Books like Wizard at Large

2012 reread:We pause from our regularly scheduled Red Court vs. White Council program to give you the following updates: family history, vampire jobs, Bob's history, sexual tension, temptations, and a zombie T-Rex. Thank you for your patience.Despite the general information necessary to really enjoy these two books (Blood Rites and Dead Beat), these are two of the books that argue against the "reading in order" theory. Sure, we have some revelations in them, but they are generally fun. They have little to do with the Vampire War story, little to do with the still unknown grand story arc, and really are just there to have some fun. Oh sure, there are many different pieces in these two books that we later see the effects of. And sure, there are hints and aspects of the two big story arcs given in this (probably the first neon light pointing to White Council espionage is in Dead Beat). Overall, though, they are just meant to create an interesting story.Blood Rites taps a little into the "red-light district" of the pulp genre. While nowhere near as detailed as other pulps will go; there's still enough flesh around to get the point across while keeping it Dresden-PG. Dead Beat, despite the darker material and big choices made in it, returns a bit of the silly flavor from Storm Front again and has my favorite moment in the series ... Sue. It is interesting to see DB as a midway point to Changes, especially given the mantles Dresden is given/takes up in the book.So the series plods along, throwing some fan service here and there. And maybe I'm looking for more story than there should be. Maybe this is just the literary equivalent of the anime series "Cowboy Bebop" which, while it helps keep characters straight if you watch it in order, there are really only three episodes where order matters.