A Grave Misstep

Though I've mostly enjoyed the first two books of the Dresden Files, my progress through the series has been quite slow as I've interspersed other reading between. Unfortunately, book three sapped much of the little momentum I had.

Grave Peril sees Harry Dresden teaming up with a paladin-like warrior named Michael, to deal with increased ghost activity all over the city. Something is driving the spirit world to act out, and most threatening of all is the powerful Nightmare that can invade people's dreams to attack them at their most vulnerable. And all that's before Dresden finds himself caught up in the rivalry between two vampire courts.

This book is a big step up from the first two Dresden books in both in complexity and word count, and I found the step to be a bit awkward. After two fairly light tales with breezy plots, this convoluted narrative packs in at least two books' worth of material, transitioning from ghosts to vampires and back. For a while, it gets muddy just how it's all supposed to be related -- and I think not always because the author is trying to conceal surprises for later in the novel.

There is the sense that with this book, Jim Butcher is trying to build out his world more for the future. He may not have known that he'd have more than a dozen Dresden books some day, but he almost certainly was thinking long term by this point. The character of Michael, the Knight of the Cross, seems built for return appearances. The intrigue between the Red and White Courts of the vampires  certainly seems like it will be an ongoing concern (with several of the characters involved with the Courts also positioned to come back in later books).

But if indeed adding to the world is a goal here, it's a shame that previous elements in the series get sidelined in this book. Well, one in particular stands out to me, at least: Karrin Murphy, the woman with the most agency of the series' few female characters thus far, is (minor spoiler!) rendered comatose within the first few chapters and sits out the rest of this book.

The writing itself is also less crisp than in the first two books. The increased word count of Grave Peril doesn't just come from the more complex plot -- it's because of several flights of fancy Jim Butcher takes in the writing. He opens many chapters of the book with lengthy introspective musings by his main character. Typically, these are positioned right after an action-oriented cliffhanger in the previous chapter, establishing a formula of "endanger Dresden, digress for a few pages as Dresden weaves an elaborate metaphor of what the danger is like, then finally come back and resolve the danger." It's an indulgence that can be compelling once or twice, but it loses much of its impact when repeated so often throughout the novel.

I did make it through Grave Peril, and didn't find it "terrible." Still, if this had been the first book of The Dresden Files, I probably would have just stopped here. The fact that I did enjoy the previous volumes, coupled with good reviews of future books from several people I know, means that I will probably be back for more later. But I expect more of a buffer time before I dive into book four. I give Grave Peril a C+.