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Summer Knight

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Summer Knight
AuthorJim Butcher
Cover artistLee MacLeod
LanguageEnglish
SeriesThe Dresden Files
GenreScience fiction, Fantasy novel
PublisherPenguin Putnam
Publication date
September 3, 2002
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Paperback) & AudioBook (Audio Cassette & Audio CD)
Pages371 pp (first edition, paperback)
ISBNISBN 0-4514-5892-3 (first edition, paperback) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character
Preceded byGrave Peril 
Followed byDeath Masks 

Summer Knight is a 2002 contemporary fantasy novel by author Jim Butcher. It is the fourth novel in The Dresden Files, which follows the character of Harry Dresden, present-day Chicago's only professional wizard.

Ever since Harry's girlfriend (Susan Rodriguez) left Chicago to deal with her newly acquired blood sucking tendencies, our favorite wizard Harry Dresden has hit some hard times in Chicago. He can't pay his rent. He's alienating and pushing away his friends. Hell's Bells, Harry can't even remember the last time he took a shower.

The only professional wizard in the phone book has become a desperate man.

And just when it seems things can't get any worse, in comes the Winter Queen of Faerie. She has an offer Harry can't refuse if he wants to free himself of the supernatural hold his faerie godmother(Leanansidhe) has over him — and hopefully end his run of bad luck. All he has to do is find out who murdered the Summer Queen's right-hand man, the Summer Knight, and clear the Winter Queen's name.

It seems simple enough, but Harry knows better than to get caught in the middle of faerie politics. Until he finds out that the fate of the entire world rests on his solving this case.

No pressure or anything...

Plot

Its raining toads in Chicago. Harry is called to a park by Billy, a werewolf, to check what is happening. Harry doesn't seem to be want to be there. Billy wants to know how everything is going with Harry but he doesn't want to talk about it. Billy also tells Harry that he went to his office and took a call from a client. Harry gets upset about Billy nosing into his life. When they seem to end their fight they get attacked by three people with machine guns. Harry blocks them, but is attacked from behind by a ghoul. Billy transforms into a wolf and saves his life. Harry decides to meet with the client and goes to meet her.

Harry arrives at the meeting late and the client, Ms. Somerset, didn't want to wait on Harry. Ms. Somerset isn't very forthcoming with Harry about what she wants and looks at him with disgust. Harry begins to realize that Ms. Somerset isn't human but a fairy. When Harry asks who Ms. Somerset is, she says she is Mab the Queen of Air and Darkness, the Queen of the Winter Court. This freaks out Harry but Mab tells Harry because she has purchased his debt from Harry's godmother. She gives him a way to pay off his debt by doing her three favors. Harry agrees to the deal and she gives him his first assignment. He is supposed to find a Murderer and something that has been stolen from someone. He is told that she has chosen him to be her emissary and Summer has chosen one as well.

She leaves his office but Harry doesn't have time to worry about her since the whole White Council has come to Chicago to talk about the war with the Red Court. When Harry gets there he meets up with Ebenezar McCoy his old teacher after Justin DuMorne. Ebenezar tells him to talk to the Senior Council about helping him out. This angers Harry who doesn't like people telling him what to do. Then a veil drops and he notices that two people where watching the conversation between Ebenezar and Harry. They are both on the Senior Council. They are Martha Liberty and Listen-to-Winds aka. Injun Joe. Both of them agree to vote in favor of Harry. They also tell McCoy that Simon Petrovich, a member of the Senior Council, was killed by the vampires. The Merlin, Arthur Langtry, believes that Harry is at fault for starting the war between the vampires and wizards.

Harry goes into the meeting by himself. When going to the meeting he is stop by Morgan, a Warden, who dislikes Harry. Morgan seems to know that Harry will pay for what happened to Archangel, the place Simon lived and was attacked by the vampires. Harry goes into the meeting and is waved by McCoy to join him to sit next to him.

The Merlin tries to get his tame wizard onto the senior council but is outmanoeuvred and Ebenezar McCoy is appointed. After lots of politicising Harry is forced to comply with Mabs request and he goes to see Karrin Murphy about the murder. After finding details of the case then discussing them with Murphy harry goes back to his apartment, where he finds elaine, his first love who he thought was dead and finds out she is the emissary of the summer court of the fea

Plot points introduced

Harry's debt of three favors to the Queen of the Winter Fae is introduced.

List of Characters

Returning Characters

  • Harry Dresden: The protagonist; professional wizard; and the emissary of the Winter Sidhe.
  • Lieutenant Karrin Murphy: The director of Special Investigations.
  • Bob: An intelligent air spirit who lives inside a skull in Dresden's sub-basement laboratory.
  • Mister: Dresden's 30+ pound house cat.
  • Leanansidhe: A Winter Sidhe; Dresden's faerie Godmother.
  • Billy: A Werewolf; a D&D dungeonmaster.
  • Toot-toot: A pixie of the wyldfae, who serves Dresden, the Za lord, short for pizza lord.
  • Morgan: A Warden, a law enforcement officer of the White Council, who has a mandate to aid the innocent and punish the guilty.

Characters introduced in this novel

  • Queen Mab: The Queen of Air and Darkness; the monarch of the Court of the Winter Sidhe, the Unseelie Faeries.
  • Queen Titania: The monarch of the Court of the Summer Sidhe, the Seelie Faeries
  • Maeve: The Winter Lady of the Sidhe.
  • Aurora: The Summer Lady of the Sidhe.
  • Mother Summer: A past queen of the Summer Sidhe.
  • Mother Winter: A past queen of the Winter Sidhe.
  • Lloyd Slade: The Winter Knight.
  • Ronald Reuel (deceased): An artist; the Summer Knight
  • The White Council: The governing body of the wizarding community, which has the ultimate authority over human magic users. There is a Senior Council with exclusive voting privileges, and a supreme leader, the Merlin.
  • The Merlin: The head of the White Council and the Senior Council.
  • The Gatekeeper (Rashid): A member of the White Council’s Senior Council; Mab’s "old desert fox."
  • Ebenezar McCoy: Dresden’s mentor; a member of the White Council’s Senior Council.
  • Ancient Mai: A member of the White Council’s Senior Council.
  • Elaine: Dresden's childhood girlfriend; the emissary of the Summer Sidhe.
  • Lily: A statuesque Changeling, who selects membership in the Summer Court.
  • Fix: A mechanic; a Changeling, who selects membership in the Summer Court.
  • Meryl: A Changeling, who selects membership in the Winter Court; she dies heroically.
  • Ace: A Changeling, one who has not selected membership in a Sidhe Court.
  • The Brownies: A group of Summer Court faeries who run a cleaning service.

Summer Knight in Other Media

Summer Knight has also been recorded as an audio book. Narrated by James Marsters, it is also available on Jim Butcher's website, along with mp3 audio samples.

  • Summer Knight The website summary of Summer Knight and the first three chapter to preview.
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