God, I love my housemates

Quoted from the MurkMUSH, wherein our heroine begins by lamenting that she came into work today without her trusty handheld computing companion and proceeds straight into discussing the Evil Alternate Universe versions of Great Big Sea...

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2007 Book Log #9: Proven Guilty, by Jim Butcher

Now that the Dresden Files TV series has started up, it was with particular glee that I dived into the latest of the Dresden Files paperbacks to be released--Proven Guilty, which is Book Eight of the series. Reading it, I was quite struck by several ideas I'd gotten into my head about how Harry is and how he does things, things that didn't actually match what's in the books--and things which, having read them in Jim's actual words, make me feel honorbound to retract some of my griping about the last TV episode.

For example--the thing with Harry and a gun, which had felt so wrong to me watching "Hair of the Dog"? Retracted. Hugely retracted. 'Cause in Proven Guilty, Harry's totally toting around a .44. I stand quite corrected. ;)

Between watching the show, reading Jim's words, and listening to the episodes of the Butcher Block podcast, I was also struck with one of the concepts brought up during the podcast episodes--which is to say that while the cosmetic details between books and show may be noticeably different, in the opinion of the podcast host at any rate the essential character of the books remains intact in the show. Now that I've had a fresh new dose of Mr. Butcher's words, I find myself solidly on board with that.

But lest this post wind up being more about the TV show than about the books, let me note that as always, the latest installment of the book series delivers a highly enjoyable read. This time around we get treated with a huge heaping helping of pop culture references (especially in regards to horror movies), Jim demonstrating that he's very familiar indeed with how fandom conventions work, some followup on several loose ends from previous novels, some advancement on the relationship front with Harry (all sorts of relationships, familial and romantic and friendship), some very interesting changes in Harry's overall status as a wizard, and some large hints dropped about Big Evil Things to Come. It didn't have the huge roll-on-the-floor-laughing beautiful moment in the big climax that the previous book did, but there was definitely a great deal to mull over, and a great deal to look forward to with the next installment!

If you haven't started the series yet, this is totally, totally not the place to start. If you have, and haven't gotten around to this one yet, read Proven Guilty as soon as possible. Lots of fun awaits! Four stars.

2007 Book Log #10: I See You, by Holly Lisle

Holly Lisle's latest paranormal romantic suspense novel wasn't quite as substantial as her previous two attempts, Midnight Rain and Last Girl Dancing; in fact, it was a fluffy enough read that I easily whipped through it in a day. It was much the same mold as the previous two, and in fact was a sequel to Midnight Rain, since it had one character in common. But while Midnight Rain was an enjoyable read and took a bit of time to introduce you to the characters and let you get to know them before the chemistry between hero and heroine kicked in, this time around our protagonists have barely enough time to introduce themselves to one another before they're ripping each other's clothes off. And that threw the book off for me a noticeable amount. I mean, I'm all for healthy indulgence of one's hormones in a paranormal romantic suspense novel, but here it seemed unreal and forced.

That said, I will also give this book props for a heroine who isn't an idiot, and who in fact refreshingly does not balk at the hero cop guy informing her that since she's being stalked, she must take certain security measures. In many other novels, at this point the heroine would have pitched a fit. In this book, the heroine says "OKAY THEN", and not only takes those measures, she gets friends to help her out, too. So good on Lisle for that.

But she's done better. Here's hoping this one was just an off-day for her, or something. Two stars.