The Dresden Files
have just been continuing to climb to greater and greater heights since Dead
Beat started this upward trend, moving the series to new heights while also
being a throwback to a lot of the earlier novels with the ninth installment, White
Night. This book really focuses in
on one mystery, but a mystery that has ramifications for the greater war plot, and
allowing some exploration of the White Court of Vampires further than what Proven
Guilty set out to do, playing around with the three different types of
White Court Vampire (those that feed on lust like Thomas, those that feed on
fear like House Malvora, and those that feed on despair), each having one or
two representatives here. The entire
book is about Harry and Murphy tracking down a serial killer who is leaving
biblical messages about not suffering a witch to live, magically, near the
bodies. There is a twist when one of the
victims is found in a final state of ecstasy leaving Thomas as a suspect, exacerbated
by him having gone missing and once he does appear he has promised his sister
not to tell Harry anything. This is of
course all a ploy to get at Harry as there is something greater here at work,
Harry of course is being manipulated once again and that manipulation is what
brings everything to a head. White
Night is a book which ends with what might be a turning point, Harry giving
up a specific piece of power, Johnny Marcone gaining more power in the
supernatural, and Elaine having a plan to build up protection to those just
discovering magic.
The entire book concerns an understanding of
power. The last few books have had
Lasciel be representative of the power Harry could easily be holding if he wished
to grasp it, a power that would eventually corrupt and kill him. Molly Carpenter, at the end of Proven
Guilty, was revealed to have been building her own power accidentally and
now has to be kept in check and be trained.
Molly’s entire story in White Night, a fairly small subplot, but
massively important one to the entire theme of the book. She begins this book following Harry and trying
to help, getting herself into trouble as she contaminates what could easily be (and
technically is) a crime scene. She’s the
one just trying to help, as she was previously, and has a classic student not
understanding the methods of the teacher storyline. It may rely heavily on tropes, but the book
builds to Molly understanding just the complexities that comes with magic and what
it means to wield it. There is this test
of floating beads which has a point of not actually passing, but understanding
what doing what she’s doing, controlling her own power and ensuring she uses it
for good. That is in parallel to Harry’s
temptation by Lasciel which is something he nearly succumbs to as well as being
fed upon, willingly, by Lara Raith in the climax. Harry is a character who has always been resistant
to power, but has used it whenever necessary, and here is no exception as he
uses Hellfire once again here. This is
the first point in the series where this has been seen as a truly scary, and dangerous
thing. Harry is getting closer to power
and is being tempted to use it, especially when children are involved.
White Night
also has a distinction of having one of the more interesting portrayals of
authority in the series. This book was
published in 2007 and has some interesting implications about how authority
reacts between classes. Thomas has moved
into a luxury apartment, something that surprises Harry. There is an interaction with the security and
Chicago Police (without Murphy) where Harry plays off their bigotry against the
LGBT community to get out of the situation.
It doesn’t entirely sit well, but Butcher uses it to make a comment on
the darker aspects of the police. Now it
isn’t nearly as well thought out or in depth as something like this should be,
but it is an interesting aspect that a book published in 2007 was aware of the
same problems that are inherent in the system today. There is also an interesting setup of putting
Harry as a role model to be emulated.
Obviously there’s the stuff with Molly, but what Elaine has been doing since
her last appearance is essentially what Harry does, down to being in the Yellow
Pages, out on the West Coast. It’s something
to show that while becoming a Warden was essentially done out of necessity, Harry
is suited to having authority and leading people. He inspires other Wardens and those in the SI
unit of the CPD to follow him into battle.
Overall, White Night is another step forward in
The Dresden Files, bringing themes of authority, power, and leadership
to the forefront of the series with Harry having his best development yet. It is not quite perfect as some of its
messages and commentary could have been laid out better, and the final few
scenes do have a problem with being rushed after the climax occurs. Instead of introducing new characters, it
deepens returning characters and builds up something absolutely brilliant for
the books going forward. The war is going
to come to a head and there are going to be turning points very soon. 9/10.
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