Changes (Dresden Files, Book 12)

CHANGES, the twelfth installment in the Dresden Files wizard-for-hire series, is an over-the-top, busy, noisy, violent affair. It begins with a bombshell revelation -- that Harry has an 8-year-old daughter he never knew about, and that she's been kidnapped by vampires, then builds up to a Faustian bargain it's hard to believe that Harry would ever make, and culminates in an extended battle that makes "Avatar" seem like "My Dinner with Andre".

Of course, there's more to CHANGES than whiz-bang action. Harry learns more about moving between one place and another in our world via the Nevernever (where the faeries live), which is interesting, and he outsmarts a powerful magical beast in a battle of wits, which is amusing. He has a frustrating encounter with the White Council, which looks increasingly like Harry Potter's head-in-the-sand Ministry of Magic. He also gets pummeled by unexpected revelations, like the fact that a close associate is actually a relative, and major setbacks, including the loss of a great deal that is dear to him.

What happens to Harry in CHANGES is the culmination of something that has been brewing for a while in the Dresden Files world. In the beginning, Harry Dresden was a wise-cracking hard-boiled wizard-detective, a loose adaptation of noir gumshoes Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade. His adventures were mostly confined to his home city of Chicago and to its dark underbelly of gangsters and ghouls. He was just a regular guy with a sharp tongue, a bruised ego, and an empty bank account. Butcher might originally have set out to write a long series of wizard-detective novels where little changed from book to book aside from the specific mystery and the bad guy, but it's kind of hard to keep that sort of thing fresh after 5 or 10 books. Agatha Christie may have been able to do it, but not everybody is Agatha Christie. So, Butcher's been upping the stakes, with Harry becoming progressively more important and powerful, the bad guys growing bigger and badder, and the stage expanding in breadth and depth, now encompassing all of wizardly affairs and most of at least two universes.

I think I speak for many dedicated readers (but clearly not all) in saying that it was more fun reading about Harry the penniless wizard-detective than it is reading about Harry the reluctant and somewhat compromised superhero. Tough luck for us! The series is headed in another direction, and we've petty much seen the last of the old happy-go-lucky Harry Dresden of STORM FRONT, the first Dresden Files novel. He's a charming guy but hardly the man you'd choose to lead a Global Magical War on Evil; he doesn't have the drive, the ruthlessness, or even the inclination. Yet, that's clearly where Harry is headed. Hence, Butcher has to destroy Old Harry in CHANGES so that New Harry can be born in subsequent books.

My main problem with CHANGES is in how Butcher does it. In this book, poor Harry endures an unending hail of physical and emotional blows; even for Harry, this is a really bad day (or so). It's as if Butcher made a list of bad things to do to Harry and then ticked them off, one by one. Furthermore, he gives Harry virtually no time to absorb, reflect on, and react to these blows. Harry should be reacting, and reacting deeply, if not breaking down completely, at least briefly. Instead, Butcher names Harry's pains, but does little or nothing to help us share them. As a result, the cascade of catastrophes (and fireworks) is numbing rather than affecting, and Harry's choices seem arbitrary and inauthentic rather than organic and informed by his feelings.

In other news, readers who had expected major developments in the effort to unmask and destroy the Black Council after the events of TURNCOAT will be disappointed. I'm guessing that we will see only slow movement in that direction until book 14 or 15. Still, those who can't get enough of magical mayhem will thoroughly enjoy CHANGES. Those who want emotional authenticity will be let down. Neither group will be able to put the book down, however, and both will eagerly await the next installment.

This is the book that killed my enjoyment of the Dresden Files.

It continues the darkening trend seen throughout the series, but accelerates it to maddening, breakneck speeds; in the process, destroying pretty much every one of the touchstones that make up the quirky, pulpy Dresden that I cared about.

In addition, the book just doesn't feel well written. Despite the number of "How could he DO that?!" moments, nothing in here is actually new; it's either cliche, or worse, a specifically Dresden cliche. He's amped up Dresden's catchphrases "Stars and Stones!" and "Hells bells!" get quite a workout), and brings in every backup character he can think of, if only to kill them off or to ignore them. The few places where the book surprises, it doesn't do so with cleverness, but with blunt brutality; it's not that you never could have guessed it, it's that you wouldn't have assumed Jim Butcher would do something so pointlessly cruel, yet boring.

This is a horrible book in the most pure sense of the world; it evokes a feeling of horror and despair, that something that once was fun and positive to you has been turned into something almost viscerally disgusting.

This review is reproduced with some modifications from an earlier location. In result it's longer than average, has more intensive spoilers, presumes a prior reading of the book and has some stylistic differences.
In assessing the latest Dresden Files book Changes in short form it's above average for the series but is still a deeply flawed narrative. Fun but lacks substance, and has problems that were irritating throughout. As well, the form the 'changes' took reconfirm that Jim Butcher is decisively a third rate fantasy author, and that he's unlikely to ever move beyond that.

