From Publishers Weekly
Fans of Butcher's long-running and bestselling urban fantasy series featuring Chicago wizard PI Harry Dresden were stunned by the concluding events of the 2010 novel Changes. They'll probably want to skip ahead to the last of this collection's 11 stories, "Aftermath," set just hours after the end of that book. With Dresden's fate uncertain, it's his longtime ally, Sgt. Karrin Murphy, who must help find a kidnapped werewolf. This entry is the collection's strongest, full of powerful emotion. The rest of the book is a mixed bag, ranging from Butcher's first attempt at short fiction--"a novice effort" that "wasn't up to par for professional publication"--to more recent tales set around and between the novels. First-timers will be lost, and this uneven volume mostly makes the case that Butcher's talent is best displayed in longer form. (Nov.) (c)
Copyright ΠΒ© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
These are ButcherΠ²Πβ’s short pieces about Harry Dresden. (Previous novels featuring that character, which the authorΠ²Πβ’s many fans will recall with pleasure, include Proven Guilty, 2006, and White Knight, 2007). Most of these stories are reprints (Π²ΠΡSomething Borrowed,Π²ΠΡ Π²ΠΡItΠ²Πβ’s My Birthday, Too,Π²ΠΡ Π²ΠΡDay Off,Π²ΠΡ and Π²ΠΡLast CallΠ²ΠΡ are included), but the collection offers some previously unpublished material. Butcher has not only given the genesis of each story but also indicates where each fits chronologically among the novels. Anyone who likes the Harry Dresden long works probably thinks itΠ²Πβ’s high time this collection came out. Enjoy, but be warned that there is a sequel to Changes (2010) in the collection. --Frieda Murray