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Jun 11, 2008

Priscilla rated it:

In what is easily the best short fiction Butcher has penned for The Dresden Files, "Backup" gives us our first taste of what Harry's world looks like from outside his limited first-person narration. Instead, our guide is Harry's half-brother, the White Court vampire Thomas Raith.

Butcher takes full advantage of the opportunity--in addition to giving us insight into how Thomas sees the world and making us privy to certain supernatural information Thomas must keep secret fr More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Jul 15, 2009

Sandi rated it:

40 minutes. 40 minutes is how long it took me to read this "book". It's supposedly a novella, but it's barely a short story. The last page of the book is #70, but it starts on page 7 and has blank pages and pictures. I spent 1.5 minutes counting the number of pages with text. There were 56 pages with words. I still had time leftover on my 45 minute recumbent bike ride at the gym when I was done reading the story and counting pages.

I did enjoy the short story, but I wo More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 09, 2009

Michael rated it:

Told from the persepctive of Harry's brother, Thomas, this short novella is a nice chance of pace for "The Dresden Files." While it won't be essential to read it to enjoy the on-going storylines about Dresden, it does give readers some new insight into Thomas. Also, the concept of having a story in the universe told from a different point of view is interestind and Jim Butcher really runs with the concept.

Now I'd love to see a novella told by Karin Murphy.

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 04, 2008

Jana rated it:

Anyone who loves Harry Dresden has to read this. It's not about Harry, it's all about his brother Thomas, but Butcher has set up a brilliant Gaiman-esque premise here. What happens to the old gods if they are not remembered? What if there was a war to make people forget, thus render powerless, the bad guys? And who wouldn't love a pseudo-gay vampiric hairdresser anyway?

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 28, 2008

lynne rated it:

I thought this would be a great read. I was mistaken.

This novella/short story is based in the Dresden universe, but it narrated, and is focused on, Harry's vampire half-brother, Thomas Raith.

Sure, you get an insight into how Thomas thinks and feels. However, his description of the demon within? Just too Buffy-like for my tastes. And the entire story? Kinda lame.

The worst offence, however, was on the last page: three times in two sentences, "altar" More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 01, 2008

Quianna rated it:

The worst thing I can say about Backup is that it was far too short. Butcher could have easily expanded this into a novel and made it a book of the Dresden Files in its own right and it would have been perfect.

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Dec 16, 2008

Christopher rated it:

This 12,000 word, 70 page novelette is an incredibly quick read, but if you're as hopelessly addicted to Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series as I am, you'll love this book.

Unlike the other Dresden novels, Harry barely appears at all in this story, having a scant sentence or two of dialog through the entire thing. The action centers around Thomas, Harry's brother, and a vampire of the white court.

This is exactly the kind of non stop no holds barred fantasy romp filled wit More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 28, 2008

D.M. rated it:

I hate to say it but I felt cheated by this one, not so much by the quality of the book but by the price. This thing is no longer than a recent short story I’ve read from Butcher but as a hardcover it’s retailing for 20$ for about fifty pages. That said, the story is good but not great, definitely not worth the cover price.

Instead of Harry, we get to ride along with his older half brother and White Court vampire, Thomas Raith, who is one of the most popular supporting character More...

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Sep 25, 2011

Shazza rated it:

Thomas Raith gets his own (albeit short) story under this title and he carries it off with aplomb. Running in at seventy pages (not counting art, of which I'll go on about a little later), Thomas hears through the grapevine (i.e., Lara, via Justine) that Harry, his little brother, has taken a job from the Stygian Sisterhood, whom the Venatori (and Thomas is part of that little club) have been fighting literally since time began.

Let it be said that the Stygian Sisterhood are not a che More...

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Jan 18, 2011

figura4 rated it:

Due stelline stavolta per zio Jim, ma non per colpa sua.
Il racconto di per sè è molto gradevole. E' bello per una volta vedere le cose da un punto di vista diverso da quello di Harry. E' bello soprattutto vedere cosa pensa Thomas del fratello, e cosa deve patire ogni giorno per tenere a bada la sua "fame" da vampiro.</p>

E allora perchè 2 stelline?
1)- Il racconto è molto, molto, molto, molto breve. E il volume m'è costato 19 euri.
2)- E non venitemi a dire "bè, ma ci sono le

More...

