Harry Dresden finds out he's a father. Years ago, the woman he loved left him after she was half-turned into a vampire of the Red Court. Unbeknownst to Harry, she was pregnant with their child at the time. Now Susan Rodriguez has returned, seeking Harry's help to save their daughter from the clutches of the Red Court vampires, who seek to sacrifice her in a hideous ritual against Harry.

PRO TIP: If you EVER think about harming Harry's child, he will WRECK YOUR WORLD! Genocide is not only on the table, he'll serve it up as the main course.

Changes is well named. It signifies a major, major turning point in The Dresden Files as Harry finds out just how far he will go, which lines he will cross, to save the people he loves, even if he's never met them. One of the major themes of the series has always been the importance of family. Not only the family whose blood you share, but those people who grow close to you through shared experiences. Harry collects his family to save his little girl, but comes very, very close to throwing it all away.

Harry's dead, but he's not going to let a little thing like that stop him from helping the people he cares about. This is a rather odd entry in the series because Harry is bereft of most of his power and has to learn to work within entirely new constraints. Being dead really puts a crimp on one's ability to affect the living. Now Harry has to solve his own murder, but is also caught up in a plot in the spiritual realm to destabilize the dead citizens of Chicago who still haunt the streets. Harry also finds out how his death has affected those who were closest to him, along with the fact that his actions in Changes and his own death have led to a major power vacuum in the supernatural world that another faction is all too eager to fill.

After reading Ghost Story I decided to read the collections of short stories that take place in the Dresdenverse. Most of these are stories that Jim Butcher was commissioned to write for various anthologies. I think he enjoyed the experience because he was able to tell alternate stories within the same universe from the perspective of other characters. Even antagonists like "Gentleman" Johnny Marcone get a moment to shine.

This is another collection of short stories within the Dresdenverse.

With Cold Days we're back to the main narrative of the Dresdenverse. It turns out Harry was only mostly dead in Ghost Story, but dead enough to interact with the spiritual world at their level. Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness, and Demonreach, Harry's pet island genius loci, kept his body barely functional while his spirit roamed.

Now Harry has to fully adopt the mantle of the Winter Knight, Mab's personal assassin and weapon. He also has to come to terms with what it means to be a father for his daughter.

Meanwhile the Fomor are a new faction in town and they don't play nicely with the other mortal and supernatural residents of Chicago.

Nicodemus Archleone, one of my favorite villains I love to hate, is back in town. He's recruited Harry to take part in heist. Their goal is to steal the Holy Grail frmo under the nose of Hades, ruler of the Underworld. (How did Hades get the Holy Grail? That's never really answered, though Hades is known to be a collector of supernatural artifacts...).

As with most plans involving Nicodemus, nothing is every as simple as it appears and it's up to Harry and his allies to figure out how to backstab Nicodemus before the Master of the Order of the Blackened Denarius backstabs them first.

Skin Game is a pretty fun and exciting heist novel, as each member of the team is recruited for their particular skills and we get to see why Harry really is one of the top wizards in the world because of how he approaches magic and its uses.

The Fomor have agreed to negotiate a truce between their faction and the other factions who signed onto the Unseelie Accords, the magical bargain that keeps the factions mostly under control. Unfortunately, Harry's half-brother Thomas, a vampire of the White Court, is caught assassinating a high-ranking svartalf (one of the factions) which threatens to undo the entire peace process. It's up to Harry to find out what's really going and on and rescue his brother.

And just when you thought things couldn't get worse, the actual ruler of the Fomor, Ethniu, the Last Titan, makes her debut entrance by kicking Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness, through a brick wall. Up until this point, Mab was the most terrifying creature in the supernatural. The Last Titan made short work of her (for now). With the breakdown of peace talks, war is now on the horizon, the likes of which the world hasn't seen for over a thousand years.

This book was supposed to be a single book, but eventually it became long enough that the publisher convinced Butcher to split it into two books (see below).

Battle Ground is INTENSE. In fact, it's arguably one of the most intense books I've ever read. It's nearly on par with Robert Jordan's A Memory of Light for just how incredibly intense it is, keeping me glued to the page, even though I know what's coming.

War has come to Chicago. The Fomor have risen from the depths of Lake Michigan, led by Ethniu, the Last Titan. She's determined to wipe out the vermin of humanity to the last man, woman, and child.

I can't really describe it too well except to compare it to Avengers: Endgame. Pretty much all of the major players we've seen in the series show up to have a role in the Battle for Chicago. Everyone gets their moment in the spotlight as they seek to defeat the Last Titan. Their only hope is to imprison her in Demonreach, which was designed for that purpose.

After the events of Battle Ground, this novel is a bit of a letdown, but I understand *why* it needed to be written. The characters are so traumatized by the events in the previous novel that they need to be shown healing from that experience. Harry, especially, is reeling from personal tragedy, losing the woman he loved. Chicago is in ruins, having been hit by the equivalent of a nuclear bomb. Hundreds of thousands were killed, massive infrastrucure was destroyed, and now people are lost, just trying to survive.

This is a good "breather" story before the events start to get more serious again. If The Dresden Files were a television series, this would be the episode after a massive mid-season climax before we start heading into the season or series finale. Butcher has stated that the series will be around 24-25 books, with the last three being an "apocalyptic trilogy." So we're right on schedule before things start to heat up again in the Dresdenverse. Vlad Drakul, leader of the Black Court of vampires, is hinted at being a new antagonist/villain, and the Outsiders are also lurking around.

After cruising through the Dresdenverse for the past month, I was at a loss as to what to read next. This series has been sitting on my desk since New Year's or so. I figured I'd go ahead and get it out of the way.

If you are an arachnophobe, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK! It features a race of hyperevolved intelligent spiders who accidentally colonized and dominated an Earthlike world. It was supposed to be monkeys, but spiders were "uplifted" instead (this is a shout out to David Brin's Uplift series).

The last remnants of humanity find this planet and want to establish a colony, but they have to deal with a psychotic AI/human hybrid first.