Dead Beat has possibly the best grand finale before Changes. Though the
"Draw a circle around your feet! You're immune to magic now!"
plot device was always a head-scratcher for me. Why is Butters almost the only person who ever uses that? Do you think that Murph, you now, might have had a use for that somewhere along the way?
That's the one with the zombie T-rex, right?
Honestly, you guys are talking like nerds. A circle, the belief in it that it would stop magic, is what's important. The reason that Harry uses math and physics to define his magic is because that's how he was taught. He comments that other practitioners use religion or voodoo to similarly power their belief. Regardless, it's the belief, not the symbol - that's important.
Murphy has never been willing to really concede the fact that magic exists, and through that belief - she could manipulate it. Consider her fight with the Chlorofiend in 'Summer Knight'. She uses a chainsaw, not magical defense. Even in 'Changes' she's wielding a fucking Sword of Faith, capital letters intended, and she still just suspends her belief for that encounter and refuses to take up the blade all together.
Of course, at that same point, she also mentions that she felt a voice in her head taking over her actions while she carried the sword. Given her behavior with the Nightmare, it's understandable.
My point is that Dead Beat is basically Butters' 'Wizard of Oz' experience. At some point in the story he was just like, I'm going along with this. He followed the rules Harry let down because he believes in rules. Butters is a man of science, of ones and zeroes. Even while he discussed magic with Bob in Murphy's house he was following it just like another set of rules and regulations. Concrete principles which he bases his life on. Butters examined the corpses of the Red Court and described them as "Human-like Non Human" - how much more accurate could you get?"
Not to rain on your parade, but each character in the Dresden Files behaves according to a specific character class or archetype. Murphy is the unbeliever, unwilling or unable to participate in the supernatural world that she confronts every day. Honestly, I think it's a part of her flaw.
Not actually reading the spoilers, but yeah, Murphy is totally not the unbeliever. In fact after the first 2 books she pretty much accepts whatever explanation Harry ever offers. She's just a normal-world person, and fights against the baddies using what she knows - guns, chainsaws, and aikido (which is silly, btw, because Butcher apparently just figured aikido was cool sounding and threw it in even though whenever Murphy fights it sounds nothing whatsoever like aikido. Which is a good, since aikido's sorta useless).
What Murphy is is the standard issue slightly over-aggressive, hyper-competent female cop who's fighting for respect in a man's world. With a splash of Whedon-esque 100 pound waif badass martial artist with a heart of gold hidden behind her lead fists.
Although I do love how Dresden sees her soul as a badass avenging angel, and I do so hope that certain magical sword ends up getting a new owner...
Kana on
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
Dead Beat has possibly the best grand finale before Changes. Though the
"Draw a circle around your feet! You're immune to magic now!"
plot device was always a head-scratcher for me. Why is Butters almost the only person who ever uses that? Do you think that Murph, you now, might have had a use for that somewhere along the way?
That's the one with the zombie T-rex, right?
Honestly, you guys are talking like nerds. A circle, the belief in it that it would stop magic, is what's important. The reason that Harry uses math and physics to define his magic is because that's how he was taught. He comments that other practitioners use religion or voodoo to similarly power their belief. Regardless, it's the belief, not the symbol - that's important.
Murphy has never been willing to really concede the fact that magic exists, and through that belief - she could manipulate it. Consider her fight with the Chlorofiend in 'Summer Knight'. She uses a chainsaw, not magical defense. Even in 'Changes' she's wielding a fucking Sword of Faith, capital letters intended, and she still just suspends her belief for that encounter and refuses to take up the blade all together.
Of course, at that same point, she also mentions that she felt a voice in her head taking over her actions while she carried the sword. Given her behavior with the Nightmare, it's understandable.
My point is that Dead Beat is basically Butters' 'Wizard of Oz' experience. At some point in the story he was just like, I'm going along with this. He followed the rules Harry let down because he believes in rules. Butters is a man of science, of ones and zeroes. Even while he discussed magic with Bob in Murphy's house he was following it just like another set of rules and regulations. Concrete principles which he bases his life on. Butters examined the corpses of the Red Court and described them as "Human-like Non Human" - how much more accurate could you get?"
Not to rain on your parade, but each character in the Dresden Files behaves according to a specific character class or archetype. Murphy is the unbeliever, unwilling or unable to participate in the supernatural world that she confronts every day. Honestly, I think it's a part of her flaw.
Not actually reading the spoilers, but yeah, Murphy is totally not the unbeliever. In fact after the first 2 books she pretty much accepts whatever explanation Harry ever offers. She's just a normal-world person, and fights against the baddies using what she knows - guns, chainsaws, and aikido (which is silly, btw, because Butcher apparently just figured aikido was cool sounding and threw it in even though whenever Murphy fights it sounds nothing whatsoever like aikido. Which is a good, since aikido's sorta useless).
What Murphy is is the standard issue slightly over-aggressive, hyper-competent female cop who's fighting for respect in a man's world. With a splash of Whedon-esque 100 pound waif badass martial artist with a heart of gold hidden behind her lead fists.
Although I do love how Dresden sees her soul as a badass avenging angel, and I do so hope that certain magical sword ends up getting a new owner...
