Ghost Story (Dresden Files, No. 13) [Hardcover]

Jim Butcher (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 26, 2011

When we last left the mighty wizard detective Harry Dresden, he wasn't doing well. In fact, he had been murdered by an unknown assassin.

But being dead doesn't stop him when his friends are in danger. Except now he has nobody, and no magic to help him. And there are also several dark spirits roaming the Chicago shadows who owe Harry some payback of their own.

To save his friends-and his own soul-Harry will have to pull off the ultimate trick without any magic...

The eagerly awaited new novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files series.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Harry Dresden has a vitality that few urban fantasy heroes can match SFX Narrated with his usual sardonic wit, this is another fast-paced adventure... [that] keeps its grip to the very end TELEGRAPH --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

A martial arts enthusiast whose resume includes a long list of skills rendered obsolete at least two hundred years ago, Jim Butcher turned to writing as a career because anything else probably would have driven him insane. He lives with his wife, his son and a ferocious guard dog.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Roc Hardcover; First Edition edition (July 26, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 045146379X
• ISBN-13: 978-0451463791
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (694 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,913 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jim Butcher read his first fantasy novel when he was seven years old--
the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. By the time he turned eight,
he'd added the rest of the Narnia books, the Prydain Chronicles, every
book about Star Wars he could find, a great many Star Trek novels and
the Lord of the Rings to his count.

So he was pretty much doomed from the start.

Love of fantasy, his personal gateway drug, drew him toward a fairly
eclectic spread of interests: horseback riding (including trick riding,
stunt riding, drill riding, and competitive stunt racing), archery,
martial arts, costuming, music and theater. He played a lot of role-
playing games, a lot of fantasy-based tactical computer games, and
eventually got into live-action roleplay where players beat each other
up with boffer weapons.

So, really, he can fly his nerd flag with pretty much anyone, and
frequently does.

He took up writing to be able to produce fantasy novels with swords and
horses in them, and determinedly wrote terrible fantasy books until,
just to prove a point to his writing teacher, he decided to take every
piece of her advice; fill out outlines and worksheets, and design
stories and characters just the way she'd been telling him to do for
about three years. He was certain that once she saw what hideous art it
produced, she would be proven wrong and repent the error of her ways.
The result was the Dresden Files, which sure showed *her*.

She has not yet admitted her mistake and recanted her philosophy on
writing.

Jim has performed in dramas, musicals, and vocal groups in front of
live audiences of thousands and on TV. He has performed exhibition
riding in multiple arenas, and fallen from running horses a truly
ridiculous number of times. He was once cursed by an Amazon witch
doctor in rural Brazil, has apparently begun writing about himself in
the third person, and is hardly ever sick at sea.

He also writes books occasionally.

Jim stands accused of writing the Dresden Files and the Codex Alera.
He's plead insanity, but the jury is still out on that one. He lives in
Missouri with his wife, romantic suspense and paranormal romance writer
Shannon K. Butcher (who is really pretty and way out of his league),
his son, and a ferocious guard dog.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

(What's this?)

#9 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#13 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#14 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy

#9 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#13 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#14 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

135 of 143 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars odd duck in the series July 26, 2011

By Madame X TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Jim Butcher is one of those authors I count on. Usually his books are like the reading equivalent of a weekend at a five-star hotel with a personal chef and a cabana boy. GHOST STORY was was more like a weekend at a four-star hotel with a nice dinner out. Not bad - not even close to it - just not the same superlative wonderfulness that Butcher usually delivers.

In GHOST STORY, Harry is forced into a passive role. The title is literal: he's a ghost. He can't do much of anything. He has to stand by and let other people act, or, if he's lucky, persuade them to act according to his instructions. In terms of Harry's character development and moving the series forward, I think this is exactly what Harry needs. For example: there's a sideplot with a gang of kids who are ordered to do a drive by shooting on Murphy's house. Harry ends up hanging out with the top kid, learning about his situation, and then working to change it by rustling up some caretakers and competent adult supervision. He achieves a better, more humane result than he would have found if he'd been able to jump in and fight, like he usually would.

In general, Harry is forced by his circumstances to do a lot of listening, waiting, and reflecting. Harry's always been a smart, thoughtful guy but not someone who dwells unduly on the past. I think that being forced to change his tune is good for him as a person and ultimately for the series - but, just like having Harry be so passive, it's not great for the reading experience. I think half of GHOST STORY might be flashbacks. Taking a stroll down memory lane with Harry is enjoyable...but it's still a STROLL, and Harry Dresden books are usually a lot more like, I don't know, a freight train crashing down Mount Everest. GHOST STORY simply does not have the momentum and muscle of the average Dresden book.

The overall feel is uneven. The action either occurs in the material world without Harry's participation, or else in the spiritual plane without any help from the cast of supporting characters. Harry finds ways to communicate with his friends, but he can't interact with them. The sense of disconnection and compartmentalization is pervasive. A book narrated by a ghost OUGHT to feel like that, so in a way this is a compliment, but it's not as much fun as a book with a live narrator, what can I say?

