Dresden Files - feast or famine

Cafe Society
21

[quote=“Isamu, post:20, topic:850681”]

I did not know that this was a thing but here is a trailer for the new book!?

[/QUOTE]

I should have mentioned that in my OP. I was avoiding it myself, trying to avoid spoilers, but I went ahead and watched it anyway. It’s a lot different than I thought the book was gonna be, or maybe the trailer focused on different things.

For those who haven’t seen it yet, they might want to watch the newest version of the trailer released yesterday, with updated graphic effects.

22

I also prefer the audiobook version and I am happy to report that it is due out the same day as the ebook. I can’t confirm Marsters is still the narrator but I don’t see why they would change.

23

Ghost Story and Cold Days weren’t my favorites but I thought they did a good job of taking Harry away from the typical Chicago scene of past books and allowed some secondary characters to step up and take a larger role in the story, most notably Murphy and BadAssButters.

Skin Game is far and away my favorite and I hope the series progresses along those lines…parkour!

24

A fair amount of ppl didn’t care for Ghost Story - at least as far as it was low on their list of favorites - but I think most understood the NEED for it. After what happened in Changes, some things needed to be addressed, untangled, and dealt with, and as you said it developed secondary characters without Harry around to fix things for them. I liked the early part of Cold Days, but I didn’t enjoy the Chicago parts as much.
Here’s a link to a very short piece of fiction featuring Mike, Harry’s mechanic. I haven’t read it yet, but I’m going to now.

There are a couple other pieces of Dresden Files short fiction available somewhere, but Butcher’s website is a nightmare to navigate. He also had the first chapter for Peace Talks up for a long time, not sure where it is now.
*
Do I criticize your Latin battle cries? No, never once.*

25

Marsters was unavailable for one of the books, and it was filled in by John Shea (IIRC). Though different (and I know many, many people are bothered, sometimes greatly, by different), I felt he did a very good job. I enjoyed the change of pace. Maybe I’m the weird one.

26

I just was watching a Jim Butcher live stream (because with all this time on my hands, why not?) and he was talking about how he came to publish two books so close together. It seems Battle Ground is going to be, in his words, different from the usual Dresden Files book. Originally, he had 2/3rds of a normal book, and 2/3rd’s of a book that, “took a sudden hard juke to one side”, and the publisher said that if they published a book that size, it would cost $50 hardback. So instead, he set about writing the last 1/3rd for each and splitting them up. He also pushed to have both books published close together, as he said we’d waited too long already.

As of March 24th, he did not know if James Marsters would be able to record everything on time(give the schedule and the virus outbreak), but he hasn’t heard anything from the publisher, so he assumes everything will be fine.

For you Fallout fans(like me), I thought I’d pass on that he was wearing a Vault-Tec shirt. :slight_smile:

27

Aside: One of the little details about The Dresden Files that I appreciate is that he’s not afraid to re-use names for unrelated characters, like actually happens in real life. There are two Michaels and a Mike (though technically, I suppose the latter two are both named after the former). There’s a Susan and a Sue. Molly’s actual given name (as spoken by an irate mother) is Margaret, no relation to any of Harry’s kin.

28

Sadly, I had the exact same reaction.

29

John Glover filled in for Ghost Story, and most ppl didn’t care for it. I don’t listen to audio books, so I don’t have an opinion, though I generally like him very much as an actor. Later, James Marsters re-recorded that book, so I think you can get an audio recording of every Dresden Files book with Marsters.

30

Glover, not Shea. Mea culpa. Knew it was a “John” :stuck_out_tongue:

Didn’t bother me in the least, and I’d be willing to bet my vast fortune that had Glover been the reader since book 1, no one would have complained. I’m happy with Marsters work on the series, but not enough that I would pay again just to re-listen to the story with his voice and characterizations. It’s already extraordinarily rare I’ll re-listen to (or re-read) any book, and when I do it’s usually non-fiction. Too many books, not enough time.

31

Almost happened to me too, but I kinda liked Cold Days and Skin Game is really good, a return to form, I hope Peace Talks is as good as Skin Game.

