Skin Game: By Jim Butcher

SKIN GAME

SUMMARY

Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, is about to have a very bad day…

Because as Winter Knight to the Queen of Air and Darkness, Harry never knows what the scheming Mab might want him to do. Usually, it’s something awful.

He doesn’t know the half of it…

Mab has just traded Harry’s skills to pay off one of her debts. And now he must help a group of supernatural villains—led by one of Harry’s most dreaded and despised enemies, Nicodemus Archleone—to break into the highest-security vault in town, so that they can then access the highest-security vault in the Nevernever.

It's a smash and grab job to recover the literal Holy Grail from the vaults of the greatest treasure hoard in the supernatural world—which belongs to the one and only Hades, Lord of the freaking Underworld and generally unpleasant character. Worse, Dresden suspects that there is another game afoot that no one is talking about. And he's dead certain that Nicodemus has no intention of allowing any of his crew to survive the experience. Especially Harry.

Dresden's always been tricky, but he's going to have to up his backstabbing game to survive this mess—assuming his own allies don’t end up killing him before his enemies get the chance…

REVIEW

First off, don’t try to read this book without having read the other books in the series. Second, if you can re-read the last book before you read Skin Game, you don’t have to but I think it would be helpful since it’s been a year.

As for the review, Skin Game is fantastic. Butcher has done what I consider the impossible, created an engaging, intricate plot that has built upon each book, while at the same time using formulaic scenarios, all without letting the story or characters get stale.

On top of this, Butcher also has the uncanny ability to still shock seasoned readers even after 14 other books in the series. I can’t say what the surprises are but like the last few books many of Harry’s actions from previous books come back to haunt him, but I can be confident that most readers will not see these surprises coming.

Of course, in my opinion what separates Skin Game and Butcher in general from other urban fantasy authors is his humor. From Monty Python and the Holy Grail references, to Harry’s Id’s wisecracks and sarcasm, to EVERYTHING involving Butters, Butcher has created a enough humor and lightheartedness to keep the story from becoming melodramatic, and to maximize reader enjoyment.

All in all, chalk another great book up to Jim Butcher. I loved every minute of Skin Game and can’t wait for the next in the series. Butcher is a true master of his craft and I personally can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.

INFO

Publisher: Ace

Published: May 27, 2014

Price: $27.95

Link to Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Skin-Game-Dresden-Files-Butcher-ebook/dp/B00HUVUSZ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401218835&sr=8-1&keywords=jim+butcher