Long form: Well, let's start with the plot, arguably the most effective yet least satisfying element of the book. It's a page turner in the literal sense, and Butcher has that intangible ability to make for a very engaging pace to his work. However, the plot is also highly padded and overly episodic. The wider thing is engaging but in large parts lacking in much substance, and desperately in need of a good editor. The usual pattern for the Dresden books is an engaging opening, soon getting bogged down, some interest, a very dull and over-drawn out sequence and then the last hundred pages that are the most engaging of the novel. That's the case to an extent here--the ending combat is clearly the highlight and a lot of the middle parts are tedious--but the pacing and overall keeping momentum is significantly better, and the story doesn't lag as much as past ones have. It helps that the central threat to Maggie is defined early on and a timetable appears pretty early, giving greater focus.

On the other hand, there are ways Changes is weaker than the average book in the series. First, there's the whole premise. Susan became pregnant nine years ago, had a child and chose never to tell Harry about it. Why? To ensure that the series could bring out a child here to motivate Harry's actions, of course. Doing this makes Susan a rather absurd character, one who apparently believes that the only way the child will be safe is if Harry has no knowledge of it. Her argument that she'd be in danger living with Harry is valid but to take that to the extent of denying all knowledge of the offspring is absurd. It's a silly action, and its a silliness we have to believe continued for eight years. It's particularly inconsistent with the argument presented here that she still does love Harry, and its only her vampiric nature that precludes them being together. I thought early on in the book that for the story to be more than a long contrivance it would need to be based in some solider reasoning than the justification Susan gave initially. The novel never went beyond that, just took this premise and built from it. Bad writing 101: having your whole story rest on insubstantial in-character basis for the sake of surprising the protagonist and the reader.

Maggie as well never approaches seeming a real character. Off course she's offscreen throughout, but there's no real effort to make her seem like more than a plot coupon for Dresden to move towards. She's eight years old, at that point there should be distinctively Maggie-ish things she does, a bit of a personality. Susan utterly fails to convey any impression of that to Harry, and as a result she works as a pretty hollow concept. She's the archetype of the daughter, not anything more distinctive than that. As a result, Harry's frantic quest to save her, which should be the most emotionally engaging part of the book, is instead the most hollow.

I have mixed feelings on the eventual revelation to what's going on. On the one hand, it's interesting to see more of the Red Court fleshed out, and their gathering and confrontation are quite effective. However, this group is shown as far too similar to the White Court, indicating a certain limits in creativity: we've got the amoral and especially decadent king, conflict with his daughter, fierce intrigue, general osciopathic nature towards outsiders, even the extreme female attractiveness and blatantly eroticized elements at play. More disturbing, the whole structuring of the plot appears derivative of stuff the series has already done: innocent child held for apocalyptic stakes, internal threat between vampire father and daughter for who rules, a formalized duel followed by a general and Court-destructive battle. There's too much here that we've seen before, and it points to a basic issue of creativity. Butcher has, rather absurdly, made a setting in which all myths are real, a huge expanse of magic and variety are possible. Yet he's within that reaching to stock archetypes and is already to an extent repeating himself.

Having the point of the ritual be against Ebenazor instead of Harry is a good twist. It nicely deflates his assumption everything is always about him, and more fundamentally makes sense--Ebenezor is the one really to seek revenge on, he's much harder to kill and he's a far greater threat to leave roaming around. It makes sense that the Court would finally try to wipe out such an opponent. On the other hand, that this is done by making Ebenzor Harry's grandfather is pretty pathetic. It's soap-opera level hijinks, disclosure of past family ties to build drama and connections. And it's particularly disturbing given what Changes presents in terms of relationships. It's not at any level about fighting to do the right thing in the abstract, to see unknown people and work for them, to be a hero or champion. That's not what Harry is about here. Instead, the book is about personalized ties. Fighting and sacrificing for those that are your family or your romantic interest. So of course everything is about Harry's daughter, and even when the Merlin flat out argues that a calculated restraint is necessary to save millions of lives Harry doesn't even think about obeying, because it's his daughter, damn it! One of the more problematic things is the way that the book quickly legitimizes Harry's path--it turns out restraint would have been devastating to the White Council, and rash action was awesome at stomping the enemy. Almost as if the author is consistently on Harry's side or something. The motif of personal ties coming first wouldn't be so problematic if it didn't accompany the revelation that Ebeneazor was only so protective of Harry because of blood ties, and Molly's dogged work as his apprentice is because she's still carrying a torch for him, and Harry and Murphy are planning on sexualizing their relationship. This dynamic leaves little in the way of friendship, to say nothing of greater good. It's fundamentally a narrow view of relating to the world.

Going along with that, Thomas. There's mention in his first appearance that he and Harry have been distant and that he's gone back to taking huge chunks of people sex-essence and life. Yet after about thirty seconds of tension on that it's not made an ongoing issue, Thomas is with the group, trusted entirely when he's not actively loosing control, and the whole ugly standoff at the end of Turn Coat basically forgotten. Butcher really drops the ball on this, morally and dramatically. The whole Shagnasty Face Heel Turn looks even more aggressively pointless if it's just going to be ignored like that, and it makes the whole ethics of the situation dubious. Thomas is Harry's brother, so it seems that the damage he does to other people is just besides the point. Besides, Harry has to rescue his daughter, damn it! Familial and romantic ties are the only things that matter in life.

