Summer Knight
core novel 2002 The Dresden Files
Record
| First published | 2002 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.26 (166,003 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 405 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780451458926 |
| Internal chronology | 4 |
Synopsis
Harry Dresden is forced by the White Council to accept a trial as the Winter Queen's emissary in Summer Knight, the fourth Dresden Files novel, after Mab, ruler of the Winter Sidhe, acquires a debt he owes her and offers to settle it through a set of favors. His first task is to find who murdered the Summer Knight and recover his stolen magical mantle, or else face losing his wizard status and being handed over to vampire enemies. The investigation pulls Dresden into the volatile politics between the rival Summer and Winter faerie courts, complicated further by the disappearance of a changeling child named Lily. Adding personal weight to the case, Dresden's former lover Elaine resurfaces as a representative of the Summer Court, forcing him to navigate old feelings alongside the dangerous intrigue of faerie power struggles.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Dresden Files
- Series: The Dresden Files core; position 4 of 18 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Jim Butcher
Notes
- From the series record (The Dresden Files): 18-novel main sequence (2000-2026, ongoing), narrated throughout by wizard-detective Harry Dresden. Publication order equals in-story chronological order for the entire main sequence. Peace Talks and Battle Ground (both 2020) were originally written as a single novel that grew too long and was split into two by the publisher, released 2.5 months apart, a genuine bibliographic quirk, not a numbering error. A 19th novel (Mirror Mirror) is announced for 2027 but unpublished and is not registered.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Dresden Files: position 4 of 18: previous Grave Peril (2001) · next Death Masks (2003)
Sources
- Jim Butcher's official site
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dresden_Files
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Knight
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