- Publisher: Penguin Audio
- Release Date: January 20, 2026
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Listening Length: 16 hours and 59 minutes
- Version: Unabridged
- Language: English
- Book 18 of 18: Dresden Files
- ASIN: B0F2JPKKF7
- Author: Jim Butcher
- Read by: James Marsters
Warning: There are minor spoilers for earlier books in the Dresden Files series in this review.
Twelve Months by Jim Butcher is the 18th book in the Dresden Files series about a wizard in modern day Chicago. It covers the twelve months following the Battle of Chicago that took place in the previous book. Having lost someone very dear to him, Harry Dresden is in mourning and having difficulty coping. His brother is mortally wounded and only kept alive in stasis. He is expected to wed a vampire of the White Court to create a political alliance. He is trying to help save folks who have lost their homes and loved ones in the battle. He is trying to keep ghouls and others from preying on the disrupted citizens. In other words, he has a lot of shit on his plate.
I’ve read all 18 books in the series and I have enjoyed all of them, including Twelve Months, but I have to admit, I preferred it when Harry was a simple wizard for hire dealing with the occasional monster who came into Chicago. Every book, Butcher needs to find a bigger villain, a bigger threat or, like this book, a bigger number of problems, etc. Harry always comes up against an impossible foe, or an impossible situation. There is no way he can succeed, and then somehow he finds a way to invoke bigger better badder magic and wins, often with no real explanation for how he can do it, other than he dug deep and found new power he didn’t know he could access, or some such nonsense.
Still Twelve Months is a lot of fun. Big bad villains. Big bad monsters. Big bad battles. Big bad magic. Love and loss. Defeats and victories. If you haven’t read the rest of the series, go back and start at the beginning to see how Dresden grows and changes and kills and dies and revives before you read this one. If you’ve read the rest of them, you are going to read this one no matter what I say, so go ahead and read it. You won’t be disappointed, but don’t expect to be really surprised either.
Matt Truxaw’s newest book is Monster. This urban fantasy, horror, thriller will keep you turning the pages.
He is also the author of the hard science fiction thrillers: “Plastiphobia/Plastivore” and “Anthrophobia: A Teacher’s Tale”
You can find them all on Amazon in Paperback, Hardback, Kindle and/or free to read with Kindle Unlimited.
When you read any of them, he would really appreciate a review/rating on Amazon or your favorite book seller/book reader site.
More about Matt:
He was born in Orange County California many years ago and he still lives there. He has been reading books for most of those years and writing up book reviews for the last few years. He gets MANY of his books out of the library/Libby so expect a lot of old science fiction classics book reviews and other science related reviews in addition to newer books he comes across.
If you want to be ‘in-the-loop’ on these and other works, you can follow his website( MattTruxaw.com), his author’s page on Amazon or his Facebook page.
For more reviews and articles by Matt here on Amazing Stories (Click here).
Monster: A Novel by Matt Truxaw