Well actually if you read Sidejobs....
Murphy mentions she knows a lot more than Aikido. She says she's studied (and I am going from memory so don't blame me if I get the list wrong) JKD, Muay Thai, Karate, Boxing, I can't remember but the list was like 10 styles long. Which considering Butcher's hobbies, is not surprising
And Aikido is generally as good as the practitioner. If your good, its good. If you suck.... well, I recommend running shoes.
I think it is established that the White God and his agents have a sense of humor. And Sanya was a worse person before he rejected his Denarian and took up the sword than Marcone is today. All he's got to do is change his outlook a bit, he's got most of the important requirements.
Butcher has mentioned in interviews before that Murphy practice aikido because he saw a demonstration of aikido where a little 5' tall lady caused a group of large football players to repeatedly get dumped on their asses no matter how hard they tried to grab her. Given the supernatural things she ends up running into, a more defensive/avoidance based martial art also seems like a good skill to have (I wouldn't want to try to use something like karate against a vampire from any of the courts.)
Marcone is a black hat. He has an evil terrible soul. He will not be a fist of god. This is not a spoiler because they go over this in the first 50 pages of the first fucking book.
Marcone is a black hat. He has an evil terrible soul. He will not be a fist of god. This is not a spoiler because they go over this in the first 50 pages of the first fucking book.
Both Harry and Marcone have come a long damn way from the first fifty pages of the first book. IN particular, Harry had a lot of preconceptions that were just plain naive.
If an athiest former Denarian can wield a Sword, Marcone, who has always had strict principles about defending people and never sold out to supernatural evil, very well could.
I'm not saying that it will happen, or is likely, but your analysis is flawed.
Also, even in the first book, when the characters are little more than cookie-cutter noir stereotypes, Butcher still goes out of his way in the soulgaze to point out that Marcone isn't completely evil and has some hidden depths.
I dare anyone here to find a passage where Butcher describes Marcone's soul as 'evil', or 'wrong', or 'unholy' or any other term typically described to bad guys.
Rather, Butcher consistently describes it as a 'tiger's soul', merciless, ruthless, all powerful, cold and calculating. A tiger isn't evil because he slaughters a baby antelope to eat. Similarly, Marcone isn't evil because he slaughters people who encroach on his territory.
In fact, Butcher has gone out of his way time again to refrain from ever defining Marcone as evil.
I'm not entirely sure Marcone will end up with "you know what", but MegaMan001 is right. Butcher notes that Marcone does and permits terrible things to happen (he's a mobster after all; drugs and violence are day to day issues for him), but he shows consideration for his people, and rewards loyalty handsomely. He's used to being in control and will crush those who infringe on his territory (if they won't play by his rules and give him his cut at least), but as I recall it's noted several times in the first few books that the streets used to be worse for the general populace before he took over.
He's not a 'good' person by any stretch of the imagination, but he does follow a general code of conduct/honor that makes him a lesser evil than many, and certainly not 'evil' in the sense that the nickleheads are.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
Working through book 7. Just writing thoughts down as I read.
* Last book took a lot out of Harry. He's feeling a bit gun shy. Although I'm not sure why he's afraid of what Michael would do to him if they found out he had a coin, considering he SAW them not punish a guy who gave up the coin, who was straight up mocking them that he'd be right back at it. Probably afraid Michael will quote scripture at him. Anyway, gunshy Harry now has no blasting rod, and his deflector shields are a bit flaky too. For all his supposedly increasing powers, he seems to have a tougher time even against vanilla goons than he did in the first few books.
* Butcher's trying to show some other people's opinions about Harry. Which is good, the 1st person narrative just feels a bit silly when he's telling us what a badass legend he is. Especially since the other half of the time he's busy telling us what a broke loser he is. It's still a little awkward put in, but it's nice to see Harry through other eyes, too.
* Evil Bob. We've been told that he's a powerful-ass spirit since book 1, nice that he finally gets to flex it a little.
* Harry's being especially dense so far about figuring out that all these bad guys aren't working together. Although he did get himself a date with a hot librarian after exactly 3 minutes of knowing her.
* Hey, return of the fairy godmother. 'Bout time, she's been suspiciously absent in the last several books. Err, ok, not return, but at least an explanation for why she hasn't been trying to eat Harry for the last couple of years.
* Everybody's freaking out that Harry seems awfully crazy. Which is a little odd actually, since all he's done this book is basically run away from things for once. But the hot librarian/bookseller is probably something to do with it, then. ...Which I guess means Harry's not getting laid this year.
* Whoops, yeaaaah, probably best if Harry doesn't have sex with the fallen angel hot librarian.
* Aaaand Sue the zombie T-Rex. Hee.
