Dorkgasm Gonzo Is God

Phenomenal Cosmic Powers, Itty Bitty Living Space
By
Michael C. Riedlinger
Editor-In-Chief

            If you aren’t familiar with The Dresden Files by now, maybe you have been living under a rock. Between a short-lived SCI-FI CHANNEL series, a graphic novel adaptation by industry licensing mavens The Dabble Brothers, and a forthcoming RPG, it is hard to ignore Jim Butcher’s ne’er-do-well wizard for hire. This newest installment in the series, Small Favor is a prime example of why Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is at the top of his popularity with no signs of letting up.

            For those rock-dwellers out there, here’s a primer. Harry Dresden is the only wizard in the Chicago phonebook. Through the course of the last nine books, he has befriended fairies, werewolves, and cops; fought off demons, fairies, and vampires, and generally been a pain in the ass to wizards everywhere. Jim Butcher writes him as a regular guy who just happens to have amazing powers, and if you’re a sci-fi/fantasy/pop-culture dork, you and Harry will get along just fine. In fact, part of the power of this series is that Butcher’s frequent references to everything from John Carpenter films to the Chicago weather keep the story grounded in something we can all identify with easily. The real world setting makes his hero “one of the guys” and Small Favor is no exception.

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            See, this time around Harry is brought in to investigate the disappearance of Johnny Marcone, local mobster and Baron-cum-lately of the Unseelie Accords. The powers that be don’t like that he’s been snatched and the Queen of Winter, Mab, has agreed to wipe a favor owed off of Dresden’s tab if he finds the Mafioso. Not really having a choice in the matter, Dresden starts looking, but crosses paths with an assortment of beasties, new and old, along the way. The Knights of the Blackened Denarius make a return here, and Nicodemus is as evil as ever. I especially got a kick out of Dresden’s inner comment that the guy should really look into the Evil Overlord List (eviloverlord.com), because it shows that Butcher is aware that his villain carries a sense of the cliché about him. He is, after all, a 2000-year-old demon.

            Without getting too far into spoiler territory, Dresden has to deal with crappy weather (remember the winter we just survived? Yeah, that weather) and a constant barrage of attacks from Nicodemus’ crew in order to figure out what the Denarians are after, save Marcone, and probably the rest of the world while he’s at it. Especially keen in this installment were the scenes where Harry starts to realize what is really at stake in this fight. His relationships with Michael Carpenter, Lieutenant Murphy, Ivy, and Captain Luccio all develop further in this novel, and it really seems to be about those connections in the end. Harry has family now. He has people he really loves and trusts. Sure, his brother has been there for a while and he and the others have been close, but it seems that Harry finally realizes what the readers have for a while now.

            Greater still, Butcher wastes no time getting to the meat of his story and he never wanders into the land of over-sentimentality. His balance of humor, horror, and action is truly masterful here and Small Favor is a gripping novel from start to finish. Not once did my faith in the series falter, as Butcher manages to give us new clues to the Dresden meta-plot, answer some lingering questions from past novels, and still give us a great, self-contained whodunit. All that, and Billy Goats Gruff to boot! Do yourself a favor and pick up Small Favor when it hits stores on the first of April.