Actually, Butcher has confirmed that Erlking is NOT on par with Mab. Mab is a lot more powerfull and could defeat Erlking if it really came to that.

 

Okay. I got my copy the other day (a few people had offered me links to electronic copy online, but I had pre-ordered my hardcover by then and was stubbornly holding out for paper--I'm old school like that). I'd studiously avoided spoilers and I took my time with it, spacing out the reading over two days.

I haven't read others' comments; sorry if this review is repetitive:

General impressions:

I thought individual scenes were great, the kind of thing that Butcher excels at, but taken as a whole, the book was a shark-jumping moment for the series and possibly his weakest Dresden novel to date. It is serviceable, getting us from "Dresden as he was" to "Dresden as he will be," but whether the transition is into something decent or crap remains to be seen--it's going to be fundamentally different, whatever it is, and the transition itself was clumsy in places. I suspect that he has the NYTimes curse: make the list and you become a commodity, less subject to editors. This book, while not bad, wasn't great. With a bit of judicious trimming, it could have easily been tighter and better.

The good:

Many individual scenes were made of awesome. Pick up pretty much any action scene and it shines. This is Butcher's element.

Though I didn't really like to see it in one of my favorite literary characters, the child contrivance and Dresden's fury were done believably, in my opinion. I have a kid and I can appreciate the kind of rage he'd feel at the abduction of his daughter.

How Dresden makes himself kill the former Knight in cold blood and how it doesn't affect him beyond making him feel anything but cold in the end was decently done. It's a moment of ruthlessness that foreshadows how he dealt with Susan at the end, tricking her into turning. Without it, the Susan scene wouldn't have worked.

Sanya, "Presumably, it was phat." Toot Toot, as always, was cool in cameo.

We finally got an answer for why nobody got around Dresden's wards via the Nevernever. This always bothered me.

Marcone (as always) was great in his cameo and the trip to Norway to see Odin was good. Hopefully, Odin makes a reappearance later on.

The climax was epic, capped by an acceptable way of dispatching Susan. I know she's a favorite character to hate, but I always thought she was one of Butcher's better characters as a character. I'm happy to see her go out in style, at least.

Murphy taking up a sword (finally).

Annoying stuff:

Murphy taking up a sword and going all Yoda-lightsaber-badass with shitty lines. It had me shaking my head.

Mouse getting all chatty. Who here believes that dogs have a fully formed language as expressive as human tongue? Didn't think so. So why should dog-talk be able to convey the nuance of human speech? This was a little too cutesy for my tastes. (It almost felt like Lea was included in the final assault just for the purpose of turning everyone into hounds so Mouse could have his moment).

Systematic, in places gratuitous destruction of the mainstays of Dresden's life in order to make the "Die alone" death curse thing stick and to make him hit rock bottom before he took up Winter's mantle. When Harry's office was blown up early on, it was obvious what Butcher was up to. By the time the Blue Beetle was squashed, it was already starting to feel excessive and contrived. I started a chapter countdown for when his home would be destroyed. Turned out I was off by only one chapter.

LoTR lameness after endless Star Wars and Kung Fu references. It isn't witty any more than that uncle who always tells the same jokes every time you see him.

Martin as bad guy seemed too easy.

The whole Federal building visit/Arlking progression was unnecessary. It felt like, "Okay, we've got several hours before we have to storm the castle. What can we do to make things more tricky for Dresden in the interium--I know, let's bring back the Arlking." We'd already met Tilly, so Murphy can do the join the FBI thing in a later book and work the whole "Mulder/Scully" angle. We didn't really need this here.

Trading the duster for filagreed Plate Mail +3 Armor sucked. Yeah, I get that it was a symbolic replacement of self-generated, Susan-supplied protection for Winter's aegis, but it was still pretty shitty. Not every cutesy symbolic thing deserves inclusion.

The Eebs: too entertaining for just the one scene.

Soulfire being all over the place with no apparent indication of what it is, what its real costs are, etc. Use too much and you cease to be--got that. But Dresden can apparently use a shitload of it and not feel any effects sometimes, but is practically unconscious the next time he taps it. What gives?

