Dresden Files Catch-All (possible spoilers)

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Couldn't find anything like this in a search. Mentions in other topics, but no topic of his own.

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, a detective based in Chicago, and a wizard.

Book 13 is out next week, and well if you haven't been reading there are some major spoilers in Book 12, so get to it.

Just thought we should have a place to talk and discuss each year or so as the books release, and also to encourage others to start fresh with the series.

Interviews with the author, Jim Butcher, had estimated the series to go 20 or so books with a complete overarching story to them. More recent estimates might push that up to 22 or 24 books, as things have taken a little longer to pan out than originally planned.

A friend got me the first three in a set for my birthday last Sept, and after crushing through them in a matter of days I ordered books 4-12 from Amazon, and blazed through those as well. Some of the most entertaining books I've ever read.

Anyway, for those who are caught up like me, and want a peek at Book 13:

Spoiler:

Ghost Story, chapters 1-5, previewed on Jim's site.

There's a link in that spoiler tag, hard to see when you highlight the text.

So... let's discuss. Harry. Murphy. Bob. Susan. Marcone. Michael. Elaine. Mab. Thomas. Lara. Molly. Maggie. And of course, Mouse, maybe the greatest dog ever. And Mister the cat.

I suppose anything for 13 is in spoilers, and probably book 12 as well. Don't want to scare off the new readers yet. But we're 10 days out from 13 and I'm jonesing for my Dresden fix.

Oh yeah, Amazon pre-order link for Book 13. Hopefully that will hook up the GWJ referral tag.

And also, Book 1: Storm Front, for those who want to have a taste.

Or Books 1-3 box set, for a bigger taste.

This is the first series in a long time that I have actually been anticipating the release of the next book. Going to be awesome!

I can't read a Dresden book without my face hurting from smiling so much. I love everything about these books!

Stele wrote:

Or Books 1-3 box set, for a bigger taste. ;)

I bought this awhile ago but it's behind the Song of Ice and Fire books in my book pile. And, I don't have any recreational reading time at the moment so it will be awhile before I can get to them. I didn't realize there were 12 of them. That's kind of off-putting.

There are 12 of them, but they are incredibly fast reads.

Read the first book last year at some point. Really enjoyed it. Plan on picking more of these up in the future. Really fun, quick read.

Stele, if you guys are gonna talk spoilers couldn't hurt to put it in the thread title like we have for the GoT thread.

mudbunny wrote:

There are 12 of them, but they are incredibly fast reads.

And unlike most series of this length (I am looking at you, Wheel of Time), they get better with each book!

I watched the TV series last year and was disappointed it didn't go further. I knew it was based on a book but I tend to not buy books that I am not sure will be good. Based on what everyone here has said, it looks like it is worth checking out.

garion333 wrote:

Stele, if you guys are gonna talk spoilers couldn't hurt to put it in the thread title like we have for the GoT thread.

Better?

SallyNasty wrote:

And unlike most series of this length (I am looking at you, Wheel of Time), they get better with each book!

And yes, the books get better. I'm excited there are 20+. A long and complete epic, something like Y The Last Man in comics, is much preferable to a drawn out never-ending series, or something too short that didn't get to reach it's potential (Firefly tv show). This feels like it will be just about right.

Sweet - I'll be caught up by the time the next book comes out. I just finished book 9 this morning. Books 10 and 11 are on their way to the Nook right now. It's kind of nice to be able to burn through a book in a couple of days after slogging through The Malazan Book of the Fallen over the last 6 months. It was an enjoyable slog, but Butcher is like a nice tasty dessert after a heavy but equally tasty main course.

Book 12 was so goddamned epic it left me a bit stunned. I'm frothing at the mouth to read 13.

When I recommend the series I generally tell people to start with Grave Peril and then go back and read the first two, because his writing gets so much stronger so fast that the first book really isn't indicative of the series at all. And while there's some good relationship building between Harry and Murph in Fool Moon, I don't think the engine of the series really catches until Susan gets infected. It's also the book in which we meet Micheal and Thomas and Mavra and the Red Court really shows its fangs and ...

