![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Dresden Files: Twelve Months
New Dresden book, which I inhaled over the last two days!
Honestly, that dragged a bit. Butcher is at his strongest when he's writing tightly paced books that take place over a matter of days, and this one was really spread out and that's not his best area. It doesn't help that the viewpoint character spends most of the book nearly catatonic from grief and trauma, and interacting with a different set of characters than the ones he's mainly been close to in the past.
Still, clearly I read it in two days, mostly one day, so that's not too bad!
Minimal-context reactions to various things:
- BEAR THE VALKYRIE BIKER. I loved her on sight, she's great, I'm so glad she and her giant cannon shotgun are going to stick around for a while. Harry deserves a friend who cares but wallops him over the head when he's being a dumbass. She's great. I hope she gets a cool girlfriend. (Or boyfriend, but with the Valkyries in this series, a girlfriend is more likely.)
- Fritz, on the other hand ... is there. I guess. He's clearly going to be a part of things for a while, as Harry's new apprentice, and I wish he was more interesting. I don't even remember the previous book(s?) scenes he apparently appeared in; that's how memorable he was. There ought to be a lot to work with there (former street kid, wrong side of the tracks, etc) but he just kind of feels ... there.
- Lara/Harry is my JAM. I figured it would be, but this was even more my jam than I was expecting! The back and forth, the uneasy allyship, the evident respect and even genuine liking/attraction, the double crosses, the way Mab ended up playing them both! I don't know if they'll evolve beyond their current platonic relationship-of-convenience, even after they're officially married, but I am thoroughly enjoying things.
- Man, Justine usually ends up getting the short end of the stick, but the stick was even shorter than usual this time. Her entire arc for the last couple of books: possessed, pregnant, had a baby she'll never be able know about, got a demon tortured out of her, forgot the last year ever happened. JEEZ.
- The big lore drop in this book was everything with the Hunger - that the Raith Hunger(s) are actually baby Outsiders, and Harry, because he's a starborn (though we/Harry still don't know exactly what that means) can interact with them, feed them via magic without suffering the other negative effects, and potentially sever them from their hosts. I have wondered for a number of books now if Thomas was eventually going to get de-vamped, and now that it's actually possible, neither of them wants to - because of the realization that so much of both Lara and Thomas's personality is the Hunger, and it would change either of them into an irrevocably different person. (Though I'm glad Harry let them choose, as opposed to making the decision for them.)
And the entire sequence with Harry being able to talk to, and reason with, Thomas's Hunger was really fascinating, as well as Harry's speculation that the Hungers are irrevocably changed by feeding on humans: "you are what you eat." It wouldn't surprise me if one or both of the Hungers that he's been mainly interacting with goes ahead and ends up similarly to Lash, who was so changed by residing in Harry's brain that she essentially picked up his capacity for caring and self-sacrifice. In fact I think it's already happening with Thomas's Hunger at the very least, given that it was willing to cooperate with Harry to save Thomas's life (admittedly for more or less self-interested reasons).
This book did feel more like aftermath/setup than anything else, but it also feels like we're getting back to a new normal after everything has been completely disrupted the last few books, with Harry getting a new base of operations, a more stable situation with most of his family, and even his old VW back.
Oh, I really like the gargoyles, too. And Lara's MASH helicopter.
Honestly, that dragged a bit. Butcher is at his strongest when he's writing tightly paced books that take place over a matter of days, and this one was really spread out and that's not his best area. It doesn't help that the viewpoint character spends most of the book nearly catatonic from grief and trauma, and interacting with a different set of characters than the ones he's mainly been close to in the past.
Still, clearly I read it in two days, mostly one day, so that's not too bad!
Minimal-context reactions to various things:
- BEAR THE VALKYRIE BIKER. I loved her on sight, she's great, I'm so glad she and her giant cannon shotgun are going to stick around for a while. Harry deserves a friend who cares but wallops him over the head when he's being a dumbass. She's great. I hope she gets a cool girlfriend. (Or boyfriend, but with the Valkyries in this series, a girlfriend is more likely.)
- Fritz, on the other hand ... is there. I guess. He's clearly going to be a part of things for a while, as Harry's new apprentice, and I wish he was more interesting. I don't even remember the previous book(s?) scenes he apparently appeared in; that's how memorable he was. There ought to be a lot to work with there (former street kid, wrong side of the tracks, etc) but he just kind of feels ... there.
- Lara/Harry is my JAM. I figured it would be, but this was even more my jam than I was expecting! The back and forth, the uneasy allyship, the evident respect and even genuine liking/attraction, the double crosses, the way Mab ended up playing them both! I don't know if they'll evolve beyond their current platonic relationship-of-convenience, even after they're officially married, but I am thoroughly enjoying things.
- Man, Justine usually ends up getting the short end of the stick, but the stick was even shorter than usual this time. Her entire arc for the last couple of books: possessed, pregnant, had a baby she'll never be able know about, got a demon tortured out of her, forgot the last year ever happened. JEEZ.
- The big lore drop in this book was everything with the Hunger - that the Raith Hunger(s) are actually baby Outsiders, and Harry, because he's a starborn (though we/Harry still don't know exactly what that means) can interact with them, feed them via magic without suffering the other negative effects, and potentially sever them from their hosts. I have wondered for a number of books now if Thomas was eventually going to get de-vamped, and now that it's actually possible, neither of them wants to - because of the realization that so much of both Lara and Thomas's personality is the Hunger, and it would change either of them into an irrevocably different person. (Though I'm glad Harry let them choose, as opposed to making the decision for them.)
And the entire sequence with Harry being able to talk to, and reason with, Thomas's Hunger was really fascinating, as well as Harry's speculation that the Hungers are irrevocably changed by feeding on humans: "you are what you eat." It wouldn't surprise me if one or both of the Hungers that he's been mainly interacting with goes ahead and ends up similarly to Lash, who was so changed by residing in Harry's brain that she essentially picