Uriel was a fucking BOSS in this book.

At first it he was just awesome, but right at the end he slipped in his last words, and you were like pwned bitch:awesome truly this book, to me at least, was the best out of all of them, so far.

 

I had thought Eternal Silence was Uriel. He didn't want Harry to learn his body was still alive because he wanted to keep Harry focused on introspection/coming to the point where he had come to terms with what he had done and was ready to move on. Only once he had done that would he have the fortitude to face Mab and keep himself.

It just occurred to me that all of Harry's friends will think he is dead for sure now. Looking forward to them coming across him again, with him as the bad guy.

 

I found Ghost Story a great read, and a necessary change in pace from the chaos that was Changes. I thought the writing was much tighter in this book than many of his others, and chalk that up to him spending a few extra months on this one compared to the others. I hope he continues to do so.

Harry's character building continues to improve and impress. Toss in Molly's coming of age as a full fledged verisilomancer(sp?), and Mort being fleshed out, and I this is one of the more character driven stories, an aspect I enjoyed immensely. There was a ton of set up in this book for the rest of the series. Harry is no longer just the P.I. wizard he played for the first few books. He's definitely moving up a few pay grades as far as magical skill and access to information (On that note, can we stop the bullshit talk about power levels? Butcher goes out of his way to show, repeatedly, that it isn't about the amount of raw power, but how you use it).

I really enjoyed Harry's maturation and changes in perspective this book. In truth, this one should have been named Changes, and the last one Catalyst. Its here we actually see the growth or diminishing of various characters. Murphy's downward spiral was handled pretty well and mostly off screen. I like it. And the fact that these characters are being made to make choices without Harry's protective shadow.

Molly is back on the path to redemption, no longer the cute apprentice. Finally. Thomas is getting over his emo with Justine's help. Finally. Justine calling him on that was one of my favorite parts in the book.

The only thing that bothered me about the book was what wasn't there, namely what the hell is going on in the grand scheme. It wouldn't have made sense to put it into this book, but as satisfying as Harry maturing was, I still want to know more about what happened and is happening as a result of Harry wiping out a super power. I guess we'll get that next book with a heap of delicious Fae history and politics.

All in all probably one of my favorite Dresden books.

 

Not really. This only applies to Harry because he has plot armour. If any other character tried to go so seriously above their power level as Harry does they would just get squashed. Squashed with a blink of an eye.

Harry Dresden is remarkably similar to Harry Potter in this regard - he gets by mostly on pluckiness and luck. I mean, earlier in this thread people were saying that we should take into account that Harry killed the entire Red Court as a reason to consider him more dangerous than Kincaid. That's just ridiculous. He didn't destroy the Red Court through any power of his own. It's not a feat he could replicate. He just took the spell that other, more powerful, beings had created, pointed it in a different direction and pulled the trigger.

 

That's not my impression at all. You have mortals taking on supernatural baddiess and winning consistently due to superior preparation. Butcher does a good job, in my mind, of making his underdogs' victories believable enough not to seriously question my suspension of disbelief.

And when exactly does Harry go seriously above his power level without some kind of mitigating factors to even the odds? I'm not talking about just harry being a wise-ass to people with the power to crush planets. When does he ever go toe to toe with someone completely out of his range and come out on top in a straight fight? I don't think its happened. Call it plot armor if you like, but its been fairly consistently shown that timing, skill, and knowledge trump pure strength. The only time its ever even been a factor is when some T-1 Prime like Mab or Ferrovax wants to put Harry in his place. At the temple in Changes, Harry had Bob's help, Lea's armor, Winter Knighthood, Swords of the Cross, and his own will, and still got put in his place by a bunch of minor godlings until the cavalry arrived. Even then they didn't win that fight through sheer application of strength, but through trickery. Murphy said in Ghost Story that she took out several midmajor sorcerers. And we've never seen anyone on Uriel or Mab's level who isn't constrained by universal rules. So, again, all of this power level talk seems rendered somewhat pointless.

 

I disagree, somewhat, because the majority of Harry's feats of excellence have been because of a quality in himself, rather than Harry Potter's continual good luck against incompetent villains. Hell, it's pretty much stated as fact that Harry's sheer stubborn will is actually a force in its own right (and if he learns how to use it as a weapon it will be very potent) and it has an effect on every spell he uses.

