Summer KnightJim Butcher
Roc, 371 pages
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Harry
Dresden, Chicago’s only wizard for hire (he’s in the Yellow Pages, under
“Wizards”) is working his way through the supernatural catalogue. In
the three previous books in this popular series, he’s faced demons, werewolves,
and vampires, plus assorted ghosts, spirits, revenants, and supernatural
manifestations. In Book 4, he’s mixed up with faeries--and the
stakes are higher than they’ve ever been.
Harry’s girlfriend Susan, who at the end of the last book was kidnapped and
made into a vampire, has left town and told Harry not to follow her.
Since then Harry has buried himself in research, trying to find a cure for the vampire curse. For weeks he’s
hardly eaten or slept (or bathed), and he’s let his business go to pot.
Now he’s got a handful of eviction notices, and if he doesn’t rustle up some
money soon, he’s going to be out on the street.
Luckily, there’s a client in the offing--and not just any client:
she’s Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness, Monarch of the Winter Court of the
Sidhe. Mab has purchased the debt Harry owes his faerie godmother; to free himself, he must agree to perform
three tasks. The first is to vindicate Mab of the murder of the Summer
Knight, emissary to the Summer Court, and to recover the Knight's stolen Mantle of power.
Harry accepts--it’s not as if he has a choice--and embarks upon an investigation
that plunges him deep into the illusive and dangerous world of faerie, on
a collision course with the ugly power struggle brewing between the Winter
and the Summer Courts. Meanwhile, a meeting of the White Council of
Wizards is about to convene--to examine, among other things, whether Harry
should be busted back to apprentice status for precipitating a war with the
vampires--and a painful piece of Harry’s past makes an unexpected appearance.
With the help of his cop friend Karrin Murphy, a pack of young werewolves,
a gang of half-faerie changelings, and several sprites who’ll do anything
for pizza, Harry must find a way to survive all these dangers--and, incidentally,
to save the world.
Fast paced and tightly plotted, Summer Knight
delivers the kind of action-packed adventure Butcher’s fans have come to
expect. Harry is his usual irreverent self--a cynic with a heart of
gold, a very human wizard whose power is great enough to give even the faeries
pause, yet who is constantly tripped up by his many doubts and failings (though
his bad-boy persona does occasionally wear a little thin, as when he carelessly
turns up for the White Council meeting in a bathrobe--a deliberately provocative
act that someone as smart and survival-oriented as Harry should surely know
enough to avoid). As in each of the previous books, a little more of
his past is revealed--this time, his relationship with Elaine, his treacherous
first love whom he believed was dead, and the part she played in his long-ago
slaying of his mentor Justin. Butcher also adds depth to his supernatural
scenario, giving the reader insight into the inner workings of the wizards’
hierarchy, as well as the relationship between the various factions--the
White Council, the Vampire Courts, the Faerie realms.
One of the things that makes these books
distinctive is their clever use of urban settings to add an element of wacky
humor to the usual magical situations. How many wizardly battles, for
instance, take place in the garden section of Wal-Mart? How many wizardly
councils choose to forego mysterious otherdimensional realms in favor of
a dinner theater at a convention center? How many sprites are seduced
by big cheesy pizzas? Butcher knows how to keep the balance, though,
delivering full-bore supernatural confrontations with all the proper trimmings,
and pulling out all the stops for the spectacular faerie battle at the climax.
All in all, it’s another superior entry in this excellent series.
Copyright © 2002 Victoria Strauss
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