From EW
And it's finally out. Been a loooooooooooooong 5 years. As the title says, make sure to mark and spoiler tag comments about the book until a month's passed.
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Dresden Files |OT| The Honored Dead (Battle Ground out now, no unmarked spoilers!)
- Thread starter Poodlestrike
- Start date
And it's finally out. Been a loooooooooooooong 5 years. As the title says, make sure to mark and spoiler tag comments about the book until a month's passed.
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I finished earlier - would've been done this morning but dragged out the last 10 chapters for a few hours to try and make it last, lol. My 2c:
Overall, I loved it to bits and cannot wait until Sept. 29. Also, the short stories are kinda required reading, now.
e: oh man, friend pointed out a fun theory for something:
Also:
Okay, so you can definitely feel the breakpoint here, where they made the decision to split the book in half. It's not so much a cliffhanger as an action epilogue, if that makes any sense? And I didn't like the scene in the Carpenter's backyard with Sanya and Butters. Didn't really feel necessary.
But man, other than that, this book was just dripping with Dresden-y goodness. Snark, action, ridiculously high odds, Harry getting the crap kicked out of him - so much stuff I've missed. I loved the rescue/heist bringing back the blending potion, the fight with the Cornerhounds, everything with Ebanezer and the other Wardens, Demonreach is still so cool, and the new villain - lawd almighty, what a way to make an entrance, kicking Mab through not 1 but 2 walls and blowing the roof off the BFS. And so many returning faces! River Shoulders and freaking Ferrovax, man. Mavra got a namedrop! Holy shit.
But man, other than that, this book was just dripping with Dresden-y goodness. Snark, action, ridiculously high odds, Harry getting the crap kicked out of him - so much stuff I've missed. I loved the rescue/heist bringing back the blending potion, the fight with the Cornerhounds, everything with Ebanezer and the other Wardens, Demonreach is still so cool, and the new villain - lawd almighty, what a way to make an entrance, kicking Mab through not 1 but 2 walls and blowing the roof off the BFS. And so many returning faces! River Shoulders and freaking Ferrovax, man. Mavra got a namedrop! Holy shit.
Overall, I loved it to bits and cannot wait until Sept. 29. Also, the short stories are kinda required reading, now.
e: oh man, friend pointed out a fun theory for something:
The reason Harry has Conjuritis, what's viewed as a children's disease in Wizarding circles, is because he's only now finally hit mental and emotional maturity.
Also:
I don't think that Thomas was trying to tell Harry to look out for Justine. I think he was trying to warn him about her. I think she's been Nemesis'd or otherwise mindwhammied. There doesn't seem to be any visible threat to her right now, and if Thomas wasn't in an immediate hostage situation, I have to believe he'd have tried other options before going straight to doing whatever he was told.
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The more I get to think on it the more disappointed I am.
It was more like a book-length prelude to the next book than a fully satisfying narrative in its own right. It was repeating a central portion of the plots of both blood rites & turn coat, and it added in the always-tedious "white council is suspicious of harry" subplot while executing it particularly poorly. At this point in Harry's story, it's difficult for that plot to not be dumb, because Harry has saved the council at least twice over at this point, but even so, Jim could've done more with it than he did. The Butters segments remain questionable and often cringe-inducing due to Jim's need to embroider the man's sex life, presumably as a way to offer hope to (what he thinks is -) his readership? But at least Butters didn't have a crisis of faith here, just a crisis of getting too much pussy. Overall, worse than skin game, possibly the worst DF book since fool moon
The few positives were: some very cool magic-fight scenes with Ebenezer, some more interesting information about how demonreach works, and Harry showing some personal development in how he approaches his conflicts, relationships, being a dad, etc. also Lara getting a little more focus and humanit.
But otherwise this book felt both haphazardly-put-together and unsatisfying. The fact that it took six years to produce this is really sad. I hope battle ground is at least excellent to balance it out
PS: fuck the Overwatch reference, stop this dumb shit Jim
The few positives were: some very cool magic-fight scenes with Ebenezer, some more interesting information about how demonreach works, and Harry showing some personal development in how he approaches his conflicts, relationships, being a dad, etc. also Lara getting a little more focus and humanit.
But otherwise this book felt both haphazardly-put-together and unsatisfying. The fact that it took six years to produce this is really sad. I hope battle ground is at least excellent to balance it out
PS: fuck the Overwatch reference, stop this dumb shit Jim
yeah I'm not to thrilled with Butters. The nerds nerd is now
a real Jedi drowning in supermodel orgies
It's getting to where no one is human and everyone is awesome. I fully expect Murphy to become a Valkyrie soon.
Finally starting Skin Game and does anyone else feel like the Male Gaze is kind of getting out of control as the series goes on?
