I snooze, I lose. I was hoping to be the first one to publish a review of Skin Game, but Emmalita/Rochelle beat me to it.
Standard spoiler warning! This is book 15 in the series. You don’t want to start here. If you’re not caught up with the series, you may want to skip this review, because while I’m going to try to not spoil this actual book, I can’t actually avoid spoilers for some of the previous ones. It took me a long time to get hooked on these books, but they are totally worth the effort. Just skip the first three and start directly with book 4, Summer Knight. You’ll thank me, because the first three are a slog to get through.
Are you still here? Spoilers be on your own head then.
Harry has been stuck on Demonreach, his island/supernatural prison for the past year. He’s kept busy doing parkour in the tunnels underground, needing the sentient spirit who lives there to help him keeping his headaches from crippling him. Mab shows up and claims he will be dead in three days if he doesn’t do her bidding. The parasite inside his head will burst through his skull, take shape and go after everyone he holds dear. That Mab, she’s such a motivator.
Seems the Queen of Air and Darkness has loaned out her Winter Knight to pay back a debt. Harry has to help none other than Nicodemus Archleone, head of the Order of the Blackened Denarius, pull off a near-impossible heist. If he agrees, he’s pretty sure that Nicodemus will try to kill him during the mission. If he doesn’t agree, Mab will let him die, and appoint a new Knight in his place. He doesn’t have much of a choice. Now he has to work with some of the slipperiest characters of the supernatural underworld (most of whom would happily kill him as soon as they got the chance) to break into the treasure vault of Hades himself. What could possibly go wrong?
Full review here.
I knew we would write very different reviews, thought we both loved the book. I also loved the hospital room scene, but I am terrified that Butcher will pull a Whedon.
There are certain characters that are simply OFF LIMITS! I don’t think I could handle it if either of them died. Much as I now love these books, I would quit reading them in a heartbeat. This has been building for so long, I could totally see Butcher doing something awful, but hope he is above the “women in refrigerators” behaviour that Whedon unfortunately is all to fond of. Killing off important supporting characters just so the main character can feel extra pain is not a story trope I am fond of. If that is something Butcher resorts to, then he’s not worth my time or money.
I had to take an extended break from Kim Harrison’s Hollows books after she killed one of my favourite characters, but have now forgiven her as I see that it was for the best for the overall arc of the story long term, but I hold very long grudges.
This book is the one that is holding up my reviewing. Too much pressure!
I don’t blame you. In the end, I just had to note down whatever fan-girly ramblings I had in me and get the review out there. I’m currently eleven reviews behind and counting. I hate getting this far behind.
I am . . . . counting on my fingers here . . . currently eleven reviews behind, also! It sucks!