On the more mundane plot level the whole FBI plotline was completely unnecessary, and should have been cut. It covered familiar grounds, pushed through the usual nuts and bolts and could have been excised completely without issue. At most it was necessary to further push the arc of Murphy losing her job and becoming a Knight, but that could have been done at any point and even off-screen for all the legwork done with that. Having FBI agent Tilly and his magic lie-detecting was just wasting time. It doesn't help that I find the whole idea of Murphy's switched careers and the concept of the Knights in general boring to the point of tears, but in any case having the main story stop so we can run through Rudolph's intrigue and FBI interrogation 'comedy' is rather flat.

Of course one strength the book has is its disruption of the status quo, the titular changes. A lot of this isn't as strong as it might seem on first glance, however. The most prominent one is Harry accepting the mantle of the Winter Knight, committing himself to serving Mab in the future. This does meaningfully build on the theme of Harry continually being tempted by having him finally give in, and makes potential for Mab to be more interesting than the oh-so-uber oh-so-hot model she's been so far. That said, Harry's decision is the promise of an interesting story rather than an interesting story in itself. He was not in Changes made inconvenienced by the decision, and in particular his allies fell over themselves to show their understanding for him joining the faction of an amoral goddess. There simply has to be a reckoning, Harry needing to pay in his deeds and soul for making this bargain. I'm not confident that will be followed through, given how the Lasciel arc ended. For all the announcement of how this would trigger inescapable corruption instead we got more of Harry Is Awesome--the only person capable of resisting a Denarrian! There are many times the series has derailed everything else to testify to the unique wondrousness of Harry Dresden, and I can have little confidence it won't do that again to some degree.

Second issue, Susan's death. Better handled overall, particularly for once Harry did his ruthless act with a minimum of pretentious self-reflection beforehand (contrast with his murder of the last Winter Knight). And this is perhaps the first thing he's done that's genuinely as ruthless and disturbing as he thinks it is. That said, the impact of this is muted a bit, because who exactly is Susan? Beyond recently the idiot who kept Maggie's existence secret and then let her get abducted. She was a bit part in the first two books, significant in the third, then a minor appearance in the sixth. Since then, she's been a fading memory, occasionally recalling her gives Harry venue to angst about his failure in letting her be bitten. We can be told that she's the great love of Harry's life, but the books have never done the legwork to show that effectively. And so, when he kills her it's a decent dramatic moment, but it's far from the epic and tragic sacrifice

Related to this is the wiping out of the Red Court. A good move in itself, definitely an improvement to another cold war or prolonged active struggle. Of course seeing them as a pretty bland group of grotesque mustache-twirlers makes me pleased to see the end of them, but more positively this is an interesting development for the wider setting, a good move that resolves a long-standing arc and raises some very interesting possibilities. While the Black Council are nothing more than a name here, the scouring of the Court does show the greatest commitment to move the series on to some kind of new switch and final resolution.

So it's a shame that Butcher screws up the narrative layout for this slaughter so badly. Classic bad writing again, in this case both the mechanics of the sacrifice itself and the final turn of Martin, making for an extremely awkward deus ex machina. First, there wasn't nearly enough setup to the idea that the ritual was a loaded gun that could be targeted at anyone by the victim sacrificed. This should have been brought up a lot earlier, but I suppose I can buy the concept of it. However, what actually happens when Susan is sacrificed is absurd--by everything we've been told previously it should have killed her human relatives and maybe the immediate vampire tree that sired her. The notion that this wiped out the entire Red Court vampire subspecies just comes out of nowhere. Butcher never bothered to make that reasoning coherent, so we ultimately have a spell that performs drastically different than advertised. There have been some courageous efforts to fanwank the process by followers of the series and rationalize out how the magic played in-universe. That is necessary because tje author didn't lay the grounds sufficiently, which is just weak writing. It's not like Butcher is Proust or even Gene Wolfe, this is a page-turning magic thriller, and the minimum he's expected to do is lay things out so his huge plot device work as advertised. Apparently magic means that there's no need for real coherence.

Even worse is Martin. The notion that he's a deep cover double agent is awkward enough, but then Harry manages to learn at the last possible moment that he's really a triple agent, and the plan he's allegedly following becomes absurd. This was the ideal situation he sacrificed everything towards? Martin is shown to be an incredibly intelligent, calculating, brilliant figure to have set things up so they'd play out in this way. Which is another way of saying that Martin is an idiot and that it's ridiculous things played out remotely as envisioned when there were so many variables and possible run off at stake. This is absurd, even worse than the stupid vampire conspiracy for porn. The only thing dumber in the series was the FBI werewolves, and at least they had the excuse of being driven insane by the times of their worst screwups, and being villains. Martin here is on the side of the angels, and he's necessary to drive everything forward to its conclusion.

