Broke as hell, and y'all got me so hype I had to do a free Audible trial to get one free credit to buy the book.

And I don't even like audiobooks.

Haven't been this hype for anything since the Eminem Recovery album release anticipation thread on a long defunct forum.

 

If the marriage thing goes through, Maggie's stepmom will be her uncle's sister, AKA her aunt. That's going to be an immense headache, for sure.

 

Harry is marrying his half brothers half sister.

I think Mab is doing this marriage thing for Molly more than Harry. She knows Molly can't be with Harry due to the Mantle, so she is taking it off the books.

 

Kicking Harry out isn't about the Titan. This was a done deal before Peace Talks.

 

They called an emergency meeting to discuss Harry while McCoy and listen to wind were in hospital. The vote was announced before, but it was actioned due to the Titan.

 

McCoy said it was likely a Black council plot, which is why they voted when McCoy was down. I think it is totally Fucking stupid though.

One thing that did surprise me, I was sure Listen to Wind was going to be Black Council and turn on them here.

 

So y'all think that Mab will eventually tear Marcone a new one?

Remember the grudge she has against Thorned Namshiel for invading Arctis Tor.

 

Like Nemesis said, this plot wasn't about the Outsiders playing their hand. It was about sowing turmoil between the supernatural and mortal worlds that they could then take advantage of later down the line.

I can also see Marcone becoming the Big Bad of the series now. I'd kinda figured he had Thorned Namshiel's coin, but damn if that wasn't a cool way to find out.

 

The one good thing about having to dry a standard to constant weight is it gave me time to drive to the bookstore, buy this book, and read it all while still working. Still at work and on my phone, so my breakdown will come later.

Wild ride.

Spoiler: One thing

Drakul is a starborn? I don't know what that means in the long run, but it sure as hell means something. Hopefully Listen to the Wind comes through on that promjse to explain shit in the next book or two.

 

Starborns so far:

Dresden (implied the white council forced his birth somehow)
Elaine
Drakul
Listen (the former)
Seems to be Gatekeeper

 

Nope.

 

Well, Carlos actually had a full apprenticeship. Harry killed his first master in self-defence, and I forget in which book Harry says Eb spent more time teaching morality than magic. Harry may be a magic nerd, but he's basically been a self-taught one since 16ish. I'd probably say Harry's magical knowledge by this point has more breadth and is more esoteric, while Carlos is good at finicky stuff.

 

Agree with the general sentiment, fucking great book, so many moments of awesome and plain-old-Dresden-slugging-it-out fun.

One thing that is bugging me: the conjuritis was never explained. Was super expecting a reveal of Maggie sneezing in those last couple sentences, yet it was never used after the anvil and sub sandwich. Truly felt like one of those mysteries that turns out to be unrelated to the plot of the book, but is revealed at the end for the red herring/world building it is. Now I’m just wondering if Butcher just forgot, or will it be picked up in the next book, which is presumably a year into the future, when a normal cold is long past forgotten about.

 

Butcher's said that the time between books is supposed to be getting shorter now. It's very possible he's changed his mind on that since then (it was like 3 years ago IIRC), but we're supposed to start seeing gaps of a few months, rather than a year and change.

 

After thinking about it, I'm expecting one or two books between this book and the it's-been-one-year-in-story-from-this-book book. Harry needs some closure from certain Battle Ground events and we need to see some of the more immediate repercussions.

 

The short story set on christmas would be a good half a year since the midsummer night that Battlegrounds took place on.

So at least a few months after Christmas would be my guess as to when the next book takes place in, or about a year later.

Jesus Murphy's death made me sad.

 

Spoiler

I 100% expected her to die in this book, and after Peace Talks I fully expected Rudolph to make an attempt at her or Harry... but somehow despite expecting both of those two events, them being one and the same caught be completely off guard. Which I suppose was the intent.

 

I can't say I'm happy Murph died, but I'm glad she's out of the series. She's been the odd man out since Changes when Harry stopped being a PI who's also a wizard. We've had a now quite long string of books where the series hasn't felt settled and I finally feel like that's happening. Which is a great sign. I'm really looking forward to the next book.

I'm going to start listening to the audiobooks of Peace Talks and Battle Ground soon, and see how they work together as one whole, or if the former is still kind of shit.