Too many loose ends were left: For instance, the whole thing with the assassination attempt while in the church and how Dresden promptly forgot all about it. Who made themselves to look like Susan and hired Stevie D? Why didn't Dresden care any more about it? Unless I missed something in my read, this was left unresolved. (I'm thinking it was the same entity who popped him at the boat, but that's idle speculation).

Another loose end was the cost of taking his mother's gem. No hint of the cost was made (as far as I could tell). Something, at least, should have been foreshadowed.

The big step away from the hardboiled, film noir, detective/mystery storyline that made his prior books work. This one was more of a "you took my kid and I take your miserable lives" action/revenge fic: different enough to be less enchanting.

Final impressions:

Reading Changes wasn't wasted time, but it wasn't a terribly great piece of writing on Butcher's part. I'm left not regretting having splurged for hardcover (which I seldom do for books--after you have a few thousand, you want them in the more compact, paperback form), but I'm a little disappointed in what it turned out to be. Maybe it'll improve with rereading.

At least the relatively long wait until the next volume coupled with the ambiguous ending should make the next year a good one for Dresden Files fanfiction.

 

Really? Personally I am not sure if killing the former Knight really qualifies as murder or anything isgnificant. I mean the guy had begged Dresden to kill him once before. It could even be said that Dresdens decision NOT to release him from horrific torture in an earlier book was the evil thing to do, rather than just a quick mercy kiling that he gives here.

Supposedly it was an archangel (probably Uriel) talking through Murphy. Harry mentions it later on when Murphy again rejects taking up the sword. Though personally I don't know how Harry can know that it was an archangel but whatever.

Mouse it not exactly a dog, so I can buy it from that perspective, but personally I thought Mouse was more fun when we saw his intelligence from his behaviour (such as pretending to be hurt worse than he was to try and make Molly see that actions have consequences in TC). Having him actually talk was pretty lame.

I think the scene would have worked lot better if Mouse had just been quiet and just growled and *looked* at Lea and intimidated her that way.

I thought it was the red vamps. Probably the Eebs. It was mentioned that they can actually alter their fleshmask so they can appear as someone other than the human they were before the transformation.

Lea said that the mother lost the ability to sleep from taking up that knowledge and at the end Harry has real trouble falling asleep. That could just be a coincidence though.

 

In Proven Guilty, he confesses to Michael how he's troubled by having popped a Denarian from behind in cold blood. In only a few books, he gets to where he can slit a helpless guy's throat to save his daughter and not have it bug him. I probably have to reread, but he seemed more alarmed by his lack of reaction than his actions.

It's a fair assumption to make and I didn't miss that it was some sort of divine being sock-puppeting her (like what happened to Michael earlier in the series), but it was still lame.

It could also have been someone else. E.g., why not a Summer glamour on an agent commissioning the hit? Titania knew about Harry and Mab at this point and could have called in the hit to keep Winter from upsetting the balance. It just bothers me that it didn't bother Dresden more. He spent a paragraph wondering about it and then promptly forgot about it altogether.

I think it is. He's mentioned he's "too tired to sleep" in many books, often after doing something badass like rain down fire on Arctis Tor. I didn't read this as anything special.

 

I generally liked the book, and Pers covered most of the points, but some of it irked me. The ending honestly felt like it belonged at the beginning of the next book rather than at the end of this one. Yeah, I get it, cliffhanger, but it really just serves as minor irritation, since we know he won't die (at least permanently), and it feels out of place right at the end of the novel which was wrapping up rather nicely.

The Lords of Outer Night...since when does "will" play that much of a role, or do such significant damage? Is Dresden really being reiatsu pwnt at his age and level of magical experience? Didn't like it. We've seen similar things, but never to the point of total incapacitation.

Mouse was annoying. Eerily intelligent dog? Awesome. Talking dog? No thanks.

Molly would have done better to throw down some veils. Murphy seemed...overpowered. She hasn't exhibited any incredible faith or anything...seemed somewhat illogical. It really should have been Sanya getting all those benefits, seeing as he's the one who's been carrying on persistently all by himself. It would have made him being able to solo God's work more believable to have him doused in the Luck of God, not Murphy.