The bullet at the end I'm discounting since it looks just like a cliffhanger for the sake of exciting more speculation and focus for the next book. It could mean anything at tis point, could have come from so many different faction, influence Harry's life in so many ways that Butcher is just toying with the readership. Killing Harry off mid series and following friends/acquaintances as they struggle to hold up the center would be a courageous narrative move, one far more ambitious than Butcher has demonstrated to date. He's clearly invested this much focus in Harry to continue him forward, and I see zero chance that Harry will not soon be among the living in some similar capacity. Mira Grant for all her flaws as a writer has the capability for this kind of development, Butcher lacks the necessary determination.

For characters, Molly was pretty well served overall, and Murphy did okay although I still loathe the arc of her becoming a Knight which not seems a done deal unless the series is really preparing a whole tank full of red herrings. Speaking of the Knights Sanya really didn't need to be there at all, and didn't seem to add much beyond route combat. Lea was pretty good, I found her irritating before and, while she still pushed the evil fairy-godmother too much, mostly she was a blast.

Turning to more episodic reflections. Beginning with the point that Harry Dresden is really an idiot. Not knowing a Red Court outpost was in Chicago, not knowing it was in his building, not knowing there were explosives in his office. As well, he mentions in relation to the White Council it being good to not spread word of him having a daughter, least his other enemies figure it out and use it against him, that he keeps it strictly need to know. Of course this is a weaker strategy because the first thing he did upon hearing was getting drunk and telling the details to Mac. There's also him opening his final duel with his most characteristic attack and almost getting killed, and failing to realize Ick would be one of the challengers for the earlier duel. On the whole it doesn't matter too much that Harry is an idiot, and his stupidity is certainly lampshaded a lot in this book, but it does make the points where the story pretends he's the most capable and resourceful mind in all of wizardom a bit hard to swallow.

The series also plays fast and loose with some basic staples of the magic. Take the death-curse: Harry is always bringing that as a threat to stop his opponents killing him out of hand, but it doesn't work in reverse. Harry fights extended duels with creatures close in ability to him, but when they die they don't make a substantive last attack. With Ortega's widow in particular, she had the chance to realize she was dying and have a last insult "cow", and from everything presented should have been enough to blow Harry out of the water easily. Yet she doesn't do a death-curse. Damn lazy writing to have only the hero ever bring up this major facet. Yes, there's reference to the past ex-Danarian (die alone) but even that's just to emphasize how it's not really important. You'd think that given how focused the Red Court was on death there would have been using an effective last assault there, but then you'd be wrong.

Or the soulgaze, which just lends itself to bad writing. Bad enough that apparently no one ever got a look at Peabody across all his tenure as a double agent. It's also the case that Martin's intricate little scheme would have blow up if Harry had locked eyes with him before, and that he had the opportunity to do it right at the end just to fill in bits of the plot. As well, one wonders why Ebeneazor doesn't just soulgaze someone they suspect of being Black Council. Well, no one ever accused the Dresden Files of being a well constructed universe.

Changes isn't a terrible book. It's significantly better than Turn Coat, is sufficient to be fairly entertaining throughout and delivers some particularly effective scenes. Probably the third best of the series. However the setting is cardboard, most of the characters are worse, the plot has some fundamental problems and Butcher doesn't bring his effectiveness in action sequences to any other aspect of the novel. There are a lot of great fantasy writers at work currently, and Jim Butcher is pretty clearly not one of them. At this point, it's pretty unlikely he ever is going to be. Clearly he knew what he was doing in Changes and I've no doubt it will sell well. Given that, Butcher is unlikely to venture beyond the structure of the stream of OMG moments and dubious moral angst that constitutes Harry's universe. For a work that bills itself as a game-changer with the setting and characters, it's perhaps the ultimate indication that Butcher himself is playing it narratively safe, appealing to what fans expect and value, keeping enough plot zingers going to maintain attention, and ultimately keep the assumptions of the fandom mindset unchallenged. Changes is a story of ridiculously courageous characters that challenge extreme odds, and in the process it's also the story of an author that's playing it far too safe. I'd be more forgiving of this if the setting were more coherent, the themes more acceptance, the tone less pretentious. In any case, while I found Changes a fast and fun read I also expect it to be in the bottom tier of genre books I read this year.
One natural question is going to be why I've read 12 books in the series if I think Butcher is a third-rate author. For one things it's not a major commitment--the prose is smooth and for whatever the problems even in the worst Dresden books I'm rarely bored. As well, there is a way the very conventionality of Butcher's work makes it worthwhile, giving some perspective for understanding the norms that a lot of better authors are effectively deconstructing.

