Published by Roc, Side Jobs came out in paperback on December 6. It is a fantastic canon-fodder collection of ten previously published short stories and one brand new novellette, all bound together in 418 entertaining pages. A while back I bought the hardcover for purely canonical reasons. Short stories don’t usually float my boat — why have a bite of something yummy when I could just nom the whole enchilada? — but I’ve had enjoyed a few in the past (hello 20th Century Ghosts and Engines of Desire). More importantly, I have a fetish for reading things in chronological order (or, at the very least, the author’s preferred order) and Side Jobs is chock full of revealing interstitials bridging the gaps between earlier Dresden stories and — most excitingly — between Changes and Ghost Story. Meaning one day soon I am going to have to re-read the entire series start to finish while sprinkling in the stories in Side Jobs so I can continue existing in my Sheldon Cooper-esque geek insanity.
[“Harry Dresden, Professional Wizard. It sounds like a bad joke.”]