This. That is the only thing that I thought the book should have addressed, but didn't. There are still a lot of other things left in question, but that seems like the only thing that shouldn't have been left for future books.

I am hoping that Harry will soon have a way of letting his loved ones know that he's alright, but knowing his luck, it'll be months before he sees any of them. He'll probably go to Mabs court for a coronation or something only to come back and see that the Nevernever sped up time to make him miss stuff.

All in all, I am very happy with this book.

 

As long we're still talking The Dresden Files and not Harry Potter.

 

Fact.10chars

 

Also, other observation: Did Butcher rewatch Star Wars or something? Dresden's always a nerd, but there was a rather intense escalation of SW references from previous books. Hell, a star wars quote is a decently important plot point.

 

I was way too sad at the whole scene and then Uriel called Mouse little brother, and it officially became one of my favorite parts. I love that damn dog.

I really liked this book. Agreeing with the majority in saying the introspection and character building was nice after the epic chaos that was Changes. So much happened in the last book there wasn't really breathing room to process the awesomeness that went down in like every other chapter. Seeing Dresden reflect on his choices is what I was honestly waiting on, since Changes made him do things I would swear up and down he'd never do.

I hope Cold Days gives us more insight into what's been going down with the Council. I really wanted to see firsthand how the WC reacted with Dresden ending the war. Also, excited to finally figure out what's been going on with Mab. I'm crossing my fingers that we get details into her 'anger' that's been brewing since Small Favor.

Ghost Story's one of my favorite Dresden books now for making me see the light of Molly/Dresden. May their children be the heirs of King Arthur and Merlin that every HP fanon author dreams of.

 

I remember Dresden shooting off various SW or SW inspired lines to Molly, so him proving himself to her in that way isn't so out-there.

 

Yeah, there was way too many references to SW and geekdom in general.

I did however laugh out loud at how Molly confirmed Harry wasn't an impostor, with him telling her to go to the Dagobah system.

Also, the Enterprise bridge in Molly's head was worth it, if only for the pleasant image of multiple Molly's running around in Federation uniforms with extremely short skirts.

 

I just finished it, some general thoughts:

1.) Butcher has moved to Harry/Molly at this point if it wasn't already apparent.

2.) We are left with as many questions as we were given answers. This helps to contribute to the whole "something missing" feeling.

3.) I'm not really getting all the hate for the pop culture references. Harry hangs out with quite a few young people to say the least, it's not terribly surprising that he would pick up on some of the culture.

Also, I'm surprised nobody mentioned (least in this thread) the Pink Floyd reference.

"How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?" :awesome

4.) I also don't believe that the Christianity parts are overwhelming the story whatsoever.

5.) Most importantly, I thought this was a great addition to the series. After Changes where it was twist after twist, action scene after action scene, there was no time for Harry to think about the consequences of his actions. This changed with Ghost Story where Harry not only had to deal with the consequences of his actions but realize that Changes wasn't the first time this happened. I think we're going to see some interesting changes in the Harry/Molly dynamic because of that among other things.

There's some more thoughts but figure I'll save it until after I get some sleep.

 

The Alphas aren't so bad, it's not like they're gonna forget their nerdier days. It's Molly who's annoying.

Twenty-something who likes OT Star Wars...borderline, many people got introduced to Star Wars in the 90s. Twenty-something who likes both Star Wars and Original Star Trek, well enough to use it in a battle for her body? Come on.

Tack on the fact that every time Harry makes a reference you have to run it through your head to see if he should know it and you have an extremely annoying trend.

 

It's logical if you think about it. Harry's walking kryptonite for technology, so he'd only know a series if you could see it all in a drive-in - like Star Wars. Molly isn't so harsh on tech, and her dad keeps everything in working order at home, so she could watch Star Trek.

And just because Molly's got tattoos, piercings and a rack doesn't mean she can't be a nerd (cf. Suicide Girls, BMEzine). She was helping run a convention, for crying out loud. She was well entrenched in her geekery long before Yoda Harry came along.

