Synopsis
Review
TWELVE MONTHS is the eighteenth installment of the Dresden Files. I was pleasantly surprised to get a ARC of this book and sat down to read it almost immediately so this has been a delayed review for some time. Still, I have managed to keep my opinion to myself until now and am happy now to share my thoughts. Take note I’ll be honest about this book and its flaws, despite the fact that I am mostly positive about it. A warning there will be SPOILERS for the books leading up to this.
Basically, Twelve Months comes from a very mixed reception to Battle Ground. Killing off one of the most popular characters in the series is always controversial and there was the fact she died in a way that was unrelated to the epic battle around it. Worse, many thought it was solely to end the relationship that she and Harry had gotten into. Because God forbid a couple break up naturally (under no circumstance do I think they ever could have been endgame nor would I have wanted them to be). Yes, I speak of Murphy.
It goes beyond that, though. The Dresden Files has been suffering something of a slump for pretty much the entire time from Changes onward. Part of this is due to RL issues of Jim Butcher that would take an article to explain but amount to, “lots of shit happened.” Still, a mostly regular output of books every year was interrupted and the books shifted from quirky episodic cases with a continuing plot behind them to endless misery all tied together in a metaplot that wasn’t really forwarding despite it. Lots of fans complained and quite a few dropped the series. What is Twelve Months and is it worth coming back to the series for?
Twelve Months is essentially the year after Battle Ground and Harry attempting to rebuild his life, the city of Chicago, and his connections to all of his allies in that order. He’s deeply traumatized by Murphy’s death and the event is given the weight it deserves. Not only was she Harry’s girlfriend and partner but one of the guiding forces in the city’s paranatural community. He is, simply put, out of gas and the city isn’t much better off. Harry’s in no condition to be a champion of good anymore and the city needs his old private detective self versus the broken shell he’s been left as.
At heart, Twelve Months is a soft reboot that brings everything back to the more grounded Chicago-based stories that have been missing for a long time. It feels like an anthology of many smaller stories strung together but that was missing for awhile. The serial escalation of Harry against gods and archwizards is dialed back to more mundane threats ranging from ghouls (the orcs of the Dresden Files) to White Court politics to helping terrified Paranet members avoid being executed by the White Council.
Much of the fandom was outraged by Harry getting engaged to Lara Raith at the end of the last book and thought Murphy’s romance would be replaced with her. Instead, it feels more like a year long mutual therapy session. Lara has always been a fun but somewhat rote character as the sexy female vampire badass. Here, we get to see her softer side and also the fact that she’s just as messed up as Harry. Her goal isn’t to gain power via Winter but to try to heal her brother/foster son, Thomas, and get him out from under his death sentence for his actions in Peace Talks. Romance or not, they actually become really believably good friends.
The book feels feels almost like an apology or, at the very least, an awareness things went very much off the rails. One might speculate that it might also reflect that Jim Butcher is in a better place now but that may be reaching. It isn’t perfect due to the fact that some of the beats are a bit tired. Seriously, did we really need Harry persecuted and distrusted by the Wardens again? At least they died down Carlos’ anger at Harry. I felt that was out of character when they set them up as enemies in the last book.
Overall, I give this a 4.5 out of 5 stars, which goes to show that I was always willing to take the series back but I also feel like it is trying to correct a lot of mistakes that were made. This sounds very much like an entitled fan and I almost certainly am. I’ve been reading The Dresden Files since Dead Beat was in stores and it’s probably the longest running series in my life aside from A Song of Ice and Fire. Still, I give people the recommendation to try this again if they felt burned out on Harry. It has more of the magic than anything since Harry made his choice to end a war and save a little girl (and all it cost him was everything).
