by Carrie Schutrick

Created on: June 14, 2010

First off: when the title of this book says "changes", it is not kidding.  One gets the impression that Jim Butcher decided that his series was getting stale and decided to shake things up as much as humanly possible.  And while the end result is gripping and fast-paced, someone looking to drop comfortably into the familiar Dresdenverse is going to be sorely disappointed.

In the very first sentence of Changes, the latest Dresden Files novel, Harry discovers that he has a daughter and that she's been kidnapped.  The mother, of course, is Susan Rodriguez, Harry's lost love from the first five books of the series.  She got pregnant on her brief trip back to Chicago, when she and Harry were shut up together.  She didn't tell him-which doesn't sit well with Harry, but there are more important things to worry about.

Most of the book is about finding Harry and Susan's daughter-named for Harry's mother-and planning the assault on the place she's being held.  It's not so simple as that, especially since they discover that they're working under a deadline, but those are the broad outlines.  It's no particular spoiler to mention that the Red Court are the ones holding Maggie; they plan to use her in a human sacrifice that will set off a ritual reverberating up her bloodline to kill not only her, but anyone related to her.

To go after their daughter, Harry and Susan call in every ally, favor and resource they can muster.  It's sort of a grand unified theory of Harry Dresden's friends, from the fairies to the White Council (parts of it, anyway) to Warriors of God and even Harry's dog and his wayward brother Thomas.  They know they're going to almost certain defeat, but they go anyway-because Harry is their friend, and they want to help him with something that's important to him.

In the end, there's triumph of a sort.  Maggie, at least, is safe, though Harry realizes that he can't take good care of her himself; his life just won't allow for it.  Not to mention that his life has changed immensely; he's lost many of his familiar tools and at least one long-time ally, and more are hurt or unavailable.  His relationships with a few others have taken sharp turns, though as yet we have no idea whether the changes will be for better or worse.  He's taken on some responsibilities that are sure to cause him an awful lot of trouble in the future, and used some power he wishes he hadn't.

And then?  The book ends with a near-literal bang.

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