Dead Beat
Where to buy Dead Beat books online?
- ISBN13: 9780451460912
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
The USA Today Bestselling Leader’s new Dresden Files novel…finally in paperback-and soon to be a Sci Fi Channel movie!
Filled with kickass adventure and supernatural fireworks, Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files novels have been compared to Harry Potter. Now, Harry Dresden must save Chicago from black magic and necromancy-all in a day’s work for the city’s only professional wizard.
Buy Cheap Dead Beat Online
Related posts:
Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden series has permanently, to me, been remarkable for two things: (1) a wonderfully sympathetic, compelling main character, (2) a writer amazingly sloppy in his research. Over time you’d reflect the second element would get better. It hasn’t.
I noted in my review of the first Harry Dresden novel, Storm Front, that Butcher was weak on his knowledge of guns. I’ve made my living writing articles for gun magazines since 1992. When you’re a specialist in the area of guns, reading some well loved fiction can be absolute torture. Not that I expect a novelist to know the actual bore diameter of the .44 Magnum (it’s .429″ in case you were wondering) but if the main character carries a gun, as does Harry Dresden, surely it’s not too much to expect SOME basic knowledge of same on the writer’s part. Rumor has it that it can be. Thus in Dead Beat we’re treated to this sentence as Harry holds an opponent at gunpoint: “I pointed it at him and thumbed back the trigger.”
Jesus wept. This is the second time in the series Butcher’s had a character thumb cock a revolver’s trigger. I would’ve thought, after the first time, a name would have clued him in. I guess not. Okay, here it is, Jim (I’ll try not to get too technical): the small thingy you pull on to fire the gun is called a trigger. The small thingy you pull back to thumb cock the gun is called a hammer. The sentence should read, “I pointed it at him and thumbed back the hammer.”
We won’t even get into the fact that thumb cocking a revolver when holding a name at gunpoint is incredibly stupid since it makes the piece entirely too prone to accidental discharge under stress, thus leading to shooting to death a name you didn’t intend to. It’s the mark of an unsafe, untrained bozo. I realize that for a writer who doesn’t even know what the parts on a gun are called that’s a bit esoteric. Jim, take a gun class, go shooting, read a book, TALK to a name who really owns a gun. SOMETHING.
So I gritted my teeth and read on. Then I hit this small gem: referring to the White Council, Harry says, “But they’re so paranoid that next to them, Joe McCarthy looks like a friendly puppy.” At which point, seven books into the series, I quit reading, not just this book, but the Harry Dresden novels forevermore. Has Jim Butcher ever heard the words “Venona Project”? You really should have, if you’re going to have an opinion on Joseph McCarthy. Finally declassified in 1995, it’s the government code name agreed to decryption of Soviet secret messages to agents within the US government. The contents of the Venona Project prove that Joseph McCarthy wasn’t paranoid, he KNEW beyond a shadow of a doubt the US government was riddled with Soviet agents.
Imagine for a moment you’re alive in the late 1940s/early 1950s. Just a few years before, your country finished participating in a world war against a military machine led by genocidal madmen. Then in the aftermath you realize one of your ex- allies is worse than your world war opponents ever dreamed of; they are in the process of murdering – factually – hundreds of millions of people. (That’s no exaggeration; the estimated death toll from the Soviet Communist regime, of persons killed in wars of conquest, sent to death camps, dragged out of their homes in the middle of the night never to be seen again, and so into the world is 200 million human souls. This may well be a conservative estimate.) It seems a month doesn’t go by lacking word of another country being invaded and crushed by the Soviets. This same government has sworn the United States’ destruction. Imagine you are shown incontrovertible proof that many in your own government, all the way up to the president’s closest friends and advisors, are spies in the use of the Soviets. Please know, believing this was truly the case is not a matter of politics, not a matter of conservative or liberal. It’s a documented fact.
Let’s add to the equation that you are a United States senator. You’re one of the few people on planet who might really be able to do something about this situation. What do you do? Well, if you’re most people you do nothing, because you’d probably be frightened to death. If you’re Joseph McCarthy, you sacrifice your career, your health, eventually your very life to blow the whistle. You make it in saving your country though the stress of doing it kills you. You’re a martyr, an honest to God, real-life, right blue hero. All so that, decades later, some fantasy writer too bone idle to do his research can take cheap shots at you in one of his books.
I’ve been reading the Harry Dresden series for years. I was never reasonably able to make up my mind about it. The books varied in quality from terrible (Fool Moon) to really reasonably excellent (Summer Knight). So I bided my time and kept reading, waiting for the one book that would tip me over into either fully committing to the series or dropping it. With Dead Beat I’ve made my choice. I’m through with this series. This level of ignorance on spectacle just isn’t very fun.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
I have read all of the Dresden files books to date, and will probably read the rest, too. I am far too bone idle to rate all of them – so I’ll settle for just this one. This series is not terribly original, intelligent or believable. It is but, very entertaining. It’s the mental equivalent of popcorn – not too filling, heavy, or time consuming. I should also note that I read these books despite the authors annoying “About” blurb; come on, this sounds like every insecure, wannabe D&D nerd I’ve ever met…
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
I liked this book well enough but I’ve couldn’t help but notice that Mr. Butcher has a trend to repeat words like ‘Forzale?’ for every spell that Harry Dresdan does. I meen couldn’t he place a variety in it? I also didn’t like how the leader sometimes throws his personal religious beliefs into the book. Oh well I hope to see the next book come out soon!
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
I liked the Dresden series when it first ongoing. It was witty, fun, appealing, and the characters felt very much alive. Okay, Mr. Butcher still can’t figure out which part of your hand you use to pull the trigger of a pistol, and which part you use to pull back the hammer. But he still got most of the action right. And the descriptions of Chicago were incredible, building me feel like I was right there.
Then around book 5, the tale started to feel more and more contrived. At first, I thought it was because Harry was into distress way beyond his ability to handle. But the stakes kept getting privileged with each encounter he had with an opponent.
Mr. Butcher’s style became more and more like hack writing. By the time I got to chapter 30 of book 7, I lost perfect interest in Harry Dresden and chose that like so many others writers, Mr. Butcher was churning out books purely for the sake of building money, and to heck with quality. A new Dresden novel every six months! And a TV series!
I wish I could applaud Mr. Butcher’s success, but as a replacement for, I marvel how he allowed this delightful series to get so far away from its original thoughts. And why he didn’t end the whole thing a lot sooner.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Okay I’m only on page 109 but here are my beefs, as a chicagoan:
U of C is located in hyde park, not lincoln park. I just got to a scene where he’s running at north avenue beach and the sun is ‘just peeking through the chicago skyline’. Well, chicago FACES east so really the sun will be coming up over the lake. They could see the sun peeking over the skyline if they were in the western suburbs. So, north is south and east is west?
Sorry for the chicago ramble…otherwise seems a rambunctious and fun new sci fi. I’m new to the series and will give the others a chance, if he gets an editor who knows chicago better, or at least a map!
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5