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Dec 30, 2010

Karissa rated it:

This is a small novella told from Thomas's point of view, Harry's brother, it takes place in the same time/place as the Dresden Files. It was an okay story. The story was well written but nothing spectacular. The illustrations throughout were okay, but again not masterpieces.

Thomas is contacted by his sister. Apparently Harry has been set up by some evil witches and Thomas, as a soldier in the thousand years old Oblivion Wars, needs to save Harry and get rid of the threat that the witc More...

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Jun 21, 2009

Aaron rated it:

Fans of the Dresden Files series will get a new perspective on the world of sorcerer/detective Harry Dresden with this volume, which focuses on his older, white vampire brother (think incubus) Thomas Raith.

The story starts off with the arrival of Lara Raith, his half-sister and the woman in power behind the White Court throne. She is using her power to get him to do some work for the court. She has some concerns about a case the Harry is working on and its ties to an ancient war. The More...

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May 28, 2009

James rated it:

This is my favorite of the Dresden stories. This novella is narrated by Thomas, not Harry, and it's pretty funny. It does absolutely nothing to advance any major storyline of the series, although it does introduce an ongoing "war" that may become of importance later. That said, Thomas' voice is great, and the writing is pretty funny.

As far as the whole Dresden series goes, it's worth a gander if you like that whole fantasy thing. I'm not much into fantasy, but I like how t More...

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Jan 13, 2009

Olivia rated it:

I liked this novella, for the most part. It was a quick, amusing read. It was a Dresdenverse book, written form the perspective of Dresden's (secret!) vampire, half-brother Thomas. My issue with the book is that the "voice" of Thomas is not all that different from the "voice" of Harry. They had some different adventures, but overall, the wording, jokes and pacing were the same between Harry and Thomas. I also skimmed quite a bit of the book in places that felt like info-dumps More...

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Aug 11, 2011

Jaime rated it:

I collect books, so I expect books from small publishers to be more expensive. “Backup” was issued by Subterranean Press in two editions: a 500 copy signed leather-bound limited edition for $45, and a trade hardcover for $20. However, in this instance both are WAY overpriced. This isn’t even a novella – it is a very short story. It says 72 pages, but that includes illustrations, a large font and big margins. Butcher’s tale in the “Mean Streets” anthology was much longer. When other small publish More...

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Jun 17, 2010

Kyle rated it:

While I love the Dresden Files, this is without a doubt, my all time favorite Butcher book. The only thing that I can complain about it, is how short this book is. It's a novella really. It takes less than an hour to read, and yet I've read it several times. Without spoiling the book, I'd really like to have Jim Butcher write more books in this vein. If you like the Dresden books, do yourself a favor and get this. If you have a problem with the price, get some friends, make them read the D More...

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May 05, 2009

Mandy rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jan 12, 2009

Carolyn rated it:

Having read the first Dresden book - Storm Front - and having seen the TV show for it's brief run, I am familiar with the setting/characters in the "Dresdenverse", as someone so aptly called it.

The best I can say about this little novella is that if you are a fan of the series, you'll enjoy it for the different angle on an event you're already familiar with. If you're collecting the series, it *might* even be worth the exorbitant cover price to own it.

For everyo More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 28, 2008

Lavonne rated it:

The only thing I did not like about this book is that it was far too short. I loved seeing Harry Dresden's world (and Harry himself) from a different point of view. While I don't think it added anything to the overall Dresden story, it was a nice sideline and eased the wait for the next Dresden novel. Of course, I could be wrong. It could be that the things that happened in this story will be important in upcoming novels. Particularly the fact that Thomas and through him, Bob, are aware of a cen More...

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May 10, 2009

Marc rated it:

I was browsing the new books section at the local public library and spotted this. It is a fast reading short story packaged in hardcover. The story is a little rough, particularly in the beginning, as it assumes the reader is familiar with the author’s Harry Dredsen series and its characters. Once you get past that it’s a good read with plenty of humor in a story about vampires, ghouls, and demons engaged in one of the eternal wars these creatures fight. The story is told from the point of view More...

