Answering xtenkfarpl’s question from April, Jim Butcher is set to release book #18 in the Dresden Files series on January 20. The title is Twelve Months.
From the Amazon description:
Harry Dresden has been through a lot, and so has his city. After Harry and his allies narrowly managed to save Chicago from being razed to the ground, everything is different—and it’s not just the current lack of electricity. In the battle, Harry lost people he cared about. And that's the kind of loss that takes a toll. Harry being Harry, he’s doing his level best to help the city and his friends recover and rebuild. But it’s a heavy load, and he needs time. But time is one thing Harry doesn’t have. Ghouls are prowling Chicago and taking out innocent civilians. Harry’s brother is dying, and Harry doesn’t know how to help him. And last but certainly not least, the Winter Queen of the Fae has allied with the White Court of vampires—and Harry’s been betrothed to the seductive, deadly vampire Lara Raith to seal the deal.
I’ve read the entire series and have been a fan, but #17 was…a bit of a slog at times. Still, I can’t imagine not reading this shorly after it’s available.
I thought that Peace Talks and Battle Ground were both disappointing… but Skin Game, right before them, was one of the best of the series. So yeah, I’ll definitely see the series through (especially since we seem to be nearing the end now).
Butcher has written Harry into a pretty tight corner. It will be interesting to see how he wriggles out to fulfill my long-term prediction of him becoming the next Gatekeeper. I’d think that being Starborn is a requirement for that job…
For me (a female), Harry’s white knight complex – and lack of growth in that area – has gradually become less “tolerable quirk” and more “distractingly stupid patronization.” I know that trait is kind of integral to who he is, but I hope it somehow gets played down in in the new book. I won’t hold my breath, though.
T-minus 19 days!
(P.S. I suppose I should have tagged @xtenkfarpl in the OP instead of just bolding their username. )
Finished reading yesterday. Very happy with it. Lots of backstory, interesting new characters, completely unforeseen directions. Impossible to say more without spoilers.
Just finished it this afternoon. My first reaction is that it might be one of may favorites in the series so far. I’ll have to sit with it a bit and maybe read it again to see if my opinion solidifies around that.
I’ll see if i can do this without spoiling for those who haven’t read it yet.
I think we could have suspected that this would be a “rebuilding” novel. You don’t come off of a battle with a freaking Titan that levels a significant portion of Chicago and jump right into another epic confrontation. Given that…constraint, I was impressed with the pacing. It could have been very moody and inward looking and there was, of course, some of that, but there was enough action in-between to keep the momentum of the overall story going. I like the new allies. I like that Harry’s leveled up again. I was interested in how Harry and Lara’s situationship was going to develop, and I think it was handled pretty deftly.
Subject that can’t be discussed without spoilers:
I did find myself thinking, "wait. Harry’s the first wizard in literally thousands of years to investigate and come up with a theoretical means to separate a White Court vampire from its Hunger? I think I’ve fanwanked it away by presuming that any prior research is either locked away deep in Edinburgh somewhere, or maybe went horribly wrong for a couple of prior practitioners. Or, maybe it’s institutional prejudice that is only interested in how to destroy them, not “cure” them. It wasn’t enough to take me out of the story, but I did note it.
LIke, I suspect, a lot of people, my emotions have been running pretty close to the surface for quite a while now. Still, I was surprised to find myself tearing up occasionally in this story. Based on the intro, something tells me Jim Butcher was going through some shit while writing this, and I think it shows. I mean that in a good way. Portions of this story felt a little more…real than is often the case. I think that’s a good part of why I liked it so much.
Oh, wow, I was just telling a friend yesterday that the next book was coming out “soon”, because I didn’t remember exactly when it was. I’ll have to see if any of my libraries have it yet.
<checks>
OK, four listings, but all “Available soon” or “being acquired”. OK, the book I’m on now will last a little while longer.
I’m alright with open spoilers and marking the thread as such: now that it’s out, I feel no need to ask others to dance around discussing the details. Likewise, I feel no need for a second thread. I don’t mind simply avoiding this one until I finish the book. Thanks, Chronos!
I finally started reading it this morning, and am currently 25% of the way in. I’m happy to be back in Dresden’s world.
I finally finished it over the weekend: I really liked it, too! I was glad that so many other people in Dresden’s life frankly told him to stop being an ass and taking himself so seriously. Sure: grief, PTSD, etc….and, it’s Harry. But dude. I was good with the timeline in that regard, and also enjoyed the story and the various character developments (I agree with carlb). I kind of wanted more Bob, but there was a lot to fit into 12 months.
Like I said before, I was happy to be back in that world for a while. I hope #19 is in the works.
Just finished it, and yeah, it was deftly done. It’s difficult to write personal, character-driven stuff like that, but I think he did it well.
The magical theory behind it wasn’t the difficulty. The difficulty was that Hungers are Outsiders, and only the Starborn can directly affect Outsiders.
I’m pretty sure that Basil and his crew were introduced purely because Butcher wanted to use the name “Spice Goyles”.
And who wants to lay odds on Matias becoming the next Bearer of the Sword of Love?
Oh, and a couple of things I expected, that didn’t pan out:
1: Mab advised Harry to take vengeance on Rudolph, and put the Wild Hunt at his disposal. She didn’t actually say that it was at his disposal just for that purpose. I expected him to use it to find Justine. In fact, I expected that that was Mab’s real reason for doing so, because what Mab doesn’t say is as important as what she does.
2: I anticipated that the way that Etri would be repaid would be by the killing of Thomas’s Hunger.
And one that’s yet to happen, but might, in the next book: Harry doesn’t like Lara being under his thrall, but that’s through her Hunger. And we’ve already established that Harry can remove a White Vampire’s Hunger. It’d leave her as a mere mortal, of course, but nobody needs to know that: Her father was able to maintain his position for decades after Margaret whammied him.
That reminds me: the “no one has really explained what being Starborn means” thing is starting to get old. I was really hoping to learn more about that by the end of this book; even just a thing where the reader learns stuff before Harry does. Oh well. One of the many reasons I’ll have to read #19.
Ou4r library got their copy on the fifteenth, but I didn’t get it from them til almost a week later. Gave it to my daughter to read first, and am now on page page 332 of 463.
I hadn’t thought of that. Have there been wizard Knights of the Sword in the past? I don’t remember that ever being addressed. I agree, though, that he looks like a good candidate.
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