SKIN GAME

Skin Game by Jim Butcher
Book 15 of the Dresden Files series
Read by James Marsters
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: hardback, ebook & audiobook

About Skin Game:

Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard, is about to have a very bad day….

Because as Winter Knight to the Queen of Air and Darkness, Harry never knows what the scheming Mab might want him to do. Usually, it’s something awful.

He doesn’t know the half of it….

Mab has just traded Harry’s skills to pay off one of her debts. And now he must help a group of supernatural villains — led by one of Harry’s most dreaded and despised enemies, Nicodemus Archleone — to break into the highest-security vault in town so that they can then access the highest-security vault in the Nevernever.

It’s a smash-and-grab job to recover the literal Holy Grail from the vaults of the greatest treasure hoard in the supernatural world — which belongs to the one and only Hades, Lord of the freaking Underworld and generally unpleasant character. Worse, Dresden suspects that there is another game afoot that no one is talking about. And he’s dead certain that Nicodemus has no intention of allowing any of his crew to survive the experience. Especially Harry.

Dresden’s always been tricky, but he’s going to have to up his backstabbing game to survive this mess — assuming his own allies don’t end up killing him before his enemies get the chance….

Source: Info in the About Skin Game was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19486421-skin-game on 05/07/2014.

My Thoughts:

This is the only book in this series that took me this long to read. It actually didn't get interesting until Butters glided into the scene with his skateboard glowing orange. I bought this book on pre-order and I just finished it now. That's how long it took me to read this book. Not a usual pace for a Harry Dresden book at all! Hopefully Peace Talks wouldn't be as dragging... **fingers crossed**

When it was first announced that Harry Dresden 15 will be Skin Game, I was wondering why the book is titled as such. I presumed that there will be skin walkers or some such. And there are some such, but getting to it is the real journey. And that is the beauty of the plot. Dragging though it may be, but the plot is still substantial and unpredictable.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 2
Character development = 5
Story itself = 3.5
Writing Style = 3
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 5
Pace = 1.5
Plot = 4
Narration = 4

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


Dresden Files Books:

WW28: COLD DAYS

WW28 book offering: Cold Days by Jim Butcher

She came slinking over to me in the silence, her green eyes framed in the quasi-mask of gemstones and some kind of henna inking, and she absolutely smoldered with sex.

That is our hero against villains way above his pay grade... out-gunned, out-powered, and out-numbered with only the world to save... and yeah, he's still alive.

About Cold Days:

HARRY DRESDEN LIVES!!!

After being murdered by a mystery assailant, navigating his way through the realm between life and death, and being brought back to the mortal world, Harry realizes that maybe death wasn’t all that bad. Because he is no longer Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard.

He is now Harry Dresden, Winter Knight to Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness. After Harry had no choice but to swear his fealty, Mab wasn’t about to let something as petty as death steal away the prize she had sought for so long. And now, her word is his command, no matter what she wants him to do, no matter where she wants him to go, and no matter who she wants him to kill.

Guess which Mab wants first?

Of course, it won’t be an ordinary, everyday assassination. Mab wants her newest minion to pull off the impossible: kill an immortal. No problem there, right? And to make matters worse, there exists a growing threat to an unfathomable source of magic that could land Harry in the sort of trouble that will make death look like a holiday.

Beset by enemies new and old, Harry must gather his friends and allies, prevent the annihilation of countless innocents, and find a way out of his eternal subservience before his newfound powers claim the only thing he has left to call his own…

His soul.

Source: Info in the About Cold Days was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12216302-cold-days on 30/11/12.

WW28
A chance to showcase your favourite!

• First you grab our Wicked Wednesday pic.
• Then you grab a book. Turn to page 28. Take the first sentence. And then you post it in your site with a link back to WW28.
• Come back to Cherry Mischievous - WW28 and give us the url of your post (in a comment at a WW28 post) so that other WW28 readers can find your WW28 offering.

Review: COLD DAYS

Cold Days by Jim Butcher
Book 14 of the Dresden Files series
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: hardback

About Cold Days:

HARRY DRESDEN LIVES!!!

After being murdered by a mystery assailant, navigating his way through the realm between life and death, and being brought back to the mortal world, Harry realizes that maybe death wasn’t all that bad. Because he is no longer Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard.

He is now Harry Dresden, Winter Knight to Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness. After Harry had no choice but to swear his fealty, Mab wasn’t about to let something as petty as death steal away the prize she had sought for so long. And now, her word is his command, no matter what she wants him to do, no matter where she wants him to go, and no matter who she wants him to kill.

