The Dresden Files: Side Jobs by: Jim Butcher

 

Changes is the novel that changed The Dresden Files forever with the death of protagonist Harry Dresden, but before moving on to book 13, Ghost Story, the first of two short story anthologies, if readers wish to read them, should be read here.  Side Jobs was published in 2010 and contains 11 short stories, 10 previously published in various anthologies and one new to the collection as the direct follow-up to Changes.  This is a chance for Jim Butcher to play around with style and format, and give the reader a time capsule of the various phases of his writing career and The Dresden Files timeline itself.  Stories span from before Storm Front to after Changes, and are generally themed to whatever the anthology was, though surprisingly in these short stories are several pieces of lore on characters and some of the plot itself which is honestly kind of surprising considering most probably wouldn’t realize would be essential.  Luckily that’s only one or two of the stories, the rest that could be essential are mainly done in character development around the bigger moments of the series.  While the series was becoming global in Small Favor, Turn Coat, and Changes it is also interesting to note that all of the short stories in Side Jobs are set in and around Chicago, making them all small scale.

 

The first story is “A Restoration of Faith” which is the first ever piece of The Dresden Files media.  It’s a very short story about Harry saving a kidnapped little girl and the fact that this was more a writing exercise than anything else, it becomes apparent why this doesn’t fit with the rest of the series, like at all.  There are no outright contradictions with the series, but Butcher clearly doesn’t have any idea as to what the magic system is really going to be and Harry is working for an investigation company that while technically still occurring in the main series, just feels like the intention was to do more with a buddy cop style story.  Harry’s also not quite recognizable as the character we see at the start of Storm Front though some of the wit is almost there.  The story is simple with the little girl being spunky and the villain being a troll.  Also Murphy gets to have a moment at the end with her first meeting with Dresden which almost makes it worth it, but honestly, Butcher is right in his preface to the story that it’s not good.  Not the worst thing ever, but clearly a first attempt.  4/10.

 

“Vignette” is a vignette.  A small conversation between Harry and Bob about the advertising of Harry’s service in the yellow pages.  Luckily, Butcher had five whole books under his belt as this is set after Death Masks so Harry is Harry and Bob is Bob, but this is more a piece of flash fiction than a full short story.  It’s a nice little character moment that’ll get a laugh.  7/10.

 

The first short story from an anthology is “Something Borrowed” from My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding, obviously being a wedding themed story.  This one tells the wedding of Billy and Georgia, and because this is The Dresden Files, something obviously goes wrong.  This is a chance for Butcher to distill his love of fairy tales down into one little short story as Georgia has been kidnapped and her place has been taken by Jenny Greenteeth, events that will become relevant in Proven Guilty.  Butcher uses this as a race against the clock so we can end the short story on the climactic objection to a wedding, but there is this lovely bit of philosophizing on why people get married.  Butcher has this idea of weddings being an expression of love creating a magical bond which links people.  The marriage has power and the whole idea makes this story really stand out, especially with its ending where the wedding is ruined and restaged as an intimate gathering with Billy, Georgia, Harry, and Murphy in the study of Father Forthill.  8/10.

 

“It’s My Birthday, Too” from Many Bloody Returns is the first of two short stories to really focus on Thomas Raith, Harry’s half-brother.  This short story is one told from Harry’s point of view on Thomas’s birthday, and his insistence to give him a present.  He finds his vampiric half-brother pretending to be a vampire with a group of LARPers at Woodfield Mall.  Harry brings Molly along and they all get trapped in the mall with a vampire of the Black Court, the most dangerous and most terrifying vampires.  They are the Dracula style vampires, and while this is a young vampire, only being undead for a few months, the terror is there.  Butcher excels at writing a tense horror thriller of a short story, partially because he doesn’t use these vampires often, only really playing a part in Blood Rites up to this point which while being the weakest book in the series, their inclusion is one of the saving graces of that novel.  There is this great bond between Harry and Thomas which shines in the story and explores what makes them work when they are together.  9/10.

 

Up next is a tribute to Beowulf and drinking with “Heorot” from My Big Fat Supernatural Honey Moon, the spiritual sequel to “Something Borrowed” is more about kidnapping due to alcohol, hence the title.  This one is one of the stories where crucial character information, mainly that Johnny Marcone’s right hand woman Miss Gard is actually a Valkyrie is revealed at the end of this here.  She’s stringing Dresden along at the halfway point of the short story as she is tracing the same monsters Harry is.  It’s a simple one and honestly is serviceable, but Butcher is clearly having fun with the setting and story.  6/10.

