Tag: Harry Dresden

In Audiobook, Comics, DC Smith & Kings Lake, Don Winslow, Faith Hunter, Fantasy, Fiction, Fletch, General Fiction/Literature, Gregory Mcdonald, Harry Bosch, Harry Dresden, Humor, Jim Butcher, M. W. Craven, Michael Connelly, Michael R. Underwood, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Non-Fiction, Renée Ballard, Science Fiction, Theology/Christian Living, Urban Fantasy, Washington Poe, YA/MG/Children's Books

I did this back in January 2020, and need to do it again.

I frequently mention how looming Mt. TBR is getting for me, but what’s worse is my “To Write About” pile, I know I’m never going to catch up with that properly and it bugs me to no end. But in the interest of something being better than nothing, a dash of realism, and a heavy dose of self-care, I’m cutting myself some slack. So I’m clearing the deck of everything from 2020-2022 that I haven’t made time for. This was painful to do, I was looking forward to writing about most of these, and I have so much that I want to say. But I’m just not going to get to them—and other books are starting to pile up, too. So, in 144 characters or less, here’s me cutting myself some slack.

How bad am I at keeping up with my To-Write-Titles? I put together the list of books for this post in January 2023. And am just now getting to it. I wish that was a joke.

(Click on the cover for an official site with more info)

	Battle Ground by Jim Butcher I just can’t talk about this one yet. I need more time. (yeah, they’re fictional characters, but I’ve spent too long with them to not be reeling)
	Desert Star by Michael Connelly Loved it while reading it. But I have more and more questions about all of it the longer I think about it. Not Connelly’s best but well worth it
	Dead Ground by M. W. Craven Not a typical Poe and Tilly case, just as good and gripping as the rest though.
	The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis, Flora Thomson-DeVeaux (Translator) A strange and somewhat humorous look at a ghost’s POV on his life. I want to read it a few more times to really get a handle on it. Heckuva read
	Nightwing: Year One Deluxe Edition by Chuck Dixon If there’s a better Nightwing writer out there, I’d like to see it. A great, great, great telling of his origin.
	Mythos by Stephen Fry Drags a little. Wish he could pick a tone for his retellings/commentary on the classic stories. Still, it’s Stephen Fry talking—worth the time.
	Heroes: Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures by Stephen Fry See above, but felt it dragged a bit more.
	Teen Titans: Beast Boy by Kami Garcia, Gabriel Picolo (Penciller) A solid, believable update of Gar Logan’s backstory. Very promising follow-up to the Raven book. Really impressed with Picolo.
	Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven by Kami Garcia, Gabriel Picolo (Penciller) Bring the two together and it’s even better. I’m curious about the overall story, but would read just them being awkward together. Like the art.
	Missing Pieces: A Kings Lake Investigation by Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackosn (Narrator) The Murder Squad tackles a cold case and is as excellent as ever. I don’t know how to talk about this series w/o being redundant. I want more!
	Junkyard War by Faith Hunter, Khristine Hvam (Narrator) This was utterly fine. A lot didn’t go the way I expected. But I’m still in this series for the long haul.
	The Dime by Kathleen Kent One of the best first chapters ever. The rest is pretty good. Not sure I buy the motive for the murders, nor that I want to see what comes next.
	Batman: City of Crime by David Lapham If you buy (I can’t) Batman losing sight of his mission, this story about him recovering it is great. If you can’t…well, it’s pretty good.
	Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke, J.D. Jackson (Narrator) A stunning work of fiction. Words fail me. A deeply compromised Texas Ranger tries to solve a potential hate crime and keep his job.
	Flynn by Gregory McDonald, Donald Corren (Narrator) I expected the Fletch narrator for some reason, but Corren won me over in minutes. One of my favorite novels of all-time. Great audio version.
	Son of Fletch by Gregory McDonald, Dan John Miller (Narrator) Oh, I wanted to love this. But I just liked it. I’ll probably hear Miller in my head anytime I read Fletch in print.
	Fletch Reflected by Gregory McDonald, Dan John Miller (Narrator) This is not the way the series should’ve ended. Some fantastic moments, but not sure it was worth it. Miller was solid as always.
	Last Couple Standing by Matthew Norman Norman’s best female characters (to date). Stupid premise, but it almost convinces me to like it by the end. Lots of great moments.
	Weakness Is the Way: Life with Christ Our Strength by J.I. Packer Packer’s great on 2 Corinthians and what Paul tells about weakness as a way of life for the Christian.
	The Monster in the Hollows by Andrew Peterson I’m not sure I loved the way the story went in this one, but I grew to appreciate it. Characters are still great.
	The Warden and the Wolf King by Andrew Peterson Whatever my misgivings about the last one, this was the right way to end the series. Just what I wanted (if mildly predictable)
	Deathstroke, Vol. 1: The Professional by Christopher J. Priest I prefer the version Wolfman and Perez initially told about his origin, but this ain’t a bad version. And I see why it was necessary. Good ’nuff
	There Goes The Neighborhood by S. Reed I stopped working with a book tour company because they wouldn’t let me be honest about this book ever. So I won’t be. Loved ALL of it. <3<3<3<3
	Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods by Rick Riordan, Jesse Bernstein (Narrator) If Percy Jackson edited D’Aulaires’s book you’d get this. A great way to introduce the myths to young readers. Bernstein is a spot-on Percy.
	Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes by Rick Riordan, Jesse Bernstein (Narrator) See above, but with heroes.
	I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf by Grant Snider If someone looked into my brain, took all of my ideas and feelings, and improved them, you’d get this book. But only one-third as good as this.
	All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor, Ray Porter (Narrator) Taylor and Porter are unbeatable together. This is funny (duh), and the grief and sadness are real. As is the anger. Is the ending too easy?
	The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, Andy Serkis (Narrator) Serkis nails the narration (as you’d expect). Is there a better first book of a series in Fantasy?
	The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien, Andy Serkis (Narrator) Serkis is tremendous here. This whole book is ridiculously good.
	The Return of the King by by J.R.R. Tolkien, Andy Serkis (Narrator) One day the pacing on this won’t surprise me. The book gets better every time. Serkis was phenomenal.
	Annihilation Aria by Michael R. Underwood Found family stars in this fun, space opera about archeologists fighting an empire.
	The Cartel by Don Winslow The best of the trilogy. Shocking. Moving. Gripping. All-too-real—if you told me this was non-fiction, I’d almost believe it. A true classic.