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Jun 30, 2010

Nate rated it:

First of all; ridiculously short.
Second of all; It's written by Butcher pretending to be Thomas Raithe pretending to be Harry Dresden. The writing style, vocabulary and inflection doesn't change at all from the Dresden series. I know Thomas and Harry are brothers, but they grew up completely separately and had nothing to do with each other or even knowledge of one another's existence for decades. There's no way Thomas, a White Court vampire with sophistication, education, and a general st More...

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May 12, 2009

Charlie rated it:

A short Dresden files story that clearly had to be written from a different view point. Thomas the white vampire brings a new perspective to the files and reveals a secret to the audience that Harry does not know.

I wondered as I was reading this whether it was plotted in from an early stage, and its format a foregone conclusion, or how much Butcher had to fret over what format to put this piece of writing in. It was a brave decision to publish a very short story like this as an ent More...

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Feb 18, 2011

Anthony rated it:

The problem with Subterranean Press editions is that they're limited, they're usually printed on higher quality paper with better coverstock, and they're expensive. $20 for a 70 page hardcover? Even with cover art and illustrations by the great Mike Mignola (creator of Hellboy)? Yeah, I'm that much of a Dresden fan these days, so sign me up. Thankfully, even though it was out of print, Powell's Books had a "used" copy still at the cover price.

So what's it about? Thomas Ra More...

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Mar 23, 2009

Katy-Del rated it:

I have always ben intrigued by Thomas in the Drsden File Novels. I like how Mr. Butcher lets us experience Thomas in this first person. His taste in music is awesome. The story was lively, fun, and humerous.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 27, 2009

Mike rated it:

Full review at my blog!

SPOILER NOTE: If you aren’t up-to-date on Butcher’s Dresden Files (at least up to Death Masks) now would be a could time to stop reading this review.

The titular wizard from Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files is mostly absent from Backup, a short novella available from Subterranean Press, which instead focuses Thomas Raith; Harry’s vampiric half-brother. It is a standalone story that does little to advance any of the plots from the main series but manages More...

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Jul 26, 2009

aaron rated it:

yay, thomas finally gets his own story. i have been wondering why butcher hasn't taken some of his wonderfully fleshed out characters from the dresden files and given them some increased page-time with some side stories or branching series. this just shows that his characters have the volume necessary to hold their own series, or at least short stories. thomas plays the hero in this story and dresden is relegated to the sidekick for thomas. it is a great story with some beautiful drawings by More...

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Jan 21, 2011

Lilly ~Lilith~ rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jun 01, 2009

Dianna rated it:

Took a total of about 45 minutes to read this tiny little book. It was enjoyable, yet regrettably very short. He totally could have made this into an entire book OR inserted it into one of his myriad collections of short stories he edits or contributes to. Putting it into book form was not a great idea.

For an actual review I'd say it was neat to get into Thomas' head, since he's such a mystery in the Harry novels. That's about it. The insertion of yet another war into the world is an More...

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May 16, 2010

Cathy rated it:

It's a pretty good short story. Not Butcher's best, but good. And having a story from Thomas' perspective is quite fun. But it in no way is worth the $20 cover price, that's just absurd. The 4 illustrations by Mike Mignola add nothing to the story, and they're just boring, nothing special at all. And the whole thing is 70 pages, and that includes the cover pages, illustrations, and a blank page at the end of each chapter. Most of the stories I've read in anthologies are a lot longer. And the new More...

7 comments like

Dec 18, 2008

Carla rated it:

This novella is a teaser tide-me-over for Dresden Files fans. Told from Thomas' POV, it relies heavily upon the reader's familiarity with the books in the series. We are also exposed, for the first time, to a conspiracy theory of which Harry and the regular cast are unaware. [A conspiracy theory which probably owes some credit to both Lovecraft and to D&D alike]

The novella succeds well as part of the greater Dresden Files series--it is a complete tale that at the same time could be f More...

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