Wise_owl's Updates en-US Sat, 05 Apr 2025 08:49:28 -0700 60 Wise_owl's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7443045373 Sat, 05 Apr 2025 08:49:28 -0700 <![CDATA[Wise_owl added 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing']]> /review/show/7443045373 The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondō Wise_owl gave 4 stars to The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (Hardcover) by Marie Kondō
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]]> UserChallenge63009038 Sat, 05 Apr 2025 08:48:11 -0700 <![CDATA[ Wise_owl has created a challenge to read 30 books in 2025. ]]> /user/show/5803604-wise-owl 11627
Wise_owl has read 1 book toward their goal of 30 books.
 
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Create your own 2025 Reading Challenge » ]]> ReadStatus9243337411 Fri, 28 Mar 2025 14:29:17 -0700 <![CDATA[Wise_owl started reading 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing']]> /review/show/7443045373 The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondō Wise_owl started reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondō
]]> ReadStatus9243335547 Fri, 28 Mar 2025 14:28:41 -0700 <![CDATA[Wise_owl started reading 'Mr. Selden's Map of China: Decoding the Secrets of a Vanished Cartographer']]> /review/show/7443044057 Mr. Selden's Map of China by Timothy Brook Wise_owl started reading Mr. Selden's Map of China: Decoding the Secrets of a Vanished Cartographer by Timothy Brook
]]> ReadStatus9243330790 Fri, 28 Mar 2025 14:27:09 -0700 <![CDATA[Wise_owl started reading 'The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future']]> /review/show/7443040737 The Next Civil War by Stephen Marche Wise_owl started reading The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future by Stephen Marche
]]> ReadStatus8875893062 Mon, 06 Jan 2025 14:05:52 -0800 <![CDATA[Wise_owl is currently reading 'After The Revolution']]> /review/show/7183039532 After The Revolution by Robert Evans Wise_owl is currently reading After The Revolution by Robert Evans
]]> Review185112524 Tue, 22 Oct 2024 06:44:11 -0700 <![CDATA[Wise_owl added 'Death Masks']]> /review/show/185112524 Death Masks by Jim Butcher Wise_owl gave 4 stars to Death Masks (The Dresden Files, #5) by Jim Butcher
Death Masks, the Five instalment of the Dresden Files series, keeps the heat up and mysteries epic.

Jim Butcher once said that each of the files book is basically 'Dresdens Worst week of a given year' and this definately carries over.

Dresden has been gathering allies and adversaries and a range of threads spun out in previous books get drawn together here. Butcher does a fantastic drop of setting things up for long-run in a book series that advances by the year.

In short order, the events of Book three now come back to haunt Harry as a 'Count' of the Red court of Vampires demands satisfaction to end the war between the Red Court and the White. Dresden's death will resolve things, but Harry isn't about to go quietly into that long night, and besides which, he has few reasons to trust this vampire.

His old girlfriend, Susan, now a half-vampire fighting her urges, returns and complicates things, trucking along a partner from an organization of victims of the Red Court looking to even the score.

At the same time the shroud of Turin has been stolen and ended up in Chicago, and it turns out this is a scheme of another group of Baddies, humans invested with the power of fallen angels who inhabit silver coins implied to be the thirty pieces of silver judas accepted to betray Jesus.

Now a slight aside; like many works of 'Urban Fantasy' of the late 20th and early 21st century, the Dresden files has an interesting syncretic relationship with religion in general and Catholicism in particular. It's major religious characters are all Catholic(Father Forthill, Michael Carpenter and Family, and a lapsed Karen Murphy). While there are inclinations towards other modern religious traditions(A Breed of Native American Shamanism, Chinese traditional practice, Wicca, Buddhism at least once) more often you get a hodge-podge of things from religions than 'Modern Americans' view as 'Mystical' along with ancient mystical beliefs and... for reasons I've never been able to sort out, Catholicism. But like, not orthodox Catholicism, a sort of 'refracted through the movie the Exorcist and books of Dan Brown' sort of Catholicism. Seems an area ripe for research if it hasn't already been done.

Okay, digression over; So Harry is once against helped by Michael Carpenter, Knight of the Cross, though now joined by two very interesting characters; Shiro, a Japanese Christian and 'aged sword Master' stereotype of sorts, and Sonya, a Dark-Skinned Man of Russian Extraction who was once a member of the Denarians(aforementioned evil coin devils) and now has taken up a sword of the Cross, despite also being agnostic.

This book never lets up; it introduces us to characters of various sorts, including one of my favourites; Ivy, the 'Archive' a child who is imbued, from her mother, with a sort of archival representation of all human knowledge that passes, mother to daughter. Her guardian, the mysterious and deadly Kincaid. New Badies, New Goodies, Deadly Duels, a potential mini-apocylpss and events that carry over for books to come and really help define a good portion of the series.
]]> Review185112505 Sun, 20 Oct 2024 17:10:18 -0700 <![CDATA[Wise_owl added 'Summer Knight']]> /review/show/185112505 Summer Knight by Jim Butcher Wise_owl gave 5 stars to Summer Knight (The Dresden Files, #4) by Jim Butcher
Summer Knight is unquestionably the start of the 'high run' of the Dresden files. Where the episodic noir detective stories with supernatural elements just slides together and everything 'fits'. Elements start to come to fruition and some of the longest running themes of the books start to blossom.

