Rating: 
Summary: Best of series!
Review: The entire series of Dresden books are just fun, fast, and wonderful. Grave Peril is particularly intricately woven, and a bit more serious than some of the others. The ending is very devastaing, very sad. I also noticed more typos than usual in this book, and occasional errors, such as the fact that it's stated earlier in the book (and in all the others) that Harry has no electricity in his apartment, but at one point he goes into his bathroom and "flicked the light on". Oops.Anyway, I recommend the entire series, and am looking forward to the next installment.
Rating: 
Summary: Butcher Hits His Stride
Review: The first was a great introduction, the second was an enjoyable read, but with Book 3 Butcher's Dresden Files really take off. Characters interact in a more meaningful way, events have greater consequences, and they aren't (nor can there be) any tidy endings. The first two are well worth reading, but aren't completely necessary--if you want to jump in when the going starts geting good, this is the book to begin with. Note: a 3 star ranking from me is actually pretty good; I reserve 4 stars for tremendously good works, and 5 only for the rare few that are or ought to be classic; unfortunately most books published are 2 or less.
Rating:
Summary: Butcher Hits His Stride
Review: The first was a great introduction, the second was an enjoyable read, but with Book 3 Butcher's Dresden Files really take off. Characters interact in a more meaningful way, events have greater consequences, and they aren't (nor can there be) any tidy endings. The first two are well worth reading, but aren't completely necessary--if you want to jump in when the going starts geting good, this is the book to begin with. Note: a 3 star ranking from me is actually pretty good; I reserve 4 stars for tremendously good works, and 5 only for the rare few that are or ought to be classic; unfortunately most books published are 2 or less.
Rating:
Summary: Jim Butcher's Best
Review: This book is the best of the Dresden Files. Lots of action in the typical realistic yet fun Dresden style. New allies and enemies seem to be coming out of the woodwork as the entire spiritual world starts going crazy. This book was an excellent read with non-stop action and intrigue. It does end on a considerably darker tone than the previous Dresden Files, making me eager for the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging Urban Fantasy
Review: This is my first review on Amazon, so that should say something about how much I really loved this book and this series. This is the series that I think "Anita Blake" started out to be. The universe (present day Chicago wherein magic and the supernatural are there if one knows where to look) is deftly and wittily drawn. The protagonist, Harry Dresden, professional wizard, is smartly wise-cracking without (quite) becoming annoying. He's engagingly flawed and fallible, and if I have one gripe with his adventures, it is that in every book he seems to get SO beaten up so often that his endurance begins to strain credibility (and patience: "What? On Death's Door again?"), even for a wizard. Mr. Butcher peppers his books with engaging and believable allies and adversaries -- multi-layered, varied and believable, both as foils for Dresden and as characters in their own right."Grave Peril" is no exception in the strength of the secondary characters. Michael, the True Knight, was just a marvelous ally, part straight man, part Tower of Strength. This third book in the series pushes a little farther on the sex and violence front. If "Storm Front" was PG or PG-13, "Grave Peril" is definately 'R'. However, Mr. Butcher has yet to go over the top; his descriptions are done with finesse, innuendo where appropriate, and evocative language that is never crass. I do recommend this series: part Film Noir Private Eye, part Vampire Hunter (though much more 'Angel' than 'Buffy', right down to the flowing black coat), with maybe a little sword and sorcerer thrown in the mix. Lots of mystery and plenty of action, likable characters and a nicely textured urban fantasy world. "Grave Peril" is grittier than the first book, but evocative and with a sense of real peril and emotional jeapordy for the protagonist and his allies. A wonderful read.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, entertaining and action-packed
Review: This is the third book in Jim Butcher's Dresden files, and I have yet to read the first two, but I did enjoy this urban-scape detective of the supernatural fantasy. Dresden's first person narrative keep this story full of dry humor and film noir feel. Dresden is a PI/wizard who's middle name is trouble. This time his supernatural snafu is a ghostly being that is able to rouse other ghosts and harm Dresden's friends. It's up to the only wizard in town to discover who's behind it all. This series has been pegged as similar to Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series, and on the surface, that's a fair comparison. Both deal with urban societies and parnormal baddies. Both have a tough edge, supernatural powers, and a penchant for violence. Both have a tough time in their love lives. That being said, Jim Butcher's novel has a distinctly male flavor to it. There