The Law (Audiobook) by Jim Butcher: Harry Gets Back to His Roots in this Novella

By HCNewton

On July 6, 2022

In Audiobook, Harry Dresden, Jim Butcher, Urban Fantasy

The Law

by Jim Butcher

DETAILS:
Series: The Dresden Files
Publisher: Podium Audio
Publication Date: July 5, 2022
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length:  3 hrs., 22 min.
Read Date: July 5, 2022

What’s The Law About?

Harry is still recovering from the events of Battle Ground, as is the city of Chicago. This is going to be a theme for a while, It seems (and should be). But he’s doing better than he was in “Little Things” (from Heroic Hearts. I’m not sure that I am, but that’s something for me to take up with my therapist.

He and Billy are tending to some administrative duties when they’re interrupted by someone looking for help. “Everyone knows” that if you need help, there are groups you can seek out, but if you need a miracle…Harry Dresden is who you look for.

Her problem isn’t supernatural in origin—it’s dealing with a vicious landlord who is on the verge of destroying a tutoring service that she and several others have built up over the last few years, serving underprivileged kids and barely scraping by. Something about her problem strikes at something in Harry—this isn’t the kind of problem he’s dealt with in a long time (but it brings the reader back to the time before his office building burned down, probably earlier, too). He figures the landlord is a bully and he can go out-bully him and help the tutor out.

Of course, it’s not that easy.

And sure, I said something earlier about it not being a problem of supernatural origin. But maybe it’s supernatural-adjacent, and everyone’s favorite wizard gets to do his thing.

Battle of the Bean Aftermath

We don’t spend much time with characters inside Harry’s immediate circle, and everyone (or so close to everyone that it doesn’t matter) that he comes across outside that circle responds in some way to what he calls the Battle of the Bean—although they may not understand what actually happened there (officials have done a really good job with a cover story, better than anything Tommy Lee Jones’s Agent kay ever gave). But more people have at least a general awareness of what happened there than I think Harry realized.

I can’t dive too deeply into this without spoiling, so I’m just going to offer two thoughts:
bullet I loved seeing Harry’s reactions to these responses.
bullet This, more than anything that happened to any character(s) in Battle Ground makes that whole thing more real to me. It gives it all a different weight than many of the events in the books—it didn’t happen in Chichen Itza or some other place that will make it out-of-sight-out-of-mind; it’s not something that was limited to the signatories of the Accords (or their like), or something that had limited impact on us muggles. This was a major event and the ripples from it are going to change everything.

