In Storm Front, Dresden remarks that Mister is the only thing he's ever looked upon with his Sight that appears exactly as it does in real life.

I suppose you could argue that means Mister is either a normal cat and appears as normal in the Sight because cats have a paw in both worlds, or that Mister is some sort of super-secret-doubleoh-spy that can even fool a wizard's Sight.

Mouse defers to Mister too, doesn't he?

 

Just finished the book last night. A few thoughts (and I apologize if this is redundant--I haven't read the rest of the thread or the spoilers so as to let my impressions be fresh):

Decent overall and better than Changes (which was as close to a shark-jumping book as they've come in the series), though not epic. I guess I found the whole ghost thing less entrancing than the other books. Literally the first thing Harry does is steps out of the car and goes to someone with whom he can communicate and who happens to be the center of the entire story. That's a little contrived and convenient, even for Butcher. Perhaps it's that there was an undercurrent of righteous fury throughout Changes and this book had a sense of detachment, much like the ghost thing Harry was experiencing. We saw several instances of his pausing and not doing the brash thing. If he carries some of this with him forward in the series, it'll evince further maturity of the character.

Dresden's calling in the hit on himself via Kincaid? Saw that coming way back in Changes, though not in the specific details. (Yeah, yeah. Me and thousands of others). We already knew memories can be taken--his memory of fire by Mab, e.g.--so his not knowing of the hit called in on himself was never such a big deal.

Molly's psychological descent because of Dresden's mindscrew and the Winter Queen's? Yeah, that worked for me. I liked that Harry questioned throughout whether the Red King battle was enough to make her that way. He kept rationalizing it as PTSD, though it was pretty clear that he didn't quite buy his own answer.

Star Trek mindscape batte? Campy.

Murphy's transition? A darker side to her personality that was always there, but that was suppressed by her idealism. Now that she's lost the latter, she's what she is. Stronger in many ways, but more vulnerable as well. She's finally come to grips with Harry's being gone, so she's no longer holding the swords for him, but holding the swords full stop. I see her taking one up now, especially if the "parasite" and her associates come knocking in an upcoming book.

Is it ever established what connection Uriel has with the swords? For a random Archangel, he seems to be awfully involved with their bearers and their associates.

Just another stray Uriel thought: what if the "parasite" in question were not the Fallen, but rather connected to Uriel through the soulfire Harry uses? It could possibly explains Uriel's being afraid of Harry's messing with his name. (He's already changed one fragment of angel residing inside him--and a name change was part of it).

The frequent pop references got tiresome. A few are fine, but not everything is Star Wars, Princess Bride, and X-Men. Harry didn't do it to such an extreme in his first person narrative in the other books. The excess of such references here stood out and seemed to me more a fanbase shout-out than anything.

Dresden's ending up with Molly? Plausible, especially now that Molly is showing an independent streak, that her skills far surpass his on many levels, and that he's formally acknowledged that she's not his student anymore. He's seeing her as a peer (and, to a lesser extent, she him), as evinced by his continual comparison of her with a full-fledged White Council member. His daughter is part of her family. I do think this is where Butcher is going eventually, though not for another couple books. It's taken awhile to get to this stage and Dresden's still telling himself he's not considering tapping her ass.

"You're a hell of a woman, Molly" in the restaurant and phone scene was a nice touch. The Dennys scene was excellent in general.

Corpsetaker's eating other spirit types to build up her insanity to the point where she can manifest? Um, okay. Yeah, didn't work for me. It felt like a contrived way of letting Harry suddenly show up in the flesh in order to die again in front of Molly. (Boz was pretty irrelevant to the overall plot).

Daniel Carpenter stepping into the fight as dumb muscle? I'm sure he'll grow into some kind of special role in their world, but he has a ways to go. His just blurting out about the swords in front of a White Court succubus was a little hard to take. I find it hard to believe that Murphy would have him there if he were such a loose cannon.

Maggie's being with Mouse and the Carpenters was as expected.

Poor Thomas. That Harry didn't spend much time thinking of him, given their closeness before, bothered me throughout the book (and still does, honestly).

Uriel's scene at the end, showing the aftermath of everything: It's tidy, a nice way to resolve the story, it shed a lot of light into his role in the world (moreso than his comments in the Mean Streets novella), and it did set up the final scene between Mab and Harry nicely. Points for this.

I've more, but this is a start. Okay, now to read y'all's impressions.