OK, so finished with another one. That one was fun, and felt like the status quo was really moving. Murphy and Dresden still need to fuck already though. After book 6, I was feeling a bit weary of Dresden, because after each book it the basic template of each story was the same, and even though some characters were growing a bit, it still wasn't enough to keep things quite fresh. Part of that is already having read Butcher's Codex Alera, which is really really guilty of recycling the same plot with higher stakes each book. Book 7 made it feel like the Dresden universe was shifting a bit, and the basic plot outline was different than Harry's standard A case, B case, turns out they're actually both case C. This was really the first book where the larger wizard war vs. the vampires felt like something Harry was part of (which is ironic, since this is the first for a while without any vampire attacks, iirc). Butcher spent quite a few pages talking about how the supernatural world at large views Harry Dresden, which really helped define Harry as a part of it, instead of anything happening outside of Chicago being just Other People's Problems.
Still some problems. Cowl and his apprentice seemed interesting but were left as pretty much complete blanks. Harry's stubbornness is sometimes just a transparent tool to keep him from doing something logical until all of the plot tokens are lined up right. Murphy dating Kincaid is totally stupid, even if he did touch her butt last book. Once Harry broke up with Susan he seems to have been miraculously cured of his guilt about her getting semi-zombified. Which is fine, since I never cared about Susan, but it feels less like Harry getting over her and more like Butcher being equally as bored with it and moving on to new stories.
Also, I gotta think it's this new editor (well, and growing experience) that's making a big difference on some of these books. The first 5 books or so range the gamut in quality, but they all had some shared sloppiness in plotting, and the last few have really shaped up. It's a bit hard to talk specifics though, since at one book a day they sort of all blur together.
Nothing to do today, starting 8, as well as some chips and a tuna sandwich, om nom nom.
Kana on
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
I don't know about you guys, but I'm loving this. I don't gave time to be rereadin no Dresdens, but a nice little recap of a book every day or two is great!
Same as the last post, just writing thoughts down as I read through, starting at about halfway through book 8
* Butcher's sort of hitting us over the head with the Molly having something going on stick. Mouse is barking at her (and dude Harry, he was a flippin' temple guardian dog, stop claiming you don't understand what's up with him.). And she oh so conveniently goes to grab coffee as soon as Harry's about to use his Sight, and then comes back once he's done. And the execution of a kid almost exactly Molly's age, with an explanation about how a wizard could take charge of a young black magic user. HMMMM. Butcher really doesn't much go in for the red herrings, does he? Harry might misunderestimate things constantly, but Butcher doesn't really expect a whole lot of detective work from the readers.
* Although actually, on the continuing theme of improved editing, Harry has been doing a much better job at figuring things WITH the readers, instead of the readers going 'DUDE, OBVIOUS CLUE' while he ignores it.
* Dresden and Murphy are like hetero life mates. Except, y'know. Not actually hetero as they are still failing to sex up each other.
* How does Harry know all about horror movies? He lives like he's in the 19th century.
* Speaking of which, how exactly is SI still around? It's not like they're known for actually bringing in their suspects. For all the murders that Harry unofficially solves, they must have a brutal unsolved murder rate in Chicago.
* If I had a demon living in my body who could make the water hot in the morning, my soul would be sold SO FAST.
* Whoops, Murphy just gave him the 'it would never work out' speech. Nice of her to shoot him down after she's already telegraphed him I'M TOTALLY INTO YOU'. I keep picturing Harry looking like Louis C.K. during this entire exchange. Although Harry should've reassured her that the Susan thing was only ever serious after she left, and he is therefore demonstrably capable of being a shallow fuck buddy.
* Heh. Poor Harry. Some people get an angel and a demon on their shoulders. Harry gets a perverted skull and a fallen angel of temptation. Keep it in your pants Harry, you've got practice. Also Murphy's back in the room, so epic misunderstanding coming in 3...2...
* Oh, wait, her mom shows up instead. Welp, it was nice knowing you Harry, RIP. New series starring Mouse and Bob. One's a warrior dog, one's a sarcastic talking skull. Together they solve crime!
* To counter my compliments about the improved editing, Butcher is doing some weird ass paragraph structuring in this book, and I dislike it. Or to be more specific, a lack of paragraph stucturing. I mean, I know his goal is to tell an entertaining story, not to be a master prose stylist, but still man, c'mon. Take a little pride in the formation of the language. Or maybe whoever did my e-book is just hyperactive on the enter key.
*“Get away from her, you bitch.” - Niiiiice. Nice to see Harry letting loose for once, but then he immediately follows it up with blaming himself for not saving the life of someone who bled out in like 10 seconds. Stooopid Haaaarry.
* Shouldn't Harry have tried, say, just asking Queen Mab what's going on? He does have a working relationship with her after all. Or trying to summon his godmother again?
* I always love it when any badass protagonist gets an apprentice (as long as they don't fall into Kid Sidekick territory). Hooray for Molly. Although this last act is taking waaaay too long
.
I quite liked that one. Harry's soul operates on the same logic as Mr. Burns immune system - so many things are trying to get in all at once that he's perfectly healthy.
EDIT: Oh, and in the early books people go 'Holy shitballs!' when they soulgaze with Dresden. Now his soul is all kinds of messed up, and yet Molly's primary impression of his soul is that he really needs to get laid. Oh, Harry, Harry, Harry....
Kana on
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
+1
Options
AntimatterDevo Was RightGates of SteelRegistered Userregular
I quite liked that one. Harry's soul operates on the same logic as Mr. Burns immune system - so many things are trying to get in all at once that he's perfectly healthy.
