- The Good: Harry joins a supernatural heist with dangers at every turn
- The Bad: Still popcorn-fare, but full of fun and heart
- The Literary: First of the series to be nominated for a Hugo award
Harry Dresden is still Chicago’s only professional wizard, but lately he’s been busy. Living on the island of Demonreach, Harry is trying to protect his friends by staying away from them, while being plagued by headaches due to a parasitic spirit in his mind. And he’s now the Winter Knight to the Queen of Air and Darkness Mab. To pay off one of her debts, Mab trades Harry to work a job for the supernatural villain Nicodemus Archleone.
Here we are, at book 15 in the Harry Dresden series, and honestly it’s still going strong. In 2015, Skin Game was a finalist for the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the first of the series to be nominated. Harry began the series as a lost soul, plucky and resourceful, poor in money and friends, using humor to cover up his trauma. After all these installments, Harry’s acquired a lot of loved ones, including a daughter, and he fights to protect them. There’s still plenty of silliness, including Star Wars references, and he’s taken to yelling Parkour! every time he jumps over something. But there’s a deeper sense of connection and loss and history that makes these stories not just fun, but touching.
So what’s the plan? Once the team is assembled, they’ll have to break into the highest-security vault in Chicago so they can then access the highest-security vault in the Nevernever, which just so happens to belong to the “Lord of the freaking Underworld,” Hades. Nicodemus only wants one thing, the literal Holy Grail, while everyone else can grab whatever they want.
Dresden suspects Nicodemus and Mab are playing more than one game. And he’s certain that Nicodemus has no intention of allowing any of his crew to survive the experience. Especially Harry. Wary of the potential for betrayal, he enlists the aid of old friend and ex-cop Karrin Murphy to watch his back, and there’s a hint that it might be time for their relationship to move to the next level.
A few other familiar characters make appearances. Waldo Butters, a short scrawny single Jewish medical examiner teams up with Bob the Skull and manages to pull off some spectacular tricks against the bad guys. Michael Carpenter, a former Knight of the Cross and devout holy man, once again uses his faith to add yet another supernatural element to the chorus at just the right time. And Harry’s able to reconnect with his young daughter Maggie after he first met her by saving her life at the end of Changes.
This series has become such a comfort for me, and I hope Harry’s adventures keep coming!