Apparently Mirror Mirror is not the next book as many believed.

https://www.reddit.com/r/dresdenfiles/comments/jgvscr/the_next_books_title/

Jim did an interview with a podcast with some interesting stuff in it.

Not sure what I think about a filler book. Although I am sure there will be more to it.

If it covers Harry getting his shit together, pimping his castle and equipment, getting a lab, training with River Shoulders and telling the White Council to fuck off, maybe it could be good, but that’s just cause I like trashy Indy!harry fics.

The fact it lasts a year which is very odd for DF which normally cover 2-3 days at most. Also we have the Christmas story which takes place 6 months later.

We know his talk with LTW is due in a year as well as a wedding. Also Thomas is a dangling plot point.

 

So...a 12 month training/dealing with grief montage in the form of a novel? Going to be interesting to see how he turns that into an actual beginning/middle/end thing.

 

The entire reddit post is worth the read.

Spoiler

As we are all aware, there's a whole lot of political and character drama coming up after the end of Battle Ground, not really the sort of thing that should happen off screen. It turns out that Jim agrees with this because apparently Mirror Mirror isn't the next one. Fresh from the Legendarium podcast:

Jim: ...I'm gonna have to add another book in. I've gotta write, it's gonna a take a novel to deal with the aftermath of what happened in Battle Ground. I think the next novel is gonna be called Twelve Months and it's just gonna be about Dresden-well it's gonna be about more than that because it's a Dresden Files book with the usual insanity but the actual story is Dresden coping with all the damage he's taken over the years. You know that as a writer I'm not a fade to black guy in the Dresden Files, it doesn't happen very often, but it has happened. And every time I've the fade to black and that has happened, for the most part, it fades because Harry's pulling the curtain, because he doesn't share the really bad things with anyone, not even the reader. There are /bad/ things that have happened to Dresden and when bad things happen to you it's cumulative, it adds up. If you don't face it and deal with it it keeps adding up and adding up until it starts causing you psychological problems and difficulties with your friends and issues with your family. If you're out there in the middle of it you've got to be dealing with it, and he hasn't been. And we're gonna have a book about why, and the effects of the things that have happened over the years and the cumulative effects and how you deal with them and get over them.

Todd: Especially now that he's a father, that makes it especially emotionally charged.

Jim: Yeah he can't afford to just sit somewhere and feel sorry for himself or to drive himself to the brink of exhaustion and starvation trying to find a solution to his problems. He can't do that anymore, he's a grown-up, he's got a lot of things he's handling. And yeah, Maggie's the big one, kids change everything. If you've got a kid there waiting for you you can't be the guy that's sitting on the floor wailing poor me, that's not gonna work.

Todd: It's something we've covered in several episodes, how Harry takes all the guilt on himself and how that's not healthy. To see you say that we need something to deal with it, is that something that's been in the works for a long time or is that something that's come across organically kind of as you've written through seventeen books?

Jim: No, I wasn't planning to do a book about trauma and dealing with it, on account of I was busy not dealing with any of my trauma. But yeah when you start learning about it it's like "hey, this is something people need to know." And the idea's gonna be "look, I'm gonna show Dresden coping" and coping isn't always a particularly pretty thing or a noble thing. Nobody's pretty when they're in pain but it happens to all of us at some time or another, horrible things come along. And you've gotta deal with it and how do you deal with it. So partly this next book is going to be Dresden figuring out how to deal with things that are not slobbery monsters trying to chew his face off, those he can manage, he's really good with those, that's doable no problem. All these other issues are a different thing and..

I actually really like this. I didn't rate or talk about Peace Talks, because it felt incomplete. It was impossible to judge without Battle Ground. In all honesty, Battle Ground doesn't feel complete either. Yeah, it was a big battle, we know how it ended, and how Dresden won the day. But the consequences of what occurred haven't even begun to play out. That's what I'm really interested in. Not the fights, but the interactions between the multiple powers. And the fights that entails of course. But in the order.

Knowing what the next book is about, those consequences, especially how it plays out over a year, is fascinating. This will be a very different Dresden book, but I also think it has the potential to be one of the best. One of the things I've always liked about the Dresden Files, is that Jim Butcher isn't stupid. The world he's designed, how the power operates, the importance of perspective, his philosophical discussions about the nature of power and its use, are all actually really on point. One thing that has been missing... is well, exactly what he talks about in what's spoilered above.

I'm really interested in what he's described here, and excited to see if he manages to pull off what he intends.

Come on, we know it'll be more than that. It just won't be the ever escalating world shattering events. Something more... grounded.

 

This means that he gets married in the next book then.

Looking forward to it. Hoping for a shortish wait.

 

I am hoping that it ends on them about to be married and skips over it.

 

I think it depends on when the 12 Months book starts. As in, is it after Christmas Eve or before?