To move for a more positive elements, I quite liked the scene with Odin and the use of the goblins. Neat to have them be explicitly shown as a lot more powerful than the usual portrayal. And while the surprise on the Norse mythology was ruined by several comments in vs debates (and apparently based off a short story) it made for a nice moment. Although one issue with that is that Butcher clearly isn't capable of imagining a real society, the goblins apparently have 100% of their existence concerned with the hunt. Ruled by their god there's no real sense of them as having extended existence, having culture, any real politics beyond personal dominance and ritual, no functioning economy, and so forth. Similar issues come up with the Red Court, they have intrigue but not a real polity or understanding of what their extended life is like. Only the White Council comes close to being a real society beyond cliches and scheming, and they're still fairly underdeveloped. Among other things the series doesn't seem to be clear on just how stupid they are. In the start of the novel the Merlin, rather refreshingly, indicated he was well aware the vamp widow was some form of trap and they were taking care to avoid, for instance, any valuable Senior Council members get knocked out. Yet later, when there needs to be an excuse for the White Council at large to not swoop in, it seems the same widow managed to quietly inflict disease sufficient to incapacitate 60 wizards, and get away free. There's also a distinct lack of realistically dealing with the level of fatalities the Wardens took in Dead Beat and the earlier conflict. They should be more impacted then France was after WWI in terms of comparative demographics, but they seem at most mildly inconvenienced.

This novel is as sexist and as the previous ones, producing an over-sezualized and over-romanticized view of the world centered around the male protagonist. It's all about highly conventional standards of female beauty for everyone, women are always there visually for for men, "gay" is a good general-purpose term of insult. Then we have the issue with Susan's 'hide the baby' setup, the revival of sexual subtext for both Molly and Murpy in relation to Harry, and the wider reaction to the explicit magic-heterosexuality of Harry and Mab. Pretty disgusting, all in all.

Let's also talk about the basic layout of incidents here. This seems to be what most of the appeal comes from, the ongoing rush of OMG! plot hooks and moments of suspense. Really, though, this makes for some very disjointed sections, things that happen at the end of a chapter not for any grand reason but just to make people gasp and turn on to the next chapter. Some of them aren't even followed up on effectively, like the hitman recognizing Susan as the one that hired him. Again, this book is pretty episodic, and lends itself to a few more detours through fairyland than are really necessary.

Another element I haven't seen other reviews pick up on is the level of exposition and background detail, which by this point in the series has become rather irksome. There had to be at least forty pages worth of material summarizing different people that Harry met, significant actions in the previous eleven books, major players and relationships. One would presume that most people aren't reading this book at the start of the theory, and that many of the fanbase have a better pre-existing memory for past events in the series than Butcher himself does, so while necessary to put some exposition it seems excessive. An extensive glossary or ten page packed summary opening might have been a better way to deal wit that, rather than all these page long recaps that need to be skimmed by long-term readers to avoid tedium.

I'll admit that gathering up most of the past characters into a wide-ranging band to fight the Red Court was pretty good. Somewhat like Buffy S5 when lots of past one-episode things became useful weapons for a larger strategy, except with people. Mouse needs to die, though, given its more prominent role as an overly useful and flat deus ex machina for the series. If it's going to be more than for cheap comedy its simply too useful and perfect for different situations to keep around. It's like crack for bad writing, in much the same way the Knights in general and Michael particularly were.

Bottom line, don't waste your time with Butcher's entirely un-edgy and unambitious installment.

Better than: Turn Coat by Jim Butcher
Worse than: The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan, by a significant margin.

"Wake up son o' mine
momma got somethin' to tell you

Changes come
life will have its way
with your pride, son
take it like a man..."

Changes do indeed come, most often when you are not ready, and generally when we least expect. They are not always the changes that we would envision, nor are they ones that we have planned, but still they come. It is, therefore, no surprise when Changes come for Harry Dresden. While his life has never been what one could call "static", been far too hectic for that, it has at least maintained a basic structure amidst the chaos. He has always had his office, his apartment, his car, his cat and along the way has picked up many other friends and family, but change is inevitable, even for a Wizard.

Thus it is, twelve books into The Dresden Files, that Changes find Harry, and his life shall never be the same. Just as in Turn Coat, the action begins on the first page of Jim Butcher's latest Harry Dresden adventure and hardly lets up until the very last word. This time it is Susan Rodriguez, Harry's old flame, that drops the bombshell on Harry: the Red Court has kidnapped THEIR daughter.

"...Hang on son o' mine
a storm is blowin' up your horizon

Changes come
keep your dignity
take the high road
take it like a man..."

To anyone who has read the previous Eleven Dresden novels, this bombshell is as big a shock to us as it is to Harry. It has been seven books since we last saw Susan, and she is half-vampire, so the thought of a child from their last encounter seemed very unlikely. After eleven books, we know Harry Dresden, know his capabilities, know his allies, his enemies and we know what Harry will do to protect one from another. We saw a glimpse of what he was willing to do in Grave Peril to save his love, we witnessed how far he was willing to go in Blood Rites to preserve his family, and we all saw how much he is willing to risk himself for a young woman in trouble in both Proven Guilty and White Night. What we do not yet know, is how far Harry is willing to go for his own daughter, who represents all of the things he holds most dear and fights hardest to protect?

