Changes (Dresden Files Book 12)

Jim Butcher
ISBN: 978-0451463173
Rating: Buy, Hardcover, New

Yesterday, I started reading, Changes, the latest installment of the Dresden Files.  I read most of it after Mrs Bugbear and the little bugbears were in bed.  Mrs Bugbear did some eye rolling when she heard what time I went to bed last night.

The book picks up with a call from Harry's former lover, Susan Rodriguez.  Apparently she and Harry have a child together and she's in danger.  Thus does Harry Dresden end up on a roller coaster of action all aimed at saving the daughter that he never knew he had.  The book has many of the things that I've come to enjoy about the Dresden files.  It advances an overall story arc yet still manages to almost stand as an independent book.  Honestly, unless you've read the entire series you're missing  a lot of information that would broaden your enjoyment of the book.

This book seems to be struck from a different mold than the prior books in that the characterization isn't quite as strong.  There is the excuse that Dresden is reeling from one bit of action to the next throughout most of the book.  The book also seems to advance some of the overall story arc of the series a bit more than previous books.  Overall I really enjoyed the book.  But there is one thing that really irks me in this book.  In keeping with the title Butcher has changed the format of the book from the previous books.  Butcher put a Dallas season finale scene at the end of the book (a cliffhanger in case you didn't watch Dallas).   I understand why they use cliffhanger's in TV series, I loathe them but I do understand.

Harry Dresden, the titular character of the Dresden files should be a paranoid agnostic by the end of this book.  You know, if there is a god then he's out to get him.  In a sense an author plays a god, he creates a world, populates it with people and then steers the characters through the narrative that he creates.  I'm pretty sure that Jim Butcher, author of the Dresden Files, is either a sick man or really hates Harry Dresden.  With this book Butcher has changed from having a mildly abusive relationship with Dresden to almost full-on sadism.

The book was mis-titled though, it should have been called Choices not Changes.  If you want to know why, read the series.