Theoretically could end during the wedding when whatever shenanigans Mirror!Dresden pulls occurs, leading into Mirror Mirror.

 

I figure Mirror Mirror is going to be the one where Harry has to fight to get back to his reality in time for the wedding. Jim loves taking well known tropes and tweaking them a bit to fit Dresden Files, and turning a typical romcom storyline into a fantasy romp through an alternate reality sounds right up his alley.

 

While I love that idea, I don't think the timing works out. Mab's giving Harry and Lara 1 year which is presumably the titular Twelve Months.

 

I saw someone mention the idea, and I really like it. Picture Harry Dresden. A man who avoids mirrors and has for years. Getting ready for his wedding with his bride that he has spent the last year getting to know and appreciate as he works through all his pain. He might not love her but there is a lot of appreciation and respect. He checks his appearance one last time before heading out to a wedding he is actually looking forward too. BAM! He gets sucked into the mirror. The End. The next book is Mirror Mirror. I really like the thought of this being how 12 Months ends.

 

Soooo, it's Half-Blood Prince then.

I grounded "reset" of stakes to start the crescendo until the BAT:

• Harry has to deal with the trauma and guilt of the death of a loved one (Sirius/Murph)
• Harry needs to learn some pivotal info central to fighting the BBEG/Outsiders (Horcrux/Starborn)
• Harry, having matured, learns to navigate a new level of interaction (Teenage Dating / Accords Politics, especially due to the marriage, but maybe also due to hi being the new Wizard Of Chicago)
• Harry will be very concerned about his local "bad guy," cause he's pretty sure said bad guy officially joined the baddies (Malfoy/Marcone).

Of course, stripping it down halfway to a monomyth-esque structure means it could be like a million other books. I suspect whatever the main plot of the novel will be closer to the PI-roots of the series, perhaps even the closest it'll get for the rest of the series. I also imagine we'll be introduced to the Librarian threat, as well as reintroduced to a hostile White Council. Perhaps we'll get lucky, and whatever mystery he's pulling the threads at all year, even though it will turn out to be mainly unrelated to the grander scheme of things in the series, will have Dresden tumble ass-first into some Black Council shit (maybe cause he wrongly suspects Marcone of the primary mystery, and interacts with Thorned N?).

Or, if it's just Dresden renovating the castle to be more open concept while studying under Bob and Bonnie, hitting the weights every morning, I'd read that just as well, hahaha.

 

I assume there will be at least one instance of the Wardens inspecting Dresden for dark magic.

 

Depending on what the white council's angle really is this could range from Luccio showing up and saying "Hi Dresden, mind if I stop by and grab a drink, I'm supposed to 'cHeCk In On YoU'. I like the castle, better than the old apartment, omg is that a computer!?!" To a knock down pissing contest or fight with a warden or two. I'm betting on something closer to the former. The implication in the interviews and story is pretty much that the senior council wants him around... just not close enough to have to worry about the splash damage.

 

I'm pretty happy about this to be honest. One of the big recent complaints about DF is Harry operating at a big league level while being a generally kinda shit wizard.

There was general agreement that everyone wanted to see a short story based on him dealing with the castle, Lara etc.

It's like Jim parked up in the DF discussion thread and was taking notes...








@LittleChicago

 

I'm starting to feel like Butcher is afraid to actually write Mirror Mirror because it's second time when he changes his plans for it. As for this, it's not a bad plan, but the questions I have is if it's additional book to the number he planned because that's very GRRM or he simply included things that were to happen in different one and didn't change the number.

 

Well BG did leave a lot of things up in the air. If Mirror Mirror was next we would have a book that due to its nature, couldn’t deal with much of these, so it would be left to the next book, which is poor narrative flow.

I just hope he can structure it around a coherent meta story, and not just have it be like Deathly Hallows camping trip.

 

I feel like this is a good idea. I already had issues with Molly's development in Ghost Story being utterly ignored because Cold Days happened after and there wasn't any time to deal with it. Felt like a waste.

In the aftermath of Battle Ground, Dresden's entire world, literally and metaphorically, are in shambles. So I'm guessing it'll be less epic, more personal sorts of struggles. Coping with the lost, with the damage, the psychic trauma and actually trying to build something.

As for the Wedding. I can't shake the idea of having it be something along the lines of Mamma Mia. Any takers for that?

 

So Lara dies of tuberculosis at the climax? Just not buying it, sorry.

 

Is that how the musical goes? 0.o

But no. That's not the climax I had in mind. xD

 

Give it a go. It's one of the most fun films I've ever watched and you'll have the songs stuck in your head for weeks.

 

I've watched the movies lots of times. Well, the first one. Just not the play. I cannot for the life of me recall anyone dying. Anyways, I feel like Lara and Dresden forced to work together might be a lot of fun. All the snark and that.