Same as the last post, just writing thoughts down as I read through, starting at about halfway through book 8
* Butcher's sort of hitting us over the head with the Molly having something going on stick. Mouse is barking at her (and dude Harry, he was a flippin' temple guardian dog, stop claiming you don't understand what's up with him.). And she oh so conveniently goes to grab coffee as soon as Harry's about to use his Sight, and then comes back once he's done. And the execution of a kid almost exactly Molly's age, with an explanation about how a wizard could take charge of a young black magic user. HMMMM. Butcher really doesn't much go in for the red herrings, does he? Harry might misunderestimate things constantly, but Butcher doesn't really expect a whole lot of detective work from the readers.
* Although actually, on the continuing theme of improved editing, Harry has been doing a much better job at figuring things WITH the readers, instead of the readers going 'DUDE, OBVIOUS CLUE' while he ignores it.
* Dresden and Murphy are like hetero life mates. Except, y'know. Not actually hetero as they are still failing to sex up each other.
* How does Harry know all about horror movies? He lives like he's in the 19th century.
* Speaking of which, how exactly is SI still around? It's not like they're known for actually bringing in their suspects. For all the murders that Harry unofficially solves, they must have a brutal unsolved murder rate in Chicago.
* If I had a demon living in my body who could make the water hot in the morning, my soul would be sold SO FAST.
* Whoops, Murphy just gave him the 'it would never work out' speech. Nice of her to shoot him down after she's already telegraphed him I'M TOTALLY INTO YOU'. I keep picturing Harry looking like Louis C.K. during this entire exchange. Although Harry should've reassured her that the Susan thing was only ever serious after she left, and he is therefore demonstrably capable of being a shallow fuck buddy.
* Heh. Poor Harry. Some people get an angel and a demon on their shoulders. Harry gets a perverted skull and a fallen angel of temptation. Keep it in your pants Harry, you've got practice. Also Murphy's back in the room, so epic misunderstanding coming in 3...2...
* Oh, wait, her mom shows up instead. Welp, it was nice knowing you Harry, RIP. New series starring Mouse and Bob. One's a warrior dog, one's a sarcastic talking skull. Together they solve crime!
* To counter my compliments about the improved editing, Butcher is doing some weird ass paragraph structuring in this book, and I dislike it. Or to be more specific, a lack of paragraph stucturing. I mean, I know his goal is to tell an entertaining story, not to be a master prose stylist, but still man, c'mon. Take a little pride in the formation of the language. Or maybe whoever did my e-book is just hyperactive on the enter key.
*“Get away from her, you bitch.” - Niiiiice. Nice to see Harry letting loose for once, but then he immediately follows it up with blaming himself for not saving the life of someone who bled out in like 10 seconds. Stooopid Haaaarry.
* Shouldn't Harry have tried, say, just asking Queen Mab what's going on? He does have a working relationship with her after all. Or trying to summon his godmother again?
* I always love it when any badass protagonist gets an apprentice (as long as they don't fall into Kid Sidekick territory). Hooray for Molly. Although this last act is taking waaaay too long
.
I quite liked that one. Harry's soul operates on the same logic as Mr. Burns immune system - so many things are trying to get in all at once that he's perfectly healthy.
EDIT: Oh, and in the early books people go 'Holy shitballs!' when they soulgaze with Dresden. Now his soul is all kinds of messed up, and yet Molly's primary impression of his soul is that he really needs to get laid. Oh, Harry, Harry, Harry....
Molly definitely has a thing for men with emotional wounds and dark troubled pasts. As you read through the books, it will get her in trouble.
"She was pale—not the sickly pallor of no time in the sun, but the color of the living, healthy skin of a tree beneath the outer bark."
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
toying with us about them. In the books Harry and others keep pondering what to do with the swords, but rather than actually finding long term hosts for them (and while I can appreciate the gravity of a choice like this, he's not helping anyone by sitting on them forever), he's happily just adding more and more people who are good with swords/knives/blades of any sort. I bet it's on some kind of checklist when writing/editing the books, just to keep us from having 2 or less absolute/clear/easy answers.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
- Book 9, Wherein our Hero Continues to Not Get Any -
* lawl, Invisible Molly getting owned by both Dresden and Murphy. Murphy's really not under the 'normals' category any more.
* Yeah, so Elaine's back. Which is nice to see returning characters, but I suspect I'm going to be annoyed by her being equally competent as Harry, even though presumably she hasn't been messing with anything as nasty as Harry has (not to mention all his various soul, uh... "augmentations".
* Classic case of Harry doing something stupid to keep the plot moving. Sees a grey cloak, chases him, tells Mouse to stay behind. Even though Mouse could've caught the guy in like 5 seconds flat.
* Harry's Little Chicago project still seems like a tremendous waste of time in exchange for nothing that he wasn't really already able to do.
* So it's only taken Harry like 2 years to ask Bob about temple dogs. Harry, Harry, Harry....
* Well, OK, so he couldn't have ghost-trailed a dude like that before. On the other hand, siccing Mouse on the guy would've been even more effective.