32

Yeah, Changes and Ghost Story were rather abrupt changes in the feel of the series, and while I got through them, I can see how others might not. And Skin Game was one of the best of the series. “And after I fulfill your obligation, what do you expect me to do?” “Then, Harry, I expect you to be yourself.”

And I wouldn’t expect that the epidemic would have much effect on audiobook recording. That’s the sort of thing that can be done pretty well in social isolation.

33

I liked Changes too it did not felt so different from the rest of the books and has one of the saga’s best quotes:
*“The man once wrote: Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger. Tolkien had that one mostly right.

I stepped forward, let the door bang closed, and snarled, "Fuck subtle.”*

I did not like Ghost Story but now that I think on it, it may have been because I was expecting something different, I need to reread it.

34

Yeah, that’s why I don’t like them. The Chicago scene was a major reason I liked the series.

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I’ve not read this series at all, but am curious. Worth it? I presume most people here will say yes, but I still thought I’d ask.

36

Definitively, the quality does rise significatively after book 2, so I’d say you can skip the first two books and start with “Grave Peril” without losing much (relevant backstory is cited in the following books when needed so you will not get lost), you can go back and read the first two if you want after you get hooked.

37

If you like urban fantasy or private-investigator fiction, you’ll probably like it. But yeah, like many good series, it took a couple of books to catch its stride. I’d still at least start with Fool Moon, though, partly because it’s got some good character development for one of the other major characters, and partly because there’s a fair bit of suspense in that would be spoiled by the recaps you’ll find in the later books.

38

I’ll reiterate the comments above. IMHO the first two-three at least are journeyman quality, kinda cliched works. They’re not bad by any means. They’re also not particularly great. You’ll be fine if you like urban fantasy and don’t mind it a little lightweight and paint-by-numbers - there was certainly enough entertaining stuff to hold my attention. They then start getting better*. I personally would say that process starts kicking in solidly with the fourth one and as he start building a more cohesive world it fleshes out nicely. It turns into a pretty decent series eventually, assuming that type of material is your thing to begin with.

  • Because they’re in very loosely similar genres and I started reading them roughly about the same time, I always contrast the Harry Dresden books in my mind with Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series. The Stackhouse also start out as lightweight, but perfectly readable journeyman urban fantasy works and then started getting steadily worse until they became intolerable dreck I had to abandon.
39

Yes, if you like fantasy, and a bit of noir detective thrown in. It’s not as heavy fantasy as you will find in some books, not at first, at least. I like the way the books ease you in. I wasn’t a fan of the fantasy genre, and I still jumped into it without hesitation. When I read another series by Jim Butcher, the Codex Alera, I struggled through the first book with the new world, strange names, and the fantasy concepts thrown at me all at once. I stuck with it though, loved it, and I occasionally re-read it.

Book 3 of The Dresden Files has the introduction of two of the most important characters in the series, and has a fair amount of action. It also includes events which will drive much of the series up until book 12, and then the fallout from THAT will drive the series. . . well, it still is, so for at least 5 books, and likely more. The writing isn’t quite as good as books 4 and 5, but is better than 1 and 2, and there is a fair amount of action, whereas I think book 1, at least, drags a bit.

I strongly encourage ppl to start with book 3, “Grave Peril.” The general consensus in Dresden fan circles is to start with book 3 or 4, “Summer Knight”, unless you’re already a big fantasy/urban fantasy fan that is willing to power through 2 mediocre books with a good premise, knowing that it get *tremendously *better.

Yes, I do recommend the series to anyone who finds the general premise interesting. One day this series will be a well-loved short-season TV series put out by HBO or Amazon Prime or the like. Probably not Netflix. Jim is in talks to bring it to the small screen - again - and he says it probably wont’ be Netflix. Probably a good thing, they axe a lot of shows after 3 seasons, when the creators start to get well-paid. Might eventually have movies as well. There are scenes that are just begging for the big screen.

I hope they get going on the TV series. Butcher will wield a lot more clout and control than he did on the first series on the Sci-Fi channel.
“A bullet may have your name in it, but fireballs are addressed, ‘To whom it may concern.’” - someone who isn’t Jim Butcher, but I like it anyway

40

Heck, his apprentice is in the habit of magically producing her own appropriate background music during dramatic scenes, and her primary combat spell is what she calls a “one-woman rave”.