The True King of Urban Fantasy - The Dresden Files

[Deathhappens]

So, I recently re-read the series because Corona, and checked the website to find out if Peace Talks has a release set yet. Good News! Apparently it's set for July 14 (provided society hasn't collapsed by then). Even better, there's a second book out in the Fall set for September 29, Battle Grounds, Which is Harry vs one of the female Titans.

So six year's then two books with three months. Now if Only Scott Lynch could get back into the swing I'd be set.

Damn good news. More Dresden Files is always good in my book, even if its two smaller doses rather than one big one.

[Mattias]

So Peace Talks came out this week...

spoilers

Wow, it really does feel like a part 1. Really feels like Butcher is still working out his heist movie ideas from the last book. Basically Thomas is caught trying to kill the Dwarf King while under truce, most likely because someone threatened his unborn child, so Harry has to sneak him out with no one realizing in the middle of the shindig. That said it feels less satisfying then Skin Game because there's no real Turn in the story. Everything goes of pretty well without a hitch, no big revelation about the plot, which is the big cathartic moment in any con story. Sure big bad things happen, like a Titan rolling up and punting Mab through a wall and then threatening to create a plot for the next book, or McCoy finding out trying to kill Thomas during the escape and accidently blowing out Harry's chest instead. The main plot is pretty straight forward, but for all that nothing really big happens, Harry basically wanders around talking to people. Not even really investigating since the who, what, where, when and why are apparent. It seems mostly about catching up characters, Murphy and Dresden's new relationship, Butters as a Jedi, Harry finally being a father to Maggie, and his relationship with McCoy as both a mentor, supervisor, and grandfather. Lots of stuff about family here, between Thomas' upcoming one, Harry with all his loved ones, Molly and the Carpenters, and Butter and his werewolf threesome. That said there's also a bunch of up in the plotlines that never get capped which make it feel like a prequel. Harry being threatened again with Expulsion from the White Council (and Ramirez filling the Morgan role, though much more trusting of Dresden), or Murphy and Dresden getting investigated by Internal Affairs over the ruckus from Skin Game (Even though the IA guy doesn't know why they're dealing with an ex-cop and a freelance detective), or Mab running whatever game it is that sets this plot in motion by lending Harry to Lara Raith for two favours, or Harry's random magical child conjuration cold, or why Thomas decided to go ahead with the ill-fated assassination (His jaw being broken and only getting a "J-" sound out, makes me think that Harry's jumping to conclusions). I do like how the plot sticks to pretty low stakes things, there's very little throwing power at each other. Probably to make up for the next book being a whole book of city destroying action. It seems like they're going to try and seal the new villain away in Demonreach, so that plan will last until the climax then someone will have to die to do something crazy instead. I'm guessing Ebenezer or Murphy right now, big death flags coming from both.

TL;DL feels a lot like a Part 1 with lots of lose threads and while there's a resolved plotline, another bigger one starts up in the last third giving the book just enough time to wrap up what's immediately happening and then pointing at the metaphorical Wrestlemania sign. Lots of death flags being set for the next book too. It will probably be better when Part 2 rolls around in September, but for now it feels like the weakest Dresden Files book yet.

[Tobias]

Yeah I didn’t like this one as much as I thought I would. Didn’t hate it or anything but I was a little underwhelmed

[Mattias]

It's not like the story didn't have a proper resolution or anything, the theme of family is pretty upfront throughout. It just feels like it left too much up in the air, like a studio's attempt to build a cinematic universe from one property. Like the Dark Universe, Battle Angel Alita, or any YA adaptation in the last few years. Only this comes 16 entries into the series.

[forumghost]

Yeah my reaction when I got to the end was basically "this feel like half a DF book".

I'm also really dissatisfied with the fact that the Peace Talks are just pure backdrop for another Heist story that's not even a good heist story.

Also, 90% of the problems Harry has in this book go away if he just communicates with people.

Seriously, so many idiot balls being juggled by the characters here.

[Mattias]

Also, 90% of the problems Harry has in this book go away if he just communicates with people.

Actually, it really feels like he tries to take the dipolatic way out more than he usually does in other books, it just doesn't really work. He tries with the Drawves and Whites and that fails, and he tries with McCoy and that backfiresor chestfires to be more accurate. The thing with the Wardens though is a real "Just Talk" moment, but since that plotline doesn't get wrapped up it feels like it has no effect either way. Though next book it will bite him in the ass.