How was Butcher as a Narrator?

He was…fine? Yeah, he’s clearly not James Marsters (who will, Butcher assures listeners be returning for the next novel), and doesn’t try to be.

Still, listening to the author bringing his own words to life—hitting things the way he absolutely intended, rather than someone’s best guess—is always fun. While Dresden is generally narrated by a better performer, I’d gladly listen to more Dresden audio narrated by Butcher (and would only complain a little).

His characterization of Bob was, shall we say, interesting. If I hadn’t heard 16 novels by Marsters, I might have appreciated it more. While I didn’t dislike Butcher’s Bob, it wasn’t what we’ve grown used to.

Oh, be sure to stick around at the end for some outtakes. They’re amusing and something that others should add to their audiobooks.

So, what did I think about The Law?

This was a great way to bridge the gap between Battle Ground and the next novel (we might get more bridges, too….who knows?). Harry, his allies and friends, and the city are recovering. Things are shifting around and the new status is becoming more quo. That kind of thing wouldn’t work in a full novel, we need something more, but it’s great in a novella (he says knowing that Butcher could easily prove him wrong). Now we’re ready for the next Big (or fairly-Big) Thing in Harry’s life.

My favorite part of this novella is that Harry can’t blast his way to a solution to this case. He can’t yell “Forzare!” or “Fuego!” and make everything okay (except for cleaning up the debris left behind). He has to think about it. He has to work the system—multiple systems, actually. He has to find a new ally to help him through one of them, too. We all know Harry is capable of this, but too often lately (especially post-Winter mantle) his solution is to punch at something, punch some more, and then, if there’s no other recourse, to think about the problem. This was a nice return to Harry having to think.

This is not one of the best entries in this series—long or short form—but it’s a really good one. I love spending time in this world and with these characters, so I’ll gladly embrace any excuse to do so. Even if you’re only a casual Dresden fan (I assume those exist?), you’ll have a good time with this one.

4 Stars

Peace Talks by Jim Butcher: Family Complicates Everything

By HCNewton

On July 20, 2020

In Fiction, Harry Dresden, Jim Butcher, Urban Fantasy

Peace Talks

by Jim Butcher
Series: The Dresden Files, #16

Hardcover, 340 pg.
Ace, 2020

Read: July 15-17, 2020
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

Ever since the Red Court had taken my daughter, I’d been reeling from one disaster to the next, surviving. This entire situation was just one more entropy barrage hitting my life, forcing me to scramble once again, maybe getting me killed. (Again. Technically.)

Things were different now. I was a part of Maggie’s life. And she might need me to walk her down an aisle one day.

Maybe it was time I started getting ahead of this stuff.

Maybe it was time to get serious.

What’s Peace Talks About?

So, as per usual, there are a lot of balls in the air here—Harry has to juggle getting used to being an active and involved father, there’s a budding romance, there are his duties as a Warden, his duties as Winter’s Knight, his duties as Warden of Demonreach, and then…Thomas is in all sorts of trouble, there’s a threat to remove Harry from the White Council of Wizards, there’s something brewing with Chicago P.D., and then Baron Marcone is hosting a convocation of the Unseelie Accord signatories—requested by the Fomor—to hash out differences.

And that’s what I can say without spoiling anything.

Now, since their appearance, the Fomor have been a fantastic antagonist for everyone—really. I think even the Denarians pale in comparison to the threat they pose to humanity. So this meeting is a major happening—and promises to go very, very ugly. Which is why Carlos shows up to enlist Harry to help provide security and be an emissary to Winter. Mab wants Harry there as her Knight and—here’s the kicker—to help fulfill a debt by granting two favors (no questions asked) to Laura Wraith during the summit.

There’s just so, so much that can go wrong. And much of it does. And then other, worse, things happen. At one point*, I thought about closing the book and walking away—probably following Mr. Tribbiani’s example and putting it in the freezer. Skin Game would make a good, albeit inadvertent, series finale.

* If you’re curious, it’s around the time that Murphy starts to do something brave, foolish, short-sighted, and entirely in-character with a saw.

In the midst of all this—Harry does what he normally does. He tries to save the day, and along the way take care of those most important to him. Maybe the order there should be reversed, for accuracy’s sake.

