Another great read by Jim Butcher.

If you though book one, Storm Front, was good... wait until you get into this one. Dark nights will creep you out forever more. Van Helsing, eat your heart out. Harry Dresden is my hero.
A fast paced, action packed and filled to the brim with all the magic we crave. Butcher's characters are well developed and easy to like or hate as the situation calls for. His writing is engrossing and he never seems to leave a word in the wrong place. Nothing pulls you out of the story once you are in.
The events are believable, and I know that sounds strange to say considering the genre but read it and it will makes sense. You never feel like it should have happened another way or that you could have written it better. Jim just does it right. Can't wait for Grave Peril!

In this latest installment of Jim Butchers "Harry Dresden" chronicles, Harry must battle werewolves. But as nothing is ever simple in Dresden's life, neither is this.

First, there is a Loup-Garou terrorizing the city. This is someone that is a werewolf because his family was cursed in the times of St. Patrick. Second, is the group of Hexenwulven, people that trade their humanity for the power of the wolf. Then there are the ones that are aided by sorcery.

It would be bad enough if it wasn't just the Loup-Garou, because they are almost impossible to stop. But, the Hexenwulven are complicating things, not just corrupting the investigation, not just because they are corrupt FBI agents, who have thrown down with the local mobsters. But, because each time they shift they lose more and more of their humanity and morals. That and they intend on killing everyone and thing in their way, and framing the Loup-Garou who just wants to contain his curse, and provide sanctuary for wild life, as they lose more and more of their natural domains.

I do like these books, but I do find they have more gore and violence, than I tend to like. I find myself losing interest in them, because I feel that a lot of the gore is gratuitous. I gave up on the author Karen Chances books because I felt the same way. Lucky for Butcher, he is a much better writer than Chance, or I might just decide to stop here and not continue like I did with Chance.

Jim Butcher achieves something that no other authors of urban fantasy (at least not the ones I've read) have done; he expresses how wonderful it is to be producing magic in a world like ours.

I don't expect characters to be jazzed about their magic skills in a classic fantasy world, where magic is like bowling and everyone knows about it, most people have dabbled in it, but only a few can bowl anywhere near a perfect score.

Nor do I expect wizards to remain wide-eyed about their skills if they find themselves separated from Muggles for long periods, so that they are surrounded by magic and their only influence is magic. After all, knowing how to throw a slider loses its wow-factor when you're one of a pitching staff where everyone's got a slider and something more.

But in an urban fantasy setting, where the magical world is our world with magic in it -- a world with zombies and Coke, or vampires and Dancing with the Stars, or demons and Battlestar Galactica -- the protagonists can't always be seeing their talents as curses or handicaps or illnesses. Some character somewhere has got to like what they're able to do.

Enter Chicago wizard Harry Dresden.

Here's what he thinks about his skills: "The potion had worked. I was inside. I had to suppress an urge to break into a soft-shoe routine. Sometimes being able to use magic was so cool. I almost stopped hurting for a few seconds, from sheer enjoyment of the special effects. I would have to remember to tell Bob how much I liked the way this potion worked."

Now that's more like it. That's enthusiasm. That's joy. That's a man who knows that supernatural talent is about the best thing you can have in a modern city. And that's a recognition that being able to do magic is just plain cool.

This enthusiasm (dare I call it passion, as Harry does?) is at the core of Harry Dresden, and it is the best reason (amongst many others) for me to keep reading The Dresden Files.

I know guys like Harry. They are the computer geeks who spend their days programming wonders and come home to play video games, or the math geeks who spend their days dreaming up lofty theorems then come home and play speed chess. Harry's talent happens to be magic, but by grounding his skills in the lovable body of an everyday geek (albeit a bad*ss geek), the kind of geek we all know and understand, Butcher makes everything about his Chicago -- the city, the people (especially Harry) and the magic -- as accessibly realistic as an urban fantasy-noir can be.

Furthermore, as an inveterate Indiana Jones fan, the constant references, intentional or otherwise, to Raiders of the Lost Ark are enough to keep me happy even when Harry Dresden miraculously pulls off his self-proclaimed missions against ridiculous odds that are compounded by bloodloss and bruising and beatings that would put a normal person in the hospital instantly, which is, of course, another reference to Indiana Jones, making me love Dresden even more.

This is only the second book of [book:The Dresden Files], so I don't want to go too far in my praise -- I am expecting better stories to come -- but as fantasy-noir entertainments go, [book:Fool Moon] is top notch. It is exciting, action packed and pulpy with just the right amount of cheek.

The Dresden Files is the perfect series if you need a break from the cerebral, but don't want to immerse yourself in drivel.

P.S. At this point in the series I completely hate Murphy. I know that is heresy for fans of The Dresden Files; I know she is beloved and has a history with Harry that grows and deepens, but right now I can't stand her. At this point (and I really do hope this changes in future books), she is pig-headed, abusive, closed minded, inflexible, self-righteous, and just plain mean. She is the one element of Fool Moon that I genuinely disliked. Too bad Harry didn't hook up with Tera.