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Cold Days
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Cold Days
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Cold Days
Audiobook18 hours

Cold Days

Written by Jim Butcher

Narrated by James Marsters

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

HARRY DRESDEN LIVES!!!
 
After being murdered by a mystery assailant, navigating his way through the realm between life and death, and being brought back to the mortal world, Harry realizes that maybe death wasn't all that bad. Because he is no longer Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard. 

He is now Harry Dresden, Winter Knight to Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness. After Harry had no choice but to swear his fealty, Mab wasn't about to let something as petty as death steal away the prize she had sought for so long. And now, her word is his command, no matter what she wants him to do, no matter where she wants him to go, and no matter who she wants him to kill. 

Guess which Mab wants first?
 
Of course, it won't be an ordinary, everyday assassination. Mab wants her newest minion to pull off the impossible: Kill an immortal. No problem there, right? And to make matters worse, there exists a growing threat to an unfathomable source of magic that could land Harry in the sort of trouble that will make death look like a holiday. 

Beset by enemies new and old, Harry must gather his friends and allies, prevent the annihilation of countless innocents, and find a way out of his eternal subservience before his newfound powers claim the only thing he has left to call his own . . . his soul.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 27, 2012
ISBN9781101617038
Unavailable
Cold Days
Author

Jim Butcher

#1 New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher turned to writing as a career because anything else probably would have driven him insane. He lives mostly inside his own head so that he can write down the conversation of his imaginary friends, but his head can generally be found in Independence, Missouri. 

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Reviews for Cold Days

Rating: 4.317221654102356 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

1,231 ratings96 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I just couldn't accept that Dresden was dead dead... And I was right! His plan to escape the mantle of the winter Knight is foiled so now he's got to figure out how to keep his will intact while saving the world... Again. There are some surprising twists at the end.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    amazing as always =)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    As always Butcher is darn good. That is just a fact. He gets you emotional invested into a world of pain and hell - but you already know that if you have read this fare.A strange thing happened with this book - it took me five days to read the last 60 pages... not because they were bad but because they were the ending and I don't think I wanted it to end - at the same time I did want it to end so I could read the million other books I want to read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I can't decide how to even begin writing about this book. Do you enjoy action? Yeah, this has action coming out of its ears. Like complex, compelling plots? You'll love this one. Crave deep exploration of the human psyche, from what it means to be human to what it means to be family? It's in there.

    There are no paragons here. Unlike many fantasy protagonists, Harry's choices aren't right because he makes them. They're choices, and he suffers the consequences of each and every one. Some of the sharpest come from choices that he still doesn't know if they were right or not - and he may never know.

    This next bit is both a bit personal to me, and possible spoilery, so behind a cut.

    Harry, go see your daughter. Spend time with her. Tell her you love you. It doesn't matter if you're a good dad or not, and it doesn't matter that you can't raise her yourself. It doesn't matter that you can't stand to see her hurt again. You'll get over it. That little girl doesn't get to have her own mommy. Don't let anything keep her from having a daddy.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    OMG Wow! Just Wow!
    I just couldn't fathom in my wildest dreams the plot of this series! Excellent structure, and fast paced action. I can't wait for the next one, which seems to long to wait for a book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I will get straight to the point and say that I love this series. If you don't, then there's not much that I'm going to say about it that could possibly change your mind, but I love it. One of the things that I love about it is how Harry Dresden has to fight to avoid being turned to the "dark side" by tapping into some of the powers he has access to, and there is tons of that in this book. Many, many tons, more than I can remember in any of the other books, because the mantle of the Winter Knight is violent in really dark, vicious ways, and we the reader are deep in Harry's head, so we're exposed to all of his worst impulses even if he resists them. With approximately nine books left in the series, I'm not even sure if Harry will successfully not turn evil, but by acknowledging the struggle Jim Butcher has convinced me that if Harry were to turn evil, it would be because it was a story about a wizard being turned evil, and not an unintentional he's-the-hero-so-it's-ok kind of thing.And although Harry's demons have gotten stronger, he is showing some signs of learning his lesson. He's starting to learn to trust his friends more and to realize that he shouldn't always make decisions based on the idea that he has to save the world alone. I wouldn't bet on him making too much personal progress too quickly - again, nine more books to fill - but he seems to be on the right track, even if at the same time there are new ways he could be dragged backwards on it.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I regard most of Butcher's Dresden series to be something of a guilty pleasure. The first few were jolly good fun if nothing particularly special. I admittedly had some serious issues with the ending of "Changes". When I learned of the planned interim release of "Side Jobs" I felt it was an unconscionable money-grabbing betrayal of his fans. The disappointing "Ghost Story" was a rather lackluster reward for the additional wait. Now we have "Cold Days" and I have to say that this series, which I initially regarded as the equivalent of a fun popcorn movie, has become far too formulaic for even that level of enjoyment.

