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Small favor
a novel of the Dresden files
First published 2008 · 423 pages
A relentless, winter-chilled descent into supernatural gang warfare where every favor has a bloody price.
What it feels like
Reading this installment feels like being strapped into a runaway snowplow careening through a supernatural warzone. The atmosphere is distinctly wintery and tense, steeped in the bitter cold of fae bargains and the explosive heat of demonic firefights. The narrative voice remains reliably wry and hardboiled, offering a snarky shield against the escalating, bruising desperation of the stakes. It is a propulsive, adrenaline-fueled experience that tests the limits of its protagonist's loyalties and physical endurance. Beneath the cinematic magic battles and noir-tinged mystery lies a deeply emotional core about the crushing weight of obligation and the lengths one will go to protect found family. It delights readers who want their urban fantasy fast, gritty, and unapologetically intense.
- Mood
- wintery
- tense
- explosive
- gritty
- Tone
- wry
- hardboiled
- desperate
- snarky
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- the burden of obligation · shifting loyalties · the cost of power · found family under fire
- The writing
- Punchy, first-person noir laced with pop-culture snark and visceral, cinematic action sequences.
- The arc
- Moves from a rare moment of domestic peace into a relentless, bruising gauntlet of escalating threats, ending in exhausted, hard-won survival.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave high-octane urban fantasy anchored by a battered, fiercely loyal protagonist with a smart mouth.
Content notes
- graphic violence
- torture
- kidnapping
- child endangerment
About the book
The new novel in the Dresden Files series.No one's tried to kill Harry Dresden for almost an entire year, and his life finally seems to be calming down. For once, the future looks fairly bright. But the past casts one hell of a long shadow.An old bargain has placed Harry in debt to Mab, monarch of the Winter Court of the Sidhe, the Queen of Air and Darkness-and she's calling in her marker. It's a small favor he can't refuse...one that will trap Harry Dresden between a nightmarish foe and an equally deadly ally, and one that will strain his skills- and loyalties-to their very limits.It figures. Everything was going too well to last...
Description from Open Library.
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