Well. I really like this series.

The audio books are all really well done, too - James Marsters (Spike on Buffy) narrates them. If you're an audio book fan this is a great way to consume these.

I love this series too. Like Brennil I can't wait for 13 - the ending of 12 had me gaping open mouthed like a slack-jawed yokel. More so than usual, I mean. I'm also pleased to hear that it will go on for at least another 10 books or so, I just can't get enough of them. It's sad that his books are so easy to read that I tend to have them done in 4 or 5 hours, when it takes him quite a bit longer than that to write them. Still, at least I'm not waiting for a GRRM epic, that would be worse!

My favourite character: Bob of course! Wisecracking, insanely smart, sarcastic, powerful and a dirty old man skull to boot!

Edit: Am I using too many exclamation marks? Sure! Do I care? No!

Stele wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Stele, if you guys are gonna talk spoilers couldn't hurt to put it in the thread title like we have for the GoT thread.

Better?

Much appreciated. I'll visit the thread again in a year when I catch up.

I'm working my way through the audiobook versions of the series (having already read them in print). James Marsters is absolutely amazing as narrator, and John Glover is going to have some extremely hard, peroxide blond shoes to fill with Ghost Story. I'm as far as Blood Rites, and I was damn near weeping, walking down the street when

Spoiler:

Harry and Thomas soulgazed, and Harry had his moment with his mother

Also, my favorite sub-plot/character was definitely

Spoiler:

Lash

Tanglebones wrote:

I'm working my way through the audiobook versions of the series (having already read them in print). James Marsters is absolutely amazing as narrator, and John Glover is going to have some extremely hard, peroxide blond shoes to fill with Ghost Story. I'm as far as Blood Rites, and I was damn near weeping, walking down the street when

Spoiler:

Harry and Thomas soulgazed, and Harry had his moment with his mother

Also, my favorite sub-plot/character was definitely

Spoiler:

Lash

Yeah, next to Bob your second spoiler was my favourite character.

Spoiler:

When she took that psychic bullet for him I was a bit teary eyed. The whole redemption / even ultimate evil may deserve a second chance was quite powerful.

I love Mouse. Especially in Changes:

Spoiler:

talking Mouse!

One of the funniest yet coolest sequences.

Tanglebones wrote:

I'm working my way through the audiobook versions of the series (having already read them in print).

Audiobooks! *facepalm* Library here I come. And if not available ... Audible here I come.

garion333 wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

I'm working my way through the audiobook versions of the series (having already read them in print).

Audiobooks! *facepalm* Library here I come. And if not available ... Audible here I come.

My library only had Death Masks; I think it's worth accumulating them with my Audible credits.

Apparently Marsters had a scheduling problem with Book 13, but the excellent John Glover (Lionel Luthor on Smallville) is filling in for at least this one. From his site:

Jim Butcher's Ghost Story
John will be reading the audiobook of Ghost Story, the next installment in Jim Butcher's exciting Dresden Files novels. The series was previously read by John's Smallville co-star James Marsters, who unfortunately had to bow out on this occasion due to personal reasons. The audiobook is out on August 4 from all the usual retailers.

Polka will never die!

*ahem*

Seriously, can't wait for the Ghost Story. I hope it will prove to be a good palate cleanser after the latest G.R.R. Martin's "Crushing-Despair-In-Book-Form".

Stele wrote:

Apparently Marsters had a scheduling problem with Book 13, but the excellent John Glover (Lionel Luthor on Smallville) is filling in for at least this one. From his site:

Jim Butcher's Ghost Story
John will be reading the audiobook of Ghost Story, the next installment in Jim Butcher's exciting Dresden Files novels. The series was previously read by John's Smallville co-star James Marsters, who unfortunately had to bow out on this occasion due to personal reasons. The audiobook is out on August 4 from all the usual retailers.

