Thursday, May 20, 2021

The Dresden Files: Proven Guilty by: Jim Butcher

 

If Dead Beat dragged The Dresden Files to a quality series, Proven Guilty is the book which solidifies the series as doing something excellent.  Previous reviews have highlighted the pulpy urban fantasy nature of the series, which is still present here, but this is the book where things genuinely get dark and stay dark.  The book opens with the White Council executing a teenage warlock for breaking one of the Laws of Magic, and that inciting incident sets the tone for the rest of the book.  Obviously with a title like Proven Guilty, this opening trial sequence becomes paramount for the success of the book, as well as Harry’s unvoluntary complacency in allowing this death to happen.  As a Warder he can only watch as essentially an outsider as a state sanctioned murder takes place, and that becomes parallel for the climax of this book.  Jim Butcher makes the decision to make the climax of this book not be around an action sequence like the previous seven books, but essentially a trial.  Sure there is a big action sequence that comes right before the mystery is revealed as the plot goes right into Faerie and the Winter Court which makes it an excellent parallel of Summer Knight, though pulling itself through much better than Summer Knight.  The trial itself is essentially the resolution to several character conflicts which have been simmering from as far back as Grave Peril, showing really that that was the real point where everything started for The Dresden Files and the first two books were prologue.  Harry’s not necessarily a character always associated with cleverness, but that’s something he’s always really had and he knows just how to bring together chess pieces to at least survive the situation even if it doesn’t end with him getting the best outcome.

 

Butcher seems to have mastered the character interactions and makes the important decision to put the war with the Red Court Vampires into the background actually works.  The war plays a large part in the motivations of the White Council and the inevitable resolution to the book, adding some nice little endings.  Now the climax does bring in a few tropes which make it fall  apart ever so slightly, but it is an important one for the characters.  There is this simmering tension that is slowly coming to a head as the war, which to this point has been essentially a non-entity.  Entering the Winter Court’s domain before the climax essentially helps the war effort, however unintentionally, possibly tipping the scales and forcing Dresden to actually take part.  Proven Guilty really starts like any other book of The Dresden Files, with an investigation, this time into murders occurring at a horror film convention.  This setting actually is interesting as Butcher doesn’t ever seem to look down on fans of horror or those that go to conventions, but clearly admires what they do.  There is this celebration of fan culture here and there is this brilliant red herring as who is actually behind the murders doesn’t ever actually get discovered here.  There is a White Court Vampire here, another of the Raith family, who feeds on fear which is of course excellent for a horror film convention, as even the quick bursts from a jump scare can provide a morsel of food.  This is also the one where movie monsters come to life, and although none of them are from actual horror films that a reader would know, Butcher does play on several tropes and horror figures that are in the public consciousness.

 

The first half of the book actually does feel very much like a different book as the main character conflict is between Harry and Thomas as Thomas finds himself back on his feet and earning money in a way possible to not be fired.  There is still this idea of brotherly love and Harry actually feels emotional as Thomas says goodbye, though Butcher makes it clear that this is not going to be an ending for the character.  This is revealed early enough in the book that Thomas plays an important part through the rest of this book and is clearly still going to be a major player throughout the rest of the series.  He’s also one of those interesting characters as he is one of Harry’s flirts with the dark: Harry is technically working with the enemy even if the White and Red Courts are not on good terms.  More importantly, this book deals with Molly Carpenter in a very human storyline, mostly taken away from the magic.  Molly has grown into a 17-year-old rebel, running away from home and making friends with people who makes her good Christian mother weep and despair.  Molly has also been dabbling in magic and has this weird obsession with Harry, one of which he resists even if she is insistent in setting up awkward situations.  These parts of the book in particular are a bit odd as Butcher is unsure of what tone to use really because of the genuine ick that this gives off: Harry is a grown man, and while he isn’t ever tempted the fact that he isn’t outwardly grossed out it doesn’t always work.  The play in the second half when Molly is damseled and Charity Carpenter, who until this point has essentially despised Harry, comes to her rescue and those relationships are worked out is a highlight of the book.  The familial theme here is essentially that children will listen, they may not obey, but they will listen and an examination of the cyclical personalities from parent to child.  Charity secretly practiced magic and dabbled in the dark just like her daughter.  Charity is also a certifiable badass who fights with a hammer and honestly that’s just the best note to end on.

 

Overall, Proven Guilty may not be the perfect installment of The Dresden Files, but it is one that continues the quality of Dead Beat in exploring the characters and actually moving the series forward leaps and bounds.  Butcher continues to provide us with a good time and that is all that readers really can hope for.  8/10.

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