The Dresden Files: White Night by: Jim Butcher

 

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.