What the Devil we be doing the reading?

Nosferatu wrote:
Stele wrote:

Apparently Marsters had a scheduling problem with Book 13, but the excellent John Glover (Lionel Luthor on Smallville) is filling in for at least this one. From his site:

Jim Butcher's Ghost Story
John will be reading the audiobook of Ghost Story, the next installment in Jim Butcher's exciting Dresden Files novels. The series was previously read by John's Smallville co-star James Marsters, who unfortunately had to bow out on this occasion due to personal reasons. The audiobook is out on August 4 from all the usual retailers.

What the Devil we be doing the reading?

He's here to CLAMP down on inaccuracies.

I think the greatest thing about the series so far is that there's a massive, overarching theme that goes along with them - you can tell from reading the series that the world is essentially starting to go to hell in a handbasket and everything is slowly falling apart at the seams - and yet each book is still in and of itself a self-contained story. In many massive fantasy epic series (Song of Ice and Fire, et al), you really need all the backstory from the previous books for the current one to make sense, and the books don't leave you with any sense of closure, but more a wondering of where everything is leading.

Dresden (Changes nonwithstanding) isn't really like that. There aren't really a whole lot of true cliffhangers. You could pick up book 8 or book 5 or book 11 and start reading it and sort of get an idea of what's going on, because there's a story, a case, confined to just that book. It won't make quite as much sense as if you had the backstory, but you don't need it to enjoy the book. On the other hand, you can always tell that the story is part of something bigger - at least once you get past the first few books - even if we still can't see the whole picture.

I think the line that Butcher has to walk to make that happen is a very fine line, but I think he's done an excellent job pulling it off so far. I'm sure I won't be disappointed in another week and a half or so.

Stele wrote:

So... let's discuss. Harry. Murphy. Bob. Susan. Marcone. Michael. Elaine. Mab. Thomas. Lara. Molly. Maggie. And of course, Mouse, maybe the greatest dog ever. And Mister the cat.

My favorite character in the series is Sanya, followed closely by the character Tanglebones mentioned. I'm big on redemption.

I really enjoy the Dresden Files but I do have one major complaint:
Some of the characters are so shallow they almost feel like stereotypes. Butters is the worst offender with Karyn coming up a close second.

I'm also eagerly awaiting Ghost Story. Butcher's been bringing the awesome increasingly with each book. Sue, the Skinwalker, and finally Changes, it's been getting better and better.

I like Butters as a character. He's a smart guy, I liked how his intelligence is enough to save his life in some very deadly situations, but he has a realistic feeling problem finding his courage. It would be true that Butcher's good guys stay that way. With the exception of Thomas, he pigeonholes his characters pretty firmly into "baddies", "grey" (Marcone, Thomas, the various Fae, Lara Raith to some extent), and goodies early on, and his characters tend not to move out of their slot very much. I don't personally have a problem with that.

And thankfully Butcher eventually figured out new ways to describe the various supporting cast, because for the first couple of books I was getting real annoyed at his rote description of Murphy and the Blue Beetle every single book.

Murphy, five-foot-nothing.

Yeah he overused that a bit.

NathanialG wrote:

I really enjoy the Dresden Files but I do have one major complaint:
Some of the characters are so shallow they almost feel like stereotypes. Butters is the worst offender with Karyn coming up a close second.

Agreed. The series has its flaws.

* The narrator's semi-creepy description of women whenever they are first introduced (in a novel).
* The habit of re-introducing characters/concepts during each installment in case this is the first novel the reader has braved.
* Continued plot devices (in the first couple of books anyway) e.g. Karen not trusting Harry, evidence piling up to make him look guilty, him escaping to prove who is the real perpetrator.
* Each novel introducing a new femme-fatale.

But still, it's ostensibly pulp detective fiction with a supernatural spin, so you kind-of know what you're in for when you start reading. It's guilty pleasure popcorn reading but pretty enjoyable popcorn reading at its best.

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