Harry Dresden, wisecracking private eye and the only professional wizard listed in the Chicago phonebook, has never been particularly lucky in love.  His first paramour Elaine Mallory faked her own death after going dark side and almost succeeding in helping former mentor Justin DuMorne to enthral Drseden while, more recently, Anastasia Luccio, Captain of the Wardens of the White Council, was only with him as a result of a psychic control spell worked upon her by renegade wizard Samuel Peabody. Even more painful, however, was Dresden’s relationship with Susan Rodriguez, a former reporter for The Midwestern Arcane tabloid newspaper. Rodriguez was working the paranormal beat for the Arcane when she met Harry Dresden but, although the two became involved, Dresden tried to shield her from the truth about the extent and variety of supernatural creatures that could be found prowling around Chicago. While his intentions were good, Dresden’s plan backfired spectacularly tragically when, unprepared to face Bianca, a powerful Red Court vampire, Susan Rodriguez was bitten and transformed into a half-vampire. Plagued by a newly awakened bloodlust and destined to remain a half-vampire until she feeds on a human, Rodriguez left Chicago, breaking Dresden’s heart and turning down his marriage proposal in the process, to join the Fellowship of Saint Giles, an organisation formed of half-vampires and dedicated to bringing down the Red Court.

At the beginning of Changes, the twelfth novel in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series, Susan Rodriguez had been absent from Harry Dresden’s life for almost a decade and so it is with understandable trepidation that Dresden answers a telephone call from her:

I answered the phone, and Susan Rodriguez said, “They’ve taken our daughter.”

After leaving Chicago and joining the Fellowship, Rodriguez had discovered that she was pregnant with Dresden’s child. The baby girl was born a regular human, was named Maggie in honour of Dresden’s mother, and then, due to Rodriguez’s fear that the child would become a target for one if not all of the supernatural factions that had come into conflict with herself or Dresden at some time or other, adopted by a regular family and raised completely unaware of her magical heritage. Somehow Arianna Ortega, a particularly diabolical Red Court vampire who blames Dresden for the death of her husband [during the events of Death Masks, the fifth Dresden Files novel], became aware of Maggie’s existence and has kidnapped the girl. Ortega intends to kill Maggie and use her blood in a violent ritual sacrifice designed to enact a blood curse which will also destroy Rodriguez and Dresden.

With the White Council of Wizards and the Red Court are in a state of détente, Dresden knows that he can expect no help from his fellow wizards in his quest to save his daughter and so, save for the assistance of a loyal band of well-meaning friends, he decides to go it alone against the Red King and his entire vampire Court.

Changes is the most action packed of all the Dresden Files novels so far. While the book itself is one of the longest in the series, the action takes place over a very short period of time as Dresden rushes to locate Maggie and then formulate a battle plan to rescue her from the Red Court and prevent Ortega from unleashing the blood curse. Dresden has faced apocalyptic danger before and come out on top but this time it’s not just his own life on the line. Although capable of reacting with great power if provoked, Dresden has always turned away from the dark forces that tempted him however useful their assistance might be but, with his daughter’s life at risk, the temptation of the dark is greater than it has ever been. In Changes Butcher makes use of nearly all of the Dresden Files popular supporting cast [even Mouse gets a few lines!] and also offers some intriguing answers and explanations for issues that have been running through the previous novels in the series. Changes is yet another excellent instalment in what is arguably the finest urban fantasy series being written at the moment.

Be warned though – fans will both love and curse Jim Butcher for the cliff-hanger at the end of Changes and will no doubt be counting down the days until the next of the Dresden Files is released.

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