    Butcher seems intent on throwing everything including the kitchen sink into the metaphysical reality of his series. In a reveal reminiscent of the scene in Men In Black where they kick open the door to reveal that our entire world exists inside a locker in a ginormous otherworldly bus station we are shown the Lovecraftian opponents from "outside" our reality that Harry now has to deal with. It all reminds me of nothing more than a journal of someone's high school role playing game. Harry levels up every couple of adventures but the only real result is that the DM Butcher just levels up all the opponents. Harry, albeit more powerful, remains a tortured underdog who behaves exactly the same way he did 13 books ago. I'm sorry but power levels should not be the primary sign of character growth in a series this long so I'm not sure I'm going to stick around to see what baddies Butcher dredges up out of his old copy of Deities and Demigods for Harry's next installment. I'm sure he's a nice guy but I don't think I owe him a living for essentially rewriting the same book every year or so.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Read the ebook version. This series is a really fun and exciting read and this book did not disappoint. I love the humor and action. Very entertaining. I look forward to the next book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    All I can, and want to say, is dammit, when is the next one coming out.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was fast paced and kept moving at a steady speed. While I finished it today, this book will also blow your mind, which Jim Butcher has started doing with the endings of his books. While I am usually a book behind what is out I now have to wait for the next book. I can't wait to see what Harry does next.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Another installment in the Harry Dresden series. Entertaining, fast paced, although I am finding it a bit hard to tell the various fairies apart.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really need to stop reading these in a day, need to go back a savor the moments
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    After reading all the previous novels from Harry Dresden series it's getting a little tiring. I guess there has to be a limit to author introducing new kinds of magical players - they are new to us but supposedly Harry always known about them. At some point it starts to defy our belief (ha-ha, as far as belief in fantasy book goes). Still, written as always well, a lot of action. I could live without some moralizing though that seems to be completely out of place.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Harry Dresden is still a funny character I can relate to. I don't like his new job as winter knight.

    Things I liked:
    Characters:
    -Mac the mysterious bartender (gets injured but heals just fine, when his bar is attacked he fights back, won't tell about his background, makes a mean beer)
    -Karrin the woman who can stand up to all the monsters (rides a harley, good shot, throws a grenade into the tug boat, has hidden the swords and won't tell Harry where they are)
    -Mother Summer and Mother Winter having food in the cottage just after Mother Winter tries to kill Harry with a hatchet, Mother Summer walking with Harry to the battlefield and treating Harry like a grandmother
    -Thomas who treats Harry like brothers do as they call each other names
    -Harry who still bucks at authority as much as he can even when (especially when) it's against his own interest
    -Hook (who would kindly just like to beat up Toot Toot)


    Scenes:
    -Lake Michigan when Harry creates an ice walkway
    -the barge fight scene with three boats and the Outsiders
    -the circle at the end with the ladies and Demonreach
    -the Island (and Harry's knowledge of it)
    -the prison
    -the war at the edge of the world and the gate
    -Harry's new car
    -fight at the Botanic Gardens

