Changes

I bought Jim Butcher's twelfth novel in the Dresden Files series ahead of schedule.  I normally wait until they are out in paperback.  This may sound crazy but it was because the publishers (Orbit) had decided to re-issue the series with different covers, which are the same as their American counterparts.  This was possibly the last chance to have a set that looked similar, even though the hardbacks are styled to look more a leather bound book than the paperbacks which have a card like file look to them.

Changes is brutal and Butcher wastes no time in setting up the main premise of the novel.  Harry Dresden, wizard and private investigator, has to save his daughter from the Red Court vampires who want to use her in a ritual that could change everything.  However; it was not until he received a phone call, in the first chapter of this book from his half vampire ex, that he was aware that he had a daughter.

I was skeptical about the premise, but Butcher works the addition of an unknown daughter in danger well.  I got a bit sick of Harry being so righteous and giving up everything just to save one person, but I'm not a parent, and this is Harry.  Anyone who has followed the series knows that he was orphaned at a young age and couldn't bear allowing that happening to his own kin, so of course he would go balls out to save her.  And indeed he does.  Close to everyone from the series gets a mention or appearance in this book, and to me it felt like a series finale and that was before I even got to the end.  For that reason, maybe I was expecting more but the final few chapters didn't have the same emotional punch as Turncoat did; however, there is plenty to mourn and Butcher sets up a new start and perhaps a new direction for the Dresden series.  It's going to be a long wait till summer...