The Dresden Files: Small Favor by: Jim Butcher

 

Small Favor is the tenth novel in The Dresden Files and the one to deal with the second of three favors Harry Dresden owes to the Winter Queen Mab while the Summer Court send the three Billy Goats Gruff (seriously) after him to kill him.  The Denarians are also back and Gentleman John Marcone has been kidnapped.  This is a book with a lot going on, like many of the other The Dresden Files novels and Jim Butcher almost suffers with just too much going on for its own good, as that’s really what holds this back from possibly being the best of the books.  Butcher does have skill at managing to bring everything together, and the increased length of this installment actually does help.  Each of the books has been getting steadily longer and longer which Butcher has skillfully avoided many pacing problems by adding more and more, but there are points especially through the middle of Small Favor where it feels like some plot threads are completely dropped instead of integrating things nicely all throughout.  This is especially apparent with the Gruffs’ plot, which is used fairly heavily at the beginning as an inciting incident, but by about the 1/3 mark of the book has been mostly dropped, only coming back up again until the end when the Winter and Summer Court stuff needs to be resolved (at least to the point where this book ends, their conflict is still overarching).

 

The title of Small Favor is important because this is essentially the book where the small favors really begin to add up.  Harry Dresden is a character who while noble and chivalrous, has the problem of finding himself in debt to several people, and this is the book where they start to be cashed in.  This is a book all about the price people pay and builds to the point where Dresden has to call in a favor of his own, one that is deceptively simple at the climax which is what can bring the hostilities to the close.  The numerous recurring elements all try to play Dresden for a fool, with the most interesting being the rift growing between Harry and Michael Carpenter.  Michael and the Catholic Church doesn’t actually trust Harry, something that has been building since he saved Michael’s infant son from picking up one of the coins of the Denarians.  White Night saw the ending of Harry’s possession by Lasciel, but Michael doesn’t actually believe that is possible.  He has the benefit that she is still there, just being tricky and making him vulnerable, and he still has no choice but to allow Molly still train with him as per the agreement with the White Council, but it all comes to a head here and that fallout is something that Butcher puts an important weight to.  Butcher is building Harry’s spiritual significance, he is largely an atheist (or possibly just an apathetic theist), but the supernatural and supernatural of religious significance seems to have plans for Harry.  The small favors are building up to a big favor.

 

Where Small Favor shines is building on the character dynamics: this is the first book where it’s fairly explicit that Harry and Murphy have feelings for one another that they will act on eventually, even if they don’t quite realize it consciously yet.  Murphy in particular is determined to get involved, even when Harry is insistent it isn’t safe, but she will go rogue and get her unit to intervene if she thinks it necessary.  There’s also the fascinating development of Molly Carpenter, who has been maturing from the immature teenager to a more level headed young adult, still ready to rush in, but able to control herself enough.  There is something that happens near the end of the book which emotionally annihilates Molly, but she makes it out of the other side okay, not better, but picking up the pieces and moving forward.  This is also the book where Anastasia Luccio, captain of the Wardens, gets some actual development as she’s been a background character.  It’s mainly to help get Dresden to a point where he can no longer deny the war going on around him and the fact that he will have a place.  The Archive has grown up and has a slight issue of becoming a plot device, as Ivy is damselled, but there is quite a bit of care between her and Harry which is a lot of fun.  The damselling is just reduced to a trope and the entire book feels like a tragedy in the end, even if the ending is an uplifting one.

 

Overall, Small Favor continues the high quality streak of The Dresden Files ever since Dead Beat, but this book does come to one large flaw of being stuffed so Butcher has to rely on certain tropes that he seemed to have grown out of.  It’s an excellent read and definitely a pick-me-up, just continuing to escalate things which is a great little buildup as the war builds towards chaos, though something that is not set to be resolved anytime soon.  9/10.