    Things I didn't like
    -Molly is the new winter Lady
    -Lily died and Fix (Summer knight) was obviously in love with her
    -no real movement of plot regarding Maggie (Harry's daughter)
    -I couldn't get a good read on what the outsiders looked like (which I take is sort of the point, but it still was a hole in my understanding)
    -The winter court (I hate court politics)
    -potential love triangle between Molly, Harry, and Karrin. I'm not sure I even like this being hinted at because Harry is Molly's mentor and she is/was his apprentice. She's too young, there's too much of a power imbalance and she has been crushing on him since she was a little kid. I would kind of like her to get over it. Anytime now. Karrin is closer to Harry's age and they are obviously both adults and on the same wavelength. It's not that Harry and Karrin need to be together, but Molly and Harry together is just weird. When did he go from "Uncle Harry" to potential match? Just creepy.

    Overall thoughts:
    I'm glad Karrin and Harry talked and reasonably discussed their future. There are good points made, but it's not an immature discussion with one of them running away like a child. It didn't seem forced. It seemed like an intelligent conversation that adults would have. (You know, if adults cared about magic and dark forces trying to take over the world.) I'm also glad he hasn't gone to the dark side of the winter knighthood, although I'm sure that will come up again in the next book. I wish he wasn't still the Winter Knight.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Overall, I liked Cold Days. It was a birthday present, so I didn't pick it out myself. After reading it, I have lukewarm feelings about the book, but on the whole I thought it was good.It does have cool action sequences that work well, and Butcher is great at writing thrilling scenes. You will not see the twists coming, and they're good twists. But Butcher filled so many things into one plot that it made it difficult to suspect disbelief. Not as bad as some other books I've read, but it still could have been more realistic.The relationship of Harry and Karrin is iffy. I don't really understand her doubts about him.I liked the book, but didn't love it. It's standard Butcher material, so if you're a fan, you'll probably like it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Harry is back, with new problems, and and in great form, sarcasm in hand. What more can I say about this book? It's vadazzling.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A typical fast-moved addition to the Dresden Files.
    I found it took awhile to get into this book, as Harry was cut off from pretty well everyone familiar and on his own as the Winter Knight in Winter's Court.
    As always, everyone and everything is against him and the almost impossible task that the Queen of Winter asks him to do turns out to be just a part of the ghastly situation he finds himself in.
    Finding his friends and allies again made the story move a bit better for me, though I was finding his continual fight against his new inner self from taking over was becoming rather tiring.
    New revelations about a coming battle appear--rather on the cosmic scale. Not sure how that will work.
    3 1/2 stars, but I am looking forward to the next book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Dresden's situations keep growing larger. I'm so lukewarm with this one. Butcher must be exhausted. There are a few beautifully poetic passages, but they are marred by being surrounded with so much word filler and story inconsistency.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I was delightfully confused and overwhelmed reading Cold Days. It is a mystery to me how Jim Butcher manages to put Harry Dresden in situations with no way out of them and then find a way out of them, leaving me feeling completely brainwashed. Thanks for that!I did immensely enjoy the book. I love how the story is finally going back to the beginning, making me want to re-read the series all over again. Unimaginable things have been put into motion and figuring them out is quite intriguing. I loved the storyline of Cold Days - the courts and politics and faeries... I have never been a fan of Murphy, but I have noticed she is not Murphy any more, but Karrin, and I find it very sweet.And even though Harry Dresden says he is not into Molly, I really hope for some steam there! Because THINGS. HAVE. BEEN. PUT. IN. MOTION!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Good not great.

    Butcher's later novels are busier and with more exposition than his earlier ones. And after the "groundbreaking" Changes, he appears to be struggling to find the story. Spending lots of time explaining what is happening in the verse, the plot, and who the villain is. Too much tell and not enough show.

    Other quibbles include a vague discussion about homosexuality that felt out-of-place. Harry Dresden is discussing it with Titania - the Summer Queen of the Fae, who wonders if such an immoral action can possibly meet with Dresden's approval - they are meeting a the "homosexual/gay lover's lane of sorts". Dresden states its not up to him to decide. People should choose what they want. And he won't tell them what to do. I'm not exactly certain what Butcher is trying to say here. Nor do I want to think too much about it. Chose to believe Butcher was for homosexual rights as was Harry, but it can be read either way.

