It honestly makes sense. Odin and Santa Claus have been tied together for a while. It would also explain how Odin manages to still be relevant.

 

Blitzed it in five hours, loved it. My stray thoughts as I went:
- Some really awesome wisecracks and witty banter in this one, as other people have mentioned. Everything felt quotable, and I suppose in a while I'll be adding them to the Best/Memorable Dresden Moments thread, 'cause yeah.

- Demonreach's purpose was bitchin' with the implications. The prison me a Hole In The World feeling, only less hole and more twelve-spoked quartz prison thingie. I approve.

- The callbacks. Dear god, the callbacks. Not only to the main series - Ace of all fucking people, amirite - but to the short stories as well - like the warehouse the Redcap ambushes Harry and co in before the final fight being the one from Backup. And I also suppose that the story of Molly getting her apartment will be that short story Jim kept mentioning about her doing her Batman thing, which should be fun.

- Butters/Andi. You fucking go, guy. (Incidentally, would've liked to hear about Billy and Georgia's whereabouts, but I figure that if Billy's not fighting the good fight in Chicago he's off wherever Georgia and their kid is, so it's cool. We'll catch up later. Same with the newbies introduced in Ghost Story, like Childs and Felicia. I can wait. It's cool.)

- New characters, all pretty fun. Kringle being Odin made me "Oh snap lol" the most, though. Good show.

- Yeah I can't even begin to verbalise the awesomeness that's been built up now using the threads from previous books. It's just... rewarding, I think the best way to put it is. Because if you're a details person who's read these books five times over, you just know that when you go back after reading Cold Days you have more and more blanks that have been filled, and you can look at previous books and go, "Well oh snap, it was right fucking there!" Kinda inspiring on the author-y front too, because as much as I'm cool with being the same kind of details writer, that Jim's pulled it off for fourteen books in a consistent, and awesome, way is just plain Cool (with a capital C!)

My final thought is on Molly being turned into the Winter Lady. I can safely say, as a huge Molly fan, that I am so very torn on that one. Because it's damn cruel, and at the same time, has serious potential to lead to some Dresden/Molly awesomeness! (Yeah sue me. I may be a hopeless shipper who'll take Dresden's "Nope, never gonna happen" as an ironic version of him reflecting on how things used to be, but even from a non shippy standpoint their tiered relationship is awesome and no doubt pivotal for things to come, even if it's just student/teacher).

With Mab's reveals and the forces of Winter being against Outsiders, I can't help but think that Harry being Winter Knight and Molly the Lady makes them in the thick of things to help beat the Outsiders and stuff, and it's actually a cool thought. Like, come on, I thought Harry as Knight would be a few book trick pony before he goes back to being good ol' Wizard Harry, but I think it'll actually stick for a lot longer, and I find myself liking the idea. The trick will be, of course, neither him nor Molls succumbing to their power. Which, if I know my tragedies, means Molly totally will go full evil and Harry will be killing her dead by the Apocalyptic Trilogy, all while Mab kinda just Kayneshrugs it off.

Stupid potential for more tragedy. Equal parts tearing me apart at the very thought and making me all too eager to devour more.

So, in short, awesome book is awesome. Potential for what's next is even awesomer, and I am happy to call myself a hopeless fanboy from now and forever. Peace!

 

Double posts. Ugh.

 

Lily/Fix parallel while Fix looks on? (To be fair, no matter what happens this is how Fix will view it.)

 

Ok, so, holy fucking fuck.

Mention was made during Bob's reveal of Halloween's importance--a night that immortals fell, fed, ascended, and were born.

Harry Dresden was born on Halloween. 'Starborn' may only be the veritable tip of the iceberg.

The Outer Gates being a physical place rather than a magical construct opens up interesting possibilities. We've also been told that you have to go via the moon to reach the Gatekeeper's place of operations, haven't we?

And because it popped into my head and won't go away: a century or three down the line, Harry is the Merlin, and a pair of young Wardens/vampires/Fae/etc are discussing him, "Oh, you don't want to fuck with that guy, his girlfriend is the Winter Queen, Molly."

Still on a high from Cold Days. Might post again if I have something relatively worthwhile to contribute.

Edit: Also, consider the latest addition to Dresden's legend: He led the Wild Hunt against an army of Outsiders led by a Walker in a battle that saw the deaths of both Ladies, one of which was replaced by the woman who had just spent months nursing him back to health, and the other of which he'd mentored through several years and was loyal to him personally. Various beings on the outer edge of 'the know' must think of him as the second coming by this point.

 

I remember how Rashid in Book 11 said how it was not yet time for Harry to defy the council. Which sorta implies that he will eventually. I think I figured out how.

The adversary has infected multiple members of the Senior Council and they are about to do something really bad. Harry causes a civil war (young vs old) in the council to stop them.

 

Rashid & Demonreach: My first thought, after hearing about the Well, was 'Oh, so that's why Demonreach hates Rashid, he wants to turn them all loose Outside, and make them someone else's problem'. Demonreach, being designed to keep them locked up, was kinda against this.

The Wild Hunt: we already knew the Erlking wanted to kill Harry, for binding him in Dead Beat. It was slightly jarring that it was this Halloween they decided to come and collect, but not too bad.