* Aaaand Cowl's back! Alive, or Alive-ish. Which is good I suppose, better than having yet another New Ultimate threat to Chicagoland. He seems to have been taking remedial courses in generic evil villain.
* Seriously, if you get to be a lust vampire you kind of won the vampire jackpot. Every other group has to run around being evil just to eat. Lust vampires get to have swanky apartments and go to parties. And their victims call them in the morning.
* I like that since Butcher insists on re-explaining backstory in every book, at least he's got Molly around to have a fresh reaction to it this time. She's been kind of the exposition pet so far. It gets old when he just copy pastes explanations about his brother, his beetle, his dog, etc.
* I bet all the other apprentices are totally jealous of Molly getting to work under Badass O'GhoulKiller
* Huh, this is the first book to actually have a real flashback scene.
* The flashback was well written, but for some reason the vampire with 20 ghouls and an assault rifle decided to flee in fear of it. Flashbacks are like garlic to vampires.
* It's a little hard to care about Harry trying to save the witches when they're all too fucking stupid to live.
* OK, they're not AS stupid as it initially appeared, but... They're still pretty damn stupid.
* "I.am.not.Yoda." ...Also Molly just called him sir, which is probably the first time in his entire life that someone's called him "sir" who's not doing so ironically right before trying to kill him.
* Harry's kind of turning into the wizard version of a berserker. Although now he's turned around and pretty much shit-talked Lasciel to her face. Go Harry.
* Hee. Vampires are like "Duel Harry Dresden?! Are you nuts?" It's always nice to see our heroes getting some proper respect for all the ass they've been kicking.
* That final big battle was sort of confusingly written. Butcher's pretty good at writing smaller fights, but when it turns into a big thing I start to get really confused about what's going on. I had similar issues with Codex Alera.
* So there's been someone in the background for years who's plotting against Harry, and has incredible power... But also is apparently pretty incompetent. Ooookay. Also Cowl is actually an Outsider? Or something? How does that square with him being the Lawful Evil choice in the last book, and him having a rather decent apprentice? ...Also if Cowl's still around, why doesn't he just try repeating his ancient ritual of evil godhood again? Just sayin...
* OK, the Lash taking a psychic bullet thing for Harry seems a bit lame. She was cool. Course, Harry has the mutant healing factor, maybe she'll come back eventually. Having her die because he's taught her the true meaning of Christmas is a bit cliche.
* Not to repeat, but most of Harry's problems this book would've been solved if he'd just sent Mouse after the suspicious guy in the first place. Although contrary to my earlier prediction, Elaine didn't end up doing... much of anything, really. Which is both good and bad.
Couple trends over the series so far I've noticed, although I'm a bit brain-fried tonight so I probably won't write them well -
Pretty much every book is moving further away from the 'plucky detective' idea in the first 4 or 5 books, and more towards Harry Dresden, Important Dude. The early books were more urban fantasy, with the ordinary world dominant with fantastic creatures basically hiding in the cracks. Now the fantasy world is very much dominant against the 'Real World', and it does feel a lot more like a flat-out fantasy novel. Both of which I'm perfectly fine with. Also, Butcher's getting a lot better about moving around a lot of characters and ideas in each story. Early books are basically Harry and one friend partnering up with him to solve the case, very simple. Now Butcher's got Harry as a force of action in the plot, pretty much starting back with his "let's go kill some vampires" idea a while ago. Before that it generally felt like he had to sit around a lot waiting for the plot to come to him.
Kana on
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
Dresden's world getting more fleshed out with each book definitely helps the series.
(Book one spoiler)
The culprit in the first book was amazingly obvious because, not only was it a blatant instance of two seemingly unrelated cases coming together, there just weren't a whole lot of suspects around. If he wrote another story about a mysterious wizard murdering people from afar, you'd have all three vampire courts, the fae courts, the nickelheads, Cowl's group, etc. as potential culprits from the get-go. Harry's well populated rogue's gallery comes in handy.
I gotta say, something that drives me BONKERS with Butcher's writing (and this was totally true in Codex Alera too) was him constantly, blatantly changing the power levels of his characters depending on what he needs them to be able to do at that moment. Sometimes Harry's exhausted after one big wind-punch, other times he knocks out half a dozen no sweat. Sometimes he can beat the stuffing out of a group of vampires, other times just one average one is a massive challenge. End of book 9 he powers some seriously ridiculously powerful shielding just through the power of his smaller brain and he's able to have a casual conversation immediately after (and yet just beating a despair enchantment burned up his dark passenger). Basically every time there's a fight scene there's no suspense at all, because the only thing determining if Harry wins or loses is if the plot needs him to win or lose. Obviously that's true of all writing, but Butcher makes it really really obvious.
