The Dresden Files

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, (14 books, 6005 pages)

As I was reading past reviews it occurred to me that while I reference Butcher, or the Dresden Files in comparison to other series, I never took the time to review the Dresden Files themselves. I did briefly gloss over them in my review of Butcher’s 15th book Skin Game, but this series needs a longer review. So let us look at the rest of the series.

Yes, that is a wizard with a shotgun.

Harry Dresden is a wizard, it even says so in the Chicago phone book. “HARRY DRESDEN — WIZARD Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties or Other Entertainment.” Despite this charming ad, Harry still has trouble finding work. It might be because people think he is crazy or it could be because most people believe magic is not real. With cases a rarity, most of Harry’s time is spent assisting Chicago Police Department’s Special Investigation unit and more directly Detective Karrin Murphy.


The Dresden Files are basically hard-boiled detective meets urban fantasy. It has werewolves, vampires, wizards and other beings, but also car chases, shootouts, kidnappings, and the mafia. In other words it is awesome.

The main reason I use the Dresden files when comparing fantasy series, is because Butcher got it right. In the Dresden Files the hero does not always win. In fact he routinely gets beat up, only figuring out who was behind the mayhem in hindsight or after everything is over. Magic is more of a crutch, rather than a fix all. At time magic simply doesn’t work, or screws things up further. Better yet, the characters are realistic and corruptible. They are neither saints nor devils but fall in that grey area like normal people. All of this combines to make a truly believable fantasy realm.

And that is why I highly recommend this series to everyone.

P.S. if you do not like reading books without pictures, there is also a graphic novel series for the first couple books

The first 10 books in The Hallows Series by Kim Harrison

Dead Witch Walking, The Good, The Bad and The Undead, Every Which way but Dead, Fistful of Charms, For A Few Demons More, Outlaw Demon Wails, White Witch Black Charm, Black Magic Sanction, Pale Demon, and Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison, 4722 pages in 10 books.


The Hallows follow the detective/bounty hunter work of Rachel Morgan, a witch, as she and her partners Jenks (pixie) and Ivy (vampire) tackle both human and supernatural threats.

Strangely enough I actually found The Hallows series through its graphic novel adaptation of Dead Witch Walking. I was intrigued enough by that graphic novel what I went looking for more, and despite there not being more graphic novels, I learned that this series exists.

There are a lot of interesting subplots that really add to The Hallows depth and make it great. There is the fact that Jenks is already old for a pixie, and how much longer he might have. There is the fact that Ivy wants to drink Rachel's blood, but won't without her "permission". There is conspiracy to have Rachel killed. And then there is Trent, a multimillionaire that cannot help but wiggle his fingers in everybody's pies. 

All of this makes this series good. Like Dresden Files good. I would recommend this series to anyone who likes the somewhat gritty urban fantasy.

Jane Yellowrock books 1-10

The Jane Yellowrock series books 1 - 10 by Faith Hunter, 3393 pages in ten books

This review covers the first ten books (Skinwalker, Blood Cross, Mercy Blade, Raven Cursed, Death's Rival, Blood Trade, Black Arts, Broken Soul, Dark Heir, and Shadow Rites) in the Jane Yellowrock series.

This series lives in a world were certain fantasy beasts like vampires, werewolves, and others exist, though are not in the realm of common knowledge. Only the vampires, witches, and to a lesser extent shapeshifters are on the public's radar. Vampire clan's have claimed large parts of the United States, though they do not really rule, just consider that area their hunting ground. There is also an accord that vampires will not hunt people and only take blood from the willing. When this accord is broken by rogue vampires people like Jane Yellowrock hunt them down.

Initially I was unsure if I would continue reading this series past the first book. I did not mind the books having a female protagonist, but does she have to develop a crush on every single guy she meets? The first couple I can live with, or even if it was one per book, but really every single good looking guy seems a little much. After accepting this, and to some extent just ignoring it, the series was quite good. It manages to avoid the "main character can do no wrong" cliches that seem to pop up all to often in urban fantasy, while not making the character seem completely useless.

