Jim Butcher #2 SPOILERS!

[Kouran]

Some spoilery stuff:

I liked how meltdown of various friends of Harry turned out to be due mostly to their sadness and issues re: his death and not that they were not powerful / competent enough to keep the things together without him, as seemed initially.

OTOH - when will Murphy finally become Knight of the Sword?!! Her reluctance was contrived to begin with, but now it has become just blatantly stupid. If other wielders were so intransigent, the swords would have been been all but useless. Enough dancing around it, really.

Hopefully, Molly will finally explain the truth about Harry's failed assassination to her now.

As somebody who had been annoyed with Harry's kid-gloved handling of Molly and her relative uselessness after so many years of apprenticeship, I was very glad that, yes, it turns out that Harry had been holding her back significantly. Too bad that Lea will stop training her now. that he is back.

Also, if Harry, who is superb at destructive magic, always carried a firearm, why doesn't Molly, whose talents lie elsewhere, do the same? It would complement her skill-set even better than Harry's. She could be really dangerous that way and less likely to be forced to break the Law of magic when going against human villains.

I was very relieved that we didn't get any Molly/Harry romance either and I fervently hope that this issue is off the table permanently.

Hopefully, something will be done to legalize Molly's status with the Council, though - Harry really should have thought of it prior to the events in Changes. He himself was allowed to become independant after a couple of years with McCoy. Yes, I know, nepotism, but still... Of course, the whole Ragged Lady act isn't going to help, now.

Also, pseudo-killing Butters is getting old.

Fitz... yea seemed stereotypical and relatively boring, whereas Morty and Ser Stuart were superb, IMHO. Of course, Fitz was mostly there to get Harry to reminisce, so as long as he doesn't become too important, it's OK. He can't become Harry's apprentice, thankfully, as Harry didn't think that he had any latent magical talent for him to use.

Not that Harry will be in position to take apprentices, as a Winter Knight. I hope.

The loophole wasn't unexpected, but I do hope that Harry can't go back to juggling his old life with being a Winter Knight. There has to be some price, even if not quite as awful as what he envisioned.

I loved, loved the explanation re: why Harry was always left handling various villains with a ragged group of unlikely helpers instead of getting help from the Council.

It seemed quite Gary Stuish at times, so it was great that it turned out that for the most part the issues were just too complicated to charge into and only Harry was short-sighted enough to jump in, with nary a thought for the bigger picture/long-term consequences. Priceless ;).

Anyway, can't wait for... Cold Days, is it? The scene is set for some extremely interesting developements.

Ok a couple of thoughts on some of your spoiler section:

We know that someone is going to take up a sword in the next book, I suppose it would be Murphy. I see her reluctance to take up the sword as a denial of Harry being dead, if Harry wasnt dead she wouldnt really need all the help that the sword would give her.

I think Harry went a complete 180 with Molly from how he was treated by Justin, in a miss guided attempt to make up for how badly he was treated as an aprentice. Obviously this left Molly ill prepared for facing the realities of the world.

One thing I noticed Harry mentioned in the book which I found interesting was when he mentioned in passing that a wizards senses make it easier to use magic, but dont necessarily limit someone from learning magic. It would be interesting to see someone like Butters who has a good understanding of the theory of magic, but no innate magical sense like Harry has to learn to use magic.

[Poobah]

Starting my 'read at a sensible pace' read of Ghost Story now I've had nearly two weeks to recover from my 'consume the new book within a matter of hours' read.

Should be interesting to see how very much I missed.

[Kosciuszko]

So I just finished the series. I loved it.

Things I noticed, and theories:

Harry is being made into a weapon. Yeah, yeah, he realized this himself, but it's interesting how well it all sticks. Earlier in the thread Ser Scot (I think) suggested Ebenezer is actually Black Council, and the Grey Council is actually Black Council. I like this idea. Keep the following in mind about old Ebenezer:

1. He taught Margaret. Margaret was very much into grey magic which, while it didn't violate the Laws of Magic, was very much about trying to improve the world through magic. This seems to have heavy repercussions as Luccio explains to Harry.

2. He taught Harry. Harry believes the same as his mother, even if he doesn't realize this. He openly practices as a wizard, he does what he can to help people, and is poor at seeing the consequences of his actions.

3. His teaching of Harry did not involve the use of magic, but rather setting himself up as a role-model. Think about that. Two people who likely had Ebenezer as a role-model seem to have very similar views on magic and its place.

4. Ebenezer knows way more than he lets on about Harry and his destiny.

5. As Blackstaff, Ebenezer is basically the ultimate form of the idea of grey magic. He can use black magic to do good things and no one will call him on it.

Lastly, Ebenezer is not evil. The soul-gaze shows this. I think Ebenezer and Harry likely share a ton of parallels. Both are basically weapons. Both have a lot of independence. Both seem concerned with helping people.