 

Cats have pretty much always been seen as semi-spiritual, from the cult of Bastet in Ancient Egypt to the modern day 'cats can see things we can't' thing.

The two most common theories on the JB forums are that Mister is either just a regular (if giant) cat or God. Assuming that ain't Mac, at least.

 

Well, yes, but Butcher at least gave suggested explanation why Harry thought of Morty so quickly and it connects quite nicely with the rest of the story.

 

Yeah...it seemed like the logical choice. If he would've spent time bumbling around before realizing it, I think it would've seemed stupid. We know Harry is acquainted with an Ectomancer, so why should bother going to anyone or anywhere else?

Forgot to mention this in my other posts, but Lea continues to be one of my favorite characters. She is just awesomely badass, and on some level, I want to see her and Harry stage a coup for Winter.

 

I was under the impression that Harry didn't think about Thomas on account of the mind-whammy that Molly put on him.
Having just re-read those parts, I know it didn't state it, but I just assumed so anyway.

 

He was in denial mode. Thinking of Thomas would've brought back the memories of him betraying Thomas' trust during that conversation with Molly. So, he didn't think of him.

 

Actually, it does flat out state it. After he relives the memory, he says something along the lines "No wonder I hadn't even thought of Thomas. How could I think of him without thinking of the massive betrayal of his trust?" That pretty clearly states he couldn't even remember Thomas because of the mind-whammy.

 

I never said there wasn't a reason, just that it bothered me throughout as I read.

 

I think everyone here has missed something incredibly important. Bob, a spirit of knowledge, has iirc unfettered access to the internet. Think of the implications of this. If the Archive only 'knows' printed media Bob could one day surpass her.

 

I think the "printed" knowledge the Archive gains is everything intended to be stored. It's not outright stated, but it is implied that she knows everything humanity wants to record. That means everything, not just the paper records.

I'm fairly certain the Archive is essentially the mystical equivalent of Google, in addition to the books and whatnot she knows.

 

Bob could theoretically learn everything the internet has to offer, but he'd have to do it the same way we do. The Archive has Intellectus. It doesn't need to learn, it just knows.

 

Hiya. By the name, you might be able to tell that I've been around a while. In fact, I've been lurking for years, and once this message is done, I'll probably go right back into hiding.

I felt now was an appropriate time, however, to make my presence known in order illustrate the reason for my (and I think maybe some other members) leeriness of the growing influence of the White God of Christianity and his entourage...

This series has been one of my favorites for quite a while, and though I would continue reading it and I'm sure still love it regardless of what direction Butcher decides to take the plot, I do not want everything to tie back to God and the Enemy. When that happens in a series, especially a fantasy series that ties multiple theologies as seamlessly as this seems to, it seems to me like it invalidates, even cheapens those other gods and monsters and the believers in them in many ways, some more subtle than others.

I'm not against Christianity being involved in the story. It is a power in the world, and that kind of power has been shown to translate into power in the world of magic that JB has crafted. To expect Butcher to ignore it on principle would be unreasonable, and plainly stupid, since he IS a Christian man. So far, the story has been leaning more towards an inclusive method of dealing with divergant beliefs. They all have power, and they all have validity, whether or not their significance has waned as Odin seems to have. To introduce the Abrahamic God as the "One Creator" god seems to me to reduce all others to being up-jumped spirits or the like, and everyone who believed in them to being deluded lackeys, and everyone who correctly worships the creator has an in-built advantage of their god being bigger and stronger and righter by nature. He made them all after all. <---(sorry for the run-on... no time to revise...maybe later...)

I read a DLP post a few days ago that addressed Butcher's feelings on the subject... I don't remember the post, but I got the impression that he was saying that in most fantasy, "you don't see Christianity take much of a presence," or something like that. To me, that is something I see all too much in fantasy. But I probably just see Christianity hidden in the message when I see The Enemy vs. the people for the One True God (because He cannot take part in the struggles of mortals. They must fight the Good fight for themselves...) The Creator Vs The Keeper, Shai'Tan, and Lord Foul among others; The Lord of Light vs. The Great Other (maybe... still hoping Melisandre is full of shit, or at least there is more to it...) Yadda yadda yadda... Sure, it is easiest to have conflict in a story with clear good and evil, but to me, it doesn't have to draw back to singular representations of them to work...