[Deathhappens]

So Peace Talks came out this week...

spoilers

Wow, it really does feel like a part 1. Really feels like Butcher is still working out his heist movie ideas from the last book. Basically Thomas is caught trying to kill the Dwarf King while under truce, most likely because someone threatened his unborn child, so Harry has to sneak him out with no one realizing in the middle of the shindig. That said it feels less satisfying then Skin Game because there's no real Turn in the story. Everything goes of pretty well without a hitch, no big revelation about the plot, which is the big cathartic moment in any con story. Sure big bad things happen, like a Titan rolling up and punting Mab through a wall and then threatening to create a plot for the next book, or McCoy finding out trying to kill Thomas during the escape and accidently blowing out Harry's chest instead. The main plot is pretty straight forward, but for all that nothing really big happens, Harry basically wanders around talking to people. Not even really investigating since the who, what, where, when and why are apparent. It seems mostly about catching up characters, Murphy and Dresden's new relationship, Butters as a Jedi, Harry finally being a father to Maggie, and his relationship with McCoy as both a mentor, supervisor, and grandfather. Lots of stuff about family here, between Thomas' upcoming one, Harry with all his loved ones, Molly and the Carpenters, and Butter and his werewolf threesome. That said there's also a bunch of up in the plotlines that never get capped which make it feel like a prequel. Harry being threatened again with Expulsion from the White Council (and Ramirez filling the Morgan role, though much more trusting of Dresden), or Murphy and Dresden getting investigated by Internal Affairs over the ruckus from Skin Game (Even though the IA guy doesn't know why they're dealing with an ex-cop and a freelance detective), or Mab running whatever game it is that sets this plot in motion by lending Harry to Lara Raith for two favours, or Harry's random magical child conjuration cold, or why Thomas decided to go ahead with the ill-fated assassination (His jaw being broken and only getting a "J-" sound out, makes me think that Harry's jumping to conclusions). I do like how the plot sticks to pretty low stakes things, there's very little throwing power at each other. Probably to make up for the next book being a whole book of city destroying action. It seems like they're going to try and seal the new villain away in Demonreach, so that plan will last until the climax then someone will have to die to do something crazy instead. I'm guessing Ebenezer or Murphy right now, big death flags coming from both.

TL;DL feels a lot like a Part 1 with lots of lose threads and while there's a resolved plotline, another bigger one starts up in the last third giving the book just enough time to wrap up what's immediately happening and then pointing at the metaphorical Wrestlemania sign. Lots of death flags being set for the next book too. It will probably be better when Part 2 rolls around in September, but for now it feels like the weakest Dresden Files book yet.

Oh shit, I missed the timing! Meh, I need to wait who knows how long for my copy to be shipped anyway.

[eddyak]

Yeah, it's pretty apparent that he had to split one book into two, it felt short and unfinished. Hopefully the next one makes up for that.

[Deathhappens]

Alright, so I may or may not have procured a
early copy in slightly less than legitimate ways.
Gotta agree, this was pretty obviously only half of a story. It's still Dresden Files, of course, and it's still good, but after such a long wait it's not exactly blowing anyone's head off.

More specific opinion inside

I'm really not sold on the portrayal of some of the old characters here. Ebenezer's been solid oak for centuries now, I find it really hard to believe he'd lose control of his emotions to this extent now, especially after Harry spends half the book praising his ridiculous self-posession in terms of the magic he wields. Yoshimo, Chandler and Wild Bill have been fringe characters so maybe it's a wash (though it's very odd that only people Harry knows came to check up on him) but Ramirez especially was present in the Duel At The Deeps (as well as several other incidents, on and off-page). I find it hard to believe that he'd even consider Harry could be compromised by the White Court after all this time. And speaking of which to round off the trifecta, Lara has a huge role in this book, and her portrayal seems subtly but drastically different. She's always been catty and someone who played off Harry well, but at the same time Harry/the narration never failed to point out that she was an unapologetic monster. Anyone remember when she threatened/stated she would "choke the world in kindness"? Yet here she is acting completely irrationally for the sake of her brother, whom she'd been quite willing to throw to the wolves in more than one occasion in the past and Harry is cooperating with her willingly and with almost none of his usual "you're a monster and one day I'll gut you" disclaimers.

Other than that, this half-book was solid. Sad we couldn't get more interactions with Maggie and especially Bonny (who we got to see in all of one scene before she had to be locked away). Curious as to what happened to Kincaid and why Ivy is unescorted now. And speaking of which, did I miss another timeskip somewhere? When did all of Michael's children grow up already? I seem to rememeber some of them still living in his house as of Skin Game when Nicodemus came a-calling.

