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rushthatspeaksRead yesterday, Tuesday, July 26th.
The latest novel of the Dresden Files, urban fantasy starring Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard. The Dresden books are a lot of fun, have moments of genuine good and moments of genuine suck, and do try not to be the same book every time. If you don't already read them, this is not where you come in. Too much backstory. This is like book eleven or twelve and while book one is not great, starting somewhere in the three-four range will do you better.
A non-spoilery assessment: Fascinating. This is definitely Butcher trying new things in several directions, some of which I like immensely and some of which I would like him to stop immediately. It has one of the tighter plots I've seen Butcher handle, interwoven with entirely too much in the way of brooding about previous moral decisions and backstory. It feels like a transitional book to me, old series status quo becoming a different thing emerging (hey, the last book was called Changes), and the new voice hasn't settled in solidly but is definitely present. On the structural level, it's kind of weirdly paced; there's so much going on that I suspect that part of the reason for the aforementioned brooding is to give the reader a breathing space. There aren't many natural pauses in the plot, and Butcher knows that there need to be lulls but is obviously fighting his page count to get all the plot into it. In the past, he's done a lot of A-plot, B-plot, and one plot would provide distraction/rest when the other one was slow/heated up. This book is not run that way and consequently needed to have the pauses built into the main thread. The couple of natural pauses that aren't brooding are actually very good, though.
And this is a more ambitious novel, structurally and in several other ways, than I've seen out of him before. I admire his determination not to let his series sit where it was-- honestly, I suspect he could have written the previous sort of book forever and people would have kept buying them. So I think that despite the occasional shakiness, this is a good direction, and it's certainly an entertaining book (he got the entertaining down a while ago and it hasn't gone away, which is always the danger when you hit slice-and-dice on your series' core concepts).
Do I think this is great literature, or going to be? Oh fuck no. But this series is some of the most enjoyable idfic I read, and the better he gets at it, the happier I'll be. And this is a clear sign that he's working really hard at getting better at it, and pretty much succeeding. I'll take it.
SPOILERS FROM HERE
Some thoughts in no particular order:
It is nice to have it explained how it is that Harry Dresden has been able to see all the movies he quotes. That had actually been bothering me.
Dear Mr. Butcher: put down the metaphysics and walk away slowly. Just. Stop. With the angels and the demons and the general Judeo-Christian cosmology of it all. Stop now. I realize this book had to have some portrayal of an afterlife. I was okay with things until you got into the whole 'the demons broke the rules' thing, at which point you seriously demonstrated that you do not think very much about issues of free will and also broke the limits of plausible retconning. I am fine, in point of fact, with the Molly-memory-work thing. But I am not fine with that not having been the choice Harry made freely and of his own volition, because guess what, in the state he was in at the time that is totally plausible and people make bad choices. You are using really stupid metaphysics to protect your protagonist from having made, for himself, a morally bad decision. Fucking stop it. It kind of invalidates all the growing up he's been doing lately in some ways, doesn't it. It is okay for Harry Dresden to have really fucked up. That is the point of this novel! That sometimes people fuck up and the consequences last and you go on anyway! Aargh.
That said, the actual identity of Harry's killer and the reasons why were lovely and genius, and as I said ninety percent of the retcon was totally plausible. Poor Molly. It clicked for me not that long before it was explained, which is rare for me because usually plot things have giant neon signs about a hundred pages early, and when I saw where things were going I laughed for about five minutes straight and then thought of course, who else possibly would have, that is just Harry's life, isn't it.
So who wants to take bets on Harry doing the sensible grownup thing and going and telling all his friends first thing next book that he's alive? *crickets* Yeah, I thought not. Both Murphy and Molly will have every right to kill him again if he does not go and speak to them absolutely as soon as Mab lets him. And if I were either of them, and I found out he'd come back to life and not told me, I would in fact never speak to him again. Let's hope that some of the character development actually sticks because I do not want to spend the next x books watching Harry and the people he loves have totally preventable drama about his resurrection. Boring.
The Star Trek bit was awesome.
I note we do not have a current whereabouts on Bob. And Harry didn't ask to check up on him. You called him your oldest friend earlier, Harry; what gives? Getting to see the inside of Bob's skull was sweet, though.
Yes, that is the correct foster home for Maggie and I should have thought of it. Perfectly logical.
This was a particularly good book for the Leanansidhe.
Somebody please write the fic about what went on in Kincaid's head during the entire thing. Please. I am curious and Butcher is not going to tell us.
Of course you can't get out of being the Winter Knight by dying. I could have told him that. Way too simple.
I really enjoyed seeing Harry wander around as a powerless newbie in a world he knows nothing about. Nice way of defusing the way he's been getting really powerful the last few books, at least temporarily.
... and that's about all I have at the moment.
