loses all of them. In fact your first warning that Harry is going to get flattened again is when he points his magic wand.

One of Harry's skills is the ability to alienate almost everyone. So this time Harry is not only dodging werewolves, he is also being chased by Chicago's number one gangster and all of the local FBI. Nor are the local cops fond of him. After the FBI manages to capture the loup-garou and lock him in a police holding tank, Harry manages to not get to the police station quite on time. Before Harry can do anything most of the occupants of the building are dead. What does Harry finally do? He blasts an invincible werewolf straight through the station's walls and several nearby buildings before setting him down so that the wolf can escape. Not too bright is our Harry.

Sooner or later you give up and start chuckling. Despite Harry's continual insistence that he is one of the 12 best wizards in the U.S., only the gangster really wants Harry on his side, and that's because he thinks Dresden would make good wolf bait. Which is a mistake. Harry's real talent is sheer unmitigated luck, without which he would be a wolf dropping somewhere in the Illinois woods. Everyone else, however, has to fend for themselves.

Despite my sarcasm, this isn't a bad book by a long shot. It just isn't quite what one is lead to expect by the cover. If you can handle occult slapstick and a bit of grim humor you will find "Fool Moon" great light reading. The plot is non-stop, Butcher's narrative abilities have improved, and the characterization is what you would expect from this kind of work. I wish Butcher has spent more time on Harry's oversexed skull assistant, but there's always the next volume for that.

I liked Storm Front well enough that it didn't take a lot of convincing to get Fool Moon, too - I do remember, however, that somebody told me that the series gets better with each new installment and so I opened up #2 in the Dresden Files ready to do a comparative analysis.

And it really is better. The voice is stronger, the difficulties more insurmountable, every last character is human, the setting of Chicago and the description of the magic are equally palpable.

Butcher maintains a pitch of tension throughout the novel which is positively excruciating. You know how in most books the tension builds and builds and then things come to a head, there's a climax, then a nice neat denoument? Fool Moon hits the crisis point at about page 10 and stays that way until the bitter end. It's incredible.

Plus, Butcher hasn't at all lost his sense of the absurd. Dresden's outfits are even more ridiculous than in Storm Front (which sounds impossible enough already) and the book is peppered with witty banter throughout.

Lastly, and maybe this is just me, but there's something kind of touching about a male author who writes these books in the first person about a tough old dude who has feelings and notices a girl's haircut. It's sweet.

Jim Butcher caught me with "Storm Front," the first in the series of the Harry Dresden mysteries. Dresden is a wizard for hire, who usually spends his time finding lost things and working with the vastly underfunded and undereducated paranormal branch of the police. Sometimes he can even afford to pay his rent.

Once again, a series of very grisly murders pit Dresden with the police as they try desperately to figure out if there's a werewolf out there taking out the citizens of the fair city. What Dresden can figure out - with the ever-wonderful help of Bob the skull-shaped oversexed air spirit - only seems to increase the danger.

Werewolves, Hexenwolves, Loup-Garous and worse abound in this novel where anything that can walk on furry feet during the full moon is suspect, and where Dresden's police friend might just lose her career. Asuming she lives through the night...

As always, it's Harry Dresden's wit and sarcasm that carries the tale, but the mystery in "Fool Moon" was quite a bit ahead of the tale in "Storm Front." Butcher's various supporting characters are coming to life, with backgrounds and personalities that don't seem as forced as they were in the first tale. All in all, this series is going places. I devoured "Full Moon" overnight, and grabbed "Grave Peril" (the third in the series) the next day.

Fans of Tanya Huff will love Butcher's quirky wit, and Laurel K. Hamilton fans will find the paranormal mystery as good as the earlier Anita Blake books (albeit usually a whole lot less gorey and angsty). Regardless, if you're looking for a fun mystery with a paranormal twist, give both "Fool Moon" and "Storm Front" a go!

'Nathan

The highest compliment I can give a book is its characters become real to me. Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden now lives with my other literary friends who have reached this status. Harry Dresden is an often misunderstood wizard. His heart is in the right place but people tend to misjudge him. Take Karrin Murphy, Director of Special Investigations for the Chicago Police Department. When a case comes across her desk that is supernatural in origin, Harry is her man. Unfortunately, she doesn't trust Harry because sometimes he isn't forthcoming with all the information she needs to solve the crime. She doesn't know Harry has to answer to the White Council, a "policeman" for those with supernatural ability and it's against the rules to let common mortals know about them. It doesn't help that most people don't believe in the supernatural and think Harry is a scam artist or worse. When corpses begin turning up with shredded and chewed up body parts, she has no choice but to turn to Harry again. It doesn't take Harry long to figure out a werewolf is killing people. Harry really wants to help out and stop the killings but roadblocks hamper his investigation at every turn. Throw in mobsters, being arrested, beat up, chased, confrontations with hungry werewolves, mad FBI agents,and nearly getting killed several times, and you have a glimpse of what Harry's life has turned into. All in all, a very good read and I recommend it very highly.

