My favorite wizard is back in the flesh with the regular cast of friends, enemies, and frenemies to help and harm him. Jim Butcher gives Harry his usual sarcasm and ready wit as well as a dire situation for the universe that only Harry and his unique positions as the Winter Night and a private eye can save.
There's a great twist at the end that I'm still trying to decide if I like or not, but it sure sets the stage for more stories set in in Harry's crazy world of modern day Chicago and the fairy realms. I would have given the story five stars, but sometimes Butcher gets carried away on the descriptiions and detail of everything--and I don't just mean the violence and blood. I think, as Butcher's fame grows, his editors get more timid about cutting down his verbage.
James Marsters is back as the narrator. Though John Glover's performance of "Ghost Story" was excellent, Marsters has grown as much as a narrator of Harry as Harry has grown as a character.
Well worth the credit!

I barely took off my MP3 player...I couldn't get enough. After the first few hours I began to fret that there was no book to listen to after this...Even 18+ hours wasn't enough. Great, great listen.

Harry Dresden, who is fond of blowing up buildings and finding new and inventive ways of getting injured, does not spend much time in this book commiserating his appointment as Winter Knight even though he basically attempted suicide to avoid the job (Ghost Story). Instead he works out his issues in his usual way -- blowing things up, rushing around looking for clues and did I mention blowing things up?

Most of Harry's still-living compatriots make some sort of showing in Cold Days, except Marcone. I don't think he shows up and he is one of my favorites. The book contains many dramatic developments that will keep me waiting eagerly for book number 15.

As I mentioned in another book review, I have read in print all the previous Dresden books and Marsters' voice isn't as deep as the one my imagination gave Harry. Also, his squeaky renditions of Toot-toot and other tiny fairies were hard for me to understand. Cute, but hard to understand. On the other hand, Marsters' has a wonderful professional actor's command of narration, using a full range of pitch, pacing, and tone to evoke the content of dialog and Harry's first person comments. I believe that first person stories like Cold Days are basically a long, one-sided conversation between the narrator and the listener. And a really good narrator like Marsters remembers that.

Yes. For me, Marsters is Dresden. Even when I read the books, I now hear James in my head, his performance is fantastic.

Marsters is amazing as usual.

I loved the story, I loved the scale of it, but that is also the problem. First some buildings got destroyed, then the city was in danger, then the US was in trouble, there have been a few times the world itself was in danger... How far will it go? Who knows, but I'll sure enjoy the ride. I do miss the character stories, now that we know everyone Jim can spend less time on the people and more on plot but I really liked getting to know people.

Thank the Lord that James Marsters is back as Harry! Awesome book complemented by another top notch performance by James. I personally think this is the best book in the series since Grave Peril. This book really starts to connect those mysterious dots from all the previous books and the evil plot is starting to take more of a shape, and has some epic foreshadowing warning of things to come. And all the while keeping it fun and exciting.

The only bad thing about this book, is that it had to end.

It's nice to see James Marsters return to Jim Butcher's Dresden files, after 12 books any other narrator doesn't just seem right. In this outing of the The Dresden Files, Dresden is finally having to deal with the aftermath of Changes, and manages to lay groundwork for future Dresden novels. It's a nice pace to start to ramp up after a slower Ghost story. I cant wait till the next installment.

BUTCHER is s very good writer but for this book I was relieved it was not like his last one

Had dome real unexpected twists

Yea and Masters always make Harry a fun listen

More than one can't share without ruining story

This is probably one of the best Dresden books! Some questions are answered but most of them still haven't been asked. Harry seems more sure of himself even though it might not seem like he is. I literally can't wait for what will happen next! I hope I won't have to wait for too long.

This is a novel I will likely listen to many times. James Marsters narration is perfect.

James Marsters IS Harry Dresden. Leading up to the release of Cold Days I re-listened to the entire series. While the first two or three books had some annoying production/performance issues, Marsters masters (say that three times) the world by book 4 and now seems so effortless in his performance. I hope at some point the publisher decides to re-record Ghost Story - not that John Glover is a poor narrator...he's just not Marsters--not Dresden.

I'm going to attempt the review without spoilers, so I'll just say that my son and I who are obviously huge fans of the series were hoping that some of the ongoing plot lines would start to or be resolved. Instead, we are given more to keep track of! Hence the 4 stars and not 5 for the story. It is well known that there are to be 20-22 books in the series with a apocalyptic trilogy to end it. I'm scared that I won't live long enough to see how it all turns out! Especially with the way this book ended. And I swear I'll haunt Butcher and his publisher if that happens! That said, we do enjoy making guesses--not that either of us could have predicted this one! (see no spoilers)

Overall, it's a great read and I'll give it another listen in the next few weeks because I always miss something and there are sometimes some foreshadowing of what's to come. I didn't really realize this until I listened to the series back to back leading up to this release.

Finally, please Mr. Butcher, allow Harry some respite here and there, a little happiness, love or at least some nookie to balance the constant battling!