SPOILERS STOP HERE
You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost. There are
comments over there.
The latest novel of the Dresden Files, urban fantasy starring Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard. The Dresden books are a lot of fun, have moments of genuine good and moments of genuine suck, and do try not to be the same book every time. If you don't already read them, this is not where you come in. Too much backstory. This is like book eleven or twelve and while book one is not great, starting somewhere in the three-four range will do you better.
A non-spoilery assessment: Fascinating. This is definitely Butcher trying new things in several directions, some of which I like immensely and some of which I would like him to stop immediately. It has one of the tighter plots I've seen Butcher handle, interwoven with entirely too much in the way of brooding about previous moral decisions and backstory. It feels like a transitional book to me, old series status quo becoming a different thing emerging (hey, the last book was called Changes), and the new voice hasn't settled in solidly but is definitely present. On the structural level, it's kind of weirdly paced; there's so much going on that I suspect that part of the reason for the aforementioned brooding is to give the reader a breathing space. There aren't many natural pauses in the plot, and Butcher knows that there need to be lulls but is obviously fighting his page count to get all the plot into it. In the past, he's done a lot of A-plot, B-plot, and one plot would provide distraction/rest when the other one was slow/heated up. This book is not run that way and consequently needed to have the pauses built into the main thread. The couple of natural pauses that aren't brooding are actually very good, though.
And this is a more ambitious novel, structurally and in several other ways, than I've seen out of him before. I admire his determination not to let his series sit where it was-- honestly, I suspect he could have written the previous sort of book forever and people would have kept buying them. So I think that despite the occasional shakiness, this is a good direction, and it's certainly an entertaining book (he got the entertaining down a while ago and it hasn't gone away, which is always the danger when you hit slice-and-dice on your series' core concepts).
Do I think this is great literature, or going to be? Oh fuck no. But this series is some of the most enjoyable idfic I read, and the better he gets at it, the happier I'll be. And this is a clear sign that he's working really hard at getting better at it, and pretty much succeeding. I'll take it.
SPOILERS FROM HERE
Some thoughts in no particular order:
It is nice to have it explained how it is that Harry Dresden has been able to see all the movies he quotes. That had actually been bothering me.
Dear Mr. Butcher: put down the metaphysics and walk away slowly. Just. Stop. With the angels and the demons and the general Judeo-Christian cosmology of it all. Stop now. I realize this book had to have some portrayal of an afterlife. I was okay with things until you got into the whole 'the demons broke the rules' thing, at which point you seriously demonstrated that you do not think very much about issues of free will and also broke the limits of plausible retconning. I am fine, in point of fact, with the Molly-memory-work thing. But I am not fine with that not having been the choice Harry made freely and of his own volition, because guess what, in the state he was in at the time that is totally plausible and people make bad choices. You are using really stupid metaphysics to protect your protagonist from having made, for himself, a morally bad decision. Fucking stop it. It kind of invalidates all the growing up he's been doing lately in some ways, doesn't it. It is okay for Harry Dresden to have really fucked up. That is the point of this novel! That sometimes people fuck up and the consequences last and you go on anyway! Aargh.
That said, the actual identity of Harry's killer and the reasons why were lovely and genius, and as I said ninety percent of the retcon was totally plausible. Poor Molly. It clicked for me not that long before it was explained, which is rare for me because usually plot things have giant neon signs about a hundred pages early, and when I saw where things were going I laughed for about five minutes straight and then thought of course, who else possibly would have, that is just Harry's life, isn't it.
So who wants to take bets on Harry doing the sensible grownup thing and going and telling all his friends first thing next book that he's alive? *crickets* Yeah, I thought not. Both Murphy and Molly will have every right to kill him again if he does not go and speak to them absolutely as soon as Mab lets him. And if I were either of them, and I found out he'd come back to life and not told me, I would in fact never speak to him again. Let's hope that some of the character development actually sticks because I do not want to spend the next x books watching Harry and the people he loves have totally preventable drama about his resurrection. Boring.
The Star Trek bit was awesome.
I note we do not have a current whereabouts on Bob. And Harry didn't ask to check up on him. You called him your oldest friend earlier, Harry; what gives? Getting to see the inside of Bob's skull was sweet, though.
Yes, that is the correct foster home for Maggie and I should have thought of it. Perfectly logical.
This was a particularly good book for the Leanansidhe.
Somebody please write the fic about what went on in Kincaid's head during the entire thing. Please. I am curious and Butcher is not going to tell us.
Of course you can't get out of being the Winter Knight by dying. I could have told him that. Way too simple.
I really enjoyed seeing Harry wander around as a powerless newbie in a world he knows nothing about. Nice way of defusing the way he's been getting really powerful the last few books, at least temporarily.
... and that's about all I have at the moment.
SPOILERS STOP HERE
You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost. There are