So I think we have a few possibilities here. The first is that Ebenezer and the Grey Council aren't evil but simply wrong.

The second is that Ebenezer can fake his soul-gaze or is somehow protected from a reveal in that way. I don't buy this. Ebenezer seems totally legitimate and if he really does pursue grey magic, like Margaret did, that still suggests a person who at core is good if maybe misguided.

The third is that Ebenezer is exactly what he appears- a powerful wizard that cares for Harry and is trying to work against dark forces on the Council. Nothing he's done directly implicates him, but way too many connections to grey magic exist here. Including his role of Blackstaff being the ultimate expression of this- the use of black magic to do good things. So I'm just suspicious of this.

I think Harry is going to be a weapon for the Grey Council to destroy the White Council. And, if they aren't one and the same, the Black Council as well. I don't think the Grey Council is evil, not at its core. It's a different ideology and one that is somewhat restrained by the current Laws of Magic.

The Gatekeeper is also grey. I seem to recall him suggesting that Harry was one day going to destroy the Senior Council in Turn Coat in a slip of the tongue. Harry doesn't catch it but the line was something like, "It is not yet your time to do this."

I think Uriel is trying to prevent this. All of Ghost Story Harry was hit over the head, again and again, with seeing and understanding the consequences of his actions.

So yeah. This is all probably crap but it's just what I kind of feel is going on right now.

[Werthead]

The Dresden Files #3: Grave Peril

Harry Dresden, Chicago-based wizard for hire, finds himself drawn into a new case. A plea from a helpless young woman sets him on a course that will lead to a cataclysmic showdown with an old enemy, and may cost Dresden that which he cares about the most...

Grave Peril is the third novel in the Dresden Files series of urban fantasies and an important turning-point in the series. The first two novels, Storm Front and Fool Moon, were entertaining but little more than enjoyable fluff. Grave Peril is a considerably darker and more personal book, with Butcher's writing much more confident and assured as he puts Dresden through the emotional wringer. Whilst reading the book I was in put in mind of those 'gamechanger' episodes of Buffy and Angel when Joss Whedon would rip up the status quo by doing something to the characters that hurt them badly and established a new paradigm he would have fun setting up and exploring.

Grave Peril expands the cast of the Dresden Files with Michael Carpenter, a Christian knight armed with a magical sword, joining Dresden in his battle with the forces of evil. We also get a greater depth of worldbuilding, with both the vampire and Sidhe inhabitants of Dresden's world being fleshed out in a lot of detail. Whilst Butcher's approach does not stray too far from standard fantasy/horror depictions of these creatures, he succeeds in making them feel fresh and interesting, a near-impossible task given how ubiquitous these forces have become in recent supernatural fiction.

Butcher's writing is fun and enjoyable, with more of Dresden's attitude, character and humour bleeding through the first-person prose. His writing has definitely stepped up in quality from the first two books in the series and he effectively conveys the horror of several disturbing scenes in the book. He's become better at conveying emotion since the opening volumes of the series and several scenes are real gut-punches. There's also a more epic feeling to events, with ramifications from this book likely to extend over several books to come, opening up the story to something larger and more interesting in scale.

Some complaints remain. As with Fool Moon, Dresden is injured several times in the book and Butcher goes a bit overboard in his descriptions of how tired, hurt and helpless Dresden feels due to these injuries. There is the feeling that with each successive volume, Dresden's powers and abilities with magic are growing (along with those of his allies) and this requires Butcher to go to some lengths to 'nerf' Dresden's abilities to simply stop him using a hand-wave of magic to solve all of his problems. However, this is a minor issue, and Butcher's impressive improvement in the areas of prose and characterisation overcome it quite handily.

Grave Peril (****) is where The Dresden Files comes of age, and it does so with aplomb. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

[Contrarius]

It's hard to believe you haven't already read this, Wert....nonetheless, IMHO your review is pretty much spot on!

[Werthead]

The Dresden Files #4: Summer Knight

Harry Dresden is in trouble. He's inadvertently started a war between the vampires and the wizards' White Council, his girlfriend has suffered an unplanned magical transformation and he's in danger of being booted out of his house and office. When a new paying job comes along it seems like a great opportunity for Harry to get on top of his troubles...until he finds himself in the middle of another magical war.

Summer Knight, the fourth novel in The Dresden Files, picks up some months after the events of Grave Peril and is the first book in the series to feature extensive continuity call-backs to previous volumes without a huge amount of exposition about what's been going on. Four books and twelve hundred pages into the series, I guess Butcher decided it was time to stop catering for newcomers and get on with business.

Having covered evil warlocks, werewolves, vampires and ghosts in the first three books, Butcher explores the faeries of his setting in this volume (though they showed up in the previous book, there's more revealed about them this time around). Making faeries work as threatening forces is tricky in supernatural fiction due to the cliches that come to mind when they show up, but Butcher does a good job here, defining the Sidhe of Dresden's world in some detail as threatening and sometimes malevolent beings who are dangerous and tricky to deal with. Their addition to the story, along with more information about Dresden's wizardly colleagues, expands the scope of the worldbuilding nicely.