Harry is, as is so often the case, brought into a case of supernatural origin, but this time he's being brought in by the big leagues. The Summer Knight, the mortal vessel of the powers of the Faerie Seelie Court, has been murdered and one of the Obvious Suspects, Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness, Mature Queen of the Unseelie Faerie court, is engaging Chicago's only wizard to clear her name.

It's the big leagues now Harry.

The Fae, or Fairies, had been a part of the 'Dresdenverse' from the beginning in the person of 'Toot-Toot' the fairy Dresden dragooned into helping him way back in Storm Front. But here we get a more fully fleshed out view of the fae, combining various elements of mythology, modern mysticism, and tradition to create an interest, alien Fae court.

Winter and Summer, neither truly 'good' or 'evil', but representative of dichotomous power. The Fae Queens, The Queens who were, a sort of 'Fates', crones that exist outside of and yet in a way overseeing the power structure of the courts, the Queens who are, Mab and Titania, scary like a blizzard or the searing dessert sun, and the Queens who will be, two youthful young women, Winters a Cruel sort of edge-lord Princess, Summers a sort of social worker with magical powers, seeking to ease the suffering of others.

Harry's draw into this world of course reveals that more is going on than first appears, and the resolution here has a great big 'OH ****' set of moments the series will become known for.

It also marks a sort of shift in Harry's 'growth'. The climax of the prior novel resulted in the death of a powerful enemy, the creation of a new powerful enemy, and Harry's girlfriend becoming a sort of half-vampire. The book starts with Harry deep in the weeds trying to figure out a way to fix what he's done, with his day to day suffering.

So he starts down, only gets kicked some more, and by the end of the book triumphs in a truly epic way. Just a satisfying book in all ways. ]]> Review185112490 Thu, 26 Sep 2024 07:32:47 -0700 <![CDATA[Wise_owl added 'Grave Peril']]> /review/show/185112490 Grave Peril by Jim Butcher Wise_owl gave 4 stars to Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, #3) by Jim Butcher
Grave peril is where the Dresden Files really starts to kick up from 'enjoyable urban fantasy' to 'One of the best Urban Fantasy'. It's still not quite at it's greatest form yet, but it's getting there, and Butcher is improving his craft with every book.

The format stays more or less the same, for which your milage may vary. But Harry Dresden, PI and Chicago's only openly practising Wizard is back dealing with the supernatural. The Ghosts of the City are going haywire, and he needs to figure out what the hell is going on.

This book really starts to bring all the elements that make the series great together. It introduces Michael, the Knight of the Cross, wielder of a Holy Sword and agent of 'God'. It highlights the different courts of Vampires, showing us Thomas, the White Court Vampire who will be important going forward and a somewhat reluctant ally of Harry's. It brings his literal Fairy God-Mother into sharp focus and it lays down the 'over-plot' elements that will inform the series going forward.

I would say it's 'darker' in many respects than the previous two; dealing more stark with elements of horror, body horror, violation. Harry himself goes through some stuff and something I do respect about Butcher is that these things stay with Harry. He is wounded physically and spiritually and these these linger from book to book.

This book was an enjoyable read/listen(as mentioned before I am listening to the wonderful Audio books by James Marsters, can't recommend them enough), and it's also like getting to the top of the rollercoaster. Stuff is about to ramp up and it's all a ride from here on out. ]]> Review185112385 Wed, 25 Sep 2024 16:35:31 -0700 <![CDATA[Wise_owl added 'Fool Moon']]> /review/show/185112385 Fool Moon by Jim Butcher Wise_owl gave 3 stars to Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, #2) by Jim Butcher
So this is a bit of a re-read of the Dresden Files for me, and more to the point a re-listen, since while I have read them physically, I'm going through the absolutely wondering Audio Books by James Marsters(Spike of Buffy the Vampire Fame). Very interesting as while, for example, I've had movies influence how I've percieved a book(and vice versa) but this is the first time probably since childhood a particular 'reading' of a book sits in my head.

Now most people will say that the Dresden files 'Gets Good' at book 3 or 4. Some even hold off till later books. I would say it absolutely gets Great in the later books, but it's still 'Good' here, just finding it's feet.

Harry Dresden is the only Wizard in the Chicago Phone Book. A practioner of the true arts of magic he's there to deal with things that go bump in the night, along with being a private investigator.

A series of Murders are happening and they are animalistic, brutal, and happening around the Full Moon. Doesn't take a genius to figure out might be something werewolf related. That a string of these murders are happening to people connected with the Crime Boss John Marcone... well that just makes it interesting.

So this book is of a kind with Storm front. In many ways it's 'basic' as an urban fantasy goes. Werewolves. Gangsters. Murder plots. Secret intrigue of shadowing magical people behind the scenes. The Characters of Dresden and Karen Murphy, the 'head' of the Chicago PD special investigation unit get fleshed out a bit. As does the relationship between Dresden and 'plucky' reporter Susan Rodriguez. New characters that are important to the series get introduced here.

What is clever though, without spoiling too much though, is that there are multiple 'types' of werewolves in the Dresdenverse and Dresden first hand has to figure out which, if any, are responsible for what is going on.

This adds to what is a pretty classic noir adventure; Harry gets beat up, doesn't know what's going on, gets beat up some more, figures out what is going on. Big Climax, victories, some feel-good, some costly.

I wouldn't skip this one if your intending to Read the Dresden files. You absolutely could. The later books fill you in on the elements from it that are important enough, but still, it's good enough that seeing the track being layed, as it were, is worth it. ]]>