Fool Moon (2001) is the second book of the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. The book opens up in McAnalley’s pub. Mac, the owner of the pub, has no magical abilities of his own, but somehow he ended up with this pub which has become neutral territory for various factions of magical and other mythical (or thought-to-be-mythical) entities. (after all, it is hard to call a creature mythical if he is sitting at a table drinking a beer with you.) Even warring factions agree not to fight in the pub. It is like Switzerland with beer. Oh yeah, I guess there is beer in Switzerland, too.
Harry meets with a young woman who should oughta know more about magic, given the depth of trouble she is about to get herself into. As soon as this unsuccessful meeting ends, Karrin Murphy arrives. She is the head of the Special Investigations unit of the Chicago Police Department. Murphy hires Dresden as a PI more than anyone else does, since her unit gets stuck with cases involving supernatural explanations, and the CPD doesn’t really want to acknowledge the supernatural.
Of course there is a murder spree, and of course there are supernatural forces behind it. Harry and Karrin set off to solve another case together.
Butcher continues to build his main characters and the relationship between Dresden and Murphy. Butcher is a strong writer in that his characters and their relationships are never static. Things change, for better or worse, in every book. Murphy is one of the most important characters in the series.
One of Butcher’s more amusing bits is this concept that wizards of great power and technology do not get along. The magical fields around the wizard just natural disrupt nearby technology. Sometimes Harry can use this to his advantage. Often it is an incontinent and unplanned event. Most of the time, it is humorous.
Bob the Skull’s role grows in Fool Moon. Bob is a spirit that inhabits a skull, and has been around for millennia. He knows more about the supernatural world than one human can comprehend. Harry may not be able to use the internet, but Bob stand in – and is actually better than the internet, because his info is reliable. Bob is also horny (don’t ask me how that works since he lacks a body), opinionated, not always cooperative, self-indulgent, and tends towards laziness. Aside from that, he is a perfect assistant.
As always, Butcher’s plots are complex enough to keep you reading, but not so much as to cause confusion. This book is probably a little slower to get going than all the other Dresden novels but the further you get into the book, the harder it is to put it down. Predictability factor is low – which is a good thing, of course.
Characters are rich. Humor is genuine; deriving from situations, foibles, irony, and Harry’s persistent wit and sarcasm. Fool Moon gets a 99 from me. I’m giving it a 99 for two reasons.
1. A bit of a slow start up on the plot, early on.
2. Having already read the entire series, I’m pretty sure this is the only one that is not getting 100 from me, and I want to appear to be at least somewhat unbiased. At least one of the Dresden novels has to get less than 100.
Harry meets with a young woman who should oughta know more about magic, given the depth of trouble she is about to get herself into. As soon as this unsuccessful meeting ends, Karrin Murphy arrives. She is the head of the Special Investigations unit of the Chicago Police Department. Murphy hires Dresden as a PI more than anyone else does, since her unit gets stuck with cases involving supernatural explanations, and the CPD doesn’t really want to acknowledge the supernatural.
Of course there is a murder spree, and of course there are supernatural forces behind it. Harry and Karrin set off to solve another case together.
Butcher continues to build his main characters and the relationship between Dresden and Murphy. Butcher is a strong writer in that his characters and their relationships are never static. Things change, for better or worse, in every book. Murphy is one of the most important characters in the series.
One of Butcher’s more amusing bits is this concept that wizards of great power and technology do not get along. The magical fields around the wizard just natural disrupt nearby technology. Sometimes Harry can use this to his advantage. Often it is an incontinent and unplanned event. Most of the time, it is humorous.
Bob the Skull’s role grows in Fool Moon. Bob is a spirit that inhabits a skull, and has been around for millennia. He knows more about the supernatural world than one human can comprehend. Harry may not be able to use the internet, but Bob stand in – and is actually better than the internet, because his info is reliable. Bob is also horny (don’t ask me how that works since he lacks a body), opinionated, not always cooperative, self-indulgent, and tends towards laziness. Aside from that, he is a perfect assistant.
As always, Butcher’s plots are complex enough to keep you reading, but not so much as to cause confusion. This book is probably a little slower to get going than all the other Dresden novels but the further you get into the book, the harder it is to put it down. Predictability factor is low – which is a good thing, of course.
Characters are rich. Humor is genuine; deriving from situations, foibles, irony, and Harry’s persistent wit and sarcasm. Fool Moon gets a 99 from me. I’m giving it a 99 for two reasons.
1. A bit of a slow start up on the plot, early on.
2. Having already read the entire series, I’m pretty sure this is the only one that is not getting 100 from me, and I want to appear to be at least somewhat unbiased. At least one of the Dresden novels has to get less than 100.
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