[Mattias]

There is a bit of the "we'll kill each other some other time" thing at the end, but I think Harry might be trying to avoid being so heavy handed, with all the Bianca comparisons in that scene, and musings on how that turned out.

As for the Carpenter kids, Molly was 18 in Proven Guilty, and that was book 8. Most of the books tend to have a gap between them of about nine months to a year, so she's probably in her mid to late 20's at this point. So most probably half have moved out. Hope the second youngest is 14 here.


Edit: Just checked the official timeline. Molly was born 12 years before Storm Front, and as of Peace Talks 14 years have passed throughout the series, so she's be 26, and each kid is two years apart, so 4 would be over 18 by now.

[forumghost]

Alright, so I may or may not have procured a
early copy in slightly less than legitimate ways.
Gotta agree, this was pretty obviously only half of a story. It's still Dresden Files, of course, and it's still good, but after such a long wait it's not exactly blowing anyone's head off.

More specific opinion inside

I'm really not sold on the portrayal of some of the old characters here. Ebenezer's been solid oak for centuries now, I find it really hard to believe he'd lose control of his emotions to this extent now, especially after Harry spends half the book praising his ridiculous self-posession in terms of the magic he wields. Yoshimo, Chandler and Wild Bill have been fringe characters so maybe it's a wash (though it's very odd that only people Harry knows came to check up on him) but Ramirez especially was present in the Duel At The Deeps (as well as several other incidents, on and off-page). I find it hard to believe that he'd even consider Harry could be compromised by the White Court after all this time. And speaking of which to round off the trifecta, Lara has a huge role in this book, and her portrayal seems subtly but drastically different. She's always been catty and someone who played off Harry well, but at the same time Harry/the narration never failed to point out that she was an unapologetic monster. Anyone remember when she threatened/stated she would "choke the world in kindness"? Yet here she is acting completely irrationally for the sake of her brother, whom she'd been quite willing to throw to the wolves in more than one occasion in the past and Harry is cooperating with her willingly and with almost none of his usual "you're a monster and one day I'll gut you" disclaimers.

Other than that, this half-book was solid. Sad we couldn't get more interactions with Maggie and especially Bonny (who we got to see in all of one scene before she had to be locked away). Curious as to what happened to Kincaid and why Ivy is unescorted now. And speaking of which, did I miss another timeskip somewhere? When did all of Michael's children grow up already? I seem to rememeber some of them still living in his house as of Skin Game when Nicodemus came a-calling.

Yeah, some characters are kinda off in this one, I kinda feel that Jim's Hiatus has affected the story there. In regards to Ivy, that's actually shown in one of the Microfictions on Jim's Website, and I'm not gonna lie, I really would like her to have a chat with Harry all things considered. It really feels like there was a missed opportunity with the Peace Talks to see some of these characters again, especially since Jim was forced to split the Book across two volumes.

[Deathhappens]

Yeah, some characters are kinda off in this one, I kinda feel that Jim's Hiatus has affected the story there. In regards to Ivy, that's actually shown in one of the Microfictions on Jim's Website, and I'm not gonna lie, I really would like her to have a chat with Harry all things considered. It really feels like there was a missed opportunity with the Peace Talks to see some of these characters again, especially since Jim was forced to split the Book across two volumes.

Oh, wow. I had no idea those were a thing. That's... quite a story, despite being so small.

[forumghost]

Oh, wow. I had no idea those were a thing. That's... quite a story, despite being so small.

Like I said, I want to see those two have a chat.

The Morgan one had some pretty interesting things to it as well. I wonder if Jim's difficulties in writing don't have to do with him being tired of Harry's pov.

[eddyak]

Yeah, I wouldn't mind being taken out of Dresden's headspace for a chapter or two now and then.

I felt like Dresden took half a dozen steps forward since the last book, which is a relief. He's been developing as a character since the very start, but it comes as a relief that in this one he was actually able to say "nope, fuck that, not dealing with this thirtieth problem that's dropped itself on my lap since I woke up, I'll get someone else to deal with it." And he actually does just push some crap to the side whereas with every one of the books up until now, he'd have grabbed that baggage and held on tight.

