Summer Knight, The Dresden Files Book 4 A Review
With Jim Butcher’s 4th Harry Dresden book, Summer Knight, we move from the world of Bram Stoker to the world of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Well sort of. In Harry Dresden’s world the faerie’s aren’t just mischevious, they’re downright nasty.
In this installment, Harry basically gets caught up in a brewing war between summer and winter as represented by some extremely powerful and mercurial sidhe. Of course his godmother has to stick her nose into things as well.
On top of that there’s the minor issue of the war between vampires of the Red Court and the White Council of Wizards which he kicked off in the last book. Strangely the White Council isn’t too happy about that. When you throw in the fact that his girlfriend has left after being bitten by a vampire… Well generally Harry isn’t too happy in this book.
At this point in the series I doubt there’s much I can say to change people’s minds about it. If you liked the earlier ones, you’ll certainly like this one too. If not, you probably won’t.
In Summer Knight, Butcher continues to use all the elements he has successfully woven together previously. Dresden has that self-deprecating humor and almost death-wish level of nobility which you can’t help but like. The horror is dialed down a notch perhaps on the last book but the violence is still very real and not cartoonish.
As each book goes by, the depth of Harry Dresden’s world continues to grow as does that of his supporting cast. In this one Lt. Karrin Murphy plays a major role and the werewolves from book 2 return to assist. New figures appear as well as we get to meet Elaine (Harry’s old girlfriend) for the first time plus his mentor Ebenezer and other less friendly members of the White Council.
Story wise this is more a “whydunit” than a “whodunit”. You’ll probably figure out the who fairly quickly, and even if you don’t Harry does well before the end. But the questions of why, and how are very interesting in themselves. Not to mention the significant question of how to stop things escalating any further.
The world of Harry Dresden just seems to get more complex and more interesting with each book, though I do hope that we will eventually have some of the long running questions answered as the series progresses.
I’d also like to know why ever woman Harry meets is drop dead gorgeous. Or is that just a private investigator thing?
Eoghann Irving is amongst other things the creator and Editor of Solar Flare. He has a life long interest in all forms of science fiction and fantasy and a pressing need to share this interest with anyone who will listen. Find out more at his personal website eoghann.com..
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