Cold Days (The Dresden Files #14), by Jim Butcher

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Date Published: November 2012
Publisher: Penguin
# Of Pages/Listening Time: 515 pages/18 hours 50 minutes

Goodreads | Audible

Synopsis: (WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS NOVELS IN SERIES)


HARRY DRESDEN LIVES!!!

After being murdered by a mystery assailant, navigating his way through the realm between life and death, and being brought back to the mortal world, Harry realizes that maybe death wasn’t all that bad. Because he is no longer Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard.

He is now Harry Dresden, Winter Knight to Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness. After Harry had no choice but to swear his fealty, Mab wasn’t about to let something as petty as death steal away the prize she had sought for so long. And now, her word is his command, no matter what she wants him to do, no matter where she wants him to go, and no matter who she wants him to kill.

Guess which Mab wants first?

Of course, it won’t be an ordinary, everyday assassination. Mab wants her newest minion to pull off the impossible: kill an immortal. No problem there, right? And to make matters worse, there exists a growing threat to an unfathomable source of magic that could land Harry in the sort of trouble that will make death look like a holiday.

Beset by enemies new and old, Harry must gather his friends and allies, prevent the annihilation of countless innocents, and find a way out of his eternal subservience before his newfound powers claim the only thing he has left to call his own…

His soul.

My Rating:

 ★★★★ 1/2

.....For being better on the re-read

My Thoughts:

First, I should mention that the only two things I remembered from the last time I read this was that Harry Dresden meets Santa Claus in the beginning, and that the final fight resulted in a bit of a surprise.

With that being said, I think I enjoyed this book more the second time around. I laughed louder, I paid attention more, and I found some of my questions getting answered. Granted, I now have new questions, but something tells me that I'll learn more in Skin Game.

I can't talk about this book without talking about the series as a whole. This ongoing series has a lot going for it. It's got comedy, action, mystery, fantasy....it's reasonably well-written (no one can top Tolkien, but still) and you end up feeling for the characters and hoping that none of them will die.

Seriously, if you like urban fantasy, get started on this series!