    This is one of many mini-lectures or rambles ...another is on gender and how men and women think - with Harry ranting for about ten pages about how women are impossible to understand. Both conversations took me out of the story and made me want to shake the author.

    The writer does do a good job of developing the supporting character of Molly, but appears to have hit a wall with Murphy and Thomas. Butters, however, is moving along as well. The most interesting characters though are Harry, Molly and Mab...which is a good thing since they are more or less front and center. Karrin Murphy is barely in this novel and seems to be relegated to "love interest"/"side-kick" and bares an astonishing physical resemblance to Sarah Michelle Geller's Buffy, complete with bump on the nose and stature and crazy strength.

    Other than that I enjoyed the novel, but it's one of the weaker entries. Better than Ghost Story and Fool Moon and Death Masks, but not as good as the rest. Here's hoping the next entry in the series is better.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Harry Dresden is tasked by Queen Mab with killing the Winter Lady, but in addition to the problem of finding out how one actually kills an immortal, Harry must also make sure that Maeve is truly the villain in the piece and that it isn't in fact Mab herself. We've come quite a long way since Harry the PI graced our pages, but I am enjoying the widening scope, even if I sometimes miss the old Harry. As White Knight he is still funny, though, so I'll absolutely continue to follow his adventures. The last installment wasn't great, but this one makes up for it and, overall, this is a high-quality series that I'll recommend to anyone who likes urban fantasy.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I realized that Jim Butcher writes episodes as if in a TV show, they have a main story with an underlying story arch. I feel like this is one of the aspects that keep the story interesting as there isn't a lull with filler information. This and the previous book, Ghost Story, goes away from the episode atmosphere as Harry being a PI and getting over his head. Now they are more true sequels focusing on the main story. Ghost Story went stale quickly, but Cold Days redeems the story a bit. While not as good as many of the previous books, this book was good. One part that was confusing is that Ghost Story everybody was surprised or disbelieving that Harry Dresden's ghost was there, but now in Cold Days he is alive the majority of his companions just say "Hey, 'sup" (obviously simplifying). And all the issues that were affecting his companions In Ghost Story are not longer present and barely mentioned. (It almost seemed like Jim Butcher wanted to move away from events in Ghost Story and start fresh, which is okay in my opinion).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    At this point in the series you really need to have read some of the previous books otherwise even all the infodumps will not keep you straight with everything that has happened in Harry's life. This book did leave me wanting to reread Summer Knight. And of course in the end it doesn't always come up roses for Harry.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Always fun! I highly recommend all of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    So far I have been continually amazed at how Butcher has built on each previous novel with something bigger, bolder, and ultimately better. Harry is now one step from immortal after coming back from the dead and is dealing with some extremely dangerous beings, some of which are immortal themselves. Butcher continues to be a master at weaving a tight plot with excellent characters, a lot of tension, a dose of humor, and a sense of building something that you know is coming which will be even better with each new novel. Cannot wait for the next one.....
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Definitely, definitely worth the wait.

    Harry Dresden is back, alive and snark included. From the last book, we already know that he's got the mantle of the Winter Knight weighing down his shoulders. But here, Mab has given him a nigh impossible task - but along the way he has to prevent the destruction of the world as well. As always, right?

    There are only two small annoyances I have with this book that I completely understand and probably wouldn't change anyway. The first is a small nitpicky annoyance where it seems like Butcher is trying to forcibly insert philosophy and politics into the story (i.e. gay rights). There's nothing wrong with this since all authors do it; however, the way it was done here seemed completely out of the blue and unnatural to the story. The second is just that I cannot believe that Harry could have so many one-on-one interactions with people. Such a tactic is clever since it gives us time to reestablish how characters interact and how their relationship has grown or changed. But ugh, sometimes I read the scenes and think that it's somewhat not realistic (scenes with Thomas or Karrin). Really, the bro-love went a touch too far with the continued banter every scene they were in together. ...just a touch though. It was pretty much spot on. Everything was pretty much spot on.