 

There are some days when Harry Dresden just wants a day off and “Day Off” is just that.  This is another of the more low stakes short stories, it opens with Harry playing a table top role playing game which is a wonderful image that has recurred throughout The Dresden Files.  Harry as the player with a stickler for how the magic doesn’t work because it is based on fantasy magic and not real in universe magic.  This is a story which is interesting as it becomes essentially about sex.  Two of the werewolves, Andi and Kirby, have got fleas from what is essentially a sexually transmitted infection.  There is an exploration of Molly’s sexual attraction to Harry, something that Butcher seems to wish to explore in how it’s a bad thing and something that Harry isn’t properly addressing.  Harry thinks he’s addressed it, but Molly is pining.  I’m not entirely certain Butcher really has it in him to address this in any fleshed out way, but it feels like he wants to and knows it won’t work in a short story.  The story even ends with Harry and Luccio having their day off.  Butcher also is fairly sex positive, while this is kind of a sex comedy, it never feels like it’s talking down to the reader, but being all about safe sex and safe relationships which is great.  8/10.

 

Thomas Raith has the distinction of being the point of view character of “Backup”, the second story to focus on him, this time going down the route of exploring the White Court and the Oblivion War.  He is tasked by his sister relating to the War and has to ensure that Harry doesn’t know anything that happens, but the task leads him to acting as Harry’s shadow.  It’s brilliant the way Butcher uses a lot of this to show just how talented he is at point of view characters.  He writes Thomas as tortured, with his hunger being a character in its own right and the star-crossed nature of his love of Justine is this beautiful tragedy.  There’s this sequence in the middle where he has to convince Bob to help him and you can really see that while there is a calm, cool exterior to Thomas, on the inside he really is a lot worse than Dresden when it comes to investigating things.  Butcher doesn’t do flanderization with Thomas, we’re just seeing him without the perspective of Harry which really shows the talent Butcher has as a writer.  It was even published as its own separate novella.  9/10.

 

“The Warrior” is another character piece exploring Michael Carpenter after the end of Small Favor.  This was originally published in Mean Streets and is essentially Butcher’s chance to allow some corruption in the Church with the villains of the short story being priests, something that has always been lacking in The Dresden Files as the priests of the series are very close to paragons, or are at the very least very good people.  This is also an examination of Harry’s own guilt due to feeling responsible for what happened to Michael and the fact that one of the Carpenters’ children is named after him.  This is about the sword Amoracchius being stolen and recovered by Dresden which leads to questions on free will.  While this is a solid story, it’s where the anthology starts to drag a little as it goes into some really heavy places which somehow feels out of place.  It shouldn’t, the final story is one all about grief, but this one for some reason feels out of place.  7/10.

 

Continuing spiritual successors to previous stories is “Last Call” from Strange Brew which goes back to the light-hearted tone of earlier novels despite being chronologically a later story.  This one is a classic mystery all about the ale at McAnally’s being contaminated by a supporting character from “Heorot” before turning into another mythological inspired story, but this one does the mythology slightly better than the previous story.  The villain is a delight going under some femme fatale tropes as well as almost going towards a Neil Gaiman-esque examination of how mythological imagery has changed and faded at the time and what that would have done in the modern age.  It’s a little less cynical than American Gods but it wouldn’t surprise me if that work was part of the inspiration for this short story due to the way the villain is defeated and their motivations for poisoning the beer, with some added megalomania of wanting to take over the world.  7/10.

 

“Love Hurts” is from an anthology edited by George R.R. Martin himself and is another exploration of star-crossed lovers in a double suicide.  Yeah, this one goes really dark which is fitting for something edited by Martin.  Of course, because this is about love, vampires are at the heart of the story which works as this is technically a prologue to Changes, giving the Red Court a chance to shine before their genocide in that novel.  Baroness Leblanc of the Red Court is honestly a really fun villain an dis ruled by her hunger which is a lot of fun, with the threat of the war restarting bubbling under the surface, something that really helps setup the tension in Changes.  6/10.

 

Alright, now it’s time for the pinnacle of the collection, “Aftermath”.  As the title implies this is the immediate aftermath of Changes.  Murphy has found the Water Beetle with Harry missing and his blood splattered, and throughout this novelette it is heartbreaking as she has to come to terms with the fact that Harry Dresden, Wizard, is dead.  She doesn’t actually get time to grieve as Will and Georgia need her help as Dresden isn’t around.  Georgia has been kidnapped, later revealed to also being kidnapped by a faction of mortals who are the first to attempt to fill the hole of magical criminal underground left by the genocide of the Red Court.  Murphy as a narrator is beautiful as this is all about her finding purpose and a small bit of stability so she can process the death of the man she genuinely loved.  It also is done with Will and the rest of the Alphas, bringing together a lot of the people who were in fact Harry’s family, with only Thomas not yet being present as he doesn’t know about the death yet.  The stability is also hints that Johnny Marcone is offering Murphy a job away from the police or a route back into the police, with the hint being that she is going to use this in some way to get back on her feet and continue what Harry has been doing.  This is all about grief and how those we lose are still alive in our hearts and minds which is honestly beautiful.  It’s the perfect epilogue to Changes and what elevates Side Jobs.  10/10.

 

Side Jobs, like every anthology, has its highs and lows, but it shouldn’t be skipped.  It isn’t even in its quality, but it manages to at least be a good The Dresden Files reading experience which for anthologies of this nature is all you can ask for, with only one story being a real clunker, and that was the first thing from this universe Butcher has written.  7.4/10.