When Karrin Murphy of the Chicago PD Special Investigations unit calls on Harry Dresden to investigate a series of savage murders, the clues point to beastly creatures that appear during the full moon. Werewolves!
Dresden, Chicago's only openly practicing professional wizard, must reestablish his friendship with Murphy, and build his growing relationship with Susan, a beautiful tabloid journalist.
Also included are gangster John Marcone, a quartet of intense FBI agents, two gangs called the Alphas and the Streetwolves, a cursed Scottish philanthropist and the mysterious Tera West.
It's enough for a fast-paced, intense read that is both graphically violent but balanced with the levity of Dresden's self-deprecating sense of humor.
Things I liked:
Dresden's character improves from the first book and I liked his inner monologue. I do like that he uses his wits and body in addition to magic. When Harry has a conversation with his inner self, while he's knocked out, a lot of information comes to the surface and he takes a leap forward in development.
As I mentioned earlier, there was a good mix of levity with the suspense, which helps because this is a very violent story, especially the second half of the book, which is an extended string of action sequences, in the police department, in dark garages, and climaxing at Marcone's estate.
I liked making potions with Bob and the fun ingredients.
I enjoyed learning about the different types of werewolves.
The plot of Fool Moon flowed much better than Storm Front, with more related subplots and loose ends thrown in about Dresden's family, Marcone, Murphy, Susan, etc. that gave a sense of continuity to the series.
My bumps:
I wanted to smack Harry for being overprotective and for withholding information from his friends. He needs allies. He also always seems to get beat up and lose his clothes. He's intelligent but not very wise sometimes.
My questions:
What about Harry's father and mother? Will he get his powers restored? What are the repercussions of the body count at the department?
I'm ready for Book Three!

It's official! Jim Butcher has a hit series on his hands. Fool Moon, the much anticipated second book in the Dresden Files series, does more than live up to fans' expectations: It exceeds them. This book rocks, fulfilling the lofty precedent set in Storm Front for fast paced action, witty dialogue, a riveting plotline, compelling characters and, most of all, it's endearing protagonist: Harry Dresden, a wisecracking gumshoe wizard with a heart of gold and just enough of a dark side to keep things real.

Fool Moon returns to the alternate-reality version of modern day Chicago as introduced in book one, an unsettling yet exciting world of both everyday familiarity and film-noir style fantasy where chaos results when paranormal forces interact with a mostly disbelieving humanity. It's this disbelief that keeps business in a slump for Harry, the windy city's only professional wizard. Thankfully Lt. Karrin Murphy, head of the Chicago Police's Special Investigations unit, has experienced enough weirdness on Chi Town's mean streets to know that the paranormal threat is very real. Determined to save lives at all costs and faced with having to solve crimes that go beyond the scope of forensic science, Murphy usually turns to Harry for help. But in Fool Moon Harry discovers that Murphy is forced to risk her badge to bring him in on a murder investigation after an editorial in a local paper criticizes her use of public funds to hire a "charlatan psychic" and Internal Affairs begins probing into her suspected connection to the Chicago Mob through her past involvement with Harry.

Time is running out. Evidence found following a series of gruesome murders leads Harry to believe that a pack of werewolves is on the rampage in the city and with only a few nights of bright moonlight left, the wizard is in a race against the clock to put an end to the slaughter or lose the trail until the next full moon.

Fool Moon is solid entertainment that leaves readers with that all-too-rare sense of deep satisfaction that comes from getting your moneys worth. New readers will discover the thrill of riding shotgun with Harry and returning fans will enjoy the hints scattered throughout the novel that unearth more of Harry's rebel past, in particular a closer look at the events that lead to the Doom of Damocles, a form of probation placed on him by the White Council who oversee the ethical use of magic in the world of the mundane.

I look forward with great anticipation to the next book in the series, and to watching Jim Butcher become a household name in fantasy fiction.

Humor and magic run rampant in Fool Moon, the 2nd installment in Jim Butcher's fantasy series featuring Harry Dresden, Wizard Detective. This book picks up a few months after the events of the first novel and begins with Harry once again being called in by the regular police force to consult on a case. This time, Harry must fight werewolves, and there are lots of magic scenes, and a brand new theory on werewolfishness(?) that will entertain fans of the genre. From that point the plot gets pretty convoluted, and doesn't deserve much rehashing since it seems to have been cobbled together to hold the great action scenes, and obligatory sex scene, together.

An enjoyable but flawed book. If you don't begrudge the book the flaws, you'll have a great escapist time reading.

Jim Butcher does it again with another fun Harry Dresden book. This book picks up a few months after "Storm Front." The main meat of the story deals with a werewolf killer on the loose. But there are many kinds of wolves and many kinds of killers.

Harry's police friend Murphy know that something is up and want Harry's help. But the friendship they had at the beginning of Storm Front hasn't weathered well... Murphy no longer has the same trust of Harry she once had. And that's what makes this book such a great read. The interplay of Harry and Murphy, and the steps they take to protect each other, and the consequences that result, make for a very worthwhile read.

The mystery is well played and the action and adventure are well paced but the real magic of this comes from the great characters and their interactions. Harry's struggles both internal and external keep the reader interested and coming back for more.

Well, not exactly the wizard at the top of the children's reading list - closer to X-Files with a bit of humor. However, this is an imaginative spin on the ever after battle of good vs. evil, with the wizard Harry Dresden (who isn't really 'nother one Harry grown up). Unique and darkly magical, the author
obviously has a grand time weaving a scary spell of a story, having license to throw in ... unexpected elements. Harry Dresden walks a fine line between the Nevernever and the criminal

side of Chicago, practicing his idiosyncratic magical talents within the boundaries and principles of each world. Will he forfeit his own mortality for the greater good? Humorous or seriously scary, the adventures of this wizard named Harry are close enough to life to make you wonder at times. Haphazard and hard on electronics, Harry has issues with cars, computers, as well as a fat cat named Mister (that the author gets Just Right with the "mrow" and the wizard tumping shoulder butt) and a nasty minded skull named Bob. Alchemy and potions, demons and handcuffs, maybe a little too much - but clever. I enjoyed it and look forward to Fool Moon.