Underneath a lot of the issues he’s facing are family issues, and they all complicate every other bit of what Harry’s up to in this book. Harry’s never really had much of a family, and while he’s pretty used to dealing with a brother now. His relationship with his grandfather, Ebenezer McCoy, could use some work (we get an idea how much work is needed in this book), and it’s clear that he’s new to the fatherhood thing. But when you combine the three? Harry’s just not ready for that. Particularly when you throw in some conflict between members of his family. This alone may be Harry’s greatest challenge. These things distract him, they sap his emotional and mental energy, they stop him from thinking clearly—and they give him a reason to keep going and to make sure that no one can hurt those he loves.

There’s one major clue to the myriad problems that he’s facing, one big question that he’s not asking…and if I’m right about this, Battle Ground is going to be worse than expected.

Two characters noted for their wisdom and approach to life even more than they are for their power and abilities to fight (which are significant enough to take note of), give Harry some advice partway through the book. I hope, hope that Battle Ground ends with him taking that advice. I fear he won’t, and that his choice will make his life a lot harder.

What about the Characters?

There are just so, so many here. Almost every regular is at least name-dropped, if they don’t actually put in an appearance (although I can come up with a list that of those that aren’t mentioned without much effort). And I don’t want to ruin anything for any reader that hasn’t had the chance yet. I enjoyed seeing unexpected faces—even when their presence boded ill—and the expected faces were good to see, too. (Although, I really could’ve lived without seeing Red Cap again)

The effects from a lot of what happened in the short stories from Brief Cases show up in these pages—to an extent that I don’t remember from Side Jobs. I hope everyone’s had the time to read Brief Cases, because he doesn’t explain a lot of those things. I loved that.

I miss Bob.

And then there’s stuff like this:

Home, like love, hate, war, and peace, is one of those words that is so important that it doesn’t need more than one syllable. Home is part of the fabric of who humans are. Doesn’t matter if you’re a vampire or a wizard or a secretary or a schoolteacher; you have to have a home, even if only in principle—there has to be a zero point from which you can make comparisons to everything else. Home tends to be it.

That can be a good thing, to help you stay oriented in a very confusing world. If you don’t know where your feet are planted, you’ve got no way to know where you’re heading when you start taking steps. It can be a bad thing, when you run into something so different from home that it scares you and makes you angry. That’s also part of being human.

But there’s a deeper meaning to home. Something simpler, more primal.

It’s where you eat the best food because other predators can’t take it from you very easily there.

It’s where you and your mate are the most intimate.

It’s where you raise your children, safe against a world that can do horrible things to them.

It’s where you sleep, safe.

It’s where you relax.

It’s where you dream.

Home is where you embrace the present and plan the future.

It’s where the books are.

And more than anything else, it’s where you build that world that you want.

When Butcher, via Dresden, says this kind of thing—where he taps into something universal (or close enough) about humanity. Something that will resonate with every reader. Butcher’s ability to capture these thoughts and feelings, to put the ineffable into concrete terms like that is ultimately what draws readers to him more than his flawed heroes, snappy dialogue, and action does.

(and then three pages later, he has someone utter some pablum about the nature and power of faith that reminds me that as much as I love this guy, he’s not perfect)

There are a couple of other things I wanted to talk about, but I can’t figure out how to work them in, so I’ll pass on them for the moment—this is getting too long. It’s time to wrap up.

So what did I think about Peace Talks?

While reading this, I had to keep stopping to remind myself to treat this as just another book. To try to think of this as merely the next book in a beloved series (just a little delayed). I wanted to treat this as An Event. We’ve waited so long for this*, you’ve got the whole 20th Anniversary of The Dresden Files thing, the fact that this novel was originally so big they had to split it into two, and everything we know/anticipate/fear about what’s about to happen thanks to the story, “Christmas Eve”—it’s really hard to keep it all in perspective. There’s a real sense in which it’s difficult, if not impossible, to live up to the hype—and that’s not really fair. As An Event, I think it falls a little short (but maybe if we think of Peace Talks/Battle Ground as the Event, maybe it won’t). But as the sixteenth novel is this beloved series? It delivers. It made me happy.

* And I get Butcher’s explanation for that, but it does tend to raise expectations.

Peace Talks is everything the Dresden fan wants—it’s packed with action, the cracks are wise, the choices are hard, the victories are Pyrrhic (and small), the (many) enemies are daunting, and the stakes really don’t get higher. While it clearly started life as the beginning of a longer book, Peace Talks is a complete novel, it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger—but, I tell you what, if we didn’t have a hard release date on Battle Ground I don’t imagine the fan-base would be quiet. In the meantime, I’m spending the next 71 days with bated breath.

5 Stars

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