Then there's the last, final, biggest problem. Harry's told that he has to go back to Chicago and find out who killed him before he can move on to the next world. And while I was VERY interested to discover the answer, it was also, weirdly, a letdown. I felt a little bit like at the end of a TV episode where you find out everything that happened was a dream - that's not what happens here, the book is not just a big dream sequence, but I had that same feeling of having been cheated.

My final judgment is an odd one. I like GHOST STORY just the way it is - I think that cutting Thomas and Murphy out of the plot was cheating, but I wouldn't change the fundamentals. I think I'll like Harry more with these new lessons under his belt; I have no trouble seeing GHOST STORY as a springboard to better things, a necessary step in the series arc. But most Dresden Files books would clear five stars easy for me, and this one is four.

249 of 276 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Harry Dresden is More Fun Dead than the Other Wizard Named "Harry" is Alive. July 26, 2011

By Tiger CK

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

At a time when so many sci-fi and fantasy writers produce two or three good books and then start phoning it in, Jim Butcher stands apart from the crowd. He just keeps getting more imaginative, more sophisticated and more entertaining with every new book in this series. Ghost Story is the 13th novel of the Dresden Files and it rivals White Knight and Turn Coat for the best.

I have to admit that I was somewhat skeptical that Ghost Story would work as well as some of the other books in the series. Changes, the previous installment in the Dresden Files, ended with the main character left for dead. So much of the appeal of the previous novels derives from how Dresden uses magic to combat enemies in the realm of the living that I couldn't really think of how Ghost Story could be made interesting. Leave it to Jim Butcher to turn an unlikely premise into a great read.

As it turns out, Harry Dresden's luck is not much better in death than it is in life. In fact, he doesn't get to go to the great beyond because there was something that was not right about his death. Instead, he has to return to earth as a ghost to find out who murdered him. If he fails, he learns, three people who are close to him will come to great harm. Harry returns to earth to find that the planet is deeply troubled. The destruction of the Red Court has led to a power vacuum and chaos in the supernatural world. Magical beings are attacking and destroying both each other and humans who connect with the world of magic. The stakes are as high as they have ever been.

Harry's adventures as a ghost are hugely entertaining. He is invisible and cannot communicate with others in the absence of help from Mort the ectomancer or other mediums. But he develops a new array of powers such as passing through walls and short range teleportation a la Nightcrawler (from the X-Men). Dresden still manages to get involved in countless fracases with supernatural beings and, as usual, take his fare share of beatings along the way. Butcher guides us through all of this with a kind of page-turning suspense that has now become a hallmark of this series.

In fact, bringing Harry back as a ghost proves to be the ideal mechanism for showing his maturation as a character. Although Harry cannot connect with the real world physically as a ghost, emotionally everything that he feels is made more visceral. Throughout the novel, when he runs into people he has both helped and hurt during his life he is forced to come to terms with the consequences of his own actions in a unique way. This is why I disagree with those who express disappointment that Dresden is slightly more contemplative and not quite as involved in the action as in previous installments of the Dresden Files. In this novel we may get more of Harry's thoughts than his deeds than we have become accustomed to. But this allows Harry to take some huge strides as a character.

Butcher's prose in Ghost Story is as crisp and light as it has ever been. In fact while the writing in the first few Dresden novels was generally serviceable and at times a bit workmanlike, here he gives us some passages that are truly elegant compared to other books in the genre.

The only caveat I would have about buying this book is that it might not be the best for a new reader of the series. Many of the plot lines and characters are quite developed at this point so it is better to start with one of the earlier novels if you're new to the Dresden Files. Since most of the suspects in Dresden's murder are characters that have appeared in previous novels, it is important to know a bit about their back-stories if you really want to get into this novel.

Most fans of the series will likely agree that this novel cements Harry Dresden's status as one of the most, if not the most, entertaining characters in fantasy and science fiction toady. I can't think of any other character in the genre that brings his mix of unique abilities, hard-boiled realism and humor.

68 of 77 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Read it cover to cover without putting it down. July 26, 2011

By B. Burgess

Format:Hardcover

When I first picked up Ghost Story, I was expecting another high-octane thrill ride, picking up where Changes left off. My assumptions were incorrect. This volume of the Dresden files takes a much more simple, introspective approach to what's going on. The first half of the book feels a bit plodding, but you come to realize later than this was purposeful, and that it made for a much better second half.

Dresden again finds himself in over his head, this time on the other side. He's got a mystery to solve, and just about no way to solve it, considering he's incorporeal. Characters that you have come to know have changed, sometimes dramatically, in the wake of what has happened to Harry. After figuring out a way to interact with mortals, that method is stripped away from him, and he's again left with nothing but his wits.

If there's one thing that Jim Butcher does right consistently, it's that he knows how to plant a completely unexpected emotional moment into his stories. This one is packed pretty full with these, as Harry sees the world from an outside perspective.

The writing is solid, ad the plot moves on at an appropriate pace. the only complaint I have is that the villain was far too predictable. From the first encounter, I had the identity pretty much locked down. That's not to say that the baddie wasn't effective, just that there could have been a red herring or two thrown in the mix to keep things interesting

Also, prepare yourself to be left with some of the same questions you had at the end of Changes, along with a slew of new ones. Overall, this is a great read, and a worthy addition to the series. I recommend buying it immediately if you're a fan of the Dresden files!