Guess which Mab wants first?

Of course, it won’t be an ordinary, everyday assassination. Mab wants her newest minion to pull off the impossible: kill an immortal. No problem there, right? And to make matters worse, there exists a growing threat to an unfathomable source of magic that could land Harry in the sort of trouble that will make death look like a holiday.

Beset by enemies new and old, Harry must gather his friends and allies, prevent the annihilation of countless innocents, and find a way out of his eternal subservience before his newfound powers claim the only thing he has left to call his own…

His soul.

Source: Info in the About Cold Days was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12216302-cold-days on 30/11/12.

Review:

A lot of things happen in this book including some revelations and twists in the story which I love! Obviously I am a Jim Butcher die hard fan so this review might sound like a fan-rave, so be warned!

I've been waiting for this book for the longest time! And I was ecstatic to receive it in the mail! I love the new book smell of paper! The glossy touch! The beautiful cover art! And dived straight into it! I tried to savour and read this book slowly but it still went too fast... good thing I have Steel's Edge waiting to be read next or I would be on withdrawal symptoms by now.

There are several reasons why I love reading Jim Butcher. First of which is that he never gives his readers a too stupid to live (TSTL) protagonist! Another reason is that he always delivers a satisfying ending. Well, almost always. Third, is that his stories always have a coherent and robust story structure. In which there is a clear beginning of a story, a conflict in the middle and a resolution at the end, even if the book is part of a series. And as if that is not enough, his plot is complex and comes with surprises at times. Lastly, his story telling quality is compelling! And this book is no exception. Jim Butcher obviously wrote this book with all cylinders firing! Can't wait to read the next Dresden Files book... and it doesn't come out until next YEAR!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 5
Ending = 4.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = 5
Plot = 5

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 cherries


Thank you to Ken of Paperless Reading for hosting a twitter contest which made it possible for me to win a copy of Cold Days by Jim Butcher!!

Mr. Mailman: COLD DAYS

A huge THANK YOU to Ken of Paperless Reading for hosting the "1 Year Blogoversary Giveaway" which made it possible for me to win a copy of Cold Days by Jim Butcher! And HAPPY BLOGOVERSARY to Paperless Reading!!

Couldn't wait to find it in my mail!! *big smile* This wait is worth another Mr. Mailman feature!

About Mr. Mailman:

Mr. Mailman is a kind of "blog meme" started by Juju over at Tales Of Whimsy to feature books which one is anxiously waiting to arrive in the mail!

Cold Days by Jim Butcher
Book 14 of the Dresden Files series

About Cold Days:

Librarian note:

Release date is a best guess based on Butcher's public comments that the manuscript is due in July.

More information: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,31273.0.html

Source: Info in the About Cold Days was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12216302-cold-days on 05/07/2012.

Review: Dresden Files DVD

Dresden Files TV series
A TV adaptation of the Dresden Files novels by Jim Butcher.

This series never made it to the UK so I had to buy it as DVD. Now, I am a long-time Harry Dresden fan. The key word there is "longtime", meaning, it has been a long time since I've read the books. Yes, yes, that means I'm old... Anyway, as I watched a marathon Harry Dresden, of course I can't help comparing it to the books. Like Susan is brunnette and Murphy is blond in the books, but in the film, it's the other way around. It's irritating. For one, I like Murphy. And I like her blond. That's how I first came to know her. Then all of a sudden this series screws it all up. And for some reason I always saw Warden Morgan as a modern-day Boromir. Never a suave Conrad Coates. Coates played well, it just did not quite fit the book's description of Warden Morgan as I envisioned him. A tough, hardened, disillusioned wizard-fighter in the modern world. There are about 4 episodes in one DVD. There are 4 DVDs in the set I bought. After the first DVD, I had to stop watching as opposed to my planned marathon because it was just irritating. It took another month before I continued watching on to DVD 2. By then I've gotten over my irritation and actually enjoyed DVD 3. Since I was not planning on marathons anymore, I did not have enough time to watch DVD 4. Still planning on watching #4 but probably not straight away.

The series is actually good. However, if you are a longtime Harry Dresden book fan (with all your preconceptions), you might find this series slightly irritating like I did. I guess it is the unavoidable comaparison between the books and the TV series that happens there. In which case I can see where this series was cut after the first season only despite it's very good combination of 3D animation, human actors, and film effects. Had I seen this series before I'd read the books, I might have enjoyed it a whole lot more. I would give this series a score of 3.5 out of 5.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


Trailer: