Eh, I'm normally fighting for first in line to bitch about excessive pop culture references, this didn't bother me, even if I do get why it would bother you all.

 

The issue with pop culture is that Butcher uses modern references. It was funny when Dresden constantly referenced the 80s, but Dresden shouldn't really know what hentai is. He's not a part of modern internet culture.

 

In general, I agree with you, here it was actually Lara that said something about hentai though.

Edit - The one thing that does confuse me here though is the mention of possibly having another favor owed? There were three owed to Winter in the previous book, one was taken care of by Mab, the other two assigned to Dresden to handle. Both of those were completed in PT. Either 1) Dresden is just straight up wrong 2) writing inconsistency (ugh) 3) or Mab hadn't actually delivered on that favor and it might be back in play with everything that has happened (reaching, but it could work).

 

Looks like it's an error that was pointed out by the betas, but was not corrected in the final draft.

 

That’s a pretty big fuck up. It’s not like there were 109 favours and he only counted 108. It’s the set up and basic plot of the fucking story.

Very sloppy.

 

So that previous thread about the sample chapters resurfaced, along with a link proving it and showing chapter 4 and the first page or so for chapter 5.

Spoiler

The apocalypse comment / scene from the trailer is there, word for word. A quick bike ride gets interrupted by Rudolph the brown nosed plot device. Bradley gets soul gazed, is traumatized and let's Dresden go on his way.

Odin's secretaries are lurking around outside the BFS building and then end of the sample.

Not going to link directly to the post, but I'm sure you resourceful folks can find it.

 

He owes a favor to Winter's lady, does that help with the math?

 

Sooo.... Battleground just downloaded on my phone a day early.

See you in a day or two.

 

Finished it a few hours ago and promptly fell asleep.

The best way I can describe this is that it makes the entirety of Peace Talks feel like a short prologue. I mean seriously, it wastes no time at all in dialling the action up to 22 and staying there for the remainder of the book.

Spoiler

I mean, I had my doubts about how much war Butcher was willing to actually inflict but people genuinely die in their tens of thousands. Children too, he doesn't pull his punches.

Once again there's too much Butters but at least this time it's balanced out by a large dose of Sanya.

One criticism I have is that there's not much really shocking at all. Lots of the points here were straight up guessed at long ago.

Murphy dieing and going to Valhalla so Butcher can be free to get with hot Immortal wimminz? Check.

Marcone being a knight of the blackened Denarius? Check.

Harry screwing the blade into his staff to make the spear of destiny? Check.

Justine being infected? Check.

Nemesis being a Walker itself and being He Who Walks Beside? Check.

Then to be fair I didn't hate any of that, it was just all guessed at long ago. There were plenty of things that surprised me by the same token. I wasn't expecting to see Drakul or for Mavra to brutally take apart Yoshi and Bill and turn them.

Didn't expect the fire giants either or Rudolph being the one to clip Murphy. Also while I didn't expect Murphy to come back as a Valkyrie like some predicted I also didn't expect him to state that yeah she's capital D dead. No comebacks on the table.

The whole Lara marriage arrangement came out of left field completely, I legitimately thought Mab was screwing with him and Molly. Then Molly confirmed it and her earlier reactions towards Lara suddenly made sense.

Molly knew all along he was going to be married off to Lara and she's not pleased about it in the least.

For those in the fandom complaining Butters got a supernatural threesome and Harry didn't... That'll be addressed shortly. I doubt Lara is big on monogamy.

Still, the whole idea seems like Butcher knowing he still has about eight books to get through and wanting to hit a few nails on the head before OTP time.

He's leaning into the meta stuff too much again but this time by addressing the Harry/Marcone shipping in the fandom and not explicitly shutting it the fuck down.

Best part of the book is Micheal losing his shit and swearing for a solid minute while Harry States, dumbfounded.

4.5/5 would duck and cover again.

 

Just finished. 4.75/5

Fuck yes

Only few minor points annoyed me, like three minor ones.

Aside from them it was one “fuck yeah” after another.

 

Agreed with the others above. It's a brilliant book. There's a bunch of predictable stuff in there but you know what? I don't give two shits about it. It is amazing, and I'd count this within the best books of the series. It's up there with stuff like Changes and Small Favour.

For those who disagree with me, here's why I think the way I do:

Spoiler

1. Mab's character arc and the nature of her descent into faedom humanises her in the best possible way. I was one of those who wished Butcher would stop making the fae and their mantles more human, but this convinced me he's going the right way
2. Harry's growth into a leader. He's taking Harry's arc forward in a way that's fresh, which is absurdly hard to do in a series this long

4.5/5 rounded up.

 

Yeah I agree a lot of things were predictable but in a good way. The things that were predictable were things that fans have been discussing since Changes and before. For example, there was the Blackstaff being Mother Winter's cane. No doubt about that anymore.

 

So it seems like it was the right decision to hold off on reading Peace Talks until now.

Battle Ground just arrived & now I got an open schedule to read both books back-to-back.

 

Just got a fucking email that my fucking delivery got fucking delayed. Fuck.

 

You can read the physical copy when it gets to you. Grab the E version now. This isn't like Peace Talks, there hasn't been a DF book this good since Changes, Turn Coat and Dead Beat.

It needs to be read.

 

Good to hear. My copy's been delayed too, but that just gives me time to read Peace Talks first.

 

I don’t mind stuff being predicted. Cause EVERYTHING has been predicted. There has been so much speculation that it would be impossible for people not to have guessed most options at one point.

 

Having more time to process. I think the only line that really threw me, and is still nagging me is when Harry sees Carlos go all out in the final battle.

He says he has never seen Carlos all out before, which just doesn’t seem likely.

He said Carlos was much better technically than him. Which is odd, Harry is a decade older and supposed to be a magical nerd. Carlos can be good, but not better than Harry....

Over all Carlos is the character that annoys me most now.

 

Cheer up, it might soon become Lara. Butcher will devote more words to describing her body.

 

On a different note.

I can't understand the White Councils decision.

They apparently want Harry out due to his history, and his recent Titan smack down scared them.

But isnt that the point? Harry even said in the past that the WC wants him on their side, that its better to have the big scary guy on your side than the other side.

Now they cant control him, he is still somewhat protected by Mab, and has a lot of personal power. Its a lose/lose for them.