I'm just a sucker for a good heist story, I think, and that's what this is. Compounding its excellence is the same thing the last...I want to say six I'm just a sucker for a good heist story, I think, and that's what this is. Compounding its excellence is the same thing the last...I want to say six Dresden books have had going for them, which is the payoff for the incredible amount of character- and world-building Butcher has done with this series. The plot of this book is solid all by itself, but the events comprising it are sweeter because of who's doing them and how they fit into earlier events and how much we care about the characters. Someone saves Harry with clever use of magic--that's good. When the someone is Waldo Butters, it's fantastic.
In this installment, Butcher draws back a little from the huge scope of the recent story (the politicking and manipulations of Mab et. al.) to tell a more limited, constrained story--which, considering this is the fifteenth Dresden novel, is still a big sprawling thing, and I mean that in the best way. It's a little slow to start, probably because it takes three days to set up the actual heist and that's arguably where the story begins. Butcher makes those three days interesting, and they're necessary background, but I still felt like I was waiting for something to begin. I think I'll appreciate the setup more when I come back to it the next time (and I do anticipate reading this again).
Focusing only on Harry and a handful of recurring characters (primarily Karrin, Butters, and Michael) made the story feel more tightly-knit. My high rating may also be because I've always been a bigger fan of the Blackened Denarius people than of the Unseelie Court, not that I don't love both storylines. Nicodemus is a great villain and he's perfect as antagonist and instigator of the plot to steal from the most closely guarded vault in creation: Hades' Underworld.
Also. Hades. The guy doesn't get enough love, is all I'm sayin', so thank you, Mr. Butcher, for seeing the obvious potential there.
Lots of things get resolved here, most notably the calling of a new Knight of the Sword, and my reaction to this was "of course" mixed with a healthy dose of "it's about time" and a dash of "that's so damned clever I want to die of happiness." Harry's relationship with Karrin takes a good new step, his relationship with his daughter takes a much-needed step, and there's some good advances in the overall story arc that promise interesting things to come.
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