Jim Butcher Fans: The new Dresden Shipped today! [Open Spoilers]

Cafe Society
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I didn’t really notice the lack of character development in this one that others above have noted. It seemed to me, after finishing it, that the purpose of this book is to finish up most of the previous threads that have accumulated throughout the first eleven novels, and set the stage for a new Dresden Universe, so to speak. I like the idea that Bosstone puts forth about how Murphy will become the new paranormal expert/consultant in Chicago.

But I think that Harry is indeed dead - just not for long. His death accomplishes two things: it causes Cassius’s death curse to come true with a minimum of long-term consequences for Harry. And it gets him out of the role of Winter Knight, something he only did to save his daughter when he felt he had only worse choices. Harry never wanted to be part of Mab’s court, andbeing dead, the power returns to the court, and Harry has fulfilled his bargain to her within the letter of the law.

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Pretty much. Note that the book’s title is completely different from the previous 11. That’s because the first 11 books are considered Harry’s case files; those are his names for them, and he likes that naming scheme. Changes doesn’t follow the naming scheme, and the book’s structure doesn’t follow the standard structure, because it’s not one of his usual case files. The next book title goes back to the usual naming structure, so I expect we’ll see a certain return to form, with some changes (eheh).

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So, what is the name of the new one and when is it coming out? Between Butcher and David Weber my life has become one long Hitchcock movie.

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According to the book listing on Jim Butcher’s website the title of the next book is Ghost Story; no publication date or sample chapters yet, but based on the publication history of the past Dresden novels, I’m presuming April 2011.

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Harry dies*, and the next book is called “Ghost Story”. Hmmm…

*seems to, I know. My money’s on him being really temporarily dead.

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That’s sort of why I didn’t mention it, seems almost like a spoiler. :smiley: But the titles have a habit of not only meaning multiple things, but also not actually meaning the thing it should obviously mean.

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I just finished this and liked it well enough, though like some folks I was bothered by the power creep. It reminded me of the years we spent playing D&D, and how at some point we started running campaigns with 30-level characters fighting coordinated attacks from balrogs and dragons. Maybe that’s natural in a series like this, but it would be fun to see Dresden in a novel where he suddenly loses his powers and has to fall back on his wits…this sort of “super friends” fight is slightly boring.

He still doesn’t lack for cleverness, however. I liked the retwist with Martin and Susan.

And finally, I also pictured a bearded Jonathan Frakes as Michael. How funny.

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The point of the super friends fight is that he’s calling in all the markers he can for the battle.

I’ve been going over the series, and one thing in particular stands out: the first 11 books are Dresden dealing with the temptation of power. He keeps getting into situations where, due to his audacity, cunning, and no small amount of skill, powerful beings want to give him even more power. He’s fought, successfully, against the temptation for about 10-11 years, always deciding that the situation was not dire enough for him to give up his free will or become an evil creature.

What makes Changes different is that the situation finally was dire enough. It’s not really fair to dismiss the growth in the previous 11 books as “power creep;” Dresden is growing as a character, becoming more experienced, wiser, and skilled, so naturally he’s going to grow more capable. Changes isn’t the result of power creep, it’s a sudden power sprint for the finish line, and it’s intentional and vital to the story. This is what happens when Dresden encounters something more important than his need for free will.

Also, in reading over the series, I’ve been catching hints of the overall series arc. I only have suspicions and suppositions, but I’m pretty sure a lot of what’s happening to Dresden isn’t because he’s some Chosen One. He is important, but only in the service of some larger scheme in which I’m almost positive Mab is the primary beneficial architect, fighting against some darker power that’s been pulling the strings for the past 11 books.

We’re very, very far from seeing the entirety of the story, and I’m pretty sure everything that happens to Dresden or every action Dresden takes is deliberate and calculated on Butcher’s part; this isn’t a case of him just making everything bigger and flashier for each new book.

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Harry’s built up power is, while IMO woefully cliched, still perfectly logical within the story told so far.

But the “super friends” are just .. stupid, especially Molly, Mouse and Murphy. You know, when Mouse is now an entity that can threaten the Leanansidhe, who is considered to be Winter’s equal to the eldest Gruff, well, I wonder why he didn’t simply ate the Naagloshii from the previous book?

And Murphy .. sigh, I get that the “swords” are oh so special but when they can turn a police officer into an expert sword fighter who has no problem whatsoever with all the demands that come with wielding such an ancient weapon, oh well, why exactly did Michael train at all? The sword apparently gives you exactly what you need in ability anyway.

Even if you are just a mortal who couldn’t possibly move as fast as those older vampires that are suppossedly so tough but totally fail to kill some people who are physically inferior in every single aspect – including Molly who doesn’t even wield a godsend weapon, is still an apprentice, not a combat wizard but still manages to kill the kind of vampires that Harry considered too powerful to tackle in an open fight when his days as an apprentice were long gone.

And isn’t a vampire of the white court suppossedly the weakest kind in comparison, definitely weaker than the red ones? And yet, Thomas, the young white, is also unstoppable for the oldest of the reds because .. why exactly?

I do understand that Harry, with his added winter powers, stood a good chance against even the older reds and you could argue that Sanya, one of the “as lucky as the story needs them to be”-knights of the cross, would do well too. But the others shouldn’t have survived the first encounter with the older reds – that they managed to hack their way through them is just ridiculous.

And to get back to the swords for a moment – such devices are one of the reasons why I mostly stay away from fantasy: They can do whatever the author wants them to do, they are the ultimate “get out of jail free”-card and such “solutions” weaken any story considerably.

But my annoyance with the super friends is just a side issue I have with the story in general.

When I realized that the driving force in this book would be the rescue of Harry’s previously unknown little daughter, I was already rolling my eyes.

Of course Butcher had to come up with the most pure motive for Harry to finally give in to Mab, of course it had to be an innocent little girl, of course it had to be family and sure enough, there had to be Harry’s and Susan’s sacrifice and we get the mandatory “heart breaking” scenes in the end. Predictable. Unoriginal. Boring.

And don’t even get me started on the logic behind Martin’s plan. This one hinged on so many coincidences and improbabilities that I am once again reminded of the worst pulp.

This is the first time that I have no interest at all to reread a book of the Dresden Files and I am not sure that I will spend money on the next one; their charm has .. evaporated in the melodrama of Changes.