In terms of protagonists this series is like Ilona Andrews's Kate Daniels series or Kim Harrison's Hollows with the main character being strong yet fallible, but it also avoids the heavy handed romance you would see with Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Negima Volumes 1-6

 Negima Volumes 1-6 by Ken Akamats, 1226 pages (6 books)


The Negima series follows the academic life of Negi, a young(10 year old) wizard who has one last task to complete before he becomes a master wizard. Oddly that task is being the English task to a middle school class consisting of 31 girls. While acting as a teacher, Negi also is searching for clues about what happened to his father.

Negima is classified as a harem, romantic comedy. In terms of content, or illustrations, it certainly qualifies as ecchi, and possibly even further along that spectrum. Like most manga rated ecchi or higher, I found that it wasted story line development to show more skin. I found this manga to be rather slow developing, but with enough action to still keep it interesting. I eventually gave up reading this series, as one by one, all of the girls Negi is supposed to be teaching, fall in love with him. After that it takes on a really creepy teacher-student vibe that is unsettling to say the least.

I cannot say that I would recommend Negima to anyone, but nor would I try to talk people out of reading it, it is just meh to me.

Incryptid Series

Discount Armageddon, Midnight Blue-light Special, Half-Off Ragnarok, Pocket Apocalypse, and Chaos Choreography by Seanan McGuire, 1766 pages total


So I tried to write a good summary of this series half a dozen times and could never quite get the right wording and vagueness that would compel an interested party to read further, but yet not spoil any of the books. Lacking the words I needed I went to Seanan's website for guidance, or in this case a nice neat summary.
"Cryptid, noun:

1. Any creature whose existence has been suggested but not proven scientifically. Term officially coined by cryptozoologist John E. Wall in 1983.

2. That thing that's getting ready to eat your head.

3. See also: "monster."

The Covenant of St. George was founded to uphold one simple ideal: anything that was not present on the Ark—anything they deemed "unnatural"—needed to be destroyed. Monsters. Creatures of myth and legend. All of them would be wiped from the Earth in the name of Man's dominion. Unfortunately for them, not all the monsters agreed with this plan...and neither did all the human beings.

After their rather abrupt departure from the Covenant, Alexander and Enid Healy found themselves alone in the world, but with a simple mission of their own: to protect the cryptids of the world from those who would harm them without just cause. It was a cause that would eventually claim both their lives, leaving their children, and their childrens' children, to take up the fight. Now in the modern day, their descendants struggle to stay beneath the Covenant's radar, while defending the cryptids from humanity—and humanity from the cryptids."

Thanks Seanan. 

Unlike most series this one is divided up between two different, but related main characters, siblings Verity and Alex. For books 1, 2 and 5 you will be with the ballroom dance loving Verity, and for books 3 and 4 with the reptile loving Alex. Since I am more into reptiles then ballroom dancing, I found Alex's books far more interesting. It could also be his actual love for being a cryptozoologist, unlike his sister who treated it like a day job. No matter which sibling the reader is with, there is plenty of danger, excitement, and weirdness. 

My final recommendation: This series is well worth the read, if nothing else for the cryptid world that Seanan weaves, that and the talking mice. Yes, talking mice, and they are awesome. 

Alice in Murderland

Alice in Murderland Volumes 1-4 by Kaori Yuki, 704 total pages

Alice in Murderland revolves around a wealthy family and it's strange customs. The first being every so often the family must get together for tea. This is not optional, unless they want to die, because if they do not drink this tea every so often the poison coursing though their system will kill them. The second strange custom involves how the inheritance is dispersed. Basically at a time of their choosing (now) the parent gather everyone and oversee a battle royal, with the last surviving child pronounced the sole heir. If this was not crazy enough, each child also have special powers related to, or at least named after Alice in Wonderland themes.

