Blood Rites (The Dresden Files #6)

It’s The Bantz.

What was that, a groan? You didn’t like that? Maybe you don’t even like puns in general? Well, too bad, because Blood Rites has plenty of them along with aforementioned bantz.

I’m dead serious. The bigger portion of the book is dedicated to Harry and various people from his ever-widening circle of friends, enemies and frenemies exchanging jokes, insults and threats. To be fair, the banter is really diverse. There’s exposition banter, world-building banter, plot-advancing banter and of course banter for the sake of banter. I mean, Harry Dresden has always been a wiseass and referred to himself as the king of lame comebacks on numerous occassions, but this book shoots past “dialogue-driven” straight into the “dialogue-ridden” category.

Which is, let’s be fair, is not an entirely unwelcome change. The more time we spend with Harry engaging in dialogue with other characters, the less time we spend in his head listening to him brooding about his past or explaining to us that his attitude towards women (especially pretty women) is chivalry, not sexism, and it was brought about by childhood trauma anyway. Relax, Harry, we understand.

Speaking of childhood trauma: Blood Rites finally answers some pretty important questions about Harry’s past, wraps up several important storylines and brings back numerous characters introduced in previous books. This feels like the ending chapter of volume I, and despite the series’ many shortcomings, I’m pretty excited to see where Jim Butcher will take The Dresden Files next.

Oh, and a couple of words about the actual plot: vampires suck.

(vampires SUCK, get it? get it?)

Synopsis: Blood Rites is the sixth book in Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files books. This title brings the vampires back into focus and has us dealing with yet another court getting involved in Harry’s life.

The book’s main plot is primarily triggered by the Vampire Thomas of the White Court, who asks Dresden to take on a case as a personal favor for all the past times that Thomas had intervened to help save Dresden’s life. The case in question involves a head of an adult entertainment studio who may be under threat from a sort of entropy curse similar to one that Harry had been subject to in the last book. In addition, it appears that the vampire Black Court has setup shop in the city and are also threatening Harry Dresden’s life.

What I Liked: Obviously I really liked how this book added to Harry Dresden’s character lore by answering a lot of different questions we may have had or didn’t even realize we should have asked at this point. I can imagine how some folks might find the reveals in this book as a little left field, but they’re not really. They make a lot of sense given Dresden’s journey thus far and I appreciate hw things got to this point. It only means bigger and brighter stuff for the future.

And the plot in itself isn’t bad either. What starts as a seemingly simple look into a potentially minor case becomes a major throw-down with not just one vampire court but two of them – both the Black and the White courts. That seems like a bit much given how past books had him pulling out all the stops to deal with just one of the courts, but don’t worry. Dresden gets some serious help in dealing with his foes this time around.

What Could Have Been Better: While the main plot was still compelling the main “mystery” as far as detective cases go didn’t go so great. I feel like it was left largely underdeveloped in favor of other story elements involving the vampire courts.

And while they generally had big plan for dealing with the Black Court with a preemptive strike before they could get a firm foothold in the city, the actually confrontation did feel a little underwhelming. Sure, Dresden has never been all that great in an extended battle and Butcher seemed to want to play to his strengths and keep things on the shorter side, but that was it.

And as much as the notion of the guardian puppy was cool, it felt a lot more like noise in this book as it was just sort of there on the side even during more important plot developments. I know Butcher is obviously seeding the book with story elements for future books, but this could have been handled better.

TL;DR: All that aside, this book left me feeling very fulfilled as a reader and fan of the series and I’m glad that Butcher tackled things in the way he did. This may not automatically be my favorite book in the series, but it definitely ranks way up there.

I don’t usually leave reviews when they number in the thousands but I wanted to add my voice to the chorus. This is a great series, some are better then others but that is to be expected with a series with this many volumes. It would be far too lengthy to list all of the things I like about this author, the world he has, and Harry as a character. I will list the two minor complaints that I would make for almost every Dresden book. The author really should have educated himself on both firearms and the layout of Chicago (even though I know it was not his first pick for a city). His description of firearms is inaccurate and borderline embarrassing at times. He refers to guns either inaccurately or ones that just don’t exist. However if that is my only major complaint then it is really understandable. Great work I am a big fan and supporter. I am going to list this review for almost all volumes of the Dresden files as I feel it is mostly consistent throughout. This is not my top favorite but it is still engaging and worth reading. Happy reading.

This is another good detective novel and urban fantasy mix. It kept me turning the pages to find out what was going to happen next. I love the descriptions — I think this may be my favorite: An errand is getting a tank of gas or picking up a carton of milk or something. It is not getting chased by flying purple pyromaniac gorillas hurling incendiary poo.

This book is one where you need to have read the earlier books in the series. While Butcher catches the reader up on more picky plot lines, other aspects of Dresden’s world the reader is expected to remember. I love the returning characters and found the new characters interesting, sometimes as one finds something nasty “interesting.”

Butcher is truly a master of urban fantasy and this is well worth reading. Do start at the beginning of the series.

Unlike earlier books in the series this plot here hangs together properly and doesn’t rely on either improbable coincidences or childish misunderstandings to generate the storyline.

The action fairly fizzses along, and there was satisfying development of Dresden’s back story too.

I’ve found previous installments in the series OK, but not been blown away by them. After this for the first time I’m actually eager for the next book.

P.S. I’d love it if Murphy was the eventual inheritor of Shiro’s sword and became a Knight of the Cross. After all there’s git to be a limit to how many times she walks into supernatural danger unarmed and escaped with her life.

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