Review: Skin Game, By Jim Butcher

Rating:

🍵🍵🍵🍵.75

First Response:

MICHAEL CAME BACK AND I GOT FULL-BODY CHILLS!

One Sentence Summary:

Harry gets roped into helping his worst enemy heist Hades' vault for the holy grail.

Tell Me More:

This book felt like Butcher bringing Dresden back to his pulp roots, but instead of noir, we're in heist novel territory. There were parts of this book that felt like they were ripped straight out of a James Bond or Mission: Impossible film, and there were parts that felt like they came straight out of Ocean's Eleven. It was very much my jam. There were even references to Indiana Jones and Star Wars! What's not to like?!

<spoilers>

This book really hit me in the feels, and not just the high-octane adrenaline feels. We get to see Michael Carpenter back in action (with an archangel's help), and the scene where he is healed and takes up Amoracchius again gave me full-body chills. 3 Times!

On another note, I was NOT expecting Butters to be the standout superhero of this book, but Butters is BATMAN? and a JEDI? If this book ever hits the big (or for that matter, the small) screen, imma need the scene where he takes up Fidelacchius to happen in Zack Snyder-esque slow motion. I want the tension to be thick as the hilt bobbles off Charity's hands, and finally lands in Butters' upraised hand. THEN LET THAT LIGHTSABER IGNITE WITH THE FIRES OF HEAVEN!

I kinda want to see a book where Butters is to Harry what Q is to Bond. We get to see some of his cool magical gadgets in this book, and I think it would be fun to have a scene where Butters leads Harry around a mad scientist-style lab, showing him various gizmos and equipping him to fight whatever big bad he's up against.

I decided to take a quarter of a star off of this book for the same reason I took a quarter star off of Ghost Story. This book plays an information game where it withholds information from the reader for dramatic effect, and in this book it's even less necessary than it was in Ghost Story. I actually think it might have heightened the dramatic tension if we'd known Harry had hired Grey from the start. Butcher could have played up Harry's anxiety over whether he could trust Grey, and in the "all is lost" moment where Nicodemus double crosses them, the tension would lie in "Will Grey live up to his word?" I get that that takes the dramatic tension away from Harry and places it on Grey, which isn't exactly what you want to do to the main character of your story— but still. I don't like the information game. I had to take the quarter star on principle!

As always, I'm interested to see where we go next. The short story collection Brief Cases is up next, then it's on to the unplanned 2-for-1 special. (At least, if what I hear is correct, it's a 2-for-1 special. Apparently Peace Talks and Battle Ground were supposed to be one book, but it got too big for one book and had to be split in 2. I could try to verify this rumor, but I'm too lazy to do that right now. 😬) Onward!