Jim Butcher surprise-announces that two DRESDEN FILES novels will be published this year

In a swanky new trailer for the much-delayed sixteenth Dresden Files novel, Peace Talks, it was surprisingly confirmed that the seventeenth book in the series has also been completed and will be released this year as well. Jim Butcher's Battle Ground will be released in September, just two months after the release of Peace Talks.

The previous book in the series, Skin Game, was published in 2014. The six-year wait has been down to a variety of causes, including Butcher building a new house, a project was went horribly off-schedule. It does appear that Butcher is trying to make good on the delay though, releasing new books at an impressive clip and raising hopes that we'll see another book in 2021 as well.

Peace Talks will be released on 14 July 2020, with Battle Ground to follow on 29 September.

First DRESDEN FILES novel in six years will be released in July 2020

Ace Books have confirmed that the sixteenth novel in Jim Butcher's urban fantasy Dresden Files series, Peace Talks, will be released on 14 July 2020, after a six-year wait. The book's release will coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the series.

Butcher began publishing The Dresden Files in April 2000 with Storm Front. The books have been a huge hit, with sales approaching 10 million. Butcher released almost a book a year until 2014 when Skin Game was released, whilst also working on other projects.

The long delay for Peace Talks has been due to a number of personal crises, including building a new house and having to move into suboptimal temporary accommodation in the meantime. Butcher reported a few months ago that these problems had been overcome, leading to the book's completion.

Butcher is envisaging around twenty-three books in the series in total, and is hoping to return to a much more normal production rate from now on.

Fox TV developing a new DRESDEN FILES TV series

Fox 21 Television Studios is developing a new TV series based on The Dresden Files novels.

Previously, Lionsgate Television produced 12 episodes of a TV version of the books for the Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy). The TV series was (very) loosely based on the opening books of the series, but were widely criticised for taking significant liberties with the background, lore and characters, as well as not faithfully adapting the novels. Particularly criticised was the decision to adapt the first novel in the series, Storm Front, as a movie-length pilot and then cutting it down to 45 minutes and placing it eighth in the running order, which rendered some of the plotting nonsensical.

Butcher has produced fifteen (of a planned twenty-three) novels in the book series since 2000, along with numerous short stories and comics. It's likely that any TV adaptation would adapt multiple books per season.

Fox 21 produces comments primarily for the FX Channel, although some of their shows have ended up on Showtime, Netflix and the USA Network. It'll be interesting to see what comes of this project.

Death Masks by Jim Butcher

Harry Dresden has a lot on his plate: he's been challenged to a duel to the death to determine the outcome of the war between wizards and vampires; he's been hired to find the missing Shroud of Turin; his old girlfriend Susan is back in town for unknown purposes; and, just to round things off, thirty arch-demons are on the prowl in Chicago. And that's not even mentioning a pair of European art thieves hitting town and all three Knights of the Cross turning up to confront a mutual foe.


Death Masks, the fifth book in The Dresden Files, is the busiest book in the series to date. It sports at least four distinct plot threads (along with several related subplots) which interconnect with one another in a number of unexpected ways as the novel progresses. Each one of these plots would be enough to drive a novel by itself and Butcher seems to delight in upping the ante and complexity of the series to new heights. Combined with the ongoing, series-spanning storylines, this makes Death Masks the most epic book in the series to date.

That said, Butcher takes care to ensure the story is fully comprehensible at all times, and drives the narrative forward with his customary energy and vigour. He also finds time for some accomplished characterisation, with recurring crimelord Jonny Marcone being developed particularly well. It's also good to see some other characters like Susan and Michael returning, along with the introduction of some intriguing new characters like the Archive (a mystical repository of knowledge taking the form of a little girl) and Nicodemus (a potential new nemesis for Harry). The first appearance of the Order of Saint Giles and the Denarian sect of demons also expands the scope of Harry's world impressively.

Death Masks (****) is another very strong entry in the series. New readers will be lost (I recommend they start with the first book, Storm Front) but returning fans will find yet another page-turning and entertaining urban fantasy novel. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

Summer Knight by Jim Butcher

Harry Dresden is in trouble. He's inadvertently started a war between the vampires and the wizards' White Council, his girlfriend has suffered an unplanned magical transformation and he's in danger of being booted out of his house and office. When a new paying job comes along it seems like a great opportunity for Harry to get on top of his troubles...until he finds himself in the middle of another magical war.