[Mattias]

So I finished Battle Ground. That was a much better book than Peace Talks. It's more of an action story than a detective one, feeling a lot like Changes. Lots of character deaths, some way more telegraphed than others, and even a wedding at the end. It's pretty easy to see what bits were added on to make the two books seperate, and shine some light on the parts of the last as well.

in depth gripes/praise

Murphy crushed under all those death flags, pegged that one from a book away. Putting her with the Valhalla crew does give her a nice afterlife to enjoy while also removing her from the story.

I had a feeling that the redshirt Wardens weren't going to make it out, but turning them into future villains is a really good twist, as long as they manage to justfy why 3 highly loyal Wardens are suddenly all going Sieg Vampire.

That whole Drakul plotline is one that feels like it was added on after the book split, since it has no effects on this part and is really isolated. I was really hoping Dresden would bring up Kincaid during that part though, just for the acknowledgement.

The whole Showdown with McCoy seems like it was also added on afterwards in hindsight too, since just hours after almost killing one grandson and trying to kill his other they're acting more like they were after Harry found out he was the Blackstaff. Respectable distance and awkward, but not just had a detahmatch.

Did not see the marriage to Lara. This seems like it's going to be a fun next book, between the one year away wedding and Joe's one year deadline to read Dresden into the Illuminati. I had though Butters Werewolf 3P was a bit of obvious author fanservice, but now Harry's marrying a literal porn star. That said, I do really like Lara, she has a lot of the same traits that I liked in Lash. Though I still wish Lash was till around in some capacity.

Lot's of Starborn thrown around this book, so I expect Drakul and Listen to have major parts in future books.

Did not see Denarian Marcone coming either. It brings up so many questions. Thorny was the one who attacked Arctis Tor so why is Mab so chummy with Marcone if he's hitching a ride. I can buy that he's one of the more independent minded Fallen but how did he get the coin? Did Mab give it to him? Or did he pick it up back during Small Favor and hid it for years from everyone? And if Marcone is a Denarian why did Nicodemus have to go through him in Skin Game, couldn't he have just commanded his compliance and not had to kill everyone or have a police shootout?

Man, Fuck Randolph. All my homies hate Randolph.

Justine too, saw that one coming. But I expected it to be a little more than 'possessed by an outsider for over half a decade'. Like sleeper secret cultist or working for another faction to mess up both the White Court and Council.

The whole Spear of destiny thing was a bit of a let down. They make such a big deal about it, but it never gets used other than as a buff for the banishment, which felt like it could have easily been done while it was still holstered at his side.

Did Cristos just... die? You know, it was really unclear.

The only action scene that I wasn't fully on board for the first with the Kraken. Dresden is literally powered by cold and ice, why not just try and freeze the water and make it a popsicle. Tentisicle? It's like attacking a Lighting mage while holding a sparking powerline in both hands.

So yeah pour one out for Murphy, Hendricks, Redshirts, and Harry's love life.

o7

[Tobias]

Yeah there is a lot to unpack in all these books but it weirds me out that in a pair where there was apparently to much fat to be trimmed and a massive headache dealing with what could and could not be included they somehow had time for a nerd threesome

[eddyak]

Harry's never had a love life. Butcher learned early in his life that X-Files style, will-they-or-won't-they is the way, and he never changes.

Yeah, the Butters threesome is a thing that I think was in there more for the teen nerd Butcher, not so deep down, sitting in his basement watching Star Wars for the sixteenth time and staring forlornly into the distance, self inserting into a book he swears he's going to write one day.

And yeah, the two books kind of read like they were put together from a bunch of puzzle piece chapters and pages. Hope the next book comes out relatively soon, and brings back the magic.

[Mattias]

And yeah, the two books kind of read like they were put together from a bunch of puzzle piece chapters and pages. Hope the next book comes out relatively soon, and brings back the magic.

Honestly even though you could see the seems in Battle Ground, it still felt really on point. Peace Talks is the one that really suffered in the split, but in the end I'd rather have one good book and one lacklustre than two medicore ones. One disappointment vs two.

[Tobias]

Yeah, I’ll second that. Battlegrounds had a lot of the magic peace talks lacked. It was still hiring and suffering from jagged edges. But if you treat peace talks and battlegrounds as to seperate books instead of frankenbook, battlegrounds was P good

[Deathhappens]

Finally managed to pick up Battle Grounds. Just got started, but this phrase:

"No matter what happens tonight, the world. Changes. Period.”

Made me realise the word "Changes" gives me PTSD now.
Oh boy, this is gonna be a fun read.