Dear Mr. Butcher,

Please, for the love of all that's holy, visit Chicago. Seriously. Your lack of knowledge of the city you've placed this series in is a HUGE turnoff for me. For instance, when someone says "the airport" in Chicago, the person listening says "which one?" Or when you go to visit Wrigley Field, there IS no massive parking lot, and certainly not 'acres of empty asphalt'. And even in February, there's no way the area would be deserted. You're smack in the middle of wrigleyville. I was so confused by the description of wrigley field I had to reread it 3 or 4 times. I mean, there are pictures of the field online! At least do the legwork of looking at pictures! The very first picture on google images clearly shows that literally 50 feet from the stadium's walls there are buildings. People throw parties on their rooftops to watch the games. They sell tickets. Argh.

Thank you,

Kate

Okay - now that I have that out of my system... The book really is pretty good. And if you don't know Chicago, you'd probably never notice little things like that. I've been noticing them since book one, when drive times were WAY under par and the names of highways and other roads were a far cry from what locals would have called them. But I get past it, I move on. Mostly. *twitch*

As for the story itself, I rather enjoyed it. I still think Butcher tries to cram too much into each story and occasionally pulls some deus ex machina bull out of nowhere... but as a light summer read, I have to say I do enjoy the books. They're even fairly intelligent, most of the time. Which makes those moments when I need to shut my brain off just a little harder.

I also get very tired of dresden's attitude toward women. Maybe it's because I am a woman, and I've known (and Dresden knows) some seriously strong women - yet he still gets all macho about things and treats these very strong women like children. Why do they put up with it? At this point in the series, the women all smile and go "oh, you - so silly" any time he pulls this. I just don't get it.

Okay - enough griping. Because while I do have plenty of points to gripe on (*cough* go visit chicago *cough*), there is still plenty to praise. Characters do, by and large, feel real. Their actions have consequences, they don't always do the smart thing, and the magic system here really is interesting and well-developed. So as long as you can get past the piss-poor descriptions of Chicago and the misogyny, then hey - these are good fun reads.