The beginning of book 10 is especially obnoxious. Harry's been insisting that he sucks at evocation for 9 books now, and for 5 of them that's been his #1 solution to problems. And all that practice pays off... sometimes. I never know which Harry we're gonna get. Dark wrathful finger of god style Harry, or 'oh no 3 mooks I'm in deep trouble' Harry.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
I've got the books and perused parts of them, but I've never played. It's an intriguing system, and I like how the background work is made to be a group oriented session/system, rather than just all loaded onto the DM/GM's shoulders, but I don't have any experience with a more storyteller based system (in general that is, my long term games were more Rifts, D&D/AD&D/3E and 4E) that it seems to be, so character creation kind of blew over me.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
0
Options
PasserbyeI am much older than you.in Beach CityRegistered Userregular
Just got done with Dead Beat. Despite the attempt at an upbeat ending, goodness was that a bleak book. Especially
The bit where Cassius is torturing Harry? It was mostly his thought on pg 360 'No one is coming to save you, Harry'. I mean, the whole gang-rape via Red Court in Blood Rites was pretty damn dark, but it's sort of been getting progressively worse from there.
Maybe it's that I've pretty much been reading them back-to-back, but the series in some ways just seems like an excuse to kick the shit out of Harry, then patch him up just enough between beatings so he doesn't outright die.
Though yes, I already know he dies at the end of Changes - honestly, that seems like it would be a welcome respite for him.
Kind of discouraged to start up on Proven Guilty, to be honest. :?
Harry does get the crap beaten out of him repeatedly, but he also does some really awesome stuff. I think by the point of Dead Beat, he's becoming the Guardian of Chicago, and it's a very interesting transition to watch.
Harry does get the crap beaten out of him repeatedly, but he also does some really awesome stuff. I think by the point of Dead Beat, he's becoming the Guardian of Chicago, and it's a very interesting transition to watch.
But that doesn't actually bring him anything good. Just more heavy responsibilities from people who hate him slightly less now than they did before. Woopee.
Kana, the rate you are tearing through these books is just marvelous to watch. I think that's how most people go through them.
I actually accidentally read Dead Beat first when I found it in the local library. It just said 'A Novel of the Dresden Files' with no number so I jumped in and loved it. Then I started at 1, read through it again and I've bought every hardcover day 1.
I really want Butcher to start wrapping shit up, though. It's getting a little ridiculous.
I am in the business of saving lives.
0
Options
PasserbyeI am much older than you.in Beach CityRegistered Userregular
Posts
Not actually reading the spoilers, but yeah, Murphy is totally not the unbeliever. In fact after the first 2 books she pretty much accepts whatever explanation Harry ever offers. She's just a normal-world person, and fights against the baddies using what she knows - guns, chainsaws, and aikido (which is silly, btw, because Butcher apparently just figured aikido was cool sounding and threw it in even though whenever Murphy fights it sounds nothing whatsoever like aikido. Which is a good, since aikido's sorta useless).
What Murphy is is the standard issue slightly over-aggressive, hyper-competent female cop who's fighting for respect in a man's world. With a splash of Whedon-esque 100 pound waif badass martial artist with a heart of gold hidden behind her lead fists.
Although I do love how Dresden sees her soul as a badass avenging angel, and I do so hope that certain magical sword ends up getting a new owner...
Sure she works in the department that handles it but she really doesn't completely believe until around book three or so.
Well actually if you read Sidejobs....
And Aikido is generally as good as the practitioner. If your good, its good. If you suck.... well, I recommend running shoes.
I still think Thomas is going to get one though.
Both Harry and Marcone have come a long damn way from the first fifty pages of the first book. IN particular, Harry had a lot of preconceptions that were just plain naive.
I'm not saying that it will happen, or is likely, but your analysis is flawed.
Blizzard: Pailryder#1101
GoG: https://www.gog.com/u/pailryder
Rather, Butcher consistently describes it as a 'tiger's soul', merciless, ruthless, all powerful, cold and calculating. A tiger isn't evil because he slaughters a baby antelope to eat. Similarly, Marcone isn't evil because he slaughters people who encroach on his territory.
In fact, Butcher has gone out of his way time again to refrain from ever defining Marcone as evil.
He's not a 'good' person by any stretch of the imagination, but he does follow a general code of conduct/honor that makes him a lesser evil than many, and certainly not 'evil' in the sense that the nickleheads are.
* Butcher's trying to show some other people's opinions about Harry. Which is good, the 1st person narrative just feels a bit silly when he's telling us what a badass legend he is. Especially since the other half of the time he's busy telling us what a broke loser he is. It's still a little awkward put in, but it's nice to see Harry through other eyes, too.
* Evil Bob. We've been told that he's a powerful-ass spirit since book 1, nice that he finally gets to flex it a little.
* Harry's being especially dense so far about figuring out that all these bad guys aren't working together. Although he did get himself a date with a hot librarian after exactly 3 minutes of knowing her.
* Hey, return of the fairy godmother. 'Bout time, she's been suspiciously absent in the last several books. Err, ok, not return, but at least an explanation for why she hasn't been trying to eat Harry for the last couple of years.
* Everybody's freaking out that Harry seems awfully crazy. Which is a little odd actually, since all he's done this book is basically run away from things for once. But the hot librarian/bookseller is probably something to do with it, then. ...Which I guess means Harry's not getting laid this year.
* Whoops, yeaaaah, probably best if Harry doesn't have sex with the fallen angel hot librarian.
* Aaaand Sue the zombie T-Rex. Hee.
