Review of the novel"Proven Guilty"
May. 20th, 2006 08:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat[In case you haven't figured it out yet by now, I've changed what I'm posting in this journal somewhat. Instead of personal posts - which tend to be friends locker or entries detailing what I've done or want to do, I'm doing personal essays, op-ed pieces, movie/book/theater reviews. It's doubtful you will see music reviews because what I know about music you can fit inside a thimble.
If you have a specific topic in mind that you would like to see me write on - please mention it, I may or may not take you up on it. I don't write well on demand, but am open to suggestions and while I was doing the media essays on Buffy the Vampire Slayer - did take requests. At least five or six of the essays I wrote at that time were requested by someone online. While I have several subjects in mind - I tend to write best - when it is a spontaneous hence the title of my live journal - spontaneous musings. That does not mean however that I'm not willing to test my muscels on requests. So if you have them, post them.]
PROVEN GUILTY by James Butcher, Book 8 of the Dresden Files.
[The trick in writing a good book review is not to give away any plot details or spoilers, yet tantlize someone or discourage them from reading. Let's see if I can manage it. ]
The Dresden Files - are a group of books written by James Butcher that center on a private detective who also happens to be a wizard. They are written as blend of fantasy and noir, complete with femme fatals, gal fridays, and plot twists. The main character is a combination of Sam Spade/Philip Marlow meets Harry Potter all grown up or for people who are unfamilar with those characters, a somewhat sarcastic, anti-authority figure kind-hearted man - who struggles to do the right thing.
Butcher has written his novels as an episodic serial. Each book building on the last one, yet at the same time standing alone. You can read them out of order and not be lost. The characters are clearly defined in each and the writer does not bore the readers who have read the early ones with endless exposition, as JK Rowling did on occassion. Each has it's own self-contained mystery. If you are a fan of the Harry Potter series and ache for something a bit older, this series is right up your alley.
The books start with Storm Front - which is also available as an audio book read by James Marsters, who notably played the role of Spike in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series and Angel the Series, he's currently playing Brainac on Smallville. The other books are: Fool Moon (deals with werewolves), Grave Peril - ghosts and vampires, Summer Knight - fairies, specifically Queen Mab and Titania and seems to reference Shakespeare along with Yeats, Death Masks - The Knights of the Holy Cross (references Arthurian Legend and Knights of Templar as well as the whole Deniarian Coins - from Judas), Blood Rites - incubus vampires and Hollywood sex films, Dead Beat - zombies and necromancy as well as being tempted by a demon, now finally Proven Guilty.
Butcher sets up his world in Chicago, a Chicago that echoes the Chicago of Al Capone, aka Scarface and also has the supernatural element. His character, Harry Cooperfield Blackstone Dresden - whose names are taken from those of famous magicians is your typical Sam Spade/Philip Marlow protagonist. He is brutalized in the books and meets more than one femme fatal willing to tempt him to his doom. The gal friday is the cute spunky, yet tough as nails cop, Murphy. Murphy is a combination of Buffy Summers and Angie Dicksons's Police Woman. She's petite, blond, pert nose, and can take a grown man down with a well place karate chop. Dresden is described as tall and lanky with hooked nose - close to 6'5 feet tall. When I think of Dresden I imagine a stretched out James Marsters with a hooked nose, but that's only because I started the series listening to audio books. The twist on the average Sam Spade novel, is that Murphy is Dresden's boss not his assistant. She hires him not the other way around. Murphy appears in Proven Guilty and is a major character, while in the previous book she barely made an appearence. Here, she features as a supporting character who assists Harry. And in some ways, grounds him.
The villains of the piece seem to be obvious from the outset, but aren't, quite. The writer shows that things aren't always simple or clearly delineated and the way to hell is indeed paved with the best of intentions. Harry is forced to deal with his own past, his own fears, his own desires and his own feelings about power by how he deals with the villain or villians. He is also forced to deal with the demon inside him - which in this novel takes on the literal image of a female fallen angel. She lurks in the background of his mind, tempting him to push his magic to limits to depend on it and her as opposed to believing in himself, an internal femme fatale. If you can get past the heavy Christian mythos, assuming such things bug you, you'll note the interesting metaphor. Lascial is the femme fatal of the piece in some ways and a fascinating one, which is by no means resolved in this novel.
The other characters that make an appearance are the ones we visited last in Butcher's novel, "Death Masks", not a favorite of mine due to the heavy Christian preachiness of it. Michael, Charity and their brood of kids are back in force, except this time we spend more time with Charity than Michael and find out a bit more about who she is. Their oldest daughter, Molly, is the one who asks Harry for help and starts the novel rolling.
