The first book is the worst one. This one is second.
I thought of this quote too. How did he or an editor miss the fact that he changed the murderous kid ghosts from being seven and ten at the beginning of the book to twins at the end? You’d think with the delay someone might have read the whole thing through to see if there were glaring continuity errors.
Hopefully the next book will be a lot better.
I was disappointed enough in this book that I will not be pre-ordering the next book. I’ll read it at the library or in the bookstore or something before I’ll give him any more money.
Just guessing, but Changes and Ghost Story together feel to me like Butcher is saying goodbye to the entire Chicago cast except for occasional possible cameos. I expect that the future Dresden novels will introduce a new supporting cast, possibly based largely in the Never-Never. There’s no reason for Mab’s assignments for Harry to focus on a single city in our world. We’ll probably see more of the White Council than of the Chicago-ans.
Having said that, I wouldn’t mind a few Murphy/Molly spinoff novels to either fill in the missing 6 months or to explore what happens after Ghost Story.
I am completely uninterested in reading any novel about Molly and/or Murphy and Co. that doesn’t feature Harry. I am also completely uninterested in reading any novel about Harry that doesn’t feature the same supporting cast and I am particularly uninterested in ANY novel that takes place in the Never-Never.
I had honestly seriously expected there to be a timeskip, with Murphy taking over the supernatural PI business from Dresden with Molly as her sidekick, and quite possibly a shift in POV from Harry to Molly. Harry wouldn’t be totally out of the picture, but he’d become a supporting role just as the other supernaturals were to him, since as a ghost or the Winter Knight he is one of the supernaturals now.
I do agree that the continuing story is going to expand beyond Chicago. It may continue to use Chicago as a base of operations, but Harry will be carrying out missions for Mab, aggressively seeking out information on the Circle, and has intimate knowledge of the Ways now. Butcher intended Changes and Ghost Story to shake up the comfortable bad-guy-comes-to-Chicago-and-commits-a-crime routine the series had been rolling with until now, and I expect he intends to turn it into a fairly epic fantasy series from here.
I can’t say I fully agree with that decision, as I liked the structure of the first 11 books and reread them pretty constantly, but I have some faith in Butcher’s ability to tell a story.
Finally got caught up and finally got to read this book.
I thought it was quite enjoyable. The pieces are still landing from the shakeup of “Changes”. Molly continues to be even more awesome.
From various bits and pieces that were dropped in this and in the last couple books…does anyone else think that Butters is going to be doing some magic soon?
-Joe
…having said that, however, I’m looking forward to the next book a little less than usual. Mostly because “Summer Knight” was my least favorite book - some fairy stuff is fine, but when it’s the focus I’m less interested.
Still, I think a lot of the complaints from this thread are a little much. The author took things and threw in some major upheavals. The far less ballsy move would have been to just keep publishing books in the same vein as the others until the series died or the author did.
-Joe
I just finished Changes. Is the book of short stories necessary before I would read Ghost Story?
As much as I have like this series it’s starting to be SUCH a downer. It keeps getting darker and darker, with no hope that I can see that things will ever be better. I’d almost decided not to go on, but of course I will.
It’s kind of hard though, since I understand Harry is a ghost in the next book, and getting back into a body will be problematic at best. Even if he can, won’t it mean someone else has to die?
So before I start Ghost Story I want one thing spoiled for me. Can someone tell me what became of Mister? He was loose after Harry’s apartment burned.
Nope, not necessary, but they’re well worth reading.
Ghost Story is nearly as crapsack as Changes, but being that it’s essentially Part 2 of “everything you know will change,” I’m waiting to see what book 14 looks like before making any predictions about where the rest of the series is going to go.
He would need an empty body, certainly.
Mister turns out okay, and is in fact involved in a pivotal moment in Ghost Story.Probably doesn’t need a spoiler tag, but better safe than sorry.
The shorts aren’t necessary, but the last one in the set and one that didn’t make it into the collection (it’s in Dark and Stormy Knights instead) are very good, and will make Ghost Story feel a bit more connected.
If you’re having a darkness overload, I’d actually suggest reading the last story in the shorts collection, then reading the one from Dark and Stormy Knights, then Ghost Story, and saving the other shorts for a nice uplifting read after you’re finished with that lot.
As for Mister, he’s fine. No need to worry (I was worried too - I’m a cat person, and I think I may have needed to kill something if something bad happened offscreen).
Thanks to both of you for your replies about Mister.
Anyways, going to ask one more time here.
It seems that the last couple books we’ve really gotten “you can do magic even if you’re not born with the talent” over the last couple books.
Am I the only one that thinks that Butters is going to end up a wizard eventually?
-Joe
Probably.
Butters has been doing things with magic since Dead Beat, but the things he does are not wizardry. Wizards manipulate magical forces directly; Butters has to work indirectly–he manipulates things that he knows affect magic in certain ways, rather than manipulating it himself. He knows, for example, that if you draw a circle of chalk on the ground and drip some of your blood on it, the magical energy from the blood will “charge” the circle and form a barrier against magic. He can’t just will energy into it like a wizard, so he will never be able to create a circle without going through the procedure–unlike Harry, who can create an empowered circle without even drawing it, if he has to.
What Balance said.
Now that Murphy is no longer a cop, I’m seeing a possibility that she may take up one of The Swords.
I recently finished Ghost Story. I don’t have a lot to add to what other people have said. I don’t think it was up to the best of the Dresden Files stories, but it wasn’t terrible. Murphy and Chekhov’s Sword has been hanging over the story for a heck of a long time. I was expecting a different narrator for this one–probably Molly with Bob.
One thing I found is that I am now convinced that I know the identify of the Bad Guy on the White Council:
Kemmler. He was mentioned several times in the novel. Turns out his acolytes have been behind a lot of bad stuff driving Harry along. He has come back from the dead multiple times before. He is way more powerful than Harry; thus, a good adversary (Harry never fights inside his weight class).
Moved from Boo! back to Cafe Society; it’s really not a ghost story.
Intriguing… So which character do you think will turn out to be Kemmler?
With respect to the second question:The New American Bible is technically an excellent translation of the Catholic scriptures. However, the language is somewhat pedestrian. At least some Catholics like the King James for its poetic majesty. So, the NAB for work, the KJ for pleasure reading.
There’s more of a difference between the King James Bible and the New American Bible than flowery language. Even before the NAB, Catholics were not using the KJV of the bible. I still think it was just a minor error on Butcher’s part.