A Mid Summer Knight’s Dream…
Fresh off last week’s review of Grave Peril, I’m going to review Summer Knight
The fae stuff builds slowly, over the course of this book, toward an ending. As with previous (and future) books in the series, Butcher starts with one problem and as Dresden works through it, he ends up pulling a lot of threads with a lot of threats and monsters waiting along the way, and then at the end manages to wrap it all up — save for the chains binding one story to the next, connecting the books.
Looking back on this book now, I can see where and how so many layers were built for the rest of the series here (and, of course, further back, too). Jim Butcher is pretty great at building up a whole lot, way back, and bringing it all together. The basic premise of this book is that Dresden, now owing a debt to the Winter Queen, must solve the mystery of who, and why, murdered the Summer Knight. Faeries can’t lie, but nothing forces them to speak what I’d call the truth, and at every turn they want to cause mischief. Especially, it seems, for Dresden.
And he’s also dealing with the White Council, and his impending Trial. This is a great, and integral, book in the series. If you’ve read the first three, then you’ll dig this one. I recommend this book to people who like this sort of story — a mix of reality and magic, with a lot of tension along the way. Check it out: