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

Like the story lines

More than enough listening to keep you busy for a long while. I’m on book 5 and there are so many more togo. It keeps me interested I love the plot a wizard who solves cases. Sherlock meets the supernatural.

Top Notch.

If you're on this book, then you must have finished the first. I love the consistency of the narration and the story/world is just brilliant.

Good Story... but Impotent Characters...

Simply put, the story was good and could have been a four-to-five star rating...

But Butcher's insistence to continually have his so-called "wizard", Dresden, unable to muster nothing more than that on par with a "first-year" from Hogwarts... it simply turned a good story into a tedious and impotent endeavor.

And as the reader struggles to overlook that display of futility... you are given Lt. Murphy investigating wolf-like killings and where in that process she is witness to actual werewolves... upon which Mr. Butcher's "great detective" and friend to the paranormal is STILL found attempting to arrest Dresden, the NON-WEREWOLF wizard?!?!. And she decides to do this while there is a confirmed CRAZED werewolf in the neighborhood still unaccounted for?!?! So there's a full-moon werewolf on the prowl, and Dresden is the person Murphy feels most compelled to point her gun at... Really?!?!?

Fool Moon, indeed.

Keeps you interested

The second of the series, builds from the first with the characters becoming your friends, and we learn a little more from Harry's past. As with the first, this is a narrative told by Harry, mainly about the everyday life of the wizard. So happens, he has a very unusual life that lands him in trouble from day to day, and wizardry doesn't do much to pay the bills. This episode has him hunting for a werewolf murderer that has gone on a rampage the last couple of full moons.
It's a good story, with a few laughs here and there, along with all the crime solving. The narrator is superb, who scares me away from reading one of these books. He knows exactly how to deliver Harry, and all the characters with perfection.

Loogarooooooo!

Dresden books are so great!  He's such a fantastic, master-mess, kind of sexy, (In a weird way), wizard. 

Returning superb cast members make this another outstanding read.  I was looking forward to seeing all the regular suspects that make up Harry's motley crew of friends, enemies and co-workers; it was like seeing old friends.  

According to my favorite, "flippant-English, talking skull, ancient-spirit guy," "Bob".  There are three different types of werewolves and they get pretty ruthless in this second installment of Dresden's adventures.  A great detective story that can carry a serious side while throwing in just enough humor to keep the story entertaining without becoming silly.  

Butcher keeps the suspense flowing throughout his writing without forcing the storyline and Harry would not be Harry without being narrated by  Marsters.  I'm hooked on Harry and this series. 

Uncommon Words

Would you listen to Fool Moon again? Why?

I would probably listen to Fool Moon again, but for the pronunciations.

A Hooowling Good Time

The second book of the Dresden Files introduces us to the much larger world of Harry Dresden. Jim Butcher improves his knowledge of Chicago and gets a little more specific with buildings and surroundings. He still does a good job of not getting too specific and loosing the true Chicagoian, that would become distracted by any glaring errors. The one thing that really caught my attention and that I really like is that he does a very good job of describing his differant characters mystical qualities. For example he must explain differances between the differant types of werewolves and why certian ones have more power than others. He does this without breaking in on the story and slowing it down. Unlike his first book he doesn't seem to lose his place, and keeps it moving quickly while still protraying confusion by his main character. He does a good job of developing many of his secondary characters and letting us get to know them better. Overall this is a very good Sci-Fi mystery.

James Marsters hits his stride with this book. Even though Butcher hasn't quite reached his yet (he does in later books), Marsters does a good job of picking up the slack and making this book come alive with his reading. Marsters proves with this book he's more than just a television actor, and moves him into the upper echelons of vocal performers.

A fun book

After reading the first book in the series based on several friends recommendations and really enjoying it, which was a surprise to me, I picked up the audio book of the second book in the series - Fool Moon. Since I have recently started listening to audio books and find myself having more time to commit to listening to a book than to actually sitting down and reading that this is the perfect avenue to continue enjoying the books, or at least, I hope.

When I read the synopsis of this book and was promised werewolves, magic and generally a fun time, I couldn’t help but smile to myself, it definitely sounded like my kind of book. It did not disappoint. Harry Dresden is a really fun and interesting character, I couldn’t help but get wrapped up in the story, how he gets himself into these situations is beyond me, but deep down, wizard or not, he has a heart of gold. I like that in a character, that makes me care about what happens and allows me to become invested in the story. Jim Butcher really know to write a good story and he does it so well. Jim does a fabulous job of keeping characters grounded even with all the magical aspects of the story, really it’s a book about people and what makes them tick and how far they are willing to go for the people they care about…or maybe I’m reading too much into it, either way, it was a fun book.

I had heard from a friend that James Marsters was the narrator and did an incredible job, I have enjoyed every audio book this friend has recommended to date, so when he told me I should check this out, I had faith that he wouldn’t steer me wrong, and he didn’t. James does a wonderful job setting the scene, giving each character a unique sound and feel to them. I never once wondered which character was which or what was going on, it made it extremely easy to follow.

Overall I would highly recommend this book to others that enjoy a well written, fun story.

Wolfs Wolfs Wolf OH MY!

Loved almost everything about this story. The only issue i had was the random spots of dead air that would come between chapters. I don't know if it is the app or the recording but still loved every bit of this story. On to the next.

Wizards Vampires Werewolves - this book has it all

A classic Harry Dresden story. Harry doesn't tell everything he knows to a pretty young woman, holds out on his best buddy cop (Murph), gets way more than knee deep in s*** with the werewolf world, then pulls it out at the last minute with an unexpected but timely act of wizardly wow-dom. I thought Harry was a little too preoccupied with the thought that all the bad things happening were his fault, i.e. not telling all to everyone. But that is in line with him being an old fashioned kind of guy I guess.

Also, I note that Harry is very much human with his enjoyment of the other sex (almost all the women in this book look good PLUS they end up naked at one time or another for mostly non-sex related reasons) and his apparent chronic lack of sleep (like most Americans if not other nationalities too).

I did get distracted by the narration this time, unlike in the last book by the same reader. Maybe my sound system (or my own ears) improved because I heard some swallowing and lip smacking sort of sounds from time to time. Just enough to make me remember as I write this review.

Still, all-in-all, a good magical world kind of read.