Lea's disguise maneuver was epic. Knight powers seem balanced enough to be going on with, nice use of ice. He's also just getting used to and growing into them as well, might not even have the whole deal yet. Like the potential. Soulfire...needs more description. It just feels like a cheap power-up line when he throws it in and doesn't detail its effects on the spell.

Lea is the elf-queen. Dresden is obviously Gandalf.

Mab scenes were truly amazing. Loved every single one, and Toot Toot's subsequent comments. Sanya...wish he'd have been more present earlier.

Good to see Dresden truly desperate and forced to break his own rules to get shit done, i.e. killing ex-WK/manipulating Susan. No more kiddie gloves. Slaying of the Red King and Arianna was BAMF status, he should be legendary now, having murdered them both merciless execution style.

Ebenezer is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters. He's changed the game, as far as what DF magic is capable of. We might have to reconsider our opinions of HP/DF magic with this new information. He can apparently strip the life out of multitudes of people simultaneously, AK-style. Oh dear. Blackstaff is insane. Grampa revelation was done well.

Assassination attempt and lack of reaction was annoying. Incapacitation of the White Council seemed suspiciously convenient. Everyone gets sick? That better be some nefarious plot, or I'll be pissed. SC wizards come down with the flu? Are you serious?

Dresden breaks his back falling off a ladder? Are you serious? Then Uriel makes the excuse "you made your choices." LOL.

Overall, good book, but I'd have to agree with Pers and say it needed to be edited way, way better. A lot could have been cut. Also, I eagerly await the triumphant return of Mister. All hail.

 

One thing I noticed on my second readthrough. In the last chapter just before Harry gets shot he slips. Genuine? I dont think so. Perhaps Uriel intervention? I believe it turns a killing shot into a non fatal injury. Just my take.

 

I dunno, we have seen these kinds of "mental" attacks before. Was not the one that killed Lash and nearly Harry one like that for example. Corspetaker too paralyzed Harry with a mental attack like this, if not quite as bad. I had no problem with this part.

You are right! There was something that I thought was wrong about that scene and you just made me realise what it was! Why WAS it Murphy who seemed to be kicking ass as a knight and getting all the luck? I mean this is the woman who was offered the job and REJECTED it. And now, after wielding the sword chose to reject it AGAIN! Whereas Sanya has singlehandledly been doing the job normally done by THREE knights with no complaints.

If I was Sanya, I would be annoyed right now. Sanya for president!

I wonder if it was actually the blackstaff that made it possible, or is such a "mass-death" spell something that every SC-level wizard can potentially do. I mean obvously without the corruption-protection offered by the blackstaff, killing that many people with magic would likely utterly twist your mind into madness and evil. But it might explain how the major bad-guy warlocks like Kemmler were such threats if they could do such things.

But yeah, instantly killing hundreds of men just like that does make Voldemorts AK's look pretty bad in comparison. Eb is scary.

I thought that was a delibarate attack by the reds. Basically they did not come down with the flu, they were exposed to biological warfare by Arianna. Reds used a tactic very much like that when they killed lots of wardens with that nervetoxin in an earlier book.

It did seem a bit silly that after all the major badguys that Dresden has faced, it would be a fall from a ladder that takes him out of the fight. On the other hand, this kind of stuff DOES happen in real life. A bad fall can cripple you for good. I wonder if Butcher was trying to show that sometimes bad luck and a nasty accident can be a worse enemy than the evilest of monsters.

I thought the slip happened after he had been shot. So basically he slipped because a bullet had just went through him.

 

I agree wholeheartedly. If this were possible, how the hell did Morgan and other Wardens (I'm not going to assume every single one fighting is more powerful than Harry) push the fight and wound the Red King?

Capable of speech? Ok, maybe ridiculous, but I think why Jim did it is different. The phrase "I won him" comes to mind. It sounded important and I think it's a plot line Butcher plans to follow at some point but believed he could not unless he illustrated Mouse's depth more beforehand. Harry's godmother calls Mouse a demon. He's not some regular dog, never was, he's not even an irregular dog. So while I didn't love the talking, I do think it was necessary to progress Mouse's development for something in the future.

Incredible faith? If Harry can have it in simple magic (his pentacle) then Murphy's sense of Justice is more than enough faith to wield a Sword powerfully and violently (Having almost taken Dresden down numerous times when she was even slightly worried he was a bad guy comes to mind).