Changes answers that question, with resounding potency and astonishing results. While Turn Coat seemed like a major shake-up in the status quo of the Dresden Files, it was a mere prelude of what comes in Changes. For while Turn Coat fundamentally alters characters and relationships, even the White Council, by the end you still feel as if you will be prepared for what is next. I, honestly, cannot make such a claim after Changes. The anticipation to see what happens next has never been more acute and that year between books has never felt longer.

"...Listen up son o' mine
momma got something to tell you

All about growin' pains
life will pound away
where the light don't shine, son
take it like a man..."

The cast of characters in the Dresden Files grows with each passing book. Some of them are every bit as interesting as Harry, and all of them add significant meat to the series. Butcher pulls out all the stops in Changes, as nearly every character Harry has met along the way shows up in one shape or form. It is almost like a walk on the Nightside at times, so many familiar faces appear and every chapter is so full of action, imaginative creatures and confrontations, though with more depth than your average John Taylor adventure. Many Major Players show their faces for the first time, after being mentioned many times in previous books, among them Duchess Ortega, the Red King, and the CEO of Monoc Securities, Donar Vadderung. Each lives up to expectations, or in the case of Vadderung, exceeds them.

However, it is the faces we know and love that really steal the show. While Thomas and Molly are solid, and at times great, it is Murphy, Mouse, Lea and Sanya that shine brighest. I suppose it should not be a surprise by now, as Mouse has scene stealing performances in every book since Harry found him, but this time out is his best yet. If there has ever been a cooler dog written than Mouse, I have yet to read them. Murphy's character has been improving, for me, the farther "down the rabbit hole" she is willing to go, as I find her much more interesting as part of the super-natural world than as the Scully. The Leanansidhe returns with a fine role, and her ties to Harry's mother are a very important part of the novel, as well as being a very interesting revelation in its own right. I have always loved the Knights of the Cross, but until this book did not truly appreciate how fun Sanya is to read about. This is the first book where he is the feature Knight, and he holds the mantle with class, dignity and hilarity.

"...Suck it up son o' mine
thunder blowin' up your horizon

Changes come (changes come)
keep your dignity (keep your dignity)
take the high road (take the high road)
take it like a man (take it like a man)..."

Harry Dresden has always been a "Man of Power", and the books have been an interesting study of one man accumulating Power, while trying to maintain the integrity of his ideals. He takes on beings of greater power in every adventure, but is always able to live up to the responsibilities that come with his own power. The fight is never easy, even his inner-self craves more Power, if only for self-preservation, but he has always been able to weather the storm with his quick thinking and smart mouth. However, of late, Harry has been in even more over his head than usual, and you just know that it will eventually catch up with him. For while it is his anger at injustice, his passion for fighting the evil, that pulls him through again and again; passion is a fire that can burn both ways. His passion for doing the right thing allows his enemies, such as Bianca and Nicodemus, to manipulate him because they know he is willing to die "doing the right thing".

Many are those who wish to destroy him, but nearly equal are those who wish to recruit him. As he so coldly enumerates to Mavra in Dead Beat, he has plenty of offers for greater power, and he is not afraid to take them if necessary. It is only love which keeps him on the righteous path. Love which preserves him against the White Court, love that vanquishes Lasciel and frees Lash, love that wins the hearts and loyalty of his many friends. It is only love which allows Harry to fight the darkness rising inside him, as he wields that lance in righteous anger and not in malice. His enemies know this as well, and some are so powerful that they do not fear using his love against him; Beings who do not fear to wield his own flesh and blood, his family, against him.

"...momma said like the rain
(this too shall pass)
like a kidney stone
(this too shall pass)
it's just a broken heart, son
this pain will pass away." **

Family has always been an integral part of The Dresden Files. In Storm Front, Harry, once an orphan, is already picking up charges, with his cat, Mister, and Toot-toot, the first of his Little Folk army. In Fool Moon, Harry is almost like a parent to the Alphas, shepherding them into the world of the weird. In Grave Peril, Harry is a man who is fighting tooth and nail for his mate, starting a war to rescue Susan, his love. In Summer Knight, Harry is more like the older brother to the Alphas and begins in earnest his fatherly watch over the little Fae as the Za Lord.

Death Masks, shows Harry the contrast in real family, The Carpenters, and the twisted family of self-interest, The Denarians, and sees him risk becoming the latter to save the former. Blood Rites is all about family, as Harry finds a brother and a dog, growing his family more and figuring out what it means to him, personally. Dead Beat, sees Harry finally knowing what is to have family, as well as feel the pain at the prospect of losing them. Proven Guilty, is mostly about reconciliation and who your family really is, as Harry finds when his friends back him without thinking, following him into the very heart of Winter.

While foiling the White Night, Harry learns what it is to be a mentor and father figure via his apprentice, Molly, and the kids at Camp Kaboom. While performing Mab's Small Favor, Harry displays the lengths to which he will go to save a child and friend, Ivy. While unmasking the Turn Coat, Harry discovers what kind of Power he is willing to utilize to save his brother, Thomas, his only blood. But it is while dealing with Changes, that we all see how far Harry's family extends, and how much he is truly willing to give for its preservation.

