I was wondering - how old are characters from DF in Changes? My guesses about some of them:
- Harry & Murphy about 38 years old,
- Molly 22,
- Charity 40,
- Michael 45,
- Marcone 45,
- Ivy 13.

 

Those all sound about right. I think Dresden is closer to 45, but as far as I know, the only one who's given anything even vaguely resembling an exact age is Ivy. If memory serves, Dresden calls her a 7 year old at her first appearance, though no one confirms that's her age.

The best anyone can do, as far as I know, is make rough guesses based on the descriptions, and yours sound about right.

 

That's probably the high end of the scale. For me, I think Dresden's like 36/37 with Murphy a few years older than him. Dresden's apprenticeship under Eb stopped when he was like nineteen or so if I recall correctly, and then he apprenticed under Nick Christian for a bit - I'd say he was with Nick for three years or so, and the oneshot Restoration of Faith takes place when Harry is 22. So, I'd say he started Storm Front 25 years old and ended at Changes about 36/37 or so. But I'm probably just pulling that out of my ass.

 

No, I think you're right. I believe Butcher said something similar about Harry's age, somewhere in the "Word of God" thread. I always thought that Murphy was about his age or just a bit younger, though.

 

The Dresden Files Timeline.

According to it...

Harry 38-39
Murphy 38-40
Molly 23
Charity 42-48
Michael 55-63
Marcone ?
Ivy 15

The age gap between Michael and Charity makes Harry/Molly shippers all warm and fuzzy inside.

 

Edit: Ninja'd by Tehan

 

According to it Molly is little younger - about 22-23. Or I'm reading it wrong.

Michael is definitely old. It seems strange that Dresden never pointed that out when they were fighting with some monster.

Also, next time Dresden will see Ivy she will be young woman. I'm curious how different will be their interactions.

On a side note - Harry should hurry up and sleep with Murphy already. She's not getting younger .

 

Gah, my mistake. I took it from the Carpenter section and just added 11 on to adjust for changes without noticing that the Carpenter section was circa Proven Guilty. Fixed.

Edit: Though Molly's age is confusing, because she aged two years in the ten months between Proven Guilty and White Night.

 

If I recall correctly that's one of the reasons why Butcher added a beta specifically to keep track of dates, ages, etc. Left to his own devices he's probably no better than Rowling for that sort of thing.

 

Considering everything that he does keep consistent, I for one am not concerned about a characters age being a little bit on the inconsistent side ...

 

Ultimately, very few authors are going to be good at every single aspect of building their story - the ones that are completely anal and consistent on the background information sometimes end up having somewhat flat characterization, and so forth. So I don't hold it against Butcher if he makes a few mistakes like that.

I was quite pleased when I heard that he had a date beta along with god knows how many other betas - the more eyes you have looking at things like that, the better, especially if you're writing with strict time constraints like Butcher does.

The only thing left, I'd say, is for the quality of the editing to finish improving (another thing that's not Butcher's fault). Some of the earlier books were published in a state that could only be described as dreadful - I remember finding a dozen or so typos, missing words, and misused words in one of the books (Summer Knight, maybe?). Christ, DLP WbA does a better job cleaning those up than the hack editor who was responsible for the Dresden Files.

By the time Changes came along, things were a lot better, though I recall finding a couple of minor things in there.