As far as Sanya goes, maybe he is normally that good? I always got the impression that he was physically more apt than any other human, he has ex-Denarian instinct, he thinks outside the box (hello machine guns) and he is more of a survivor than the previous Knights (Michael was the swing first, worry that I just got shot later type and Shiiro... well he was terminal before we ever saw how he really was).

Maybe Murphy NEEDED that boost in order to fight. And I don't think it was Uriel, far too direct to be him. That is not subtle. Subtle is Harry's foot slipping at the last instant (I re-read and that IS a good catch, could mean something, could mean nothing. Definitely Uriel-esque.).

I thought it was crystal clear that Arianna was behind this. I re-read the chapters surrounding the assassination and I still feel as if it's clear. Am I the one making too many assumptions? Because a lot of people have been confused about that.



I think taking a step back and getting a little perspective goes a long way for a character. The book ends before Dresden ever gets any true perspective on what he has done or become in order to save his daughter.

He has ALWAYS looked back on his actions with remorse when it requires. And not always in the same book. Harry's actions in killing that ex-Denarian and his remorse a book later being the primary example.

I don't think we should see Harry feeling instant remorse for slitting a killer's throat to help himself to power in order to save his daughter. I think, after he stops having constant adrenaline boosts, he is going to have MANY sleepless nights, years of self-recrimination, etc. We haven't seen that because the adrenaline's barely left his system when he's shot and the book's over.

Any remorse in between his actions would focus his attention away from his purpose. And if there's one talent Harry Dresden has refined to a knife's edge it is his single-minded devotion to accomplishing something, regardless of the consequences. Jim's shown that every time Harry's in a corner that Harry will do what's right and damn everything else.

You can't hope to see Harry's remorse yet, I think writing it in would've been poor form on Jim's part, I'm glad to see Harry deciding to stay cold about the whole thing until he has time to think about it. Which we'll read about next book. The same goes for the consequences of obtaining his mother's power. There's not always instant consequences. I understand wanting to know the cost to Harry but you have to let plot points develop, especially in a 24 book series.

Unless you picked up the Dresden Files in book 1 and had to wait a year every single time to find out what's going on, to see character development then I think when you read any of his works you need to take a step back and remember that, especially in a ridiculously long book series, you can't develop a question in one book and then also answer it. It doesn't fit. Points in the plot taking years to converge is normal in this instance. It sucks having to wait but I don't think it's bad writing.

I agree though that it did feel like Jim was slowly destroying everything in Harry's life in order to make room. Though I felt like the staff going with the Beetle is what gave it away for me, not the Blue Beetle itself. Combining instances of Harry losing important shit to him is what felt like poor writing to me. Another example being feds raiding his house THEN it burning to the ground. I would've like to only see one occur, both just felt unnecessary. Overall, the constant destruction of Harry's things felt like a plot device to me.


The book itself answered a lot of questions I had. I still have more (what the hell is soulfire, why the hell can Harry defeat outsiders, what is the deal with Merlin? Etc etc) but I'm confident that he'll answer some each time. And I prefer it that way, even if it's another seven years before I find out why soulfire acts the way it does. It was clearly a transition book, written as such. Their were blatant attempts to move Harry's character forward. It came off as rushed at times, and even pointless. But it seems as if Jim wouldn't have been able to do it otherwise. Overall, I enjoyed the book for what I considered it: a transition to the last half of this entire story.

And I'm so fucking happy Susan is dead.

 

I don't get where all this Murphy-hate is coming from...I thought Murphy saying 'no, I don't want to be a Knight' was perfectly understandable. I think she's aware (consciously or not) that to take up Fidelacchius would be to admit that she's leaving the police force behind, that they're not relevant to the supernatural world. To be a Knight, Murph would have to stop being a cop, which is all she's ever wanted to be. Also, regarding the previous Knights, Michael was crippled and Shiro was tortured to death.

But that doesn't matter, I think...considering the Swords are artifacts of the White God, whose teachings say that you can always be saved from your sin, there is always a path out of whatever screwed-up mess you're in. That's basic Christian message, and considering these are Christian swords I think it's entirely appropriate.

 

Changes felt a little rushed but I enjoyed 95% of it.


