The True King of Urban Fantasy - The Dresden Files

[Deathhappens]

Holy fuck what is happening in this book.

Spoiler:

Murph dead.
Marcone a Denarius.
Molly potentially losing it.
Justine an Outsider for YEARS.
Harry kicked out of the White Council (what the fuck).
Supernatural cat is firmly out of the bag now
Lara and Harry getting married what the fuck
BUTCHER KNOWS ABOUT HENTAI, WOE BE UPON US ALL

I...don't know how to unpack all this.

[Mattias]

I don't know so much about #6. They say it's a terrorist attack to the public, so outside of Chicago it can be suppressed, especially with communications down because of magic EMPs. (BTW is thing now Dresden's 9/11? I don't remember them mentioning it before in any of the other books.) As for the populace, some may take it at face value, but look at Rudolph of the SI/IA. How many times has he seen magic? He saw his entire department get wrecked by a werewolf, and he still doesn't believe. How many Rudolph's are out there?

[forumghost]

I don't know so much about #6. They say it's a terrorist attack to the public, so outside of Chicago it can be suppressed, especially with communications down because of magic EMPs. (BTW is thing now Dresden's 9/11? I don't remember them mentioning it before in any of the other books.) As for the populace, some may take it at face value, but look at Rudolph of the SI/IA. How many times has he seen magic? He saw his entire department get wrecked by a werewolf, and he still doesn't believe. How many Rudolph's are out there?

Honestly this is just sooooo fucking dumb and I hate that Jim is bitching out about breaking the Masquerade after an entire book about how this is too big to ignore, especially after we see in Ghost Story (three books ago) that the cracks are already showing.

You can't just sweep something as big as 60,000 people dying under the rug. There would be too many people demanding answers for you to pull a nasu style 'lol it was gas leaks guys' on this.

[Mattias]

My guess is he'll go with "most of the people directly attacked only dealt with the spear boys who look pretty human before they start dying in droves". And of the people in the big battle only a few hundred normies survived. It will also give him a big source of new characters, Oh hey this minor character/antagonist that hasn't been developed before is new because they remember the Fomor attack.

Heck if I was Butcher, I'd have one of the next books be about a two groups of normies going though huge PTSD of it, one who wants to destroy everything (like kill magic itself or something), and the other who wants to stop them but thinks all the supernatural groups are the same and won't work with anyone.

[Deathhappens]

Just recreate Hunter: The Vigil, really, you already have all the relevant parties. Especially with the Men In Black officially Being A Thing now.

- - - Updated - - -

For the record, I don't believe any attempts to cover this shit up will work. Someone will have managed to take analog photos, some quack doctor will have gotten their hands on some octokongs or turtlenecks, some gang will have gotten some hate spears and kept them for souvenirs. The gas leak story might prevent mundane vs magic World War 3 right here and now, but the dam's springing leaks that won't be plugged. I'm curious what this is all a setup for- Harry invading the White House to tell the president he needs to nuke so and so place? F-15E's strafing a kaiju, Independance Day style? Is Harry finally gonna move out of Chicago? (Not permanently, since he has a new house and all, but maybe a full adventure set in another city- like, say, where was it Carlos was based and Elaine was hiding out in? Somewhere in California?) Lots of paths ahead.

[eddyak]

Now that Harry has his own wizard fort, if we don't get magical artillery, or some sort of intercontinental base-based wizard's duel, Butcher will have wasted all the potential in the world.

[Deathhappens]

Harry already had Demonreach for that, and Butcher decided he needed to be among the little people rather than stuck in an island or a castle doing wizard things.