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Title: Side Jobs
Author: Jim Butcher
Genre: Urban fantasy short stories (from within a series)
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: A collection of most of the Dresden Files short stories that have been floating around in anthologies, plus a never-before published novella that begins an hour after the end of Changes.
Thoughts: If you haven't read up through Changes and loved the series, don't touch this book. Seriously. It's extremely chronological, in a series that has become increasing focused on the overall myth arc. So, OMG so many spoilers for the books.
The quality of the stories increases as you go along--the first couple are early career efforts and rather on the weak side. If you're a hard-core Dresden fan, you won't care. If you're not, you won't care, only in the opposite sense.
I most appreciated "Back-up" and "Aftermath", which are novellas from the perspective of Thomas and Murphy, respectively. It's really interesting getting to see the world from a view other than Harry's. Especially in the case of Thomas, who turns out to have some secrets of his own that there are good reasons why Harry will never know.
Poor McAnally's beer takes quite a beating, though, in not one but two stories. Poor beer.
In short, lots of fun, but only for the completist.
Author: Jim Butcher
Genre: Urban fantasy short stories (from within a series)
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: A collection of most of the Dresden Files short stories that have been floating around in anthologies, plus a never-before published novella that begins an hour after the end of Changes.
Thoughts: If you haven't read up through Changes and loved the series, don't touch this book. Seriously. It's extremely chronological, in a series that has become increasing focused on the overall myth arc. So, OMG so many spoilers for the books.
The quality of the stories increases as you go along--the first couple are early career efforts and rather on the weak side. If you're a hard-core Dresden fan, you won't care. If you're not, you won't care, only in the opposite sense.
I most appreciated "Back-up" and "Aftermath", which are novellas from the perspective of Thomas and Murphy, respectively. It's really interesting getting to see the world from a view other than Harry's. Especially in the case of Thomas, who turns out to have some secrets of his own that there are good reasons why Harry will never know.
Poor McAnally's beer takes quite a beating, though, in not one but two stories. Poor beer.
In short, lots of fun, but only for the completist.