I hope in the next book we can see see Harry cut loose against the Denarians as the Winter Night (seeing as how Mab has a big grudge against them), plus it should be an order that Harry won't have any moral objections to completing.

 

@Brown: I don't believe it's Murphy hate (for me, anyway--I haven't read the rest of the thread) so much as distaste for deus ex machina, that once you give her a sword, Murphy turns into some kind of Elric Melniboné with dimples who is able to mow down an army of Reds single-handedly.

 

I interpreted that as Uriel (or some other archangel) working through her. Uriel says he can't help directly, but then the White God has never been shy when it comes to winking at the rules.

The climax of the New Testament is basically God cheating against himself, after all.

 

Can someone explain to me why everyone seems so sure Harry either didn't die or will come back? The series is called the "Dresden" Files and there is no asnother Dresden other than Harry.

 

Yes there is.

Maggie Dresden.

 

Which would be cool, but I'd rather have Harry. Then again.. we are at the half way point of the books Jim said he wanted to do. I'm all for timeskip in fanon though, I hear there are actually some readable ones out now.

He wasn't, the guy was a hero. A triple agent for the win who gave up his life to take out every one of the bats. Awesome, never saw it coming.

By killing Slate he was freeing a guy he knew to have been tortured 24/7 for years by Mab, who'd previously begged him to be killed. The fact that the guy was a murderer and a rapist, who tried to help kill Harry before, and what the guy had, Harry needed to free his daughter. Totally fine. If he'd of been broken up about it, it'd of been bad writing.


As far as Mouse, everyone encountering him is calling him something other then a dog. Mountain ice demon, etc. He's not a dog. He certainly isn't just a temple dog, which is what Harry though, a dog with a sliver of divine being in him. Mai called him a full on Foo Dog, A divine being. Nico freaks out when he seems him, Lea seem him as a threat, he's not just a dog, so I buy it.

Ferro the Dragon leveled his ass with just a fraction of his will and a part of Harry's Name. Corpsetaker as well.

I thought he got close, I don't remember a wounding.

I can accept it since she was being used as a flesh puppet for an archangel. The same luck that protected the knights protected her. We've never seen the Knights in a battle of that scale before to have a comparison.

But the daughter is a Deus ex as well, to give Butcher a reason to totally Change shit. I would of gone with Molly fucking up and being sentenced to death, like the fic I was planning before my free time became nonexistent (as you all may have noticed a 4 month vacation, heh) instead of a daughter.

 

Norse morality isn't like yours or mine, y'know. What makes Marcone a criminal? Prostitution rackets? Odinn's granddaughter Freyja fucked dwarfs for four nights straight in exchange for the jewel Brísingamen. He kills people? The Norse didn't consider that a straight-up bad thing - just look at the story of Baldr. And one of Odinn's names is Viðurr - killer. And he's the God of, among other things, people who have been sacrificed and hung from trees. Theft? It's a time-honoured past-time among the Norse pantheon. Odinn once ordered Loki to steal a necklace from Freyja.

And if even good-two-shoes Harry Dresden agrees he's the lesser of many evils, Odinn may very well agree.

And as for Gard being attacked by Denarians, that's her job - to fight anyone that's trying to kill her employer. The Norse see dying in glorious battle a very desireable end, and if he interrupted the fight it'd show a huge amount of disrespect for abilities in battle.

Weird that in a books filled with faeries, angels, demons, shape-shifters and magic-users, all with wildly conflicting morality systems, you think the chief God of a people best known for riding around in boats, landing somewhere, fucking up anyone they find and stealing all their shit will align with contemporary Western morality enough to refuse to work with Marcone.

 

I found a quote from one of Butcher's signing's on his forum:

So... lol.

 

You know what's funny?

How everyone assumes that Mouse was one of the Temple Dogs descended from a Foo Dog. And not said Foo Dog paying Dresden back for saving all (most?) of his grandkids, and then sticking around because he grew fond of Harry. I mean, Mouse has been referred to as an actual Foo Dog by Ancient Mai, not a halfbreed.

 

Yeah, Jim said we missed a giant clue in the book Mai calls him a Foo Dog, over at the official forums, we're all kinda just assuming this was it.