Butcher's prose is as enjoyable as ever, with Butcher continuing a nice line in black humour. This book is notably lighter in tone than the dark Grave Peril, but things are still grimmer than in the first two, slighter novels in the series. The continuation of an over-arcing story arc from the third book (which still isn't resolved at the end of this volume) gives a more epic feel to events, with Harry's mission in the book having larger and more important ramifications in the wider conflict and world. It's good to see returning characters like Billy and his werewolf pack, the Alphas, whilst Karrin Murphy returns to the forefront of the action and, as she puts it, successfully kicks some major supernatural arse in one well-realised action sequence.

At this point The Dresden Files is becoming an enjoyable television series in novel form (which makes the failure of the TV version of the series more of a shame, though that may be down to how much they deviated from the source material). Each novel so far has had a satisfying self-contained narrative, but also added to the mythology and, in the third and fourth books, has brought in larger storylines spanning multiple volumes that bring a more epic feel to the series.

Summer Knight (****) is another well-written entry in a highly enjoyable fantasy series. It is available now in the UK and USA.

[Werthead]

The Dresden Files #5: Death Masks

Harry Dresden has a lot on his plate: he's been challenged to a duel to the death to determine the outcome of the war between wizards and vampires; he's been hired to find the missing Shroud of Turin; his old girlfriend Susan is back in town for unknown purposes; and, just to round things off, thirty arch-demons are on the prowl in Chicago. And that's not even mentioning a pair of European art thieves hitting town and all three Knights of the Cross turning up to confront a mutual foe.

Death Masks, the fifth book in The Dresden Files, is the busiest book in the series to date. It sports at least four distinct plot threads (along with several related subplots) which interconnect with one another in a number of unexpected ways as the novel progresses. Each one of these plots would be enough to drive a novel by itself and Butcher seems to delight in upping the ante and complexity of the series to new heights. Combined with the ongoing, series-spanning storylines, this makes Death Masks the most epic book in the series to date.

That said, Butcher takes care to ensure the story is fully comprehensible at all times, and drives the narrative forward with his customary energy and vigour. He also finds time for some accomplished characterisation, with recurring crimelord Jonny Marcone being developed particularly well. It's also good to see some other characters like Susan and Michael returning, along with the introduction of some intriguing new characters like the Archive (a mystical repository of knowledge taking the form of a little girl) and Nicodemus (a potential new nemesis for Harry). The first appearance of the Order of Saint Giles and the Denarian sect of demons also expands the scope of Harry's world impressively.

Death Masks (****) is another very strong entry in the series. New readers will be lost (I recommend they start with the first book, Storm Front) but returning fans will find yet another page-turning and entertaining urban fantasy novel. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Butcher's twitter feed is reporting Cold Days publication Date as June 1, 2012.

:)

Well, crap. That's not the publication date. It's the date the novel will be handed to the publisher. The actual publication date isn't set yet.

Sorry.

[Lyanna Stark]

Yay only 6 months to wait. Will be great to see Harry getting back and getting his arse handed to him by his old sidekicks. Well, for a while at least. :P

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Lyanna,

Hey,

It's only an 11 month wait this time as opposed to the 15 month wait for Ghost Story.

Please see my edit. My information was incorrect.

[Lyanna Stark]

Awwh, what a shame. Still tho, you can't really expect him to churn out a novel a year, poor man. :)

[Tormund Ukrainesbane]

He's got so many story lines going at this point he probably has to do at least one complete re-write per book just to get his new story meshed with all the old ones. It's actually really impressive how there aren't any plotlines that feel like they're not up to speed.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Deleting before the mods do

[Usotsuki]

Cold Days

Chapter One

Chapter Two

[Kouran]

The third chapter was released today as well.

[Argonath Diver]

I usually lack the willpower to avoid these kinds of things. I stare at "spoiler warning!" and wince and click away. I read listener summaries of GRRM's wretched, filthy, hateful teaser chapters of his next novel years before I finally get to read it.

in this case, I say NO! I will get my copy soon enough, hide myself in my room, or more likely a pub, and destroy Cold Days in one long sitting, anything else be damned.

And Butcher, you dirty son of a bitch, you'd better not punch me in the face again with one of those brutal cliffhangers. .. Oh, fine, I already know you will. I just hope for some truly shocking plot twists and/or major deaths before you set me up again! Heyooo!

[RedEyedGhost]

I think reading chapters of a soon to be released book would drive me absolutely nuts! That's like slow torture after a long wait.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

I always read the spoiler chapters. It's a ritual build up to the actual book.

[scotcat]

I can't read spoiler chapters - not just when Butcher does this kind of thing, but for any author. You just torture yourself by doing it. In this case the book will be here in 2 weeks, I'll just wait.