Publisher: Penguin Audio (Audiobook – 27 November 2012)
Series: Dresden Files – Book 14
Length: 18 hours and 47 minutes
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Welcome back to my Throwback Thursday series, where I republish old reviews, review books I have read before or review older books I have only just had a chance to read. For this week’s Throwback Thursday, I check out yet another exceptional entry in Jim Butcher’s outstanding Dresden Files urban fantasy series with Cold Days.
Readers of this blog will know that I have been having an incredible time getting through the epic Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. An iconic urban fantasy series, the Dresden Files follows maverick wizard Harry Dresden as he defends the city of Chicago from all manner of supernatural threats. This series is so impressive, and I have been steadily making my way through out it since 2020. My previous burst of reading saw me get through four of these amazing books in a row, including Small Favor, Turn Coat, Changes and Ghost Story, and while that momentarily sated my interest in this series, I am still very keen to continue, and I’m hoping to finish it off this year. I’m already off to a good start as I just knocked off the 14th book in the series, Cold Days, which proved to be another gripping and clever read.
Despite his best efforts, professional wizard Harry Dresden is once again alive, and his troubles are only just beginning. Forced into a Faustian deal to gain the power he needed to save his daughter, Dresden, now finds himself indebted to Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness and ruler of the Winter Court of the Faerie. While he’d hoped his murder would get him out of this dark responsibility, Mab had other plans and now Dresden finds himself dragged back to life as the Winter Knight, Mab’s personal champion and hitman.
Determined not to fall under the alluring sway of his new position and power, Dresden finds himself once again thrust into the middle of a conflict outside of his abilities when Mab sets him on his first mission, killing her own immortal daughter. Grappling with such an impossible task, Dresden returns to his beloved Chicago, only to find even more trouble awaiting him there. Demonreach, the mystical island in the middle of Lake Michigan that Dresden bound himself to, is under magical siege, and it if falls, billions will die.
With only 24 hours to complete both his allotted assassination and save Demonreach, Dresden soon finds himself under attack from all manner of foes, including manipulative faeries, dangerous beings originating from outside of reality, and former friends with new agendas. To survive, Dresden will need to reconnect with his old allies and work with them to prevent a dark cataclysm. But faced with impossible choices and hidden enemies, Dresden soon finds himself unsure who to trust. Worse, his new powers are working to change him into something primal and dark. Can Harry defeat both his foes and his own inner darkness before it is too late?
I doubt anyone is going to be surprised to find out that I loved Cold Days. Butcher did a wonderful job continuing his exceptional series, especially as he presents the reader with a complex and intriguing new adventure, loaded with mystery, sacrifice and surprises. A gripping read from start to finish, Cold Days gets another easy five-star rating from me, and I had an amazing time getting through it.
At this point in the series, Butcher had been on a real roll, and the last two books, Changes and Ghost Story, had exceptional stories that dramatically shifted the status quo for the protagonist. This trend continued in Cold Days as Butcher simultaneously reintroduced Dresden back to the world after his death, showed his first adventure as the Winter Knight, and provided some massive detail about the major antagonist that his been hinted about since the start of the series. I honestly was hooked on Cold Days the second I started it, especially as it begins with a particularly entertaining training montage, before dumping the protagonist right into the midst of complex Winter Court politics. From there, Dresden is given an impossible task, and his attempts to understand his new mission reveal additional obstacles, including the danger posed by Demonreach. This swiftly morphs into a classic Dresden Files novel, with the protagonist attempting to solve several concurrent mysteries, while entertaining antagonists try to take him off the board. A lot of the story involves the always fascinating and manipulative Faeries, and I liked how well Butcher expanded the lore surrounding them. Naturally, this means that the protagonist must deal with politics, intrigue, and so many betrayals, as he finds himself in the middle of their deadly games.
Once Dresden fully understands the stakes of his new mission, he is forced to make some big decisions, especially as the true antagonists of this book are obscured and hidden. Everything leads up to a massive and extended final confrontation, which was pretty damn awesome to see, especially as Dresden leads some interesting forces to war and finds himself going up against some big players. There are some brilliant and well-setup twists at the end of Cold Days that really highlight just how manipulative a certain character is, as well as how good Butcher is at planning ahead with his writing, and the status-quo of the series changes once again. This entire story was so damn entertaining, clever and moving, and I just flew through it.
As always, I love the excellent first-person style that Butcher utilises to tell his Dresden Files stories, and Cold Days came across in a fun and entertaining way. Told exclusively from the perspective of protagonist Harry Dresden, you are given a front row seat to the chaotic events of the book as they occur, and I always love the fantastic blend of mystery, action, humour and character moments that result from this. Cold Days was a particularly good example of this, and it featured an amazing pace, loaded with major set pieces and powerful interactions between the protagonist and other characters. The action scenes were particularly fun, and I loved how well Butcher was able to enhance the battles with the continuously expanding lore surrounding his excellent series. Everything about this book was a lot of fun, and this ended up being an impressive entry in the wilder Dresden Files series.
