While I certainly didn't keep up with my blog writing goals, I did meet my February reading goals with Sandman Slim and Butcher's Blood Rites.
Sandman Slim was a very modern take on the urban fantasy genre. The protagonist was more of an anti-hero than your traditional occult detective. The author chose to omit chapter breaks in the story which was detrimental in terms of trying to stop at the next chapter, but at the same time it was instrumental in keeping me reading. I don't think I'd attempt that, but for this book it worked. I liked the Sandman Slim's character, but felt the book lost its uniqueness when we discovered a greater paranormal organization being run by the government. It seemed a bit manufactured to generate conflict as Slim wasn't exactly a team player. While I enjoyed the book, I'm not rushing to pick up the next volume.
Dresden Files book #6, Blood Rites was a fun read and had some great character moments, although I felt it was really two stories pushed together into one. The middle story didn't really seem to have any connections with the main story. Perhaps that's because his usual formula of having two distinct stories that suddenly have connections might be getting a bit overused, or perhaps he wanted to try something different. However, the main story was solid, but the middle one seemed slapped in there and was a bit forced. Overall though the ramifications of the events in this book made me put aside my other books and read volume #7.
