Review - Summer Knight (Dresden Files 4) by Jim Butcher

Jim Butcher's Summer Knight [US] [UK] [Kindle] is the fourth book in Jim Butcher's much-loved Dresden Files. I realize I'm a bit behind, but I have good reasons for this...well, maybe...

I read the first 3 a couple years ago, all back to back and I really enjoyed them at the time...the only problem was the repetition. I was getting a bit tired of hearing the same reasoning behind everything Harry does. It made sense at first...then it made less sense the more volumes I kept reading with the same descriptions.

Maybe I'm too used to the opposite in Steven Erikson, but I had to take a bit of a break. One thing's for sure, you can wait as long as you need to pick up another volume of the Dresden Files.

Well, volume one, Storm Front, deals with magicians; volume two, Fool Moon, deals with warewolves; volume three - demons. So, what then does Summer Knight deal with? Faeries. (Obviously this isn't a perfect summary)

There are two main faeries, summer and winter, and they're not friends. The summer knight, an officer in the summer court of faeries, is found dead and Harry Dresden is called in to investigate.

Of course nothing is as it seems and through Harry's cynical sense of humor and constant battery (in which Harry is beat to a pulp on numerous occasions...as per usual), we have ourselves one fun story. The cards keep getting stacked against Harry, especially now that the Red Court is after him after the fiasco in Grave Peril (Book 3) and his own wizard's White Council has their own problems with him as well.

This was a hard book to put down, especially for the first and last hundred pages. The middle was a little slow, especially since Harry still has no clue what he's doing, but overall it's a quick read. As of this point, Summer Knight has been my favorite in the Dresden Files, but I don't think I'd be saying this if I'd have read it directly after Grave Peril.

Why Read The Dresden Files?

Harry Dresden is a hard character not to like. He gets knocked down and he always gets back up. He tries to do what's right no matter the situation and no matter who gets hurt...and he's just an all around fun guy to be around.

Add to that a well-planned and realized magic system and it's one great series...as long as you take it in stride.

4 out of 5 Stars