is far less relationship time and sensitivity, more interest in action, gadgets and intrigue--this is not a bad thing, but the overall result is you care about the characters less (they're distanced) and you have more interest in the mechanics of the supernatural. Those who enjoy Butcher's books might want to try STALKING THE UNICORN by Mike Resnick, about a gumshoe who gets hired by goblin to find a kidnapped unicorn. For those who like both Hamilton and Butcher, I also reccomend Tanya Huff's Vampire series. There a tough lady PI teams up with a romance-writing vampire to hunt down some supernatural baddies. I'm intrigued to see where Dresden's story is going. Perhaps my biggest gripe with the whole book was that at the end the hero appears to be in deeper problems than he was at the beginning and I want to know what happens. But, that's the curse of series books...guess I'll just have to wait for the next one.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, Harry we love you
Review: This series is becoming very interesting and the characters seem like they are real people. Imagine having a wizard in your town, except this town is Chacago and the poor ghosts are being tourtered and tied up with barb wire and made to hurt people,especially the people that Harry Dresden likes and also some that he really cares for. All these situations build up the local vampire called Bianca and her dominions, and the showdown to fantastic climax that leaves you wanting more. At the end of the story you hope that Susan, Harry's girlfriend can be saved from her torment and she can return home, and the other vampires Justine and Thomas can return to a normal,for them way of life, and finally Harry finding a cure for Susan, and for confronting the White Council a continuation for his next adventure. I am anxiouslly awaiting for Summer Knight his next adventure.......... I love these books.
Rating: 
Summary: The Dresden Files are keepers.
Review: This third tale in a new occult mystery series has Harry Dresden, our intrepid wizard, running hard in place. He's so busy putting down some very angry and disturbed ghosts, he hasn't got time to figure out why they're appearing in so many numbers and so annoyed. Eventually he figures it out and puts (some of) them to rest, but not before confronting a local vampire and her minions. Along the way he battles giant scorpions (well, mostly he tries to avoid getting impaled and convincing them to kill each other and the bad guy who conjured them), teams up with another vampire on a rescue mission, and (sort of) loses his girlfriend, which is disheartening as he'd just discovered how much he loves her. Harry is a typical wizard in that he's eccentric, lives a highly erratic lifestyle, and has strange cronies (a very big black cat and a spirit inhabiting a skull). Technological things don't work well around him: guns misfire, computers crash and lightbulbs explode, forcing him to live with candles and wood stoves in a big city. Like many mystery series these days, the series has an ongoing storyline about Harry and his friends, and I'm hoping to see more of his history and his vindictive fairy godmother in future volumes. All the stories are fast-paced and well written. In a growing field of 'urban fantasy,' The Dresden Files are a welcome addition. I look forward to the next one.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay, but Butcher REALLY needs to visit Chicago....
Review: This would be a far better book if I had never lived in Chicago. But I did live in Chicago for a few years -- long enough to recognize MANY inaccuracies in Butcher's geography of Chicago. Some of them could have been avoided if he'd looked at any map of the city. These errors distract from the story enough to make it annoying to read at times: some of the things the character does do not make sense, or are not even possible, in real-world Chicago. (One example: Why take city streets through one of the worst parts of town when an entrance to Lakeshore Drive is two blocks away?) My husband, a Chicago native, found the inaccuracies about Chicago painful enough that he couldn't finish the book. These problems cost the book 1.5 stars. The other problem is his writing style, which feels forced at times. The paragraph about how Dresden likes to decorate with textures rather than colors seems like it was lifted almost-verbatim from the previous two books. (No, I didn't search for it.) There are other things like this that bug me about his books. This costs another half-star.
Rating:
Summary: This series is addicting
Review: When it rains, it pours. The fabric separating the nevernever from the real world is coming apart at the seams. There is something in Chicago twisting barbed wire around ghosts and the souls of humans. It's up to Harry and Michael, the holy knight, to put the pieces together, save the innocent, and do what needs to be done in order to set things straight. Grave Peril is a winner just as Storm Front and Fool Moon were. In Grave Peril you'll get up close and personal with new characters that you wouldn't want to meet even on a dare. But have no fear, some of the old characters we all know and love are here with us through this story as well.
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