Here, unlike Grave Peril and Death Masks, the characters of Charity and Michael are given a bit more depth. Butcher does improve with each novel, the novels get more intricate, more layered, and Harry a bit more complex. Butcher seems to be intent on exploring the dark side of his character, yet does it deftly, keeping the character from sliding away from his grasp. Much like Rowling's Harry Potter series, Dresden Files is a man's coming of age tale - a way of handling internal demons. Give Butcher credit for realizing that one's journey does not end after puberty does.
The plot of the novel centers on killings at a Horror fan convention. Butcher clearly has attended fan conventions and wittily describes them along with the range of personalities that frequent them. The killings are conducted by monsters from horror movies - movies that Butcher has made up yet clearly based on popular movies of our times. He does not shy away from describing the monsters or what they've done, showing that the violence is not just physical but also psychological and impossible to shrug off. I've read quite a few novels lately that deal with violence and outside of Robin Mckinley's Sunshine, few deal with the psychological consequences of violence.
My only quibbles with the novel are the preachiness of the scenes dealing with God and belief in God, which I'm not entirely sure belong here. The author has clearly found religion and feels a need to share his own struggles with that inside the novel, at times his grapplings with it feel a tad heavy-handed. Dead Beat, Blood Rites, Storm Front and Summer Knight veer away from this theme, the ones featuring Michael, the perfect Knight who believes in God and is pure past the point of reason tend to be weaker. Of those, Proven Guilty may be the best of the bunch, since it also features the Wizard Council and introduces a neat little plot-twist that makes the reader want to go back and re-read the prior novels.
Do I recommend Proven Guilty? Yes. It is a good quick read with enjoyable characters and a warm-hearted ending. It made me happy. And I was sorry it was over. So sorry, I bought three prior novels that I'd read but did not own having borrowed them from a friend and returned them. The three I bought were Summer Knight, Blood Rites and Dead Beat - all of which I highly recommend. I already have Storm Front and Grave Peril on tape and CD respectively.
This summer, rumor has it, that sci-fi channel will show a two hour movie based on the Dresden Files, featuring a character that had been called "Erik Dresden" to prevent confusion with Harry Potter, but now that Butcher has a heavy following that may have changed. We will have to wait and see if the movie and proposed series lives up to the written version. It will of course be different, it has to be. But until then, go out and try a Butcher novel, if you like your noir mixed with fantasy or your fantasy mixed with a touch of noir as I do.
If you have a specific topic in mind that you would like to see me write on - please mention it, I may or may not take you up on it. I don't write well on demand, but am open to suggestions and while I was doing the media essays on Buffy the Vampire Slayer - did take requests. At least five or six of the essays I wrote at that time were requested by someone online. While I have several subjects in mind - I tend to write best - when it is a spontaneous hence the title of my live journal - spontaneous musings. That does not mean however that I'm not willing to test my muscels on requests. So if you have them, post them.]
PROVEN GUILTY by James Butcher, Book 8 of the Dresden Files.
[The trick in writing a good book review is not to give away any plot details or spoilers, yet tantlize someone or discourage them from reading. Let's see if I can manage it. ]
The Dresden Files - are a group of books written by James Butcher that center on a private detective who also happens to be a wizard. They are written as blend of fantasy and noir, complete with femme fatals, gal fridays, and plot twists. The main character is a combination of Sam Spade/Philip Marlow meets Harry Potter all grown up or for people who are unfamilar with those characters, a somewhat sarcastic, anti-authority figure kind-hearted man - who struggles to do the right thing.
Butcher has written his novels as an episodic serial. Each book building on the last one, yet at the same time standing alone. You can read them out of order and not be lost. The characters are clearly defined in each and the writer does not bore the readers who have read the early ones with endless exposition, as JK Rowling did on occassion. Each has it's own self-contained mystery. If you are a fan of the Harry Potter series and ache for something a bit older, this series is right up your alley.
The books start with Storm Front - which is also available as an audio book read by James Marsters, who notably played the role of Spike in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series and Angel the Series, he's currently playing Brainac on Smallville. The other books are: Fool Moon (deals with werewolves), Grave Peril - ghosts and vampires, Summer Knight - fairies, specifically Queen Mab and Titania and seems to reference Shakespeare along with Yeats, Death Masks - The Knights of the Holy Cross (references Arthurian Legend and Knights of Templar as well as the whole Deniarian Coins - from Judas), Blood Rites - incubus vampires and Hollywood sex films, Dead Beat - zombies and necromancy as well as being tempted by a demon, now finally Proven Guilty.
