Review 68: Small Favor

Small Favor by Jim Butcher

"Hell's Bells" count: 21

This is the tenth book in the series, and if Butcher's own plan can be trusted, it marks about the halfway point for the series as a whole. Having made it this far with the series is a remarkable achievement, and if he can keep it up all the way to its projected end, I will be a very happy and impressed reader. So, a few words about the book itself, and then some thoughts on the series.

Honestly, if you've been following my reviews of this series, you can be pretty sure what I'm going to say about it - I devoured the book and enjoyed every minute of it. In this edition, Our Hero Harry is faced with death and danger on all sides, as usual. The everlasting Queen of the Winter Sidhe, Mab, wants Harry to rescue John Marcone, the boss of the biggest organized crime racket in the city, from the clutches of fallen angels who have immeasurable power and millennia of experience. What they want with Marcone - and other, more innocent and tragic characters - isn't clear, but what we can be sure of is that the full extent of their plans will far exceed simple kidnapping.

Meanwhile, he's being attacked by agents of Queen Titania, the queen of the Summer Sidhe, for reasons that are not all that clear to anyone, especially Harry. His attackers are beasts of legend - the Gruffs. You may have heard of them when you were a child - goatlike creatures with a talent for eliminating trolls. They are brothers, and if you manage to defeat one of them, you can be sure that his big brother will be along soon to take care of you. And you most certainly don't want to get on the bad side of the eldest of the Gruffs, let me tell you that. Nice guy, but he's clean your clock no matter who you are.

So, things aren't so good for Harry Dresden. But, then, when are they ever? Going up against forces way over his head is pretty much a theme for Harry's life, and while we can be reasonably certain that he will prevail (after all, there are about ten more books to go, and they'd be hard to write without him), we don't know how much damage he will take in the doing so. Although if you guessed "a lot," you'd be pretty well on the mark.

That goes for pretty much every book in the series. Harry is an underdog, or at least he starts out as one. By the time you get to this book, he has some measure of authority, responsibility and respect, as well as a serious reputation amongst people in this world and others. So, this makes it rather harder for him to be an underdog. Instead of simple vampires, werewolves and the occasional necromancer, we now have to deal with the Big Guns like Mab, Titania and The Fallen. Which brings me to my first prediction for the rest of the series.

Harry Laid Low. At some point, I figure all that he's built up will have to come crashing down. Gross physical harm aside, he's put himself in a much better position than the one he was in way back in Storm Front, and if he continues the way he has, he will cease to be the underdog and become the overdog, if there is such a thing. While it'll be interesting to see how he handles being higher up on the food chain, I don't think it'll sit well with his character.

That would be unfortunate, because it's Harry's character that really make this book. I've talked to those who aren't too keen on investing in this series because it's not quite different enough from the other modern, urban fantasy out there. And in a way, they're right. A lone wolf investigator with a mysterious past and unknowable potential who has a talent for making big enemies? That could either be this series or the Nightside books by Simon Green, and I'm sure there's a few more that follow a similar pattern. Butcher isn't breaking open new ground with this series, at least not as far as I can tell. And a main character who is a wizard named Harry with a mysterious destiny and a tragic past? Yeah, like I'm sure you haven't thought of it already. I don't think that's Butcher's fault, though. Harry seems to be the kind of character who shows up in a writer's head long before the book gets published, and Gary Dresden or Fred Dresden doesn't sound as good.

Though Christopher Dresden has a nice ring to it, I must say. Why aren't there more fictional heroes named Chris, anyway? Weird.

Back on topic - what Butcher has done, and what makes me enjoy this series so much, is take the genre and populate it with really interesting people. One of the things I enjoy so much about Harry is that he seems to be someone I'd like to hang out with - he has a sense of humor that I enjoy, and seeing how many of my friends tend towards wise-assery, I think we'd get along well. Other characters, like Murphy, Michael, Molly (lots of M names), Thomas, Bob, Mouse.... They're complex, they're interesting and occasionally surprising. You really come to care about them, because Harry cares about them and you care about Harry.

Which reminds me: Predictions 2 and 3 - The Death of Karrin Murphy and The Corruption of Molly Carpenter. These are two people who are extremely close to Harry, and invoke his much-debated sense of male chauvinism. A few people seem to take issue with Harry's desire to protect women, which appears hopelessly old-fashioned. Maybe it is, but Harry (and by extension Butcher) seems to be okay with that. Murphy is Harry's best friend, the one character who's stood by him since the first book, and has grown to be his closest ally. She has gained his trust and his faith through fire and trial, and in this book is actually able to assert her authority (in a wonderful, wonderful scene) to save Harry's skin.

So, she has to die. It's one of those Hero's Journey things - the hero has to lose those things closest to him in order to come out the other side as a True Hero. He needs Murphy, he really does, and he needs to be able to stand without her. If that means that she's taken out, well.... I don't know if or when it'll happen - I'd bet somewhere in the climactic final books.

As for Molly, she's an interesting person. A young person who, after a very rocky start to her life as a magic-user, has been given a second chance by Harry. For his part, Harry's job is to make sure she turns out right, to make sure she learns how to use her powers responsibly and wisely, for the betterment of others. As of this book, she's doing very well - her powers are becoming more refined, and she's got a good handle on what it means to be a responsible wizard.

But first, she has to see her dark side, look it in the eye, and face it down. So, at some point, Molly is going to slip. Whether through impatience, arrogance or circumstance, she's going to risk both her and Harry's lives by using her powers for Evil.

There you go, then. It's a great series, very enjoyable, and I'll be following it to the end. I highly recommend you do the same.

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"Let's sum up: an unknown number of enemies with unknown capabilities, supported by a gang of madmen, packs of attack animals, and superhumanly intelligent pocket change."
- Murphy, Small Favor
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