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Book Review of Changes (Dresden Files, Bk 12)

Changes (Dresden Files, Bk 12)
Catspaw avatar reviewed on
Helpful Score: 4


Changes is the aptly named 12th installment of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Harry Dresden is Chicago's only Wizard for Hire, in a universe that's just one weird step to the left of our own. By the end of the book, Harrys world, his life and his future are all changed in such profound ways that the reader is left wondering what fresh hell Harry's new universe will offer.

In the first sentence of the book, we learn that Susan, the woman Harry Dresden loved and lost in Death Masks, secretly gave birth to his daughter, Maggie. Maggie's existence was hidden from Harry and his enemies in order to insure her safety in the ongoing battles of the mortal and supernatural worlds. But now that Maggie has been kidnapped by the powerful and deadly Red Court vampires, Susan needs Harry's help to get her back. His only recourse is to gather his friends and allies from the mortal and supernatural worlds, and negotiate with powerful enemies for the tools he'll need to rescue his daughter. And Harry finds out just how far he'll go to protect a child he's never met.

A wizard with a well developed moral compass, but no particular regard for rules, Harry finds himself willing to bargain everything, including his life, to rescue his daughter. But can he succeed without tapping dark powers gained in other such bargains? Powers that could taint his soul and turn him into the kind of monster he fights were he to use them. And with every new revelation, he comes the slowly emerging truth that failure would not just cost the lives of his friends and daughter, but would imperil the entirety of the mortal world.

(originally reviewed for ijustfinished.com, by this reviewer)