 

Though it's kinda unfair to point out (not Jim Butcher's fault), I have to wonder why, after all this time, the copy editors for the Dresden Files still suck tremendous ass. The density of errors for 1st edition Dresden books is as high as I see anywhere, including lower-volume niche books (read: crappy books).

In this one, off the top of my head (the hardcover, BTW):

• At one point, somebody applies a car's breaks.
• During the encounter with He Who Walks Behind, Harry "struggled to his feet and started town the aisle."
• And worst of all, here's the very last sentence in the novel: "There is much work to do be done."

How the fuck do the editors miss something like that in the last sentence of the fucking novel? :facepalm Their asses should hire yak from this forum, pay him a couple of thousand, and have him turn out more accurate copy editing than their "professionals."

As far as the rest of the book goes, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I don't like ranking Dresden novels just after I've read them, but I figure this one will end up somewhere in my top three or four among the series. The book was quite a bit more introspective than most, and that was usually quite interesting. There were a few times when I wanted Butcher to hurry up and move to the next plot point, though.

The nerd references alternately amused me and annoyed me. But:

Was I the only one who paused there, to start humming the appropriate music? :awesome

 

I'm on board with Scrit, the Alpha's may be in their late twenties, and Molly mid-twenties, but that hardly precludes them from being nerds. Ditto, Butters. These are the guys who still routinely get together to play DnD. So Harry saying "Epic Fail" is hardly that jarring. Same with the Star Wars references. I'm barely older than Molly and I've seen most of the original Star Trek and all the movies. Seems like nitpicking.

As far as the worry about Christianity taking over, I don't get it. Harry has known basically since Death Masks that in all likelihood there's something like a higher power. And it still hasn't changed the way he operates. Sanya is agnostic. Neither Michael or Forthill try to force their faith on Harry, and Uriel would be the last person to do so. Thus, I have a hard time understanding the fear of Dresden turning into a evangelomancer. Seems absurd and unwarranted. This isn't Twilight.

My only real problem with the book was that once the reveal of this book's bad was shown to be Corpsetaker redux, I lost a bit of the tension. Granted, the book wasn't so much about that fight, but it lost a bit of the drama. There was no reason, book-wise, to bring Corpsetaker back to life, so she felt a bit like a straw dummy. I was glad it was Mort who took her out though. That was pretty awesome.

 

I disagree. Corpsetaker was one of my favourite villains of the series and only really got taken out by a lucky shot. Bringing her back was a nice change to the introduction of new enemies, and given that Corpsetaker would take to death like a fish to water she seemed the natural enemy to put up against Ghost!Harry.

Also, just got my paper copy of Ghost Story so a re-read is in order.

 

Did anyone else get a VERY Vader/Palpatine vibe from the beginning of the Dresden resurrection scene? Granted that falls away once Dresden gives her the "my way or the high way" bit, but I thought the opening was very reminiscent of it otherwise.

 

I have no idea where you're coming from with the Palpatine/Vader thing, I didn't get that at all. I was too busy basking in the :awesome that is the work of our lord and savior, Jim Butcher. What about Sir Stuart? Was anyone else incredibly happy that he wasn't just left as a mindless drone? And for those of us who haven't had the chance to read all of the short stories, what are the Forom?

 

The Fomor are basically the predecessors of the Fae. They originate from Irish mythology as the "Fomoire". I'm not sure about the specifics of the Dresden-verse, but the original myths have them as roughly analogous to the Titans of Greek myth. Beings that preceded the gods and were embodiments of chaos and nature.

As best I can tell, in the Dresden verse, they were beaten by the Faerie Courts and sent into exile. Because of the obliteration of the Red Court, however, they found an opportunity to become a threat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomorians

 

Physically they tend towards the bulky and quick charging bull stereotype of villains, though there are some powerful spellcasters amongst them (they use entropy magic, which is a subset of water magic). They're also hybrid fish men.

They seem to be a lot like the spawn of Dagon from the Shadow Over Innsmouth, given that they seem to reproduce through breeding with the locals.

 

It wasn't so much Dresden as Vader so much as it was Mab was giving me Palpatine vibes.