OK, so finished with another one. That one was fun, and felt like the status quo was really moving. Murphy and Dresden still need to fuck already though. After book 6, I was feeling a bit weary of Dresden, because after each book it the basic template of each story was the same, and even though some characters were growing a bit, it still wasn't enough to keep things quite fresh. Part of that is already having read Butcher's Codex Alera, which is really really guilty of recycling the same plot with higher stakes each book. Book 7 made it feel like the Dresden universe was shifting a bit, and the basic plot outline was different than Harry's standard A case, B case, turns out they're actually both case C. This was really the first book where the larger wizard war vs. the vampires felt like something Harry was part of (which is ironic, since this is the first for a while without any vampire attacks, iirc). Butcher spent quite a few pages talking about how the supernatural world at large views Harry Dresden, which really helped define Harry as a part of it, instead of anything happening outside of Chicago being just Other People's Problems.
Still some problems. Cowl and his apprentice seemed interesting but were left as pretty much complete blanks. Harry's stubbornness is sometimes just a transparent tool to keep him from doing something logical until all of the plot tokens are lined up right. Murphy dating Kincaid is totally stupid, even if he did touch her butt last book. Once Harry broke up with Susan he seems to have been miraculously cured of his guilt about her getting semi-zombified. Which is fine, since I never cared about Susan, but it feels less like Harry getting over her and more like Butcher being equally as bored with it and moving on to new stories.
Also, I gotta think it's this new editor (well, and growing experience) that's making a big difference on some of these books. The first 5 books or so range the gamut in quality, but they all had some shared sloppiness in plotting, and the last few have really shaped up. It's a bit hard to talk specifics though, since at one book a day they sort of all blur together.
Nothing to do today, starting 8, as well as some chips and a tuna sandwich, om nom nom.
--LeVar Burton
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
* Although actually, on the continuing theme of improved editing, Harry has been doing a much better job at figuring things WITH the readers, instead of the readers going 'DUDE, OBVIOUS CLUE' while he ignores it.
* Dresden and Murphy are like hetero life mates. Except, y'know. Not actually hetero as they are still failing to sex up each other.
* How does Harry know all about horror movies? He lives like he's in the 19th century.
* Speaking of which, how exactly is SI still around? It's not like they're known for actually bringing in their suspects. For all the murders that Harry unofficially solves, they must have a brutal unsolved murder rate in Chicago.
* If I had a demon living in my body who could make the water hot in the morning, my soul would be sold SO FAST.
* Whoops, Murphy just gave him the 'it would never work out' speech. Nice of her to shoot him down after she's already telegraphed him I'M TOTALLY INTO YOU'. I keep picturing Harry looking like Louis C.K. during this entire exchange. Although Harry should've reassured her that the Susan thing was only ever serious after she left, and he is therefore demonstrably capable of being a shallow fuck buddy.
* Heh. Poor Harry. Some people get an angel and a demon on their shoulders. Harry gets a perverted skull and a fallen angel of temptation. Keep it in your pants Harry, you've got practice. Also Murphy's back in the room, so epic misunderstanding coming in 3...2...
* Oh, wait, her mom shows up instead. Welp, it was nice knowing you Harry, RIP. New series starring Mouse and Bob. One's a warrior dog, one's a sarcastic talking skull. Together they solve crime!
* To counter my compliments about the improved editing, Butcher is doing some weird ass paragraph structuring in this book, and I dislike it. Or to be more specific, a lack of paragraph stucturing. I mean, I know his goal is to tell an entertaining story, not to be a master prose stylist, but still man, c'mon. Take a little pride in the formation of the language. Or maybe whoever did my e-book is just hyperactive on the enter key.
*“Get away from her, you bitch.” - Niiiiice. Nice to see Harry letting loose for once, but then he immediately follows it up with blaming himself for not saving the life of someone who bled out in like 10 seconds. Stooopid Haaaarry.
* Shouldn't Harry have tried, say, just asking Queen Mab what's going on? He does have a working relationship with her after all. Or trying to summon his godmother again?
* I always love it when any badass protagonist gets an apprentice (as long as they don't fall into Kid Sidekick territory). Hooray for Molly. Although this last act is taking waaaay too long
I quite liked that one. Harry's soul operates on the same logic as Mr. Burns immune system - so many things are trying to get in all at once that he's perfectly healthy.
EDIT: Oh, and in the early books people go 'Holy shitballs!' when they soulgaze with Dresden. Now his soul is all kinds of messed up, and yet Molly's primary impression of his soul is that he really needs to get laid. Oh, Harry, Harry, Harry....
niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice :^:
Molly definitely has a thing for men with emotional wounds and dark troubled pasts. As you read through the books, it will get her in trouble.
Blizzard: Pailryder#1101
GoG: https://www.gog.com/u/pailryder
* lawl, Invisible Molly getting owned by both Dresden and Murphy. Murphy's really not under the 'normals' category any more.
* Yeah, so Elaine's back. Which is nice to see returning characters, but I suspect I'm going to be annoyed by her being equally competent as Harry, even though presumably she hasn't been messing with anything as nasty as Harry has (not to mention all his various soul, uh... "augmentations".
