Fool Moon

The Dresden Files, Book 2

By: Jim Butcher

Narrated by: James Marsters

Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is Chicago's only openly practicing wizard. He is also dead broke. His vast knowledge and magical skills are unfortunately matched by his talent for making powerful enemies and alienating friends. With little more than his integrity left, he accepts an offer of work from Lt. Karin Murphy of Chicago's Special Investigations Unit. He wants to redeem himself in Murphy's eyes and make enough money to quiet his rumbling stomach.

Soon he finds himself pinned between trigger-happy FBI agents, shape-shifiting motorcycle gang members, a threatened mobster boss, and an heir to an ancient curse along with his primal fiance. Throw in environmental activists and a pair of young werewolves in love and you have something of Fool Moon.

©2002 Jim Butcher (P)2002 Buzzy Multimedia

Another great book.

Another great book with a very enjoyable performance from James Marsters. Excited to see where the story goes next, and also slightly worried about major heartbreak 😅

Dresden Files - Part 2

Let's be clear come on this is not one of the best of the series. however, it is an amazing job at world building. Although convoluted at certain points, we are granted a deeper understanding of how magic works in this universe. We are introduced to great characters and the character dynamics really set the stage for the next few books. If you're not sure about the series yet, hang in there. The writing and narration both get better as the world expands.

Mediocre Werewolves?

As convoluted as this book gets about all 4,275 kinds of werewolves there are…j/k, but really - if Butcher had stuck to just ONE kind of werewolf and used all that other space for story and maybe a bit more action’y magic it may have lead to a more entertaining experience. With all that said though, as far as the audio experience - phenomenal. James Marsters IS Harry Dresden, and that’s the bottom line. He’s the reason I stick with this series. I would highly recommend as a beach/road-trip listen!

Easy listen

Draws you in fast and keeps you listening. Perfect for a commute or mindless chores around the house... I loathe laundry

Excellent series

It’s noticeable in the writing that this is one of Butcher’s earlier works within his career, and yet Fool Moon remains one of my favorite books within the series. His ability to create mystical fantasy characters that I’m instantly completely engrossed with is astounding. The tone of his writing has me laughing through action scenes with an insatiable thirst for more.

Great story!

Amazing story, excellent narration. I loved every single moment of this book. Bravo to Mr Butcher!

Wolves at the gate and Dresden at the door.

Let me get this out there first, I am a big Dresden Fan and am currently going through the series for maybe the 6th time as I write these reviews for the series. "Fool Moon" is the second book in the Dresden Files series, I highly encourage you to read "Storm Front" before reading this book, not because you absolutely must to get any enjoyment from this book, but because if you do then you will enjoy it that much more. To get an idea of what's come before check out my review of "Storm Front."


Ok, with that out of the way, let's move forward.

"Fool Moon" takes place about 6 months after the events of "Storm Front." The city has gotten colder, the nights longer, and the streets a little more dangerous. With a smattering of bloody murders a month before and now what appears to be the same type of gristly murders starting up again Detective Murphy has decided she is in need of Chicago's only publicly practicing wizard, Harry Dresden. Oh, and wouldn't ya know, The FBI are involved in the case, Murphy is under investigation from internal affairs because of the events from "Storm Front" and subsequently Harry Dresden himself has been cast into suspicion as well, the latest murder victim was a body guard and right hand man of the most powerful crime boss in Chicago, Gentleman Johnny Marcone, and oh yea these murders have all occurred around the time of the full moon and present with the same traits of a large animal attack, possibly a wolf... but don't ya know, they don't quite match up with a wolf, there is something very "wrong" about the crime scenes. Yes ladies and gentlemen, we have our werewolf story!

Harry is pulled from one frying pan into another fire as he tries to get to the bottom of this dark tableau of a lupine massacre. As Harry digs deeper he finds himself being nearly swallowed up by this beast of a case as groups begin to crop up and influence themselves into the path that this case takes. From a group of college kids who seem like their bark is worse than their bite, but are oddly being led by a woman that Dresden knows was at at least one murder scene. Another group of lycanthropes who seem to be connected to this mess, but how and why Dresden does not know, but they know him, and wouldn't ya know, they want to kill him... some folks just have that effect on people. John Marcone makes his presence known and the FBI are actively getting in the way of both Murphy and Dresden, and doing so with perhaps a little too much interest. Add to that Murphy is going through some major trust issues with Dresden after the events of last Spring and as such things are a little dicey there as well. But worst of all is the fact that out in the darkness is something large, furry, and with the strength and power to rip folks into people confetti. This is not your mommy and daddies Werewolf, this is a monster that has been unleashed on the city and no one is quite sure how to stop it,

With all this going on our haggard under dog is doing his best to track down the murderer before more people get hurt. But with the investigation going the wrong way and suddenly Dresden being implicated as being involved everything goes to hell and Harry is on the run Can Harry find out who the killer is and protect the people he cares about, and will he clear his name? Or will the darkness stalk him and put an end to our favorite wise cracking hero?



