Summer Knight (The Dresden Files #4) – Book Review

Published Date: September 3, 2002

Publishing Co.: ROC

Pages: 446

Goodreads Synopsis.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

A vast improvement from Grave Peril.

It probably helped that this had zero Buzzkillington the Third in it. (Michael.)

In Summer Knight, we see a complete unraveling of Harry in regards to the ending of the last book and what happened to his girlfriend, Susan. He doesn’t care much about anything other than trying to find something to help her resist her new semi-vampire status. In the mean time, vampires have declared war on Harry and the White Council and have put hits out on both. Harry is under intense scrutiny by the Council and may even get fed to the vampires to help put things back to right. At least that’s the opinion of Harry’s enemies among the Council. As if all that wasn’t enough, war is brewing between the two faerie courts and Harry’s been dragged in against his will to help absolve Queen Mab of murder. So needless to say, Harry can’t sit in his basement studying any more.

Here, we begin to see some of Harry’s more annoying traits begin to die down. He recognizes that keeping people in the dark, in order to protect them, is actually only doing harm. He still wants to save all the damsels but he acknowledges that sometimes, the damsels can handle themselves.

He also begins to accept help from his friends instead of trying to be the lone hero so that no one else but him gets hurt. He lets them know the level of danger and leaves the decision to attend the melee up to his possible allies.

The growth of Harry Dresden looks good on him.

spoilers below

I’m very upset about the death of Meryl. I think she would have been an absolutely great character addition to this series beyond one book. I could read a million more books about troll girl.

My favorite battle moment was when Harry looked at an enemy, yelled, “Meep! Meep!” and ran away.

I’m relieved this is picking up again. Maybe I won’t wait so long to continue onto the next book.

Grave Peril – Book Review

The Dresden Files #3

3 out of 5 stars

Harry Dresden and I have had quite the whirlwind romance. Many people say that it takes a few books for the Dresden Files to get going, I wholeheartedly disagreed with this sentiment in books one and two. After nine pages in book one, I was hooked and looked forward to us having a bright, happy future together. But unfortunately book three but a halt to us running away and eloping.

Now, it was not by any means a bad book. It just wasn’t as good as the first two. Harry’s wing man, Michael, really put a crush on the magical vibes. His constant holy-rolling brought any compelling scene to a screeching halt. His incessant correcting of the words out of Harry’s mouth anytime he said something a tiny bit sacrilegious made me want to punch the book, not to mention an overwhelming desire to punch the “Fist of God.” If Michael had a second title it would be, “Buzzkillington the Third.”

The last quarter of the book was the best part. Probably due to Michael’s absence and Harry kicking ass by himself. The plot was a little slow building but not in a mind-numbingly boring sort of a way.

I look forward to the next installment regardless. I just hope there’s more Bob and less Michael the Vibe-Killer.