I really wanted to like this series, and as I write this I do not know why I didn't. It has plenty of action, violence, horror, and is loosely based around the Alice in Wonderland theme, all of which I love in a manga. Maybe it was the confusing overlapping backstabbing and plotting that was so overdone it was the norm and no longer unexpected. Or perhaps it was the constant reviving of characters that took away part of the danger, and suspense of this murder mystery. Either way I would give this series a pass, unless you really have nothing else to read.

Morgan Kingsley series books 1-5

Morgan Kingsley series books 1 -5 (Devil Inside, Devil You Know, Devil’s Due, Speak of the Devil, and Devil’s Playground) by Jenna Black, 1699 pages

In a world where people can host demons, legally and illegally, there is always a need for exorcists. They serve the public as paranormal executioners, casting out illegal demons, and those that have broken the law. Exorcists like demons come in different strengths, and Morgan Kingsley is one of the strongest exorcists around. But after an abnormally strong demon exorcism goes wrong, she is haunted by weird dreams, bouts of sleepwalking, and fears she may have a demon inside her.

I wasn’t sure which direction this science fiction series was going to take. Was I going to get a detective series, where Morgan has to research various demons, learn their names or history and then cast them out type series, which would get rather dull and repetitive. Or would Morgan discover something weird with the demons/herself and have to figure it out to save the world? It is definitely this. Frankly I think the “save the world” motif is a little overused in science fiction, but it is hard to come up with a better compelling threat. Luckily Black was able to keep this world ending threat both interesting and unique enough to make this series quite the read. I will also give her credit for staying away from the standard holy items kill demon motif. I enjoyed reading this series, and blew through it in under a week. I would recommend this to people looking for a twist on demon science fiction.

Note: I read these online, as the library only owns Speak of the Devil

Sankarea 1-4

Sankarea Volumes 1-4 by Mitsuru Hattori, 704 pages

Sankarea follows the life of high school student Chihiro who loves anything zombie. From films to manga if it has zombies he is going to have a copy of it. This obsession goes as far as following an old manuscript to make a potion to bring things back to life. He manages to use it successfully on his deceased cat, but doesn’t know if he actually wants to continue using/making it. Enter Sanka, a girl who hates her family and has run away. She, seeing the potion is made from a poisonous plant drinks the potion, with no apparent adverse effects. That is until she falls off a cliff and comes back as a zombie.

Sankarea is definitively a romantic comedy or romcom. It has Chihiro falling in love with Sanka all the while trying to hide the fact that she is a zombie from the world and her family. Despite how cheesy most romcoms are, this one is actually quite well written and enjoyable. It is pretty graphic and certainly earned its teen rating. 

Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law

Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law by Nathaniel Burney, 335 pages

The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law caught my eye for being one of the few graphic novels located in the Business, Government and Law room here at Central.  And since I have to constantly tell people I am NOT a lawyer anyways, I might as well learn more about criminal law. A small side not before I get into my review, while this book was sitting on my desk slowly being read, I had numerous coworkers not only inquire about the book, but also try to steal it away. So it must be a good book right?

The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law is an illustrated guide to criminal law, there are no tricks or gimmicks. In the simplest of terms, this book will explain why we punish crimes, why there are varying degrees of punishment, and a couple of the common legal defenses. All the while it will have accompanying illustrations that not only help convey the concepts, but to add a little bit of humor as well.

If you are looking for a humorous book on criminal law, one in which you can learn something and have a good laugh, this is your book. If however, you are studying for the LSAT or want a serious examination into criminal law, give this a pass. 

Dragonar Academy

Dragonar Academy 1-5 by Shiki Mizuhci, 964 pages (5 books)

Dragonar Academy is a school on the continent of Arc Strada. A school that teaches its students how to ride and tame their dragons. Unlike the classic dragon stories, where dragons hatch from eggs, here children are chosen by a “Mother Dragon” and eventually manifest in a semi grown up form. While most students seem to be progressing with their dragons, Ash is having problems. The first being his dragon has yet to manifest. And when she does finally appear she looks more like a girl than a dragon. Will Ash be able to control/tame Eco (what he named the dragon) or will her fiery spirit make him the servant?