* Classic case of Harry doing something stupid to keep the plot moving. Sees a grey cloak, chases him, tells Mouse to stay behind. Even though Mouse could've caught the guy in like 5 seconds flat.
* Harry's Little Chicago project still seems like a tremendous waste of time in exchange for nothing that he wasn't really already able to do.
* So it's only taken Harry like 2 years to ask Bob about temple dogs. Harry, Harry, Harry....
* Well, OK, so he couldn't have ghost-trailed a dude like that before. On the other hand, siccing Mouse on the guy would've been even more effective.
* Aaaand Cowl's back! Alive, or Alive-ish. Which is good I suppose, better than having yet another New Ultimate threat to Chicagoland. He seems to have been taking remedial courses in generic evil villain.
* Seriously, if you get to be a lust vampire you kind of won the vampire jackpot. Every other group has to run around being evil just to eat. Lust vampires get to have swanky apartments and go to parties. And their victims call them in the morning.
* I like that since Butcher insists on re-explaining backstory in every book, at least he's got Molly around to have a fresh reaction to it this time. She's been kind of the exposition pet so far. It gets old when he just copy pastes explanations about his brother, his beetle, his dog, etc.
* I bet all the other apprentices are totally jealous of Molly getting to work under Badass O'GhoulKiller
* Huh, this is the first book to actually have a real flashback scene.
* The flashback was well written, but for some reason the vampire with 20 ghouls and an assault rifle decided to flee in fear of it. Flashbacks are like garlic to vampires.
* It's a little hard to care about Harry trying to save the witches when they're all too fucking stupid to live.
* OK, they're not AS stupid as it initially appeared, but... They're still pretty damn stupid.
* "I.am.not.Yoda." ...Also Molly just called him sir, which is probably the first time in his entire life that someone's called him "sir" who's not doing so ironically right before trying to kill him.
* Harry's kind of turning into the wizard version of a berserker. Although now he's turned around and pretty much shit-talked Lasciel to her face. Go Harry.
* Hee. Vampires are like "Duel Harry Dresden?! Are you nuts?" It's always nice to see our heroes getting some proper respect for all the ass they've been kicking.
* That final big battle was sort of confusingly written. Butcher's pretty good at writing smaller fights, but when it turns into a big thing I start to get really confused about what's going on. I had similar issues with Codex Alera.
* So there's been someone in the background for years who's plotting against Harry, and has incredible power... But also is apparently pretty incompetent. Ooookay. Also Cowl is actually an Outsider? Or something? How does that square with him being the Lawful Evil choice in the last book, and him having a rather decent apprentice? ...Also if Cowl's still around, why doesn't he just try repeating his ancient ritual of evil godhood again? Just sayin...
* OK, the Lash taking a psychic bullet thing for Harry seems a bit lame. She was cool. Course, Harry has the mutant healing factor, maybe she'll come back eventually. Having her die because he's taught her the true meaning of Christmas is a bit cliche.
* Not to repeat, but most of Harry's problems this book would've been solved if he'd just sent Mouse after the suspicious guy in the first place. Although contrary to my earlier prediction, Elaine didn't end up doing... much of anything, really. Which is both good and bad.
Couple trends over the series so far I've noticed, although I'm a bit brain-fried tonight so I probably won't write them well -
Pretty much every book is moving further away from the 'plucky detective' idea in the first 4 or 5 books, and more towards Harry Dresden, Important Dude. The early books were more urban fantasy, with the ordinary world dominant with fantastic creatures basically hiding in the cracks. Now the fantasy world is very much dominant against the 'Real World', and it does feel a lot more like a flat-out fantasy novel. Both of which I'm perfectly fine with. Also, Butcher's getting a lot better about moving around a lot of characters and ideas in each story. Early books are basically Harry and one friend partnering up with him to solve the case, very simple. Now Butcher's got Harry as a force of action in the plot, pretty much starting back with his "let's go kill some vampires" idea a while ago. Before that it generally felt like he had to sit around a lot waiting for the plot to come to him.
(Book one spoiler)
"For once I want someone to call me Sir without following it up with you're making a scene."
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
Maybe it's that I've pretty much been reading them back-to-back, but the series in some ways just seems like an excuse to kick the shit out of Harry, then patch him up just enough between beatings so he doesn't outright die.
Kind of discouraged to start up on Proven Guilty, to be honest. :?
Encourage me?
Face Twit Rav Gram
But that doesn't actually bring him anything good. Just more heavy responsibilities from people who hate him slightly less now than they did before. Woopee.
Face Twit Rav Gram
Proven Guilty ties off a very interesting relationship thread for Harry that began in the first book.
It is no less brutal, though. Harry's life sucks.
I actually accidentally read Dead Beat first when I found it in the local library. It just said 'A Novel of the Dresden Files' with no number so I jumped in and loved it. Then I started at 1, read through it again and I've bought every hardcover day 1.
I really want Butcher to start wrapping shit up, though. It's getting a little ridiculous.
You are bad at this. :P
Still, the Boy is telling me that Proven Guilty is slightly less pointlessly brutal than Dead Beat, so I guess I can handle that. *shakes head*
I may just be more masochistic than I initially thought, though.
Face Twit Rav Gram