Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #326820 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.

Thomas! Brilliant!
I've been a fan of The Dresden Files for years now and have been in love with Thomas Raith since he appeared. Seems I'm not the only one as Butcher gives him his own book. A tiny story, but beautifully plotted and giving Raith a backstory and a secret of his own. It seems very likely that this will rebound on Raith in future books - excellent!