I wasn’t sure what to make of Dragonar Academy for the first couple books. It seemed to have a good premise, and I liked the idea of dragon manifestation vs hatching, but I thought making the main dragon in the story a young girl with horns odd. It leads to some weird ecchi moments and some overdone innuendos about how dragon trainers are supposed to be able to ride their dragon. I can see how this would appeal to the teen market I am sure this manga is aimed at, but come on.

Overall though it is not a bad series. While it has its flaws, I think it serves the purpose of a not too serious manga. If you don’t feel like you want to read it though apparently there is an anime series .

American Gods

American Gods by Neil Gaiman, 635 pages

American Gods is quite the interesting and award winning book. For the most part it follows the life of a recently released convict named Shadow who receives a proposition from a man calling himself Wednesday. What at first seemed like a simple bodyguard/assistant role soon spirals out of control and leaves Shadow fighting for his life.

What I liked best about American Gods is the blending of mythology into everyday life. There are the old gods, ones that have always been here and ones that were bought to this country with immigration, and the new gods, like internet, tv, etc. The gods get their powers from how many people believe and follow them. So in a world that is embracing all that technology has to offer, the old gods find themselves slowly drifting away. The plausibility of this scenario, assuming that the gods do exist, resonates with me. The assumption that media, television and internet are considered “gods” at first seemed unlikely, but as the story goes on, I came to believe it. If all that is needed for “worship” is our attention, then what else do we spend more time working with or sitting in front of?

I highly recommend this book to everyone, as it really makes you think about what might from some perspective be modern “mythology”.

Attack on Titan Volumes 11-17

Attack on Titan volumes 11-17, by Hajime Isayama, 1344 pages (7 books)

So a quick review for those readers who do not remember my blog post covering the first ten volumes in this series two years (!?) ago. Basically humanity was prospering until these giant humanoid beings called titans started appearing and destroying everything. To protect the remaining population the government build a giant wall named Maria around the last population, and then another wall Rose and in the center of that, another giant walled city. Like a giant bullseye. For years this keeps the population safe, until the outer wall, Maria, is breached by the titans. This forced a large portion of the remaining population into the safety of the Rose wall. The sudden influx of people has pushed civilization towards rebellion and once again the survey corps is right in the middle of it.

I did not care for the second “half” of this series as much. Where the first was all about the action and battles with the titans, these had more scheming, politicking, and a ton of flashbacks. While most of it was necessary to keep the plot moving, it really slowed down the pace of what was a fast moving manga. I think, and more importantly hope, that these volumes got the majority of the flashbacks out of the way, so the rest of the series can be the action packed books they need to be.

This is still not the end of the series, but it is once again all the books the library has so far. Maybe in another two years I will be able to post the exciting conclusion.

Dante Valentine the Complete Series

Dante Valentine the Complete Series by Lilith Saintcrow, 1280 pages

Having never been disappointed with my choices in urban fantasy fiction, I decided to give the Dante Valentine series a try. In a somewhat dystopian future, where the gods not only exist but also communicate with their followers, a Necromancer named Dante gets a knock on her door. What follows is five books worth on magic, demons, violence and action.

So as I mentioned, the Dante Valentine series is in that same urban fantasy genre with greats like the Dresden files, Mercy Thompson and Kate Daniels. All of which I have enjoyed reading, and have blogged about. The key difference though is even with magic being real in all of these books, along with vampires, weres, etc. this book also has the addition of gods. I think in worlds where magic and monsters are common place, adding that third level really expands the fantasy world. It also adds a lot of questions about which faiths might survive and which would not, if all of the gods were proven to exist. That by itself would be an interesting book.