Where Harry Potter was a thoroughly average wizard in all but a couple of areas, Harry Dresden is genuinely exceptional. The only places I can recall him getting a big lucky break (that didn't bite him on the ass soon after) are Dead Beat (when Marcone showed up to save him from Corpsetaker), Proven Guilty (all of Arctis Tor's guards being dead) and Changes. Everything else can be directly attributed to his skills as both a detective and a wizard, as well as having the right allies to back him up.

 

I can't even count the number of times Harry's enemies have had killer blows on him but don't immediately take them.

Also, I wouldn't really call Harry exceptional. He's got a better work ethic than Harry Potter, sure, but Butcher is clear that a) he has no great talent with controlling magic (e.g. Elaine and even Molly have much better control) and b) though he is gifted with a lot of raw power, there are many other wizards who have equal or more power, and even disregarding that, having a lot of power for a wizard is still not much power in the grand scale.

He generally gets through situations not through exceptional skill or power but rather exceptional bravery, allies, and incompetent enemies.

Sound familiar?

 

This. It's also repeatedly stated in the 'verse that few things can stand up to a prepared wizard. They're ridiculously versatile. And Harry always has something on hand or nearby to help him in any given situation. He wins a lot because he knows how to apply himself against beings dozens of times his age. He knows their weaknesses, their strengths, and how to fight them.

 

Familiar, yes, but not comparable. Dresden is an exceptional wizard, for his age. I mean, he's not even near his active maturity (stated to be around 100 years old for Wizards) and he's still considered one of the most powerful Wizards on the White Council. As I recall the only others we've seen from the Council that are actively more powerful than him have been the Senior Council and Morgan/Luccio. That's a very small list compared to the thousands of Wizards out there.

Sure, he has some problems controlling his power, but that's a matter of him still being a young man compared to the rest of the Council. Compared to any of the Senior Council he's still a teenager, if a strong, talented one. As he ages his control improves, and his teaching Molly was enough to put him on the same scale as the likes of Morgan and Luccio, if not quite up to their level.

And no, I very much disagree that he plays little part in his own victories. Where Potter often had to rely on running for his life and the mercy of his opponent for victory, Harry Dresden is extremely proactive in taking out the threat so that it will not come back. Entities like the Bianca, Aurora, Leonid Kravos, Nicodemus, Vittorio Malvora and many others were all taken down because of the knowledge, power and resources that Harry could bring to bear against them. Every single one of those beings was taken down because of some aspect of Harry's power, whether that be his ability to change even the most immutable of enemies (Lash) or utilise his magic in a particularly inventive way (Kravos and Bianca especially come to mind).

Besides, it's not a stupid move to bring in other exceptional individuals to help you out if you need it. One man cannot cover all the bases and even one as powerful as Harry can be overwhelmed with numbers or beaten in skill by a superior foe. Harry plans for this. He plans ahead to assure his victory, that he can use the fatal flaw of the bad guy's personality against him, or turn his weapon back upon him.

That is why Harry is an exceptional wizard. Because he knows better than to try and tackle everything by himself. He knows his skills can't take on everything and so he does everything in his power to make sure someone else can take it down if he can't.

 

I'm pretty sure Eternal Silence is a manifestation of Demonreach.

If it was Uriel, why would it run out of "prepared speech", when Uriel is free to talk at all other times?

Not to mention that Dresden says he recognizes Demonreach's "voice" as very similar, but less mindbreaking, to the one he heard from the graveyard (which was Eternal Silence's).

The reason behind it's not telling him about his body, as far as I can tell, is yet another of those obscure rules governing the behavior of immortal beings that Dresden does not know.

 

Once again we have more questions raised than answered, on scales big and small:

Who or what exactly is the creepy little girl ghost, Inez, that told Dresden he'd turn into a monster. Is she important?

What's Marcone doing in Italy? Recruiting from more retired gods? Visiting his grandma? Stealing more religious artifacts?

What's the White Court's stake in the Justice League's business? Who is Felicia in the grand scheme of things?

