Summary: Dresden and a ‘Righteous man’ fight the latest set of nasties in order to protect Chicago from vampires, ghosts and more.
It is always interesting to me that once I start working on a reading project, suddenly books that I thought would have no connection to the project get connected. In this case, Harry Dresden, the only wizard in Chicago, has started regularly working with Michael. A righteous man that has been chosen as The Fist of God.
Dresden explains to another character that Michael’s power is because Michael is a righteous man. His faith in God and simple, humble righteousness have a power that Dresden as a hard working wizard doesn’t have access to.
Throughout the book God’s power is present, not as magic, but a protective force for the innocent and righteous. Of course, Michael and his family and friends are Catholic. The books is set in Chicago, a very Catholic city, but more important, the ritual and rites of the Catholic church lend themselves to being written about like this.
The basic story of this book is that something or someone has been stirring up the divide between the real world and the NeverNever (the spirit world). So Harry and Michael keep running around stopping Ghosts and demons and other nasty things from hurting or killing people.
This brings in several back story characters for Dresden. His (Faerie) Godmother, that Dresden was pledged to by his mother (and who Harry avoids at all costs) and Bianca, a very nasty vampire that has it out for Harry. Both seem tangential main plot line, but keep coming up throughout the story.
Overall, I liked the book. I liked the religious/faith element of this book. It was not over played but it was present. I like Harry Dresden as a character. He is a likable, but flawed hero. He is a good example of a person that sees himself one way, while others see him differently. So Harry views himself as chivalrous and always helping out the damsels in distress. But mostly the women around him view him as chauvinist and over protective. That seems pretty real to life to me.
What gets a little tiring is that Dresden is always not listening to warnings. Bob (his magical helper) or Susan (his girlfriend) will try to warn him about something and he will say “not now I am busy” and then two minutes later what they were trying to warn him about happens. Once, or maybe twice a book that can happen, but Butcher uses that way too often in these books.
This series is not great literature. But they are fairly enjoyable and I will probably keep slowly working through them. There are a gazillion of them now. So I may never finish them all.
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