Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #123141 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 72 pages

Customer Reviews

Warning
This is a very short and thin book. I am a big fan of the Harry Dresden series and of Jim Butcher in general. However, on receiving this - like the previous reviewer - I felt I had been conned. This is not even a novelette but a rather weak short story and I was very surprised a publisher would let this out as a stand alone publication. The premiss is good but the writing was not up to Jim Butcher's normally high standards. Short stories need even more work than full books as the limited space needs punchy writing to really hit home. This ends up reading as more of a outline of a possible future book yet to be developed and written.

I think you could perhaps see this being sold as a limited edition collection piece supported by the illustrations from Mike Mignola (Hellboy artist)- and done well it would have been a collectors item I would have wanted to own. But it fails to deliver even this as it is neither a limited print run or of artistic merit. There are only 4 rather poor illustrations and the hype claiming that these are all two colour prints actually means they are rendered in black and grey. The best of these is the cover illustration.

Subterranean press are doing this excellent author no favours by presenting this shoddy offering.

Backup: A step on the expensive side of life!
I ordered this as a present for Christmas as I have all the previous Dresden files books and the codex Alera, so didn't pay much attention to the discription, perhaps the following should teach me to read the blurb first, but whilst the story line is quite up to Jim Butchers usual high quality, at £20 for just 73 pages (the equivalent of over £100 for a full length 400 page novel) I can't give it anything better than two stars as it left me feeling more like the victim of a mugging than as a satisfied customer. Unless you are a die hard fan that has to have this book now and it is a good story, I would suggest waiting for the paperback version.

Even Harry needs backup

"I'll be damned if I know how. But then, I'll be damned regardless. My name is Thomas Raith, and I'm a monster."

Thomas Raith is one of the more compelling, intriguing characters of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files -- a lovable, tormented incubus with an inner Hunger that nags him. Tiny novella "Backup" is the first glimpse into Thomas' head, with plenty of Butcher's trademark wit, action, and quite a bit of pathos. Looks like even a top-notch wizard need some backup now and again.

Thomas receives a mystery email from his sister Lara, regarding the Oblivion Wars from years ago. She ends up sending Justine to his apartment with photos of Harry and a mysterious woman -- turns out Thomas' wizardly baby brother has unintentionally enmeshed himself in a plot of the Stygian Sisterhood, in his search for a kidnapped child.

Unfortunately Harry knows nothing of the Stygian Sisterhood or about the danger he's in, and Thomas can't really tell him outright. So the hairdressing vampire sets out through Chicago to protect Harry from the shadows -- and promptly falls afoul of one of the Sisters. Now Thomas -- cloaked in an illusion of a different face -- must somehow help his brother before the Sisterhood kills them both.

Since the entire Dresden Files series is written in first person, readers have never really gotten inside the head of Thomas Raith. "Backup" fixes that: the entire story is told from Thomas' point of view, and it turns out he sounds a lot like his little brother. Except he really, really doesn't like what he is -- and I'm not talking about masquerading as a gay hairdresser.

He's also very funny and witty at times, dryly announcing that he has the "anthem of Nazi Germany" playing whenever his family emails him, and refers to Harry and email mixing like "Robert Downey Jr. and sobriety." Yet at the same time, we see that he's a heckuva lot darker than Harry ever is -- his contempt for his vampiric family, his fierce protectiveness of his brother, and his hopeless love for his ex-girlfriend Justine.

And then there's the Hunger. Butcher goes 110% when showing us the roaring demon inside Thomas, and the things it tempts him to do.

It's a shame that "Backup" is such a tiny novel, because frankly the whole Oblivion War and Stygian Sisterhood are incredibly fascinating ideas. Butcher only touches the tip of the iceberg. But he throws in plenty of lightning-quick action schemes with the Sisterhood and their ghoul thugs, as well as a slam-bang climax where a bespelled Thomas has to save Harry's magical butt.

Harry only appears occasionally in this novel, but he's in good form when he does -- our rangy, mildly grumpy wizard with a soft spot for little kids. Bob the Skull has a bit more presence, since he and Thomas have a bit of a heart-to-heart about supernatural matters (when Bob isn't dropping his usual lecherous hints about "grateful" mothers and beribboned nude girls).

Even a wizard needs some help from his big brother occasionally. And while "Backup" is a skinny little sliver of a story, it's a well-rounded look into the sexiest vampire in modern fiction.