One of the things I particularly enjoyed about Cold Days was the intriguing and impressive ways that Butcher provides some massive expansions to his universe. Cold Days features some major revelations which completely shift the entire perspective of the Dresden Files, especially as you get some reveals about who the true antagonists of previous books were. The protagonist’s place in this universe is greatly enhanced, as not only does he get some major power boosts but the true responsibilities of certain posts he took on are revealed. As such, the stakes of Cold Days and the future books in the series are now higher than ever, which I personally enjoyed. These changes were an outstanding natural progression of story elements from the previous 13 novels, and it was great to get some payoffs to some of the clever hints Butcher has been lacing into the series since book one. Because of this, I would strongly recommend that readers go back and read the series from the start rather than beginning with Cold Days, as you will get so much more out of it. At the very least, I think you need to read the previous two novels, Changes and Ghost Story first, as some of the major story elements and character arcs from there are concluded or continued here. However, if you decide to start reading the series here at Cold Days, you should still be able to follow along, especially as Butcher always ensures that key elements and characters are always succinctly and effectively reintroduced.
I must really highlight the excellent character work featured in Cold Days, as Butcher does an outstanding job featuring a huge cast of fascinating figures, each of whom plays an important role in the complex plot. Naturally most of this focus revolves around the point of view protagonist, Harry Dresden, who has been going through a real emotional and personal roller coaster in the last few books. Not only did he recently find out he had a daughter who was hidden from him, but he was forced to accept a deal with Mab to save her, which he then tried to get out of by dying. Fully resurrected by the start of Cold Days, Dresden is forced to deal with the consequences of his choices. It was interesting to see the usually moral and independent Dresden under the control of a historically malevolent figure like Mab, and his attempts to understand her motivations and his place in this new regime are a huge part of the plot. At the same time, his new powers are slowly changing him, and he is constantly forced to fight back against various primal urges. This results in some very interesting personal moments, especially as Dresden is finally properly reunited with his friends and family. I loved how emotional and powerful parts of this book get, especially as Dresden comes to terms with some of the darker moments and thoughts that have plagued him over the last few adventures. As such, this is an important entry in Dresden’s personal story, and I look forward to seeing what other develops occur in the future. Of course, while this book does get emotional and moving at times, Dresden was still mostly the same funny and disrespectful figure he always was, and much of Cold Days’ humour was derived from him making fun of and picking fights with people way outside his weight class. I have so much love for most of Dresden’s character traits, even when being turned slowly evil, and Cold Days is so much more entertaining with him as the narrator.
In addition to Dresden, Cold Days featured a great batch of returning figures, each of whose storylines are also expanded on once Dresden returns. I loved some of the interactions that occurred in Cold Days, especially as we once again got to see the fun sibling relationship Dresden has with his brother, Thomas, and there was finally some movement on the long-simmering romance between Dresden and Karin Murphy. It was great to also see more of recurring characters Butters, Bob the skull and Dresden’s dog, Mouse, who are all quite entertaining in their own way. However, I think the most interesting character development occurred around Dresden’s apprentice, Molly Carpenter. Like Dresden, Molly has gone through a ton of trauma in the last few books, and it was great to see her mostly on her feet in this novel. Of course, as Butcher is a cruel author, we had to know it wouldn’t last, and some very significant changes occur to Molly in the big conclusion. Butcher did a great job setting the scene for these changes, and it will be interesting to see how much her personality changes in the next few books. I still don’t love the constant hints about a potential romance between Dresden and Molly that were featured here; if they ever get together in a future book, it will be gross.
Aside from these familiar figures, Butcher also loads Cold Days up with nearly every Faerie character and figure he had, including several sinister new antagonists. The Dresden Files books featuring the Faerie Courts and characters can often be quite entertaining and I think Butcher did a really good job of showcasing the intricate figures who make up these courts in Cold Days. Mab was a fantastic, dark and sinister figure for much of the book as Dresden’s new master, and I enjoyed how she cast a big shadow over much of the plot. While mostly shown to be villainous, Butcher did attempt to humanise her in places, and it was great to finally get some more depth around her. The rest of Faeries all had their own unique purpose in the story, and you are never quite certain whose side they are on, especially when more revelations come through as part of this book. All the characters in Cold Days were very impressive and well-written, and I really appreciated how their complex character arcs helped to enhance an already powerful story.
As usual, I ended up enjoying Cold Days on audiobook, which is honestly just the best way to enjoy a Dresden Files novel. Coming in with a run time of just under 19 hours, Cold Days was one of the longest Dresden Files audiobooks, but I still managed to power through it in one fantastic week. Butcher’s outstanding storytelling is always deeply enhanced by this format, and you really get the full experience of the action, unique fantasy elements and cool characters through it. Of course, the epic voice work from long-running narrator James Marsters is a huge factor in this. Marsters always moves the story along perfectly, and it is hard not to get caught up in the plot when he dives into the cool features and narrative. I still really love all the unique and enthusiastic voices he brings to the table, and all the characters, be they new or established, came across perfectly here. I always deeply appreciate how well Marsters can dive into protagonist and point of view character Harry Dresden, and his narration once again pulled out all this character’s pain, inner turmoil, and relentless cheek. Marsters also has a lot of fun with the various monsters, faeries and other ethereal figures featured throughout Cold Days, and he always ensures these mysterious creatures come across as something inhuman or terrifying. This great voicework really turns the Cold Days audiobook into something deeply addictive and fun, and I really cannot recommend this format enough.
Look, there was no way I wasn’t going to enjoy Cold Days, as frankly the entirety of the Dresden Files series has been pretty damn impressive. However, I felt that Jim Butcher did a really good job with this 14th book, as Cold Days features a compelling and emotionally charged narrative that expertly continues some of the most impressive storylines from the last few entries. Loaded with action, compelling lore expansion, and Butcher’s distinctive humour, Cold Days was an exceptional book that I cannot recommend enough. I love this series so much and I cannot wait to finish it off this year.