In terms of reading advice, if you liked the Mercy Thompson series I am pretty sure you will enjoy this as well. If you are more of a Dresden files person, you might want to give this a pass.

Assassination Classroom Volumes 1-10

Assassination Classroom by Yusei Matsui Volumes 1-10, 1928 pages (10 books)

Koro-sensei is not your average teacher. In fact he is a quite literally monster. Having recently eaten half of the moon, he threatens to destroy Earth unless his pupils can assassinate him before the end of the school year. What at first seemed like a difficult task is made near impossible as his abilities come to light, such as moving at speeds near Mach 20 and being impervious to nearly all weapons. But the fate of the world is resting on class 3-E, or as they are known at their school, the rejects.

So far I have enjoyed this series more than I thought I would. When I first read the plot and even the first part of the book, I thought it was a little corny. My first though was this series would eventually rely on a loophole or weird twist to save the Earth. But as the series has progressed, Matsui has done a great job of convincing me that it might just be possible for this ragtag group of students to actually accomplish their goal. I got a real kick out of the way the monster helps his students both in their classwork, but also in their planning to kill him.

But since the series is not over yet, I am reserving my judgement till the end. I am predicting that he falls in love with the students and cannot bring himself to destroy the world. It would be cheesy, but at least it would not be a loophole.

Alphabet Series O to V

Letters O, P, Q, R, S,T, U, and V by Sue Grafton, eight books totaling 3100 pages

This is the continuation of Sue Grafton’s Alphabet series which I previously blogged about.

The basic premise of the stories remained unchanged. Each book is still a separate case from Kinsey’s files from being a private investigator. As you would suspect, these books are all mysteries, and lean more towards cozy than hard boiled. These letters however, marked a change in the writing style from Grafton. Whereas the first batch of novels all followed the story line solely from Kinsey’s point of view, these not only added other points of view, but also jumps in time. Thankfully Grafton tends to do most of these cuts by chapter, which aids the reader in following along. Though I must admit the first time we had a hop back in time it took me a minute to figure out what was going on.

As you can tell from my continued reading and blogging about this series, I have enjoyed it. I would not say it is my favorite series, or even my favorite mystery series, but it holds up well. Despite having nearly the same plot for every book, Kinsey investigates something, Grafton still manages to keep each book unique enough to make it worth reading. And while I would certainly lobby for you to start with A is for Alibi, each book can stand up perfectly fine by itself. Unfortunately for me I have nearly caught up to Grafton who only recently released X.

New 52's Suicide Squad Vol 1-5

Suicide Squad Comics Vol 1-5 by assorted artists, five books totaling 848 pages

After seeing all of the trailers promoting this movie, I went in search of the comic that started it all, or at least the next best thing. The only Suicide Squad comics I found are not from the originals, but the rebooted New 52 DC universe. (Comic readers know what I mean). In Suicide Squad a shadowy government organization, through the use of force and threats are using supervillains to fight worse evils. The cast varies from the well-known Harley Quinn and Deadshot to somewhat lesser villains like Yo-yo and Captain Boomerang.

Personally I had never read the original series, but I did enjoy reading the reboot. I think the characters were accurate and, despite some flaws, acted as expected when you force a bunch of villains to work together. There was constant bickering, fights and plots to kill each other and their employer. I am not a fan of rebooting an entire comic universe, like DC does here, but for the most part it seems to be working, though the Joker gets a hard rap.

Legal Drug Omnibus

Legal Drug Omnibus by CLAMP, 560 pages

The Legal Drug manga follows the lives of Kazahaya and Rijuo, both employees at a rather strange drug store. To help make ends meet, and in favor to the shop owner, they both take unusual side jobs. Jobs that push them and their fledgling super natural powers to the limits.

