Recent reads
Dec. 5th, 2004 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperBlood Rites, by Jim Butcher--Okay, so I'm late reading this; sue me. ;) The Dresden Files books are perfect for the situation I had last night, wanting something fluffy to read during a nice long relaxing bath, and I knew from the word go that this one was going to be fun. I really loved the opening sentence: "The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault." I loved the purple demon monkeys flinging flaming poo--and the Voltron joke that shows Jim grew up watching the same cartoons I did. I REALLY loved that Harry was rescuing a LITTER OF PUPPIES in that scene; all good heroes must, at some time or other, do something noble on behalf of cute small animals.
And I liked that this latest installment in the series was a bit lighter natured than the previous couple--and that we got more Extremely Interesting background detail on Harry. And that we got MORE MURPHY; YAY! (I've been cheering for the idea of Harry and Murphy from Book One!)
But because this is in fact a Harry Dresden book, we can't get through the story without Harry taking a beating. This time was particularly wince-worthy, but I DID giggle at the Johnny Tremaine joke that Harry made as a result. Nice literary note there, Jim. ^_^
And way to go on keeping the interest running! Six books and going strong!
Search the Shadows, by Barbara Michaels--This was actually a re-read, but I was in the mood. Barbara Michaels, the alter ego of Elizabeth Peters, is one of my all-time favorites, and I just happened to get a yen to re-read the adventure of Haskell Maloney and her quest to discover the identity of her true father. This book has some fun in it: Ms. Michaels' real-life interest in archaeology is a theme here, as it is in many of her novels. Her supporting characters are vivid as always, and she has a deft hand with the red herrings. It'd been long enough since I'd read this book the last time that I'd forgotten who the primary villain was, and who Haskell's father turned out to be.
The one beef I have with the book was that the heroine's eventual love interest seemed to come totally out of left field. Ms. Michaels is usually pretty deft with this, too, often setting up a red herring or two to make the reader wonder who the heroine will eventually wind up with--but this time, you get barely any indication at all of who the heroine is truly interested in until the very end of the book. So it makes it seem as if she just up and decides on the spot that she likes that gentleman rather than the other one who actually gets the majority of camera time with her. Oh well!
Still, though, a fun re-read.
Dresden Files
Date: 2004-12-06 03:03 pm (UTC)Re: Dresden Files
Date: 2004-12-06 05:03 pm (UTC)And yes, it's to be a TV series as well; last I heard the Sci-Fi channel was getting it together. I haven't heard yet when it's supposed to air. All I know so far is that the blurb I saw quoted over LJ some time ago mentioned that they'll probably be renaming Harry to be "Erik Dresden"--possibly so as to not confuse viewers with Harry Potter, or something. ;P I'm dubious about that, but we'll see what happens.
Re: Dresden Files
Date: 2004-12-06 05:23 pm (UTC)Re: Dresden Files
Date: 2004-12-06 05:51 pm (UTC)