Death Masks: The Dresden Files, Book 5

My only complaint about the Dresden series is the waiting for the next audio book to come out. Hells bells, I'd pick up the coin and become a "Nickle Head" if it would produce the next 2 books faster.

Oh, and FYI, the TV series does NOT do the books justice in the least. The TV Series did what "Highlander 2" did to the first movie. Judge not the Dresden series off of that!

Jim Butcher himself admits that the Dresden Files series, the first volume of which was a writing exercise in the creative writing class he was in, really starts coming into it's own in the third volume, Grave Peril. I agree with him, the first two books where really raw. They are worth reading, don't misunderstand, but they are nowhere near as good as the books which came later.

In Death Masks, I personally feel that Jim Butcher really gets things into full gear. His writing gets into full gear and he tones down on the overdriven amounts of battery and damage his hero must somehow survive to levels that someone might actually survive. That sort of thing. The plot is great and you can really see him bringing the series into maturity. It's great fun and tons of action, I strongly recommend both this book and the series!

In Death Masks, Jim Butcher seems to have hit his stride as an author. After the first two books I wasn't sure, but I'm glad I came back. The Archive and Kincaid were interesting characters that I'd like to see more of in the future.

I rather miss James Marsters' deep manly breaths that were so frequent in the early books, but his narration in this book was top notch, especially his rendition of Father Vincent, the Italian priest. It's a good melding of author and narrator, in my opinion.

I hope book 6 is available soon!

This is another fun installment in the Harry Dresden series, fast-paced with tremendous jeopardies, bittersweet romance, and Butcher's trademark humor.

The audiobook is wonderfully narrated by James Marsters, who not only gives Harry the perfect, slightly world-weary film noir detective voice, but also skillfully does a variety of accents for other characters, including Japanese, British, South American Spanish, and Russian (I loved the voice he did for Sonya, the Russian atheist Knight of the Cross.)

I'm looking forward to listening to the next books in this series--the audiobooks really make the Dresden Files come alive!

What a great series, and with James Marsters' narration, you can't go wrong.
This book was right up there with one of the best. A great cast of characters, hearing more from Susan, and that Thomas is a hoot. It had some surprise allies,( if only for awhile), adding to the book's charm.
Harry didn't have a chance to get bored, as bad guys kept popping up everywhere, in his quest to find the stolen shroud.
If you follow the series, don't miss this one.

Now that I've heard the complete audiobook, including the final chapter, I enjoyed this Harry Dresden adventure just as much as the first four books. I'm looking forward to Book 6 (Blood Rites) and Book 7 (Dead Beat) now, which we might have to wait for until July 2010. Hope I'm wrong about that.

If you like your paranormal detectives with a noir-kinda-wizardy flavor...this is it.

You'll love the Dresden Files.

But boy was it worth the wait. The stride that Butcher hits around book 3 continues here. I would be surprised if anyone could listen this to this book and not find themselves laughing out loud while getting sucked into another great adventure from the worlds second most famous wizard named Harry. It is going to be a long seven months waiting for book 6!

The last chapter has been added now, so purchase at will! It's a great book, and the reading is on par with everything else read by James Marsters. Enjoy!

Great book, per usual. Looking forward to 6 & 7.
As in title, final chapter is now included.