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Wednesday, May 25, 2022

The Dresden Files: Changes by: Jim Butcher

 

“I answered the phone and Susan Rodriguez said, “They’ve taken our daughter.”” – Changes, p.1.  This is how Changes opens, with Harry Dresdsen, Wizard, answering the phone to the revelation that he has a daughter and she has been kidnapped by vampires, Red Court vampires, after the war is over.  This entire novel is bait to get Harry Dresden involved, and hopefully killed while possibly even starting the war with the White Council once again as a bid for power and the kicker is, they succeed, sort of, the bloodline curse which is set to take the lives of anyone genetically related to him.  This would mainly effect Harry himself, Susan, and his half-brother Thomas, but it is all an elaborate revenge on Harry’s previous actions against the Red Court: killing Bianca and denying them Susan who still has not given into her vampiric desires.  Much of Changes uses this as the main thrust of the novel, while Butcher never lets the reader forget that there is something odd about this situation.  This is incredibly subtle as Harry Dresden is driven only by saving the daughter he has just learned exists.  This drive leads Harry to making several decisions which might just be enough to put him in a dangerous position among the magical world around him, something that leads to one final twist where Harry Dresden is shot and killed on Lake Michigan after succeeding in eliminating the Red Court in its entirety.  He has taken Queen Mab’s offer to become the Winter Knight, making himself her dog, but is killed before he can take up that offer.  It’s symbolic of him finding a family and closing some of the trauma of losing his other family, just before it can be ripped from him.

 

Susan Rodriguez is also a character who has shown growth since her last appearance in Death Masks, she is successfully integrated into the Fellowship of St. Giles and never told Harry about their daughter to keep her safe, something that she will later regret.  She stops herself from falling back in love with Harry physically, even if she still is very much in love with him.  There is also a reflection on how Jim Butcher writes women who are not Karrin Murphy that allows Susan to have matured.  The first three Dresden Files novels were particularly bad with casual sexism and with each book that has diminished until this point where while there are times it never feels like it’s Butcher being sexist, but a character being sexist.  It’s also telling when a majority of the supporting characters in this novel are women, including Molly, Murphy, Mab, and Harry’s fairy godmother.  Lea, the aforementioned fairy godmother, has perhaps her best appearance, for the first time not attempting to make a deal with Harry but being the closest to a human character as she has a soft spot for the fact that this is a family matter.  There is this moment where she outright makes a no strings attached promise to Harry to ensure the safety of his daughter after the big climactic twist involving a traitor in the ranks of the fellowship doing a triple cross ending with the genocide of the Red Court of vampires.  There is indeed a blood sacrifice and it is genuinely a terrifying moment.

 

Overall, Changes is simple, hence the shorter length of this review, but it is perhaps the perfect installment for The Dresden Files.  Jim Butcher has genuinely no way to top this and there are several books left as it leaves the reader in a rush and unable to process the cliffhanger while it seems everything is turning out alright.  While there were spoilers in this review, some of the moments I deliberately left vague as they could easily be their own essay.  10/10.

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