Turn Coat / Jim Butcher

Turn Coat

category: fantasy, author:

Jim Butcher

book 11 of the Dresden Files
original copyright 2009,
read in Sep 2011

Agamedes' opinion: 8 out of 10

With each Dresden Files book, Butcher adds complexity -- and danger. Not quite the right word... Let me explain.

The plots have always been somewhat complex: these books are detective mystery fantasy. The complexity is added by the scope of characters.

Dresden works in modern Chicago. With various "fantasy" realms which add magic to the mix. Each novel stands alone but each novel adds to the background. In Dresden's world you can't simply say, this is a Vampire problem... It's, Which group of Vampires? How does it affect the Wizard Council? Will the Faerie get involved? etc, etc, etc.

I have not read all of the Dresden Files, so some references go over my head. Doesn't matter, there is sufficient explanation in this book. I suspect, however, that it would not be wise to read this book -- eleventh in the series -- as your first Dresden novel. It would be like joining a tv soap opera in the middle of its third season...

The Dresden Files are also soap opera. Not in terms of the main plot of each novel. But there are character developments, romances, love and hate, which grow and build and change from novel to novel. I missed, for example, the start of one affair... which has finished by the end of this book.

It all adds to our interest in the characters. They grow and change and develop. Yet they stay within the bounds set at their introduction. If you like a character who then turns bad -- you will sympathise, and hope that he can be saved. If you hate an evil character who then helps the hero -- you are given an explanation for the help, and you hope that the hero will still watch his back.

The books are adding both complexity -- and danger. How does that happen?

Dresden himself is developing. He develops his skills, his reputation, his standing in the various realms. As per book series standards, he must also fight tougher and tougher battles... His risks are also increasing -- in terms of the potential impact if he fails.

Not the impact on himself...

Well, not only the impact on himself.

As Dresden battles bigger baddies, he is fighting for a wider range of people. In early books, there were just a few people at risk. Now it's entire realms... Shades of the Skylark series!

Beyond the plot, Butcher has also invented sex.

With the escalating level of violence and sex, this series is not for children. (Well, hope that they don't tell their parents what they are reading, anyway.) I'm not sure if this is Butcher developing his writing style -- or a response the the reader's desire for more and more and more.

This is a very enjoyable book. But it does need a parental warning, for sex and violence. The faeries at the end of the bed are not just Tinkerbelle...

..o0o..

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