So I actually read this entire omnibus online though SLPL’s subscription to Hoopla. In all honesty I started reading Legal Drug just to test out Hoopla's comic viewer, and then got hooked by the weird story and the unique characters. The story line though is somewhat silly and at times disoriented, but everything was slowly coming together by the end of this tome. I did not see a second omnibus when I read this book, but it is quite obvious the story does not end here. In fact after a little research, I found some of these same characters reappear in other manga.

Aftermath

Aftermath by Chuck Wendig, 379 pages


So despite giving up on the Star Wars extended universe somewhere in my high school years, I was at least briefly drawn back into its fold. In what might be the first new canon book of the Disney owned Star Wars era, Aftermath takes place shortly after the destruction of the second Death Star, while the faltering Empire tries to consolidate its power, and halt the rampant advance of the New Republic.

Despite being away from these books for so long, I can certainly see why younger me was so interested. There are gun (blaster) battles, space fights and other melees. Since at this point in the canon there is really only the one known Jedi, Luke, there are not any lightsaber battles, which is kind of a let down. The space fight is also a little half-hearted for my taste. Where this book does thrive though, is the portrayal of Admiral Akbar and the rebellious fighting from which the New Republic was born. This is not the orderly and neat battles the Empire is known for, this is the knock down drag out bar like fights that really could go either way. It was in this element Wendig really captured what makes the Star Wars series such a compelling read.

Despite being labeled quite clearly across the top that this is part of the "Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens" this book does not quite get you there. Which makes sense, as this is, I believe, part of a trilogy that results in The Force Awakens. So just read Aftermath, and those other two books then go see the movie. But really who am I kidding, you already saw the movie.

A through N of the Alphabet series

Letters A through N by Sue Grafton, 4433 pages through 14 books.

So this month was almost entirely devoted to working my way through the Kinsey Millhone, better known as the Alphabet series by Sue Grafton. The series as a whole follows the life of Kinsey who works as a private detective in Santa Teresa California. As she is quick to tell you in every book she has been married and divorced twice, graduated from the police academy, and is not one for rules and regulations.

I started reading this series while in looking for a cozy mystery series that would meet my criteria. That is the series had to be over ten books long, somewhat humorous and written well enough for me not to throw the book across the room. I had known about the “Alphabet” series for quite some time but I never really through about reading it until it was suggested by multiple reader advisory sites based on what I had read.

The Alphabet series certainly lived up to the recommendation. The characters are easily likeable, and there is a good mix of humor throughout. The books will not have you laughing in your chair but there are some good one liners that made me smile. If I had one critique to the series, it is the ending. In a good majority of the books the story is chugging right along to the final confrontation and ta da book over. I mean she does explain what happened afterwards in a short epilog, but there is hardly any details. For example in one of the books it technically ends with her being knocked out. In the epilog we learn that she awoke three days later in the hospital, bad guy dead, case solved. Technically that wraps up the plot but I would still like more details.

Despite that one short coming the series is still well worth the read, and I know I will continue reading them. Sadly at this blazing pace I will catch up to Grafton before she has time to finish Y and Z.  

Alice in the Country of Hearts

Alice in the Country of Hearts Volumes 1-6 by QuinRose, 1142 pages (6 books)

Alice in the Country of Hearts is a manga loosely based on Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. In QuinRose’s version Alice is abducted by Peter White, who has bunny ears and can turn into a rabbit, and is brought to Wonderland or more specifically the Country of Hearts. The Country of Hearts is split into three warring factions; the Queen of Hearts named Vivaldi, the Hatters who are led by Blood Dupre or The Hatter, and finally the Amusement Park run by the Duke Mary Gowland. At the center of these three factions is the Clock Tower. It is there that Alice comes to reside while she figures out how to get back home.

I suppose this manga would fall under the harem qualification as Alice is basically the only woman and most of the men pine for her affections. Besides harem, I would also add in action and romance.

Alice in the Country of Hearts was well worth the read. The characters were believable, especially considering that this takes place in Wonderland, and were quite well fleshed out. By the end I only had one complaint, it ended too soon.