Cold Days  by Jim Butcher

My Review:

I have been a huge Harry Dresden fan from the very first book, Storm Front.  Jim Butcher has done a phenominal job with this series.

Cold Days is set just after the last installment Ghost Story, where Harry Dresden was believed to be dead.  For all intensive purposes, he was.  His spirit was running around trying to put together the pieces of who killed him.

Now, Harry has been brought back, thanks in part to some powerful help, aka Mab, The Fae Queen of Air and Darkness.  In order to save his daughter two before Harry's demise, he made an agreement to become the Winter Knight and serve Mab.  She certainly wouldn't let a small thing like death get in the way of Harry living up to his end of the bargain.


Now, I'm not going to offer spoilers here.  I just want to give you my thoughts and let you read and make up your own mind.  Cold Days was well crafted and as always.  Full of twists and turns, but there did seem to have the feeling that there was always something bigger and nastier that had to come his way.   I would have preferred more of older enemy that continues to be the protagonist here.  Of course there is Mab, many of the other Winter and Summer Courts to contend with...  Perhaps, I am just hankering for a early standoff with another member of the dubious and yet unmasked, Black Council.

This book focuses more on the Fae and his newly bonded island... yes, I said island... Demonreach.  Like Changes, much about Harry's life, his surroundings, and his future are being altered and as much as he fights with it, there seems to be little he can do to stop it.

Mr. Butcher grasp of Harry's demeanor and how he conveys his friend's views of him, now that he is the Winter Knight is superb.  The book did seem to stall for me just abit about 1/3 the way in.  Not sure if it was intended to put as the reader state of "Oh well", or not.  At one point, I could tell it seemed lost..  I counted "Hell's Bells!" three times on one page.

Overall, I think Cold Days was another fantastic Dresden Files novel, but it was not Mr. Butcher's best.  I give it 4.5 out of 5, but I am anxious to see what Harry will do next.

Oh and P.S.  Give Murphy one of the Swords already!

Hello again fellow Sci-fi/fantasy lovers!

It was an awesome past few days.  I spent a glorious week in the hap-hap-happiest place on Earth.  That's right Disney World in Orlando, Florida.  I'm back now and ready to post away.

First of all, I would like to reach out to all my indie author brethren out there.  Let's face it.  Self marketing your novel is hard work.  I know.  But, there are some places to help.  One of them is The Author Marketing Club.  They have some great resources and links to sites that help promote your book for free.  Yes, free.  There are some other that offer more for a fee, but it's managable on a tight marketing budget.  Here is a link for more information.

Author Marketing Club - Book Marketing & Selling Tips for Authors

I will be posting my review of Jim Butcher's Cold Days later this week.  Still hip deep in this one, but even with vacation time, I haven't had time to finish it.

All I have time for tonight, but more to follow during the week.  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is definitely on my to do list and I encourage all everyone who likes a good fantasy stort to check it out.

T.D. Wilson

Welcome to the newest blog for all the greatest news and insights in Science Fiction and Fantasy!

As this is my inaugural post, I find it fitting that I can talk about three if my favorite storylines.

First up, the release of the new first trailer for the new Star Trek movie, Into Darkness.  J.J Abrams comes right back with a new sequel to the first revamped Star Trek blockbuster, and he already has my brain dancing with delight from this inital trailer.
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/startrekintodarkness/



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second storyline leads my back to JRR Tolkien.  December 14 is rapidly approaching and that means the release of first installment of The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey is about to hit theaters.  I was a bit apprehensive at Peter Jackson's decision to split The Hobbit story into three pieces after this initally planned two part design.  The Lord of the Rings storyline has so much material that he could have easily made a fourth movie for those pieces not included in the first three.  Perhaps, a what happened in between the great moments, if you will.  I am eager to see how this first part shapes up, but Peter Jackson has made The Middle Stories truly come to life.  I am sure that he will not dissapoint.  If you haven't seen it, here is a link to the first full trailer.

 

http://www.thehobbit.com/#content=video&section=moment&media=trailer_1

 



And last, but certainly by no means least for my first post, I wanted to talk briefly about a new book by one of my favorite authors, Mr. Jim Butcher.  The Dresden Files is a fantastic fantasy series that many would claim to be urban fantasy with a twist.  Book 14 of the series titled Cold Days is now available.  I will be posting a review of Cold Days on this blog in the coming weeks, but I urge anyone who enjoys and good series about magic, even in a modern time, to take a look.  The first book, Storm Front, is a really good read and has hooked many a reader that I turned toward its pages.

Here is the link to the new book:

http://www.amazon.com/Cold-Days-Novel-Dresden-Files/dp/0451464400
 





 

Well, that's all for this first post and what I hope will be more to come.  Be sure to follow my new book series, The Epherium Chronicles.  The first novel of that five part series, Embrace, is now available on ebook at Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and Apple iBooks.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009LTU1KU