She's certainly an unusual choice to be a powerful enemy. Her inclusion gives a pretty strong argument for a theory that McAnally is Cian that someone proposed few years ago.

The problem is that it was suggested that it happens to every powerful being. The question is then how the Titan can bring more power to this world than the others.

 

Reading the wiki a lot of that ties in at the current moment.

 

It's too bad that we're not getting an entire book that's going to be about the conflict with Ethniu which is going to explain what is so special about Titan's and why they have so much power.

 

The point is not that it is unexplained; the point is that there is no possible explanation which is not a massive retcon.

 

You jest, but it going to be funny if it doesn't explain it.

Anyway, one thing that I should realise after Cold Days, but only now get its repercussions is that many beings in myths and legends are the same person at the moment. Donar Vadderung is Odin is Kringle is Santa is Beowulf is probably few more characters.

What's not clear is if they are actually them or just collected these mantles. Could it be that Donar was a mortal, maybe Beowulf, and then managed to get other mantles from these beings and they made him like them as they are making Molly into the Winter Lade?

Or maybe all titans and gods are beings of the same ancient race that simply changed their names depending on time and region the appeared in. Even then the question is if they created these mantles with their actions or adapted to these created by humans in their religions.

 

My increasing sense is that there are no supernatural beings, only mantles. All of the supernatural big hitters are mortals who gained mantles to ascend to a higher level of being.

 

God, I hope that's not the case but I fear you might be right.

It would be underwhelming AF.

 

It works with information we have. While there are beings like Toot-Toot that get stronger because of their association with humans, I would say that no matter how powerful they become they will never have their own agency when it comes to the real world. It's only when a human with a freewill uses them for a ritual similar to Darkhallow that a mantle is created. How it's used in the mortal world decides what it represents and in the past it was simply used to let humans be gods. Later humans added more variety and that's when Winter and Summer mantles were created.

Even angles fit this and their Grace is a mantle given by God that Uriel proved can be given away leaving him as a normal human.

 

Not an awful lot to add to what's been said, although on the whole I enjoyed it. It suffers from being part 1 rather than an entire story - although that does mean, for the moment, I'm willing to give it a pass on some of the plot points that seem a little underdeveloped; the gap between books hasn't helped; coming after Skin Game, one of the best of the series in my opinion, leaves it at a definite disadvantage.

Its still Dresden though; pacy, compelling entertainment that had me turning the pages beginning to end. Not the best entry, but far from the worst, and so much more interesting than Butcher's non-Dresden writing.

 

I must be the only guy that kind of liked Windlass. Though to be fair that was with a lot of reservations.

 

I only read a couple chapters before I got distracted with something else, but I think the main character was a woman who talked to cats.

 

The only good things I remember from Windlass are the talking cats. Everything else is fairly forgettable.

 

Eh, kinda? It did the Codex Alera thing where there's like 3 different plots, and by extension different protagonists spread throughout the book (though unlike most Alera books, the plots all did converge toward the end).

As for the book itself, I liked it well enough. The setting was neat and the worldbuilding was cool, but I wasn't a huge fan of the cat shenanigans and it had some pacing issues. I'm really struggling to remember details as well, but I read it years ago, so that's not too much of a knock against it.

 

For me, at least, the pacing was the big issue. Instead of being its own complete story, it felt far too much like an extended prologue/first act, and didn't exactly provide a narratively satisfying conclusion. Kind of like Peace Talks in that there's a lot of setup but not much payoff, except that Peace Talks is 16 books into the series and has its part 2 coming up soon instead of being the first book.

Though looking back at his non-Dresden books, I think part of the issue with both Alera and Windlass is that Butcher was focused a bit too much on setting up the series in the first book. Comparing them to Dresden files, Storm Front is a much stronger stand-alone story than Furies of Calderon or Aeronaut's Windlass because Butcher knew he needed to grab his readers right away instead of being able to set up a bunch of stuff that he can plan to pay off 3-5 books later.

 

I read Alera all at once after First Lord's Fury came out. Alera was a lot more engaging as compared to Windlass. I can remember Tavi the protagonist. I do not remember the name of the protagonist(s) of Windlass, despite having read the book after Alera.

 

I reread Christmas Eve trying to figure out if it says more after Peace Talks, but it doesn't give more information.

Based on Harry's behaviour I would say that it's almost sure one of his closest people will be gone in the next book and I would say only five would make him as depressed as he's presented.

Spoilers in case someone doesn't want to have any information who is present in this short and confirmed to be safe in the next book.

Spoiler

Molly and Maggie are safe because they appear.

I would argue that it would be a waste of pages to get Thomas to the island only for him to be released on the same night. He's probably safe.

Of the other two, Eb and Murphy, I would say that the first one is more likely. Especially if they don't have a chance to talk about their fight and that's the last time Dresden interacted with his grandfather and mentor. While I expect the Blackstaff to play larger role before the BAT, it easily can be about finding a new person to use it. If there is something that needs to be presented about Eb's past, it can be done with Dresden reading his diaries.

I would argue with Murphy it's too likely she's going to be removed in the next book. Her injures and talk about how she can barely fight. Her love with Dresden after 15 books. Everything suggest that she's the person that Harry will be crying about. In a way splitting book makes it a little less cliche than if it happened in the next after they got together.

There is actually one more person that fits, but since Ivy barely interacted with Harry, I doubt she's in danger.

 

Spoiler

It's also confirmed that Harry is still a member of the White Council post Battle Grounds despite the political bullshit that theoretically was gonna have him removed.

Note the present-tense.

 

Spoiler

Either that, or it's just another continuity error.

 

Spoiler

Missed that. I suspect that this part is about him telling Merlin and others when they're planning to vote to remove him that they failed in their mission to protect people and it's going to be what will convince most of the Council to keep him.