Summer Knight, the fourth novel in The Dresden Files, picks up some months after the events of Grave Peril and is the first book in the series to feature extensive continuity call-backs to previous volumes without a huge amount of exposition about what's been going on. Four books and twelve hundred pages into the series, I guess Butcher decided it was time to stop catering for newcomers and get on with business.

Having covered evil warlocks, werewolves, vampires and ghosts in the first three books, Butcher explores the faeries of his setting in this volume (though they showed up in the previous book, there's more revealed about them this time around). Making faeries work as threatening forces is tricky in supernatural fiction due to the cliches that come to mind when they show up, but Butcher does a good job here, defining the Sidhe of Dresden's world in some detail as threatening and sometimes malevolent beings who are dangerous and tricky to deal with. Their addition to the story, along with more information about Dresden's wizardly colleagues, expands the scope of the worldbuilding nicely.


Butcher's prose is as enjoyable as ever, with Butcher continuing a nice line in black humour. This book is notably lighter in tone than the dark Grave Peril, but things are still grimmer than in the first two, slighter novels in the series. The continuation of an over-arcing story arc from the third book (which still isn't resolved at the end of this volume) gives a more epic feel to events, with Harry's mission in the book having larger and more important ramifications in the wider conflict and world. It's good to see returning characters like Billy and his werewolf pack, the Alphas, whilst Karrin Murphy returns to the forefront of the action and, as she puts it, successfully kicks some major supernatural arse in one well-realised action sequence.

At this point The Dresden Files is becoming an enjoyable television series in novel form (which makes the failure of the TV version of the series more of a shame, though that may be down to how much they deviated from the source material). Each novel so far has had a satisfying self-contained narrative, but also added to the mythology and, in the third and fourth books, has brought in larger storylines spanning multiple volumes that bring a more epic feel to the series.

Summer Knight (****) is another well-written entry in a highly enjoyable fantasy series. It is available now in the UK and USA.

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher

Harry Dresden, Chicago-based wizard for hire, finds himself drawn into a new case. A plea from a helpless young woman sets him on a course that will lead to a cataclysmic showdown with an old enemy, and may cost Dresden that which he cares about the most...


Grave Peril is the third novel in the Dresden Files series of urban fantasies and an important turning-point in the series. The first two novels, Storm Front and Fool Moon, were entertaining but little more than enjoyable fluff. Grave Peril is a considerably darker and more personal book, with Butcher's writing much more confident and assured as he puts Dresden through the emotional wringer. Whilst reading the book I was in put in mind of those 'gamechanger' episodes of Buffy and Angel when Joss Whedon would rip up the status quo by doing something to the characters that hurt them badly and established a new paradigm he would have fun setting up and exploring.

Grave Peril expands the cast of the Dresden Files with Michael Carpenter, a Christian knight armed with a magical sword, joining Dresden in his battle with the forces of evil. We also get a greater depth of worldbuilding, with both the vampire and Sidhe inhabitants of Dresden's world being fleshed out in a lot of detail. Whilst Butcher's approach does not stray too far from standard fantasy/horror depictions of these creatures, he succeeds in making them feel fresh and interesting, a near-impossible task given how ubiquitous these forces have become in recent supernatural fiction.


Butcher's writing is fun and enjoyable, with more of Dresden's attitude, character and humour bleeding through the first-person prose. His writing has definitely stepped up in quality from the first two books in the series and he effectively conveys the horror of several disturbing scenes in the book. He's become better at conveying emotion since the opening volumes of the series and several scenes are real gut-punches. There's also a more epic feeling to events, with ramifications from this book likely to extend over several books to come, opening up the story to something larger and more interesting in scale.

Some complaints remain. As with Fool Moon, Dresden is injured several times in the book and Butcher goes a bit overboard in his descriptions of how tired, hurt and helpless Dresden feels due to these injuries. There is the feeling that with each successive volume, Dresden's powers and abilities with magic are growing (along with those of his allies) and this requires Butcher to go to some lengths to 'nerf' Dresden's abilities to simply stop him using a hand-wave of magic to solve all of his problems. However, this is a minor issue, and Butcher's impressive improvement in the areas of prose and characterisation overcome it quite handily.

Grave Peril (****) is where The Dresden Files comes of age, and it does so with aplomb. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

A few months after the events of Storm Front, wizard Harry Dresden is going through some lean times. Following the events of the prior novel, his stock with the Chicago PD is at a low and word has gotten out that Dresden may be in cahoots with the city's foremost gangster. However, an outbreak of savage killings every full moon sees the police reluctantly enlist Dresden's aid once again.


