Review: Twelve Months

Twelve Months by Jim Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the eighteenth book in the Dresden Files, one of the few urban fantasy stalwarts from the oughts still standing. (It must be selling in sufficient numbers, since the books have now graduated to hardcover releases.) Harry Dresden, our protagonist, has been through several different kinds of hell, and this book is a much-needed change of pace: slower, more thoughtful and reflective. Which it would have to be, after the fire and frenzy of the previous book. I really enjoyed this, and think it's one of the better offerings in the series.

As the title reflects, it follows twelve months in Harry's life: twelve months of pain and healing. Twelve months of PTSD and recovery after the previous volume's Battle of Chicago. Most important, this book chronicles twelve months of grief over the death of a pivotal character. You may not agree with what the author did in Battle Ground, and you may think it was a quite unnecessary "fridging." That would be valid. Nevertheless, this book takes Harry in new directions and sets him up with a new found family. It gives him more responsibility and explores his relationships with his daughter, his brother, and the White Court vampire queen, Lara Raith, he is being forced to marry (presumably in the next book). Harry finds a way to make the best of that sticky situation, and in the end, he and Lara end up as partners and wary allies.

This book's dedication has a hint that the author may have based this on his own "year of hell." This is just speculation on my part, but the book definitely gives off that vibe. It takes time for Harry to recover, and for the most part, he gets that time. Unlike other volumes in the series, there is not one overarching Big Bad (although that seems to be coming). Rather, it's a series of slowly escalating incidents--aftereffects of the Battle of Chicago--that Harry has to deal with. He struggles to put aside his own pain and begin helping people again, and we see the depths of that struggle. This story is also something of a character study of Harry Dresden, and it's very effective.

We do get a magical fight scene at the end of the book, when Harry is able to take up his staff again, and it's a banger. It is mercifully short, compared to the last book (which was more or less one chaotic extended battle), and I think it packs a helluva punch. Just as an example:

I slammed my open right hand against the wall of Merlin's fortress as the three corpses whirled toward me, reorienting after the sudden absence of resistance. There was an instant of frozen silence.

"You should have come on a school night," I said harshly.

And then, at my will, the enchanted, obdurate stone of the second floor, that entire portion of the second floor, tons and tons and tons of rune-etched rock, slammed down more swiftly than a blinking eyelid, like a vast and ancient sledgehammer coming down on three doomed cockroaches.

It was messy as hell.

Black ichor, thick and sticky as tar, sprayed everywhere in a fine mist.

And that was that.

Well, that's one way to get rid of your enemies.

Harry is in a better place at the end of this book, and ready to take up the challenges ahead. I don't know how many more books the author has planned for the series; I heard it may end with book #22 or #23? In any event, I hope he keeps up with the plot and character threads he has laid down here. This book should provide a good launching pad for the series' endgame.



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