I get the feeling he has the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ fatigue that Conan Doyle complained about. Apparently this wasn’t the series he really wanted to write in the first place? He’s already killed off a pivotal character (Karrin Murphy),
What d’you think? Of course he may be under contract to deliver, but perhaps he will just phone something in?
He has published more than one or two or three of them… is there a quote where he really says that he is not writing what he wants but is forced to create more and more for contractual reasons?
I can’t locate the exact quote at the moment, but I seem to recall he somewhere said he really wanted to write fantasy about horses and horsemen, and the Dresden books gave him an entry into the publishing world?
It may not even be online any more…?
Then again, the whole genre of ‘Private Investigater / Operator in a world somewhat like ours but magic actually works’ may be a bit mined out.
F Paul Wilson says he is done with Repairman Jack.
Simon R Green explicitly wound up his several series with ‘Night Fall’ (was that a Wilson nod)?
Last I heard, the “plan” was 20ish or so books, ending in an “apocalyptic trilogy”.
The two most recent books were originally intended to be one book, and it sure looks like the start of something apocalyptic. So I think it’s safe to guess that there are probably only two-ish books left, and if he wanted to just abandon the series entirely, he probably would have already done so.
That said, it may well be that he feels an obligation to finish the series, and so moved up his timetable a bit (i.e., starting on the apocalyptic trilogy a few books before he originally planned). That would explain what felt like some pretty significant jumps between Skin Game and Peace Talks.
I’ll start by saying that I absolutely love everything about Dresden, and all the books. I even spent the extra cash to get them signed by the author. Very creative and innovative.
Dresden is now in the middle of power creep. They’ve made him too strong, and they’ve brought in too much of Vampire society and the NeverNever. I’m very worried that he’ll never fully cover the story of DemonsReach, and I’d love to see it fleshed out.
But the Dresden that hangs out in his office, and shills weight-loss potions when cash was too hard to come by, that Dresden is gone. There’s not much of a struggle for him anymore. Its The Big Picture, fighting angels and demons, and the nightmares beyond. I can see where Jim Butcher might be caught by the success of his own story - he made his character too powerful, and when he killed Harry once, he had to bring him back.
I can see another five years before the next book, if ever.
I pray it doesn’t go the War Against The Ch’torr route.
[Spoiler alert for different series]
Power creep seems to be an irresistable temptation for some writers. For example, in the first few ‘Laundry files’ books by Charles Stross, Bob Howard is a rather endearing harrassed low-level civil servent helping to keep the public safe from the Tentacled Monsters from Outside. But then he gains power and becomes a ‘level 5 entity’. and the otherworld bursts through in full force.
I know its a bit of thread necromancy, but I am pretty sure Butcher still plans to finish the Dresden Files. And he did his Fantasy line, the Codex Alera, after he got sufficient recognition via DF. And if you look at how his story for the Codex went, you can quite clearly see that this is how he likes to build stories. So I wouldn’t say the power creep was unitentional. Butcher very much likes his characters to level up from lowly problems to become super powerful leaders that fight wars and lead armies.
While that is not my preference, it is quite obvious where Dresden is headed. I mean, the big bads have been teasered and gotten closer since Book 1.
I was surprised that the whole Peace Talks/Battle Grounds was a one off threat, to be honest. But then again even the Fomori are just warm up for the real Outsider Battles that will inevitably come, with Dresden leading the alliance of the Faerie Courts, Wizard Council, White Vampires, Werewolves, Marcone and his cronies plus the inevitable dragons.
Four days is hardly thread necromancy. That’s not even thread CPR.
And the Fomor are already not a one-off threat. They’ve been major (or at least angling to become major) players for several books before Peace Battle, filling the power vacuum left behind by the Red Court. And the villains in Peace Battle included outsiders and outside powers.
Well, kinda. The Fomori were talked about a lot, but on screen they never really achieved anything. That’s what I mean by placeholder or one off. Their big superweapon is gone, their powerbase broken, and as you said, they were already involving outsiders, so it is pretty obvious that this will be the endgame for the Dresden Series. Now if it will be exactly the 20 mentioned and how quickly he will continue on reamins to be seen. I just checked and saw that he releases a Novella on Juy 5th, so all is well with the Dresdenverse.
This popped up for me, oddly enough, so I thought I’d update the thread. The Dresden Files are now estimated to last 25 books. Book 18 is Twelve Months, book 19 is Mirror, Mirror.
I seriously thought Battleground was the last one; it’s why I was vaguely considering reading it.
I enjoyed the series for a while but I got a bit tired of it. Part of it was the power creep, I felt we were getting into Lord of the Rings territory with giant fairy armies and what not. I think Skin Game was the last one I read and I thought it was okay. I think the image of Butters on a magical skateboard armed with one of those holy swords kind of soured me on the series a bit. I intend to pick it up again at some point, but I’ve not been in any rush.
Thanks for the update!
Huh, the series being extended longer is absolutely not what I would have expected.
And I was disappointed with the last two, but on the other hand, I thought that Skin Game was one of the best of the whole series. So I probably will stick it through to the end of the series, for good or ill.
This describes my dalliance with the series in a nutshell.
I call this the Robert Jordan Effect. I’ve got so much invested in the series that I can’t help but finish it.
I have drifted away from series I had a lot invested in, if they seemed to be consistently failing in quality (1632 and Honor Harrington come to mind). Point is, though, that the decline hasn’t been consistent, and the quality of Skin Game is at least enough to see me through another few books.
1632 had some real duds. Flint should probably exercised much stronger editorial control. Of course, he’s gone now, RIP. Never really got into the Harrington series… military SF isn’t particularly my thing.