    Dresden and romance... it was handled exceedingly well. I always get a little wary of romance in action-packed novels, but it was handled tastefully. Unfortunately, romance always means that many pages will be devoted to their interactions and their developing understanding of one another - which takes away time from other interesting characters and fascinating plot lines, but sigh I understand, I do.

    Three and a half stars because I liked it a lot - rounded down for now, but if I reread it, it will be promoted to four stars.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Once again a wonderful story from Butcher. However! There was something really off in the tone of this one for me: Really hated the pretty constant gender stereotypes and the interlude on whether or not gay people are sinning was out of place and offensive. Those things really made me dislike this book. I wish he would have kept to the story and not relied on stupid tropes.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The latest installment in the Dresden Files series sees wise-cracking wizard Harry Dresden back from the mostly-dead, installed in a new job he's not exactly thrilled about, and once again caught up in dealing with a nasty, complicated supernatural threat.I do think this series is starting to suffer just a little bit from a couple of problems natural to long-running series like this. One is that it's perhaps getting a little top-heavy under the weight of its own continuity, which is particularly difficult for someone like me who doesn't necessarily find it easy to remember everything that happened in previous volumes. The other is that Harry's now come through so many impossible situations that it's harder to generate real suspense as to whether he'll be able to handle yet another one, even if he is now fighting in a higher weight class, so to speak. I think those two things together are probably the reason I was a little slow to get into the plot of this one, although, as usual, by the end everything came together in an interesting and exciting way, complete with some significant developments to be explored in future novels, and left me feeling happy enough and eager to read the next one. And Harry in is fine form though much of this story; despite all the changes he's been through, he's still his entertainingly smart-alecky, pop-culture-spouting, never-knows-when-to-quit self, this time with full sidekick accompaniment again, which was very welcome. (Although don't tell any of his friends I called them sidekicks, okay?) That, in itself, would be enough to make this fun, whatever creeping issues the series may or may not have.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It has been a while since I enjoyed a Dresden File book this much! The last few books were so depressing, with Harry beat down so much that it seemed every "victory" was Pyrrhic. I just didn't enjoy them. Cold Days finally brings back the old, smart ass Harry who relies on his friends and never loses hope. And to my delight, Thomas comes front and center again too.At the end of Ghost Story, Harry is in the care of Demonreach and Mab after being "assassinated." He's still the Winter Knight with a boatload of problems, and the world is about to end. Again. Which Thomas and Harry sarcastically say is "same old, same old." That is perhaps the best thing about Cold Days. Butcher returns to the trademark wiserassery and snark that makes Harry so enjoyable and relatable. I laughed out loud when Molly says to Thomas "Wait a minute.... We're his flunkies!" and Thomas snidely replies, "I'm his thug. I'm way higher than a flunky." There was a lot of humor, especially in the dire situations. There are also multiple plot threads, which do eventually tie into each other, but which kept the book engaging with lots of twists and turns.Mab gives Harry his first assignment - to assassinate a member of her court (I won't reveal who) and the target stuns Harry. This tiny beginning blossoms into an overarching plotline that will likely expand many more books, and which reintroduces an enemy that had been on the periphery. An enemy which is a danger to everyone, including all of Harry's foes and frenemies. This plot also allowed for serious expansion on the world-building of Faerie. Readers get a lot of detail on the hows and whys of Summer and Winter, and Mab specifically. When Harry is taken to the distant border of Faerie, the revelations there were a complete surprise and absolutely fantastic. We even learn just what is special about Harry's island, Demonreach, and its purpose. Also very cool. Moreover, though Harry does take some blows (physical and psychological), his victory is decisive and satisfying. Major plots are left open for further development, but the specific missions Harry was on are fully resolved.Overall, this was a wholly satisfying book that I could not put down. So glad to see Dresden in top form, and I cannot wait for the next installment.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Another fun romp as Harry wrestles with the impossible, every time he tries to find out what's actually going on, someone tries to kill him - or maybe just maim him.with a 48 hour window to save the Midwest AND the Fairy realm, can Dresden pull yet another miracle out of his hat?