Fool Moon is a notable step up in quality from the first Dresden Files novel. The writing seems altogether more confident, the characters are better-written and the book is altogether better-paced and more enjoyable as a result. Some new characters who look likely to return in later volumes are also introduced, and Dresden starts to confront the possibility that there is some other person out there manipulating events against him, which looks set to be the beginning of some kind of long-running story arc. Butcher also shows a ruthless side, killing off a couple of recurring characters from the first novel, just to keep the reader guessing on what will happen next.


There aren't too many problems, although as with the first volume, the novel rarely rises above the entertaining popcorn level. There's also a repeat of a story element that was tiresome in the first book, namely that halfway through proceedings Dresden gets seriously injured and spends the rest of the book fighting the enemies despite suffering significant aches and pains that are described again and again in tedious detail. We get it. Dresden is overcoming serious odds to beat the bad guys. Move on. Dresden needs to either start hitting the gym or stocking up on some healing magic soon. There's also the continuing and wholly artificial distrust between Dresden and his police contact Murphy who, despite have her life saved by Dresden several times in these two books, continues to be wary and distrustful of him. Also, Butcher continues to be unsure just how widespread knowledge of magic and the occult is, with ordinary human characters varyingly reacting to the revelation of magical deeds with apathy or amazement.


Fool Moon (***½) is a fun and enjoyable novel that shows the writer's growth in talent and ability over its predecessor. It is available now in the UK from Orbit and in the USA from Roc. The limited edition from Subterranean Press is also still available at this time of writing.

Storm Front by Jim Butcher

Over the past decade, The Dresden Files has turned into one of the big success stories of the urban fantasy genre. Set in modern-day Chicago, it follows the fortunes of Harry Dresden, a wizard-for-hire who offers his services to those in need (and who preferably can pay him). Mixing up elements of the supernatural with a detective story format, the series has proven successful on both sides of the Atlantic with ten further books in the series published and a short-lived TV adaption proving a cult hit a couple of years back. Storm Front is the first novel in the series.


The perpetually cash-strapped Harry Dresden is given some financial relief when two cases land on his desk at the same time. A woman is searching for her husband, who has gone missing after becoming fascinated by the use of magic. Meanwhile, the police have called on Dresden's aid after two people are found dead in an apartment, their hearts apparently remotely exploded by magical means. It isn't long before Dresden is up to his neck in trouble, as the two cases start overlapping with the interests of the Mafia and Dresden's own unorthodox approach soon lands him in trouble with the guardians of magic, the White Council.


Storm Front is a decent debut novel. The plot clips along at a fair old pace, and as a mystery it's fairly well plotted and laid out. The characters are strong, with Harry making for an engaging protagonist and his circle of friends, allies and enemies all being an interesting bunch. There isn't a lot of 'weight' to the novel, and it feels a bit on the slight side, but there's much fun to be had here.


However, I wasn't too impressed by the Luddite diatribe we get no less than three pages in, in which all of the evils of the world are blamed on technology and progress. Yeah, it makes sense for Dresden to have those views as a wizard who can't use technology (his magical field causes computers and other electrically-powered items to fritz out around him), but it was a bit too preachy too early in the book and left a bit of a sour taste in the mouth. Luckily this was forgotten within a few chapters as the story picked up and really got going. There are some other problems, though. The 'mystery' is completely solvable by the reader within the first fifty pages (you may be even be able to work it out from the plot synopsis on the back of the book), so waiting for Harry to catch up to where you are can be a bit mildly frustrating. The book is also inconsistent in its worldbuilding: after spending the first chapter or so telling us that no-one believes in magic and most of Harry's callers are pranksters thinking he's a nutter, we then learn that the police keep him on a retainer to investigate crimes and even average people on the street know not to look a wizard in the eye for too long, which seems self-contradicting. There's also the nagging feeling that you've seen this story before, with a few names and roles swapped around, on Angel. But, despite these problems (all of them hallmarks of a first time writer), the book is still reasonably fun to read. Butcher has an easy, approachable and undemanding prose style and after Dresden spends most of the book being passive and reactive to events, watching him go all Takeshi Kovacs at the end is a treat.

Storm Front (***) is a fun and breezy novel that is more of a light snack than a full meal, but still an enjoyable way of passing the time. I'll be checking out the remaining books in the series in the near future. The book is available from Orbit in the UK and Roc in the USA. A special limited edition from Subterranean Press came out a while ago and you may still be able to track down some copies online.