A Book Review: White Night by Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files #9)

When I closed the final page in White Night, the 9^th novel in Jim Butcher's beloved urban fantasy series, The Dresden Files, I was both entertained and disappointed.

I was entertained because this book has all the right ingredients to make a fun, exciting story. I was also disappointed because this book recycled all the “right ingredients” from his previous books. In other words, White Night feels like just another The Dresden Files book. It feels like a book I have already read.

I may be sounding pretty harsh here. Yet, I can't help but begin this review with criticisms. This is because the most frustrating thing about The Dresden Files, especially this book, is not that it is a bad book. In fact, White Night is a very well written book. You can't find any fault in the mechanics of Jim Butcher's writings and storytelling. But White Night is a frustrating book, because it had so much potentials, yet the author is not doing anything new. This means whatever potentials this book had, were pretty much destroyed and this book is reduced to another “episode” in The Dresden Files. Ok, it's time for me to move on from this rant, and begin this review with a synopsis for White Night.

Synopsis:

They say blood is thicker than water. This is certainly true for Harry Dresden, Chicago's resident wizard and paranormal investigator. All right, so what is Harry's dilemma this time?

Harry was hired by Chicago PD to help investigating a few suspicious deaths in Chicago. These deaths appeared to be suicides, but they were linked by one commonality: All victims were amateur practitioners of magic. Harry smelled something fishy here, so he pursued the clues, only to discover that all traces of murderer point to Thomas Raith, who is Harry's half brother....

Harry always knew that magic can get a guy killed, but this time, will magic get his only family arrested?

My thoughts on this book:

White Night is a well written book. It has adrenaline pumping actions, suspense, and a well-knitted story. If this book was the first entry in a new series, then it would have been an amazing book. But here is the problem, White Night is the 9^th book in The Dresden Files, and it feels like another The Dresden Files novel, and it is repetitive.

By now, most The Dresden Files novels follow this structure:

1. The police hired Harry to investigate a strange murder case

2. Harry goes to the crime scene, and finds clues suggesting supernatural entities are involved.
3. Harry investigate the clues, and discovers the culprits are vampires (surprise surprise, what else is new?)
4. Harry fights a climatic battle against vampires and wins the day.
5. Proceed to the next The Dresden Files novel, and repeat 1 to 4.

Personally, I found 3) the most annoying. I am so over vampires. I desperately hope Jim Butcher can use other villains than vampires. I mean come on, there is a legion of legendary, terrifying monsters at the author's disposal to be cast as villains, but why is he always using vampires? Why not refresh the series with Harry taking down an esoteric cult seeking an artifact of evil power? Or what about casting a forgotten, evil god from mythology as the villain? There are so many other options out there, but The Dresden Files novels just keep on returning to vampires...

Book 7 (Dead Beat) and book 8 (Proven Guilty) in this series were really good. They both broke the “vampire villain” mold that plagues this series, with interesting plots and memorable, bizarre villains. I am really disappointed that White Night, being the 9^th volume in this series, has returned to the use of recycled plot device and vampire as villains. I think this is a sign that I should take a break from this series. Perhaps one day I will come back and continue reading the adventures of Harry Dresden. But for now, I need to read something different.