Changes by Jim Butcher

Wow, this was a pretty exciting book. It also lived up to its name, Changes. There were a lot of plot twists, some I liked, some I didn't. I'm not going to bother going through the previous books, there's simply too many. The most important thing about this series is that Harry Dresden is a wizard, living in Chicago, who more than often is saving the world.

Harry Dresden has a daughter. That's how the book opens. His old girlfriend Susan has called to tell him that their eight year old daughter Maggie has been kidnapped. And oh yeah, she informed him at that precise moment that he even had a daughter. She'd been taken by the Red Court of Vampires, who are currently at war with the White Council of wizards and she needs Harry's help to save her. Of course it won't be easy, he'll have to call in a few dangerous favors and people are trying to kill him in the meantime. But anythings worth it to save the daughter he has never met. Even if it means dealing with some of his darkest foes.

Harry really stepped it up in this novel. He stopped being so goody-goody and really expressed a wide range of characteristics. In other words, he was tough. Susan was a bit irritating in this book. I never really liked her in the first place and since she played such a large role, it was hard to avoid her in this book. The rest of the characters had minor roles, but they were all well written. We got to see a little more info on Mouse, Harry's dog, and it was definitely very interesting. Although animals are just wonderful anyway so its always nice to read about them.

Butcher's writing style has definitely improved. He's stopped over detailing things and started really focusing on the important aspects of the novel, like plot and motivation. There were a few plot twists I didn't particularly care for. The first being the notion of Harry having a daughter. I don't know why that bothered me, but it just did. The other was the constant attempts on his life, that line of writing is getting a little stale with him, even though its realistic. The rest of the plot twists however, were excellent. This was definitely an edge of your seat kind of book. Not to mention, the endings a real cliffhanger.

I'm not sure what I'll do until the next book comes out. I know Side Jobs is out and I have it sitting on the shelf waiting for me, but since its only a side book instead of a continuation of the series I don't think it'll satisfy my wanting to know what happens next. Regardless, I've enjoyed reading the series and can't wait to read the next one.

Changes
Copyright 2010
438 pages