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TBH it's genuinely been dialed down a lot since the early days. Which kinda goes to show how bad it used to be.
It's been over a decade since I started the series so my perception is probably off but I kind of feel like it's the opposite. Especially since the Molly stuff started full bore. That whole situation has been total ick since Proven Guilty and felt like it kind of peaked with grossness during White Knight.
Maybe my perception is skewed because Dresden used to be a more of a sad sack in the first half of the series. Yeah, he would pretty much always end up with the girl anyway but recently it just feels like every woman he encounters wants to jump his bones as soon as they meet.
IDK the whole Hannah stuff at the beginning of Skin Game just really rubbed me the wrong way, especially given how much I was bothered with a lot of the material in White Knight.
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I feel sorta similarly, but honestly, I went back to the early books recently and I think it's just down to my tolerance for the male gaze-y stuff dropping precipitously since I started reading the series way back when.
Harry spouting action hero one liners rofl.
Looks much better than PT but we'll see.
Also I heard Marsters mispronounced Ethniu's name for the whole duration of the audiobook rofl. It's pronounce like Enya.
Here's the first two BG chaps
www.tor.com
Looks much better than PT but we'll see.
Also I heard Marsters mispronounced Ethniu's name for the whole duration of the audiobook rofl. It's pronounce like Enya.
Here's the first two BG chaps
Read the First Two Chapters From Battle Ground, Jim Butcher's New Dresden Files Book - Reactor
Things are about to get serious for Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard… We’re excited to share an excerpt from Battle Ground, the next entry in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series—available September 29th from Ace Books. Harry has faced terrible odds before. He has a long history...
www.tor.com
BG was much better and it just really shows they cut up the book to make more money. I'll think about where to rank it. Pretty heavy book all around.
Highlight was deffo
Worst part was Marcone
Highlight was deffo
Drakul, sadly him finally showing up ended with all the warden kids and Chandler getting slaughtered.
Worst part was Marcone
being the holder of Thorned Namshiel
Just finished.
Oh man.
Oh man.
This felt like Changes 2.0. The entire board is flipped, all the pieces are scattered.
So this felt like two books that took turns mashing up against each other. I basically loved almost everything that wasn't a big battle sequence. Butcher is good at small action, like Harry vs Drakul, but I have a rough time when he tries to write big battles.
Overall I liked it better than Peace Talks, but I would probably prefer to read Peace Talks again, given how bleak this book is. When Butcher has talked about his Big Apocalyptic Trilogy, I've always kind of imagined three books of this.
Murphy. That hurts. I was pretty sure she wasn't going to survive this book. I'd even guessed that she was going to die from some kind of cheap shot, because Butcher. But getting shot by Rudolph? Wow.
So this felt like two books that took turns mashing up against each other. I basically loved almost everything that wasn't a big battle sequence. Butcher is good at small action, like Harry vs Drakul, but I have a rough time when he tries to write big battles.
Overall I liked it better than Peace Talks, but I would probably prefer to read Peace Talks again, given how bleak this book is. When Butcher has talked about his Big Apocalyptic Trilogy, I've always kind of imagined three books of this.
Murphy. That hurts. I was pretty sure she wasn't going to survive this book. I'd even guessed that she was going to die from some kind of cheap shot, because Butcher. But getting shot by Rudolph? Wow.
Talk about barging in unprepared and paying dearly for it. Drakul was devastating. He's both incredibly strong and scary and also cracks jokes and talks about style rofl. Jim does have a lot of chars that come of as samey to me ie Vadderung and Hades. Drakul is on the same level of scary strong older dude but he did inject a little humor (calling the White Council: Their immaculate beardlinesses) and willingness to fuck around with knock jokes before killing you. Makes him different enough to not just be another one of those.
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WOW okay, took me a day to pick it up but chewed through it all after I started it this morning. Whaaaaaaaaat
Agreed on the Changes comparisons. Everything is going to be different now.
Overall, despite the giant piles of tragedy on Harry in this book, this is one of the more upbeat endings. Which... actually says more about the rest of the books, now that I stop and think about it.
Agreed on the Changes comparisons. Everything is going to be different now.
Murphy is DEAD oh my god, I literally shouted NO when Rudolph shot her, out loud, like some shit from a reaction video. But god, she'd just killed a Jotun with a bazooka. What a crowning achievement. She went out like a Viking and she'll be honored like one. I'm with Gard on this, that Rudy pulled the trigger 'cause he's a fucking coward has no impact. I had the "Einherjaren can't return until they're forgotten by those who knew them" thing spoiled for me, but not the context, so I knew it was just going to be another knife in the gut when she got chosen. God, Butcher really does get off on torturing his characters. RIP to the Wardens (I suspect Chandler is still alive, never saw the body and all that), RIP to Hendricks. Did Randy survive? I'm not sure. I've always really liked the "Harry shuts up people who think he's crazy" moments and having somebody who stuck around and got screentime after was dope.
