Author: Jim Butcher
This book is fun. It’s pure Jim Butcher goodness. Things blow up, there’s cool magic, the good guys are all stand up people, the bad guys are hateable. If reading N. K. Jemisin is like eating lemon roasted salmon on a bed of quinoa and then sitting and meditating for an hour, this is like eating an entire chocolate cake and then jumping in a bouncy castle. There’s a wizard who can’t handle doorknobs. There is steampunk sky ship naval combat. There are sentient cats who are at no point explained but are somehow plot critical. It is wonderful chaos.
The technical aspects of the book are about as good as you’re going to get. After 20+ books of writing badasses blowing things up, Jim Butcher has a pretty firm grasp on how to…write books about badasses blowing things up. The prose is clear and funny, the plot is well constructed, the world is fantastic and interesting. My one issue is that it can feel a little stretched out; I would have liked it better if there had been a little less going on. Still, if you feel like turning your brain off and watching heroes do heroic things in a story where you’re pretty sure everything is going to turn out alright, I can think of no better book.
Deus ad Machina 