For Harry is to learn what All Fathers know: when it is your own child in peril, the line begins to blur.

"Bottom line is, even if you see them coming, you aren't ready for the Big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really, but it does...the Big moments are going to come, you can't help that, it's what you do afterwards that count, that's when you find out who you are."***

438 HC pages 5 out of 5 stars

*Title taken from "Changes" by David Bowie
**Song quotations from "Momma Sed" by Maynard James Keenan's Puscifer
***Quoted from Whistler's speech in "Becoming", Buffy Season 2 Episode 21, written by Joss Whedon

Rather than repeating any of the excellent insights provided by Michael Lichter (Buffalo, NY USA) (the first 3-star review), I want to add some thoughts to the discussion.

Let me start by saying that Turn Coat, the book immediately preceding this one, is one of the best books I've ever read. Ever. Period. It is an absolutely sublime melding of different genres, and Butcher's prodigious knowledge, freewheeling genius, imagination and grasp of how magickal energies work -- plus Harry Dresden's irresistibly smartass, inventive and out-of-the-box approach to challenges. I have loved every book in the series, but Turn Coat is sheer perfection.

That said, anything that followed might seem anticlimactic. And at first I told myself that, plus the fact that I find Americans' obsession with vampires to be the biggest yawn in creation, was why I felt so incredibly dissatisfied when I closed the book ... oh, and the kind of cliffhanger ending that I loathe. I mean, c'mon, Jim Butcher, I would have pre-ordered the next book, even if you hadn't done that.

Yes, once I let my imagination journey out to possible next scenarios, I realized it was probably a great place to stop. But when you're totally in love with Harry and have to wait a year to find out what happens next, it's NOT a great place at all, at least not at the instant you close the book for the first time.

Some of my friends have been really upset about all the dreadful things that have happened to our hero in this book. That doesn't really bother me, because life is like that. Sometimes the whole sky lands on top of your head ... the test of character is how you handle the experience, and I think this is where Changes really failed. Harry just kind of went limp and, aside from personnel assignments, pretty much put the reins in others' hands. Way out of character, as far as I'm concerned. On the other hand, as anyone who plays World of Warcraft knows, leveling up, as Harry is undoubtedly doing in Changes, is a very dangerous time, especially if you haven't acquired the additional skills and armor you need to meet the escalating challenges. But Harry was strangely passive, even considering the numerous shocks he endured.

I admit to having been uneasy each time I read Jim Butcher's epilogue about his love for sword and sorcery in the past couple of Dresden books. I'm just not a fan of that genre; I read the first of the Codex Alera, and it was beautifully done, but not my cup of tea. So I was worried that the Dresden books might change in a way that left me behind ...

But I've learned, after years of following other favorite authors, that when a writer gets bored with a series, the writing goes downhill. I would hate for that to happen in to the Dresden series, and even though Butcher decided to shake things up and shift the playing field, I'll still pre-order the next book. As you'll find on his web site, the entire series was planned, but events were a bit behind schedule, which is probably why there was so much was going on that there wasn't much room for character development.

BUT ... I really hope the funny, smartass, noir-ish, out-of-the-box nature of our hero is still in there somewhere, to be rediscovered next year ... if it isn't, I'm going to feel like one of my best friends has moved out of the country, and doesn't have phone or email. And then I'd probably start buying the used paperbacks instead of pre-ordering hardcovers.

*sigh*

I've looked forward to "Changes" for the better part of a year, ever since I closed the cover of "Turn Coat" and realized that I'd have to wait until the following spring to find out what happens next.

My daughter put me on to the Dresden Files, and I read the first 11 books with pleasure, as Dresden's world became darker and more complex, and as Jim Butcher's writing grew subtler and richer.

In "Changes", however, much of what I enjoyed about the series has disappeared. The sense of place, of Harry Dresden's Chicago, is gone. The ancillary characters, from Murphy the cop, to Butters the Jewish polkaholic coroner, to Susan and Martin, to The Merlin, have been reduced to caricatures. There's very little of the banter and byplay among the characters that makes the the earlier books so enjoyable (with the exception of a scene beginning on page 333, where Harry's friends argue over who gets to be which character from "The Lord of the Rings"). Harry seldom even cracks wise. It's symptomatic that the central character of the story, Harry's daughter Maggie, never appears: we have glimpses of her, but throughout the book we never actually meet her. Instead, she's the object of Harry's concern rather than a real person: a child serving as what Alfred Hitchcock called "the maguffin" - the thing that the characters are pursuing, that propels the plot.

I can't give examples without giving away plot spoilers; but by the book's end, the Harry Dresden of the first 11 books, combination wizard and private eye, has been swept away, replaced by a sword-and-sorcery superhero; and the story has been propelled in an entirely different direction. I'll read the next book, in the hope that "Changes" is an aberration. But I'm afraid that with "Changes", the Dresden Files has jumped the shark.