The Accords are still around. The Fomor lost their big heavy hitter in Eithnu, but, flipside, that line about them being much more dangerous under water was pretty clearly setting up a stalemate, a reason why the Accorded nations aren't just going to crush them now that they're not on the back foot. 60,000 dead, that's... too big to ignore. I'm in agreement with the Summer Lady, that doesn't get covered up or go away.
Harry has a castle now, that's dope. And, uh, a fiancée. What the fuck. I'm not gonna lie I was sooooorta shipping him and Lara after Peace Talks but I did not expect it to happen like this.
I fuckin' called the Justine thing. It made too much sense.
I really liked the whole "banner" thing, from a magical systems standpoint. Would make a cool mechanic in an epic fantasy series.
Michael is, to date, the best person in an urban fantasy series hands down. I wish he was my dad. Is that weird? I don't care. I got so scared for a second when Eithnu said she ganked him and the Carpenters and Maggie 'cause this book had been killing off characters LEFT AND RIGHT and I'm so glad they made it. And he cursed! Like a sailor, holy shit.
Overall, I liked all the action scenes. The only one I had a little trouble parsing was the Einherjar vs. Giants one, where I'd thought they'd sunk much further into the muck before they get attacked and it threw me off. Otherwise I was pretty happy. The last battle trod the line on being too long and involved but Butcher mostly pulled it off.
We got Bob! But not Bonea. Bummer.
Marcone is going to be A Problem. As if he wasn't already. But Denarian Marcone is just too good a fit. It plays into his whole thing so well. Though now that Hendricks is dead idk what he's gonna do.
The Accords are still around. The Fomor lost their big heavy hitter in Eithnu, but, flipside, that line about them being much more dangerous under water was pretty clearly setting up a stalemate, a reason why the Accorded nations aren't just going to crush them now that they're not on the back foot. 60,000 dead, that's... too big to ignore. I'm in agreement with the Summer Lady, that doesn't get covered up or go away.
Harry has a castle now, that's dope. And, uh, a fiancée. What the fuck. I'm not gonna lie I was sooooorta shipping him and Lara after Peace Talks but I did not expect it to happen like this.
I fuckin' called the Justine thing. It made too much sense.
I really liked the whole "banner" thing, from a magical systems standpoint. Would make a cool mechanic in an epic fantasy series.
Michael is, to date, the best person in an urban fantasy series hands down. I wish he was my dad. Is that weird? I don't care. I got so scared for a second when Eithnu said she ganked him and the Carpenters and Maggie 'cause this book had been killing off characters LEFT AND RIGHT and I'm so glad they made it. And he cursed! Like a sailor, holy shit.
Overall, I liked all the action scenes. The only one I had a little trouble parsing was the Einherjar vs. Giants one, where I'd thought they'd sunk much further into the muck before they get attacked and it threw me off. Otherwise I was pretty happy. The last battle trod the line on being too long and involved but Butcher mostly pulled it off.
We got Bob! But not Bonea. Bummer.
Marcone is going to be A Problem. As if he wasn't already. But Denarian Marcone is just too good a fit. It plays into his whole thing so well. Though now that Hendricks is dead idk what he's gonna do.
Overall, despite the giant piles of tragedy on Harry in this book, this is one of the more upbeat endings. Which... actually says more about the rest of the books, now that I stop and think about it.
As someone who watched the 1st season on TV, where do I start with the books and do they have a proper end to the saga?
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Well... uh...
The show changed a LOT. I don't think you could realistically start anywhere and continue the show's story.
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There's gonna be 22 casebooks, we're on 17. After that there's gonna be a doorstoper book sized 3 part apocalyptic trilogy.
You should start from book 1 but keep in mind he wrote the first 2 in college. It gets better by 3, 2 is the worst book followed by 16(because 16 and 17 were supposed to be 1 book).
If you just wanna try a random book start with either 7 aka Dead Beat or 10 Small Favor.
Best to forget anything about the show.
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Poodlestrike and Mifec gave really good answers, I'm going to add on.
The TV show was my entry to the series, and while it has some stuff I really like, (I loved Harry using a hockey stick and drumstick as his wizard tools,) it... doesn't really have much to do with the books. It adapts one of two stories from the books and has a few characters in common, but also uses some of them wildly differently. (I recall that at one point they implied that Ancient Mai was a dragon in the TV show. In the books it's clear that she's just a powerful wizard.) Apparently they were going to do a straight adaptation of the books and then the studio brought in someone who worked on Charmed and he kind of messed everything up. The good news is, the rights to the series have reverted to the author and the rumor is that they are going to try again, but this time Butcher is going to be more heavily involved to make sure it's more accurate to the books.
