From Publishers Weekly
Harry Dresden, Chicago's only consulting wizard, takes on phobophages, creatures that feed on fear who attack a horror film convention, in the diverting eighth installment of Butcher's increasingly complicated Dresden Files series (_Dead Beat_, etc.). Harry finds that fighting monsters is only the prelude to maneuvers amid the warring wizards of the White Council and the vampire Red Court. Less and less V.I. Warshawski with witchcraft, Harry aims his deductive powers at political intrigues rather than crime solving. The body count from the magical melees, however, would do any hard-boiled gumshoe proud. Butcher's believable, likable set of characters go for the jocular much more than the jugular. Deeper fears do run through the book, and Harry, taking on an apprentice, has to face up to the consequences of his all-too-human failings. Look for the series to really take off with the debut of a two-hour pilot on the Sci-Fi Channel this summer produced by Nicholas Cage. (May)
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From Booklist
The second Dresden Files hardcover finds Chicago wizard Harry Dresden assigned an unpleasant task by the White Council of Wizards. He has to find out where the Winter Fairy Court stands in the White Council's war against the vampires. To make matters worse, he has gotten a missive from a powerful wizard claiming someone is using black magic in Chicago. It doesn't take long for Harry to pinpoint the source of the problem. Molly, the daughter of a close friend, comes to him for help after her boyfriend is accused of attacking an elderly theater owner at a horror-movie convention. When another attack occurs and Harry sees the dangerous type of magic used, he knows he is dealing with a very serious threat indeed. Butcher is in fine form here, and with the Sci Fi channel in the process of turning the first Dresden Files novel, Storm Front (2000), into a TV movie, expect the series' audience to grow. Kristine Huntley
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