Odin/Kringle: This actually clears up something I'd been wondering about. If we have Odin, we not Frigg, Thor, and so forth. But linking to Christmas, a holiday linked itself with The White God, gives him a sort-of reason for sticking around.

Nemesis/Cat Sith: I don't think that Nemesis always does a mind-wipe. It would normally be the voice in the back of your head. Sometimes, it might be a literal voice. Sometimes, it might just eat your brain and wear you like a fur coat. Like the Denarians.

On top of that, Harry getting Sith to throw off Nemesis. It made me think we're likely to see Harry get infected at some point.


EDIT

Did Harry use a focus at all throughout this book?

 

Nope! None of his fancy magic tools. No Force Rings, no Staff, no Blasting Rod, no Shield Bracelet. Nothing.

For a brief moment he conjured a staff up during his mental-arena throwdown with the Walker, but I don't think that counts.

I can't imagine what he'll be like once he gets them all made again. That's going to be INSANE.

 

I haven't noticed anyone else mentioning this, but the part where Harry threatened to lock Mab up was frickin' bad ass.

 

My thoughts exactly, though one wonders if it was actually possible.

Beyond that:


I was incredibly irritated with Murphy in this book (well, in all of them really, but this one particularly). Bob played far too minor a roll, maybe a total of five pages of info dump before being removed by Murphy.

Having some actual character added to Maeve beyond "hot slutty temptress who will eat your eyes" was nice as well. It's always good to see otherwise uninteresting characters turned three dimensional.

I wonder how long the Winter Knight thing will last. It seems like it gives Harry so much power (even if he doesn't want to use it), that he can't possibly be allowed to have it for too long. Just like Hellfire, I can't see it lasting more than a few books.

I'm hoping the "parasite" in Harry is Lash. I've waited far too long for her to make a comeback.

Great book overall, really enjoyable after the total letdown that I found Ghost Story to be.

 

This. Had to be the Crowning Moment of Awesome for the entire book for me. Merlin shit, naagloshii prisoners, whatever, I've read enough shitty HP Sue fics that that part actually turned me off.

This, however. A deified force of nature, the only thing keeping the world from being drowned in Outsiders, puts a gun to his head, and he threatens to throw her in the fucking clink. Mantle doesn't pass if she's still alive, let's remember. Judge Dredd as fuck (Judge Dreddsen?).

Also, moar Vadderung. Always good.

:awesome:awesome:awesome/5. I forgive it it's sloppy parts, and fervently wish someone takes up the fucking Swords already. I miss the Fist of God.

Mac is Merlin. Peace out.

 

I think it's possible. I mean, Demonreach is holding some pretty fucked up stuff and the naagloshii are apparently the least of them. I think it mentioned "dark gods" etc?

As for the parasite.. I'd like to think that too but the whole head bursting thing seems to go against that. I mean, last time Lash was on pretty decent terms with Dresden.

 

I like how this book gives out fairly equal power creeps to most characters. Love how mother winter casually mentions her love of strife and pain and then we are told she lost her 'walking stick'. Blackstaff? Ebenezer explaining how THAT happened would have to be badass beyond anything Dresden has done yet.

 

re: blackstaff and Mother Winter's 'walking stick' would be amazingly awesome.
This book was ridiculously epic. The scene where Harry threatened Mab was beyond awesome. And the prison scene was incredibly chilling. I want a hint as to what else Demonreach holds.
So psyched for the next book.

 

Really curious to see how things work out with Harry and Molly, with Molly being the new Lady and all.

Also I ship Toot/Lacuna now. :awesome

 

You are assuming the head bursting is intentional. It could be that Lash has somehow changed and grown to the point where she can no longer fit inside Harrys brain, and the head bursting is less an attack and more an accident. It is interesting that we learned that Dresden is going to be working on creating a new magical container for Bob. Maybe thats foreshadowing, and we will end up with Harry creating another container for Lash, and then him and Molly transferring Lash from Harrys brain to said container.

The only problems are the fact that the parasite is causing pain (why would Lash do that?), and that it bargained with Demonreach in order to keep quiet, while Lash would presumably want Harry to know she is still in there.

The first might be explainable with Lash wiggling around inside the damaged and still healing parts of Harrys brain or something. But I don't know why Lash would want her presence to be kept a secret.

 

About halfway through and I just want to know why Hook is on the same league as Toot, because this pussy Ace can't nearly have as much rep or power as Dresden. Where is Hook getting his growth from?

And another chapter makes me want to clarify with she* and Lacuna*, but I still don't know where this growth came from.

 

I'm really looking forward to the next book that focuses on the faeries. One of the highlights for me was getting more information on the courts, as well as the relationship between the Queens. Butcher pretty much flat out said that Mother Winter and Summer are the same being, and Mab's awesome line at the end, so I'm looking forward to a more thorough explanation of the how and when of the courts creation.

 

When I read that Molly became the Winter Lady, all I could think about was: "Now, who is going to tell her mother?"

I would love to see that scene.

I really enjoyed this book, read it in about three hours. I will have to go back and reread it soon for a better picture, but I loved the amount of detail went into this book. He took the Faerie Courts in a completely different direction as well, it was refreshing.