Which book should you start on?
Technically, you can start anywhere. The books do tell a larger ongoing story, but the author is mostly pretty good at going back and filling in details from previous books. You one you CANNOT start on is the most recent one, because it's technically part 2 of a story. (Butcher wrote a giant book, the publisher said, "if you do this, we're going to have to sell it for $50 a copy," and they agreed to split the story over two books.)
You can pretty safely skip the first two books. They aren't terribly important and they're kind of bland.
Book one (Storm Front) introduces the world and the characters, and while one or two plot elements show up later in the series, nothing is hugely important.
Book two (Fool Moon) is kind of the same. It introduces more reoccurring characters, but there's nothing you desperately need.
Book three (Grave Peril) is where the action starts. MORE major characters are introduced, but this book kicks off the big ongoing plot of the series. There's a party that takes place in this book that has huge ramifications for the main characters and the world that are still echoing fourteen books later. The bad news is that IMO book 3 is the toughest read. I think Butcher was going through a particularly horny phase in his writing, so book three is pretty sexual in some gross ways.
After that, the series hits it's stride, and while not every book is a winner, the series as a whole is pretty great. You could probably start on book four, which is one of my favorites, and go back through 1-3 if you decide you really like it. It's really up to you.
As Mifec said, it has a proper ending planned. The author has said he has it outlined all the way through the end of the series, but he makes adjustments here or there. The plan was 20 books plus a three book capstone trilogy, but he's had to add a few books in to account for other things that happened, like this most recent story being two books. I don't know what the current count is expected to be, so I'll defer to Mifec's count for 22 + the Big Apocalyptic Trilogy.
A shame but it provides perspective on where I may need to start.
Mhmm... I understood some of those words.
Thank you for detailed information.
Thank you kindly for taking the time write a comprehensive starter guide and listing caveats. I intend to start from very beginning as the happenings of the single season tv show has largely faded from my memory.
Casebooks are what the main books are called currently since they usually start with a case being brought to Dresden. Doorstopper just means it's gonne be enough pages to make the book big enough to be used to hold a door open.
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I get the decision on Peace Talks, though I understand the disappointment. Battle Ground has so much stuff going on, and it's pretty long by DF standards. It'd be like reading through a series of average sized novels and then suddenly book 16 was the size of Oathbringer. Be a bit weird.
BTW apparently some people thought Peace Talks was ghostwritten? Wacky ass nonsense. There's stuff that's a little off about the book - the opening is a smidge awkwardly written, and the end is abrupt - but by and large it presented as 100% authentic Dresden.
BTW apparently some people thought Peace Talks was ghostwritten? Wacky ass nonsense. There's stuff that's a little off about the book - the opening is a smidge awkwardly written, and the end is abrupt - but by and large it presented as 100% authentic Dresden.
Each individual book is the file of one "case" that Harry is involved with, and is a self-contained story that also includes elements of the larger story. There will be 22 individual books, then a huge trilogy that wraps up the overarching story. (I guess the reference is that it's big enough to use as a doorstopper?)
You should also know that there are two collections of short stories. (Side Jobs and Brief Cases) For the most part they aren't crucial to understanding the story, but they fill out the world and let you see things from different character's perspectives, while the main books are all from Harry's POV. I will say the two most recent books, (Peace Talks and Battle Ground) include a LOT of characters from and references to the short stories, so it is a good idea to read them before you get to the two most recent books. You won't be lost if you don't, but you'll understand more if you do.
EDIT: Beaten on the first part, but I don't regret the second part lol
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Nooooooooooo
I'm normally an inveterate spoiler hound but this one felt different. Had to ignore a few discord channels until I got through it.
So I finally did it today
I shall start right after I am done with The Final Wish (Witcher book 1).
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Finished BG today. I spent a good half of the book with my jaw hanging open. Thank God for that heartwarming short story at the end or I would probably feel as hollow as Harry rn.
So, wasn't Grimalkin infected with Nemesis in Cold Days? Is it just assumed Mab healed him or can Nemesis only infect one creature at a time? Also, the lack of information about what happened to Justine/Demonreach after Harry jumped off the boat felt kinda jarring. I feel like there was a missing chapter there, and one of the lines carried the implication that she took Thomas.
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Mab "cured" all her minions infected by He Who Walks Beside, so Grimalkin is good either way. And there's a throwaway line about the Water Beetle turning up on a beach in Indiana, so presumably Justine just... sailed away from the island after Demonreach grabbed Harry. She definitely didn't step on the island, it'd have eaten her alive.
I looked it up, and I was thinking of Cat Sith, who is still running around and infected. I guess I just combined the two malks in my head as the same.
