Jim Butcher - Cold Days

In the previous 13 Dresden Files books, the events were enjoyable, but they seemed disparate. There were epic conflicts involving faeries, necromancers, vampires, werewolves, crime lords, angels, demons, gods, wizards councils, evil islands, random individuals, and Harry Dresden, but there wasn't a sense that those were all connected. There were also a couple of things that Butcher had been foreshadowing for many books. With a couple of exceptions, "Cold Days" brings it all together. As such, "Cold Days" teaches us more about Dresden's world and the players in it than many previous books.

As usual, there is a long, drawn out, epic fight where Dresden is outmatched and out of energy by the end. Like in several of the previous books, Dresden fights using borrowed power. When he was using Lash, he got powers and always had to resist the temptation to use more. That aspect of temptation continues with Dresden's now power, but it also influences Dresden's personality more than Lash's power seemed to influence him.

One thing I thought about in the book was random interjections. At one point, Dresden summons a faerie, and the faerie asks him what he thinks about gay people hooking up with each other, to which Dresden responds that they can do whatever they want because it's none of his business. The exchange has nothing to do with the story, which is not to say that it wasn't well done. It made me think about the discussion of the death penalty in Albert Camus' "The Plague."

Overall, there's plenty to keep me coming back for the next one!