Battle Ground by Jim Butcher

From the publisher: THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET SERIOUS FOR HARRY DRESDEN, CHICAGO’S ONLY PROFESSIONAL WIZARD, in the next entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files.

Harry has faced terrible odds before. He has a long history of fighting enemies above his weight class. The Red Court of vampires. The fallen angels of the Order of the Blackened Denarius. The Outsiders.

But this time it’s different. A being more powerful and dangerous on an order of magnitude beyond what the world has seen in a millennium is coming. And she’s bringing an army. The Last Titan has declared war on the city of Chicago, and has come to subjugate humanity, obliterating any who stand in her way.

Harry’s mission is simple but impossible: Save the city by killing a Titan. And the attempt will change Harry’s life, Chicago, and the mortal world forever.

After I reviewed Peace Talks last month, I knew I had to review this 17th book featuring "the other wizard named Harry" as soon as possible. As I mentioned in the Peace Talks review, Battle Ground is the second half of that story, which was originally one book but was split in half by the publisher. While I think splitting into two books was probably the right decision, neither book feels quite complete on its own so I recommend reading the two back-to-back if at all possible.

For those unfamiliar with the series, I recommend starting with Storm Front, the first book, rather than jumping in here. The rest of this review may contain some spoilers for earlier books in the series, so please stop reading now if you don't want to know anything about the earlier books.

Since it was basically the first half of one story, Peace Talks left readers with a lot of unanswered questions:

• What happens when Harry Dresden's divided loyalties between the White Council of wizards and the Winter Court come into conflict?
• Why did Harry's brother Thomas try to assassinate the svartalf king?
• Can even the combined forces of the Accorded nations survive the onslaught of Ethniu and the Fomor?
• Even if they survive, can the world ever be the same after such a large-scale conflict happens out in the open?
• Do krakens have souls?

Okay, that last one isn't a lingering question from the last book, but readers are going to find out the answer anyway. 😁

One side effect of being the second half of a two-part story is that Battle Ground has a LOT of action. From start to finish, this book is practically one long sequence of action scenes and battles. The stakes here are higher than they've ever been before, with the fate of all of Chicago and possibly the entire world riding on Harry's success. But thanks to his tangled relationships and family, the personal stakes are still quite high as well. Harry still has family and loved ones to protect, even as some of them fight beside him and try to keep him safe as well. Thanks to the relentless pace of the story, I was totally sucked in and finished all 402 pages of this book in just one day.

All in all, Battle Ground has everything that was missing from the last book and more. It brings a true Dresden Files action climax with all the cool moments, sarcastic wit, and heart-wrenching drama that fans have come to expect from Jim Butcher over the first 16 books. Fans of the series will not be disappointed. The hardcover edition also contains a short story called "Christmas Eve," which was previously published online on the author's website.

Battle Ground is available to check out from Galesburg Public Library in hardcover format, and through the library's ebook collections using the Libby and Axis360 apps.

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

 

From the publisher:
 

Fourteen-year-old Mona isn’t like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can’t control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt’s bakery making gingerbread men dance.

But Mona’s life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona’s city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona’s worries…

 

Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Ursula Vernon writes awesome children's books, including the popular Dragonbreath series. But some of her books for older readers can be a bit dark, and rather than risk scarring children for life, she also write under the name T. Kingfisher. I've loved Ursula's writing and artwork for decades, and her earlier books were comfort re-reads during the spring quarantine. So the odds were pretty good that I would enjoy this one. And I did.

As described by the publisher, Mona's talent lies in bread. She can make cookies dance, tell the muffins they don't want to burn, and then there's Bob. Bob is the sourdough starter she 'created' when she was younger, who now lives in a bucket in the basement and blorps happily in greeting when she comes down to feed him flour. The book opens with Mona discovering the body of a young woman on the bakery floor, and unfortunately her day goes downhill from there.

As stated above, it was likely that I would enjoy this book, but I definitely think it will appeal to new readers as well. The characters are well thought out, the magic system makes sense and the focus on one particular aspect (like bread) allows for further imaginings. The situations and dialog are frequently humorous, such as arguing over whether baked goods created for wartime situations should be smiling or not (and whether angry frosting eyebrows will make things better or worse). There is drama and tension, and I did cry at the end.  As with many of the author's characters, minimal physical description is given, so the characters, for the most part, don't read as one race or another. 

Yes, the protagonist is 14, but this is a perfectly fine book for Grown Ups, and would be suitable for some younger readers as well. The book does open with a dead body, there's a carnivorous sourdough starter (not the most terrifying creature in the junior fiction section, I can assure you), and Mona must deal with the fact that the adults don't have everything under control, and even the People in Charge sometimes can't fix everything.

If you're looking for a fantasy that will make you hungry, I highly recommend this one. 

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking is available at Galesburg Public Library via inter-library loan.

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood

From the publisher: What if you knew how and when you will die? Csorwe does—she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice. But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard's loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power. But Csorwe will soon learn—gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.

Hurray for a straightforward, linear, coming of age fantasy story with an ordinary, likable but flawed heroine, told by an omniscient narrator. I found it thoroughly refreshing not to have to spend the whole book trying to figure out what was going on. A young girl is to be sacrificed to a god, a wizard offers her an alternative, she trains with him, becomes a trusted aid. Time passes, adventures continue. There is plenty of action but there are also slow parts where we see character development.

The world building is good, and there’s a glossary of characters to help keep them straight. Also included is a pronunciation guide, and the use of made up words in the text is not excessive. Also there are maps!

Main character Csorwe is a perfectly ordinary hero. She’s not a Chosen One destined to save the world, she’s not a mage, she’s just a regular person making the best of a second chance at life. There is a blessedly small cast of secondary characters – easy to tell apart, each morally ambiguous (like real people, how about that). Sex and love come into play (as they do, in real life) but the book is not primarily a romance.

There are plot twists – not wholly unpredictable plot twists – and this fantasy novel certainly follows in the footsteps of fantasy works that came before it. But it’s a cracking good story so who cares? I really felt immersed in a world both very different from our own and not that different from our own.

I particularly loved a visit to a dead land that was once inhabited by giant intelligent snakes. A definite recommend for lovers of straightforward fantasy who just want to read a great story.

The Galesburg Public Library owns The Unspoken Name in print and as an ebook and downloadable audio book.