Harry Dresden is Chicago’s only wizard who works as a private investigator. I’ve enjoyed the first four books in this series (you can read my reviews here). Death Masks is the fifth book in the series and Jim Butcher jams it with action. A dangerous vampire from the Red Court challenges Dresden to a duel. Then group of hit men target Dresden and his VW Blue Beetle.
But the key plot line in Death Masks concerns Dresden being hired to find the stolen Shroud of Turin. The Shroud becomes a key element in a devastating spell of evil.
And, on top of all this, Dresden’s ex-girl friend, Susan (part vampire) , shows up and complicates his life. The pages fly by when I read a Harry Dresden novel. I read Death Masks in a day. Great fun! If you enjoy Urban Fantasy action novels, you’ll get a kick out of Death Masks. Are you a fan of Urban Fantasy? GRADE: B+
It’s doubtful that I could produce a completely accurate definition of “urban fantasy” and, like most definitions, it’s probably flexible. But I’ve yet to read about anything so described that appealed to me in the least, including this. So I’ll pass.
Michael, my definition of Urban Fantasy is flexible, too. Basically, Urban Fantasy novels and stories have supernatural and/or magical elements set in contemporary, real-world, urban settings like Harry Dresden’s Chicago–as opposed to traditional fantasy set in imaginary locations in the Past.
Yes, when it comes to Butcher and Simon R. Green (London, in his case). I read the first three Dresden books plus the short story collections. I should get back to the series. From her descriptions of them, Jackie reads some Urban Fantasy series too, though hers probably have more romance in them.
She says she reads mostly modern day paranormal stuff in real settings. She read the first Dresden book only. Also Chloe Neill (also in Chicago), some of Heather Graham’s series, Christine Feehan, J. R. Ward (upstate New York), Lara Adrian, many others.
Jeff, I have a number of Urban Fantasy novels that I hope to read over the next few months. I prefer ones with a bit of humor in them.
Jeff, I’m currently reading some Simon R. Green, too. Pure escapism! Jim Butcher has TWO new Dresden novels coming out this Summer. I want to be caught up by then.
Cemented in realism as always. Tis a shame.
Patti, Realism goes out the window when Magic shows up in Urban Fantasy books.
I’ve never read the books, but remember a tv series (or movie) about Dresden. I don’t think it was on a channel I got at the time, or I would have watched it.
The Dresden Files series ran for 12 Episodes on Sci Fi in 2007. It was a Canadian show. The star, Paul Blackthorne, is English.
Jeff, Paul Blackthorne played a terrorist in one of the seasons of 24.
Maggie, THE DRESDEN FILES was on the old SCI-FI Channel for one season. I liked it, but felt the producers needed to focus more on Magic than politics.
Not much of a fan of urban fantasy so I’ll pass. Too much of it borders on the romance genre.
Steve, there’s very little romance in the Harry Dresden novels. He breaks up with his girlfriend, Susan, when she becomes half-vampire (very complicated). Dresden has a crush on his cop friend, Karrin, but she has a lot of baggage from her previous marriage. But, what Butcher’s books lack in romance, the make up for with action!
I watched the TV show and followed the series for a while.
My memory about it is a little hazy but there was a twist that was so outlandish – even for urban fantasy – that I abandoned the books.
Beth, there’s a lot of incredible plot twists in the Harry Dresden books. I’m just reading them for fun and not for anything serious.
I’m not the biggest fan of urban fantasy, or I should say the kind that involves more horror-like tropes, but I have read the first two of this series and enjoyed them both very much. They are fun, to be sure, but also have a nice intensity to them, at least the first two, that makes me want to keep turning the pages and read “just a little bit more”.
Charles de Lint’s Newford stories probably fit within an ‘urban fantasy’ classification and I really enjoy those as well.
Carl, I have a stack of Charles de Lint books I intend on reading sometime soon. I’ll move the Newford stories to the top of the stack!
Since I work in the social work field there is a lot of crossover in his Newford stories from fantasy into real life for me, as he has characters who are helpers in the field and also explores social issues in that way. The Newford short story collections are some of my favorite reading.
I noticed on another site you commented about Uncle Hugo’s. My post for today is about the same thing, a reworking of my 2015 visit to the store. So sorry to see things like this happening. Made me think of your collection and the collections of others and how important it is to preserve these if we can.
Carl, one of the reasons I donated 30,000 books to the State University of New York at Buffalo was a fire. Leslie Fiedler, the famous professor and writer who served on my doctoral committee, had a fire at his house. Many books were destroyed including a First Edition of James Joyce’s ULYSSES. The Special Collections at SUNY at Buffalo are stored in fire-proof storage. Nothing is perfect, but SUNY at Buffalo’s protection for their books supersede my own.
That was wise.
As is a will. I had a friend who was a lifelong book collector. Had several first editions of classics, full runs of old pulp serials, etc. Thousands of dollars worth of books and magazines in his apartment. No will. No reliable next of kin. The apartment manager got all of it and sold it off to some dubious collector who claims he knew my friend (though none of my friends other collector friends had ever heard of him) for almost nothing and whatever he didn’t take bundled off to used bookstores or threw away. It was sad, but my friend was stubborn and short sighted and didn’t have a will.
I kept telling him to donate his collection to a university, or to other long-time friends of his who he had collected with, and he just couldn’t be bothered. Then he had a sudden heart attack and that was that.
Carl, that’s a sad, but familiar story. It’s taken me decades to build this collection and now it’s taking me years to make sure I find Good Homes for the books and CDs that I love.