I have read drivel before, some almost readable and Butcher's latest novel, "Changes" falls in that category. The big trouble with it is it seems forced. I may not have been able to forecast the plot but any of its changes was not surprising, they fell into a routine, and not a pleasant one. It all started with Dresden's daughter. He accepts her totally, no question as to proof of parentage, no question as to existence of such a child, even after eight years supposed existence, no question as to whether she was really kidnapped, how her parentage was known, how Dresden was immediately smitten by her despite his actions and beliefs in the prior novels, all was changed, he was not the same man. Maybe this was why the title but why? An eight year old child, just being told it was his, causes him to overthrow all his beliefs and have only the one idea, his child, do anything for her, sight unseen, no bonding except verbal knowledge of her existence. then all manner of magic is used, he gets whatever he needs when he seems to be in desperate straits, with no chance of success except the story must go on. None of the other novels was this bad although a deus ex machina is common in almost all. Finally, all is written in first person, so at the end, when he supposedly is killed, how can he continue to write his file if he dies? What suspense is there?

I'm going to start this review a little unconventionally but bear with me. I must say I was actually angry when I saw that Jim Butcher was taking time out to write the [[ASIN:044101268X Codex Alera (Codex Alera, Book 1)]] series. Not intrigued at the possibility of getting to read a new milieu created by a wonderful author, but genuinely mad that he would divert his amazing creative energies and time away from the Harry Dresden books. I eventually caved in and read that series, and I was impressed by the way Butcher had a very clear idea of the arc of the story right from the start. Amidst the amazing action scenes, political intrigue, and even romance, he never loses sight of the need to drive the story and his characters forward.

The same can be emphatically said for Changes. It's remarkable that after all Harry has been through in the series so far, Jim Butcher manages to to reach a new high in terms of the stakes for Harry in this book. What he risks, what drives him to do it, and the jaw-dropping outcome are all "turned up to 11" in this volume. Although much is bleak and tense, Harry's trademark dark humor is never far from the surface. And, as always seems to happen in every volume, he gets the snot kicked out of him in new and creative ways. It just wouldn't be a Dresden Files book if Harry didn't have a metaphorical piano dropped on his head a time or two!

Many reviewers have complained about the shocking cliffhanger at the end of this story. I disagree with them. I found it worked wonderfully well simply because it came as such a surprise. We've had 11 volumes in which a chapter of Harry's life draws to a satisfactory conclusion; I respect and admire how Butcher keeps the reader a little off balance this time. Many authors learn to play it safe and simply deliver "more of the same" but Butcher, like Harry, isn't content with the status quo. He has to keep striving for more.

I hate spoilers in reviews, so pardon me if this part of the review is frustratingly vague, but I simply have to mention it. By the end of the story we know that Harry's career path is going to change dramatically. I'm anticipating that plot arc much more than the resolution of the cliffhanger. My hat is off to Jim Butcher. Many lesser authors wouldn't dare tamper with a successful formula, but this book leaves me eagerly awaiting the next exciting chapter of the Harry Dresden saga.

But no more side projects, Mr. Butcher! I grudgingly forgave you for the Codex Alera but I'm a Dresden Files junkie that needs his next fix. Hurry up, man!

I started reading Butcher's Dresden series about six years ago when a friend sent me the first five books in paperback. I like urban fantasy, and have found Harry Dresden entertaining. But this entry, while like the rest a very fast read, has an incredibly irritating cliffhanger ending. That's strike one. A lot of secondary characters from previous books show up in this outing, which could be cool, but in practice, they seemed to be puppets -- doing whatever was needed to advance the plot at the moment (Okay Thomas: attack Molly. Okay Thomas, _don't_ attack Molly, but protect her, even while she's bleeding out all over you). That's strike two. Strike three, however is creating a climax in which a father kills a mother in front of their child.

The book as a whole is even more contrived than a typical Jim Butcher novel (which in turn, is more contrived than many urban fantasy series entries), which is bad enough. But contrivance in the service of such a creepy goal? Yuck. I wasn't happy to have to wait until Amazon and Penguin settled their differences in order to buy this on the kindle. I was not overjoyed that it cost more, either. But neither of those had any real impact on my opinion of the book, which would have been every bit as negative if I had bought it for $9.99 on street date. I'll be quite cautious before deciding to read entry #13.

I would have given this author a full 5 stars for his work but I had to take three away because he broke from his pattern and created a cliff hanger. No, I am not going to give anyone the cliff notes version of this story but like all crime detective novels I like to know who done it at the end of the book. There is nothing I hate more than soap opera writing it is a cheap way to sell anything and it just makes me mad. If you have not purchased this book and you are like me and don't like cliff hangers that take a year to find out what happens just wait till the new book come out. If cliff hangers are your thing then this is the book for you. Don't misunderstand the book is well written but I hate Cliff hangers in books because they take too long to find out what comes next. It was one of the things I liked about Mr. Butcher's books was that I could read a book to conclusion and it was a complete story. If you can not wait till next year and you hate cliff hangers take my advice and just stop at page 420 and don't read chapter 49.

I hope this helps someone.

The dude has spoken.