"Fool Moon" takes the fire that "Storm Front" ignited and starts to pick up more steam as we begin to move this tale of Harry Dresden forward. The scope is a bit broader and the stakes now seem a bit higher as Dresden interacts with more parties in Chicago. Jim Butcher is slowly bringing us into a bigger world of influence as far as the supernatural goes. This book also begins the trend of Harry getting the hell beat out of him. I think Jim Butcher secretly like beating up poor Harry, but it does add to his under dog image to always come back for more after the world tries its best to smash him down.

Butcher gives us more and more as he brings us along in this book, the characters we knew from the previous book are being polished and given more of a realistic feel. I recall the first time I read this book that I wanted to strangle Murphy for not having Harry's back in this, but..after a few times I finally realized what Butcher did there, he gave Murphy a realistic mind set of someone who sort of believes in this whole supernatural thing, but has no where near the amount of knowledge to make the leaps of faith required to just go along with this mad man Harry Dresden. It's this kind of thought out character development that makes Jim's characters so relatable and after some time,loved. This book is Murphy's first real baptism into the world of the weird. Sure she had seen things, sort of kind of believed Harry, but over all... she just did not really grasp what the other world was. In "Fool Moon" Murphy gets a bloody, and horrible slap in the face of this particular version of reality.

Jim Butcher also gives we the reader more of a grounding in the world in which he is leading us by beginning to break down some rules of magic, describing some supernatural factions, and over all adding to the lexicon of Dresden knowledge that will become useful as he dives us deeper into this amazing world he is creating for us.

Also, as I described in the previous review, Butcher loves to place little tid bits of info in his stories that don't pay off till a couple of books or more down the line. Well get ready for a few of those as questions about his mother, his father;s death, and a possible tie between the events of the last book and this one are all scattered like little addictive yet infuriating bread crumbs for us to find along the trail. He really is a jerk.. but a lovable jerk, for doing this.

"Fool Moon" is an excellent book that brings us new characters to enjoy, More wonderful one liners, and gears us up for the fit to really hit the shan in book 3.

As for the narration, in my previous review I also gave Marsters a 4 out of 5 star review, not because he does a bad job exactly, but because its a rough job, especially considering how amazing I know he is going to be at the later books. In the first book he was not very good about distinguishing other people (outside of Harry and Bob) with very different voices or tones. He corrected that a bit in this book, most characters have a feel of their own now, and it really helps to draw you into the story more. Marsters is obviously getting more comfortable in this role and it shows. But, with that being said, it is still not where it will be. I admit my score is reflective of latter knowledge, but really, once you get to book 3 you will understand, because book 3 is kind of where Marsters really snaps into place with how to narrate this series and from then on it's pretty freaking awesome how he narrates. Now, do not in anyway take this to me what he gives now is dross, Marsters gives a wonderful performance and it really is an improvement over the last book. Anyone would be well pleased to listen to him narrate in this book.

Oh, and also, for those who criticize the performance because of the mic picking up the sounds of him swallowing or sometimes taking in a short breath.... get over it, you are being read a story by a person. These things do not take away from the story or the performance. In reality I kind of feel like it adds to it. This story is told from Harry Dresden's perspective, as if Harry were telling us his tale. The little sounds that some folks complain about just bring me into that feel even more. So give the folks a break and just enjoy the show.

I hope you enjoy "Fool Moon" as much as I do, It's a wonderful book with a great story that both draws you in and preps you for more Dresden craziness to come. James Marsters gives a wonderful performance that is only going to get better. Be prepared tho, because "Grave Peril" is next.... get ready for things to really pick up.

Narrator is the bomb!

People are complaining about the narrator, but he’s amazing. He’s telling the story in first person style. It’s supposed to have all the voice inflections and sounds as if he’s in the room with you just talking. It’s not a straight reading narration. It’s Spike from Buffy, Vampire Slayer! He’s wonderful!

Can’t imagine Harry without James Marsters!

Much like the collaboration between Ray Porter and Dennis E. Taylor, James Marsters has become inextricably linked to the Dresden Files as the titular narrator. Mr. Marsters has a gift for deadpanning the fantastic in that “hard-boiled detective” flavor perfected by Chandler and Marlowe. As good as the narration is, the story finds equal ground to stand upon. Jim Butcher is masterful at combining two or more simple (maybe oddly relatable?) ideas and creating a completely believable and engrossing narrative. Love this series, I literally have them all and this is (at minimum) my 5th re-read.

ANOTHER HIT

THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST URBAN FANTASY SERIES AROUND. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED AND THE NARRATION IS GREAT!