I should go on, but I can't really think at the moment... and honestly, I do have faith that JB will not dissapoint with the direction he takes the series, regardless of what happens on the subject. It is simply too fun a series to fuck up. Maybe I'll post again with more later before slinking back into anonymity.

Err... Now that I think of it, I didn't really give my impressions of this book... OMGWTFBBQSAUCEGIVEMOAR!!!

 

I just thought of something. Haven't read the whole thread, so sorry if someone mentioned it already.

At one point Harry mentioned that it was odd that he didn't have his necklace while being a ghost. He said it meant something, but then never even thought of it again. Was it significant? Why mention it if it wasn't?

 

Likely it is a signifier that he was only mostly dead. The necklace is clearly special, if only because of the Gem of the Ways (I forget if it had a name, but it's the thing that tells him every Way ever) is tied into it. It is also fairly likely Maggie Sr did something to/with it to make it more than it seems. Considering everything else she's done has had a fairly clear, if far-reaching, plan, it seems a safe bet.

 

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but that shadow at Harry's bedside. Is that Lash? IIRC, even by the light of Uriel's revelation the being is somewhat insubstantial, and the only 'Fallen' with that kind of access to Harry would be...Lash. Was she being true to her original nature all along, only waiting for the perfect moment?

EDIT: Never mind, saw the discussion on previous pages. Apologies.

 

Also, magic.

The Archive was designed to be a repository of human knowledge. I've always gone with the 'the intent behind it is more important than the phrasing'. We see psuedo-latin, made up words, and so forth in the Dresdenverse. It is intent and will that guide the magic.

Started off hating the concept behind Ghost Story. And it was obvious Dresden wasn't going to get out of being the Winter Knight, as there's no way Butcher would make the choice last that long unless it really did mean something. But floating around the city for a few days, with most people unaware of him? That smacked of almost silliness.

I like Butcher's writing, and there's no way I'll stop reading his stuff (unless I die, or something annoying like that). But whilst I feel you could jump straight to any other Dresden book, and (maybe be a little bit confused) enjoy the story. I don't feel that would be possible for GS.

Does anyone have any inkling as to what the next release is going to be? I heard a while back that Butcher was trying his hand at Space Opera, and releasing that next. Then I heard it was just sticking to Dresden... Any knowledge?

 

I was re-reading Changes last night, and came across this fascinating little tidbit:

Looks like Ebenezer could have done the whole revelation thing for Harry just as well as Uriel, seeing how this is almost exactly the same point Uriel was trying to make. It also raises some interesting questions about Mab's ability to lie, something that's been discussed in this thread. Anyway, this just shows Butcher's habit of sneaking super important things where they might not stand out; after all, the Harry here is still incredibly shell-shocked. I guess that could explain why he didn't remember this at all during Ghost Story?

 

To be honest, I remembered that and wondered why Harry didn't. Then I realized that Ebenezer told him that after he already ordered the hit on himself. Meh.

 

I got the book from Amazon the day it came out, but couldn't read it 'til the 28th. I don't know why I haven't commented on it earlier. Well, here it is.

My honest opinion of the book? Pretty fucking bad.

The religious elements have always kind of annoyed me, but I thought they'd probably be alright if they did things the early-supernatural way, rather than the late-supernatural way. It really descended a lot towards the latter in this book. I get that Christianity's god should - probably - be a rather powerful one in a world where knowledge and belief can power something, but the fact that it appears to be the Creator God with servants who can destroy planets is more than a tad irritating.

Murphy's character 'development' doesn't seem like character development at all to me. It's like he just looked at how he wrote her in Storm Front and did it again. You could successfully argue (as Pers has) that this is just the darker side of her personality shining through, but it felt far too much like Storm Front/Fool Moon.

I'm going to have to at least mention the editing. It's so poorly edited that you could easily mistake it for a shitty fanfic. A really shitty fanfic. It feels like every other sentence has something wrong with it, and this includes the last one. It's so fucking badly edited that I found myself losing immersion so often that there really was none.

The plot itself isn't necessarily bad, but it too feels like a throwback to the older books, where plotholes were to be expected. It had problems in spades - and unless they're intentional in order to set up for the next book, I'm really disappointed.

Most of my other problems with the book have already been articulated much better than I could currently do, and have been done so repeatedly, so I'd just like to finish by saying "What the hell, Jim?"

I'm really hoping that all the book's problems/plotholes are intentional and they serve to set up the next book (or the one after that) but I'm really doubting it. Jim Butcher's usually a lot better than this.