Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files - Brief Cases

Ah, Harry Dresden, Wizard Extraordinaire - oh, how I miss thee! It's been way too long since Jim Butcher gave us a full length novel. He's allowed a few comic book mini-series from Dynamite Entertainment to be published, and he's written a short story here and there over the past few years. Thankfully, his recent short stories have been collected into a large volume titled Brief Cases, and it has sustained my love for the character and need for more stories!

With 12 stories, Brief Cases covered a lot of different times (at various points in Dresden's history - between books, during books, and even after the last book). This provides fans with the opportunity to see the characters at various points in their history. And I specifically say "characters" because Butcher treats us to stories of not just Dresden, but also tales from the point of view of Molly Carpenter (Dresden's apprentice) and Marcone (the mob boss) and, my personal favorite, Waldo Butters (the coroner). In addition, the final story, which, quite frankly, was the least of my favorite of the 12 short tales, features not one, not two, but three different view points...but more on that later.

First, let's discuss those three tales with bigfoot. As Butcher indicates in his introduction to the first tale, bigfoot is a character he never has touched upon in the ongoing series, so it was a nice change of pace to see him integrate the character into Dresden's world. It was also fun to see that bigfoot was not only NOT a villain by any means, but that he had an offspring by a rather imposing woman - an offspring that Dresden finds himself helping not once, not twice, but on three separate occasions throughout the young bigfoot's life. All three stories are unique and stand on their own, but when taken together, they create an amazing tale of parental love, sacrifice, and reunion. Of all the stories in this anthology, I would have to say that these three are my favorite Dresden tales.

With regard to Molly - when her character was first introduced into the series, I wasn't overly impressed. She seemed to be the stereotypical rebellious teenager. No big deal. But then she started using magic. And then she got in trouble - big time trouble! Then Dresden bailed her out and took her on as his apprentice. And then ... well, for those who may not have read all the books in the series yet, I won't spoil it. But she does manage to get two stories in this book, and both of them are quite powerful. Once is set just after Changes, when everyone is mourning Dresden's death. The other deals with Molly's new role following the unspoken change to her life mentioned (or rather, not mentioned) above. In both stories, she proves herself to be a true protege of Harry Dresden, acting just like him in so many ways. The second story, however, is a very tough pill to swallow, as Molly learns a lesson the hard way, at the cost of quite a few lives...

The story about John Marcone was interesting - we've never really seen anything from his point of view before. And to see how he deals with supernatural threats ... how he uses what he has learned from Dresden over the years ... and how he is able to discern the truth from subterfuge within the supernatural community ... well, it shows just how devious, conniving, and downright dirty he can be.

Now, my favorite of all the stories in this book has to be the story about Waldo Butters. Butcher admits in the preface to the story that Butters was originally just a throw-away character. But over the years, he has grown into something much more than that - a likable geek who has been thrown into a world he doesn't truly understand, yet one that he accepts and willingly throws himself into whenever someone is in need. And now, as the chosen keep of the Sword of Faith, he has even more responsibility than ever. In this story, Butters gets his first "call," and his faith is put to the test when he goes toe-to-toe with a deadly supernatural creature. He must have faith in himself, in his calling, and in his righteous mission in order to defeat the creature and save the soul of the man he and Michael found on the bench...

And the last story. Dresden takes a trip to the zoo. With his daughter. And his dog. And what should be an uneventful family outing turns into three separate battles! Dresden takes on a warlock with newfound powers - - Maggie takes on some ghouls in children's clothing - - and Mouse takes on a shadowy villain.  The same story, told from three different perspectives, fighting three different villains totally unbeknownst to the other two. Truly an ingenious idea, and while it was cute, it just did not have the Dresden feel that the other stories did. Maybe it was too light-hearted, or maybe it was too family oriented, I'm not sure. But, while it wasn't bad, it was not the best either.  Then again, when you have a book of 12 stories, they can't all be the best, can they?

Overall, the book is another win for Butcher in his Dresden universe and satiates the Dresden craving we fans have until he finally gets around to writing and publishing the next novel.

RATING:  10 giant oyster shell bombs out of 10 for feeding the Dresden fix for all of us fans going into withdrawals!