Why did Harry have almost zero contact with Will Borden?

Is Harry really just going to leave the swords with Murphy?

What happened to Bob?

 

Was I the only one who felt it was missing a chapter in the end?

 

No, I definitely agree with you there. It did have that unfinished feel to it, sort of unresolved tension. I also think that there was considerably less rehashing of prior events in this book, mostly amongst the secondary characters' actions and situations. I would have liked more info about what Molly had been doing, as I felt there was really only oblique references to how she coped with Harry's 'death'.

At the same time, however, rehashing in the previous books was done from Dresden's POV, and he didn't have any more knowledge of what it had been like for everyone than he was told during the book. Still, I would have liked to hear more about what was going on with the Council, since all the information we got was that they were busy elsewhere.

Also, the Forom or whoever--there was NOTHING on them. Apparently, they're a formerly major Fae power that has a lot of influence in cities where there isn't Council presence? And we're just now hearing about them?

 

They were a minor power but got powerful with the massacre of the Red Court and the following unrest in the world. And they seem to fear the White Council so they are probably not that powerful.

 

They're covered in the side stories, Aftermath in particular.

 

I now wholly ship Harry/Molly. That is all.

 

How could you not ship Harry/Molly? Murphy's officially entered her forties, so, you know, ew. Meanwhile Molly's not even halfway through her twenties, and she's got wizardly healing powers to hold off the horrible march of gravity. Harry probably still has five years or so before that perfect youthful firmness starts to fade, and even if he does leave it too late, he'll always have the memory of her butt-naked at seventeen from Proven Guilty.

/Bob

(As far as I can tell, there's a minor continuity goof regarding Molly's age: she's said to have been born eleven years BSF* in Death Masks and Proven Guilty, but in White Night and all books after, it's twelve. So you could make the argument that she was actually eighteen then. And on a related note, 17 is the age of consent in Illinois, but that's raised to eighteen if the sexer has a position of authority or trust over the sexee, so you might want to go with the retcon if you want to write fanfiction of that memorable fireside scene while keeping everyone's actions completely within the bounds of the law.)

*BSF: Before Storm Front

 

I don't think that Illinois's law recognizes Wizard and Apprentice Wizard as one being in a position of authority of another, but I'll ask my dad.

EDIT: You really never know, Illinois's a weird state. It might actually be on the books.

 

You would think that there are bunch of fics with this scene, yet I've never seen even one.

And yes Murphy is definitely getting older. Aside her not yet consumed relationship with Harry, I wonder when she will start using Kusanagi, because soon enough she will be old to go into retirement.

 

First off: loved it.

Second off: A couple things made me twinge, but they all came at the end:

The scene with Thomas and Justine and the new girl? Felt like fanservice. (I'm NOT complaining, but there are a great many folks who have noted that an unusual number of ladies in Harry's life seem to be bi - hell, even Murphy once made out with a crazy female-thing. And this will cause more finger wagging.)
Also: Why the fuck did they not think of this before?

Shouldn't Harry have checked in on McCoy during his whirlwind family tour?

And wasn't Murphy supposed to be pissed off about Fitz and co.? I know Harry rationalized the anger away musing about Kincaid and the likelyhood of Murph figuring he was the trigger man, but during the raid, she seemed to be totally on board with Harry, awkwardness minimized.

I assume Georgia is home nursing at this point, but Harry never even noticed or mentioned her absence. Normally, she and Will are inseperable.

Anyone else worried about Bob?

A few responses to earlier points:

Yes, Harry goes to the drive-ins. It's been mentioned before, actually. Might have been Proven Guilty, might have been WoJ. Need to do a total re-read. (It's also been WoJ'd that he sometimes goes to a bench in front of an electronics store and watches TV with the captions on. Sad.)

We've known of Molly's geekosity at least since PG (Hannah's nickname is Hobbit) and in Turn Coat, she specifically makes reference to Star Trek on the Water Beetle, unprompted by Harry.

The Fomor, like so many others, were scarred of Harry, and thus never moved in.


There are other things, I'm sure, but that is all for now.
Overall, happy with it. Scene with Mouse and Maggie actually made me cry.

I weak.