Butcher sets up his world in Chicago, a Chicago that echoes the Chicago of Al Capone, aka Scarface and also has the supernatural element. His character, Harry Cooperfield Blackstone Dresden - whose names are taken from those of famous magicians is your typical Sam Spade/Philip Marlow protagonist. He is brutalized in the books and meets more than one femme fatal willing to tempt him to his doom. The gal friday is the cute spunky, yet tough as nails cop, Murphy. Murphy is a combination of Buffy Summers and Angie Dicksons's Police Woman. She's petite, blond, pert nose, and can take a grown man down with a well place karate chop. Dresden is described as tall and lanky with hooked nose - close to 6'5 feet tall. When I think of Dresden I imagine a stretched out James Marsters with a hooked nose, but that's only because I started the series listening to audio books. The twist on the average Sam Spade novel, is that Murphy is Dresden's boss not his assistant. She hires him not the other way around. Murphy appears in Proven Guilty and is a major character, while in the previous book she barely made an appearence. Here, she features as a supporting character who assists Harry. And in some ways, grounds him.
The villains of the piece seem to be obvious from the outset, but aren't, quite. The writer shows that things aren't always simple or clearly delineated and the way to hell is indeed paved with the best of intentions. Harry is forced to deal with his own past, his own fears, his own desires and his own feelings about power by how he deals with the villain or villians. He is also forced to deal with the demon inside him - which in this novel takes on the literal image of a female fallen angel. She lurks in the background of his mind, tempting him to push his magic to limits to depend on it and her as opposed to believing in himself, an internal femme fatale. If you can get past the heavy Christian mythos, assuming such things bug you, you'll note the interesting metaphor. Lascial is the femme fatal of the piece in some ways and a fascinating one, which is by no means resolved in this novel.
The other characters that make an appearance are the ones we visited last in Butcher's novel, "Death Masks", not a favorite of mine due to the heavy Christian preachiness of it. Michael, Charity and their brood of kids are back in force, except this time we spend more time with Charity than Michael and find out a bit more about who she is. Their oldest daughter, Molly, is the one who asks Harry for help and starts the novel rolling.
Here, unlike Grave Peril and Death Masks, the characters of Charity and Michael are given a bit more depth. Butcher does improve with each novel, the novels get more intricate, more layered, and Harry a bit more complex. Butcher seems to be intent on exploring the dark side of his character, yet does it deftly, keeping the character from sliding away from his grasp. Much like Rowling's Harry Potter series, Dresden Files is a man's coming of age tale - a way of handling internal demons. Give Butcher credit for realizing that one's journey does not end after puberty does.
The plot of the novel centers on killings at a Horror fan convention. Butcher clearly has attended fan conventions and wittily describes them along with the range of personalities that frequent them. The killings are conducted by monsters from horror movies - movies that Butcher has made up yet clearly based on popular movies of our times. He does not shy away from describing the monsters or what they've done, showing that the violence is not just physical but also psychological and impossible to shrug off. I've read quite a few novels lately that deal with violence and outside of Robin Mckinley's Sunshine, few deal with the psychological consequences of violence.
My only quibbles with the novel are the preachiness of the scenes dealing with God and belief in God, which I'm not entirely sure belong here. The author has clearly found religion and feels a need to share his own struggles with that inside the novel, at times his grapplings with it feel a tad heavy-handed. Dead Beat, Blood Rites, Storm Front and Summer Knight veer away from this theme, the ones featuring Michael, the perfect Knight who believes in God and is pure past the point of reason tend to be weaker. Of those, Proven Guilty may be the best of the bunch, since it also features the Wizard Council and introduces a neat little plot-twist that makes the reader want to go back and re-read the prior novels.
Do I recommend Proven Guilty? Yes. It is a good quick read with enjoyable characters and a warm-hearted ending. It made me happy. And I was sorry it was over. So sorry, I bought three prior novels that I'd read but did not own having borrowed them from a friend and returned them. The three I bought were Summer Knight, Blood Rites and Dead Beat - all of which I highly recommend. I already have Storm Front and Grave Peril on tape and CD respectively.
This summer, rumor has it, that sci-fi channel will show a two hour movie based on the Dresden Files, featuring a character that had been called "Erik Dresden" to prevent confusion with Harry Potter, but now that Butcher has a heavy following that may have changed. We will have to wait and see if the movie and proposed series lives up to the written version. It will of course be different, it has to be. But until then, go out and try a Butcher novel, if you like your noir mixed with fantasy or your fantasy mixed with a touch of noir as I do.
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Date: 2006-05-21 02:57 am (UTC)I found it easier to accept the preachy bits because I felt that Jim Butcher was trying to explore people's feelings of guilt, what makes them guilty, and how they punish themselves and other. I particularly liked that Michael turned out to be the least judgemental person in the book, very willing to accept others without making them feel guilty.
I think I want to reread the previous books because I am feeling caught up, once more, in the Dresden love.... And I am really looking forward to seeing what the next book will bring (lots more about the Wizard council, and one very young Wizard apprentice!).