Totally skipping all the posts after the pic of the cover so nothing gets spoiled. Just wanted to say I hate that cover, it's... I don't know, just seems off.

 

Yeah, it seems a lot more "open" than most of the other covers. You see his whole face instead of it being silhouetted or covered by the hat. (By the way, he should really get a hat in the books. I don't care what anyone says, it looks cool.)

Looking forward to this book.

 

It actually fits the mental image I had of him, besides the hat. The coat, face, staff, and gun were all how pretty much exactly how I imagined them.

I don't have any sources for this, so take it with a grain of salt: the hat started out as a mistake which Butcher liked and had the cover artist continue, it then became an inside joke after that.

 

If Dresden isn't being described in some sort of detailed fashion I imagine the hat. Just looks sweet. Especially in rainy scenes, straight cliché western show down.

 

No idea what happened with that post Walkingdisaster... I had you copied to reply to, but decided not to.... So it posted itself?!

 

's okay. I figured it was something like that. It's not like you were plagiarizing or something. lol.

 

I have to say I like the tone of this Dresden a lot more than in the previous books... More thinking, calculating ... more mature if you want. Seems like his time-out gave him some perspective.

Spoiler

Sadly everything seems to show that my theory of the Parasite=Fallen Angel is a wrong one, it is most likely some Form of Nemesis (Even if that conflicts with it helping keeping Dresden alive). :-(

But maybe this is all simple a misdirection and in the end I still get my lovely Fallen Angel back^^. (Because Lasciel + lowered inhibitions from being WK + Molly as WQ = awesome)

Ah and my money is on Kincaid as the second man.. because wouldn´t it poetic if the man who watches his back is the one who shot him?

(I also hope that we see no continuation of his relationship with Murphy but fear that exactly that will happen )

 

Spoiler

I'm fairly certain that over on the forums its been confirmed that Murphy will be his +1.

 

Spoiler

Really wish that wasn't the case, but I believe it. Butcher stringing along the UST from the two for the last 8 or 9 books has crossed from mildly annoying into actively-pissing-me-off territory.

Didn't he say something about Michael Carpenter "getting off the bench" in Skin Games? Maybe just he beats Harry half to death at some point in the book.

 

That just doesn't make any sense, considering Small favor and The Warrior. But yeah... We all know who we want him to bring along.

 

Spoiler

I'll have to reread the released chapters but I don't the Queen ever comes out and directly says she put the parisite in Dresden or that she will fix it if he goes on the heist. However she does infer that partaking will cure it. Old fallen angel, Nemesis etc I think are all more likely than the queen having actually afflicted her night.

 

I don't think we can blame very solitary thing on he-who-must-not-be-named-for-fear-of-spoilers. The symptoms appeared after Lash's actions in the Raith deeps. I find it far more likely that it has something to do with that.

 

Yeah but Lash died defending against a psychic attack (of possible Nemesis/Outsider origin) so it is possible that she wasn´t as successful as we all thought and a small part of it made it into Harry. Nemesis is often described as something similar to a (mind) virus which would work with such a explanation.

 

Off topic but what books deal with angels, coins and lash again?

 

Death Masks and Small Favor are the Denarian books before this new one. Dead Beat, Proven Guilty and White Night have Lash. Uriel shows up in the books after Small Favor.

 

Coins intro'd in Death Masks (5), appears again in Small Favour (10), though the imprint of Lasciel's coin and Harry mulling over the fact he picked it up is all over Blood Rites (6). Lash herself first appears in Dead Beat (7) then goes on to appear in Proven Guilty (8 ) and White Night (9). Angels are sorta vaguely mentioned in connection with God and whatnot and all that Michael power stuff, but Archangel Uriel's first appearance is Small Favour, then he shows up in Changes (12) and Ghost Story (13). Also shows up in the short story The Warrior. And really, references to most of it show up from Death Masks on.

My parasite theory is that Lash got Nemesis'd after taking the psychic bullet. Or even before, because a fallen angel's imprint becoming a separate entity could be consdiered some pretty hinky stuff on the level of Fae being able to lie. But Lash herself dying allows for the Nemesis-y part to mix and become the shadow that lies to Harry. But that? Probably allllll crazy wrong. Just think it'd be interesting if Harry couldn't get Nemesis'd because of his Starborn-ness (Although we haven't seen his subconscious self for a while, have we?), but Lash did.

 

I really hate the idea that people have that Nemesis could just infect anyone. I'm pretty sure there are specific rules and exceptions only that allow for posession.

 

The scary part about Nemesis is that it could possess anyone.

Now, you're probably correct in that there are certain conditions that must be met before someone can be possessed, but considering the fact that we have no idea what those might be, it's not necessarily a bad line of reasoning to assume Nemesis until proven otherwise.

 

Bah. I call bullshit on him just hopping in and taking over angels or, for example, Mab. Since she's clearly able to exorcise his ass if the one taken is willing, I'm assuming she can't be targeted.

 

If that was the case, Mab wouldn't bother moving so secretly about it. She'd just go out and solve the problem, just like she always does. The elaborate schemes and catspaws only make sense if she can't confront the threat directly.

I'm not saying it would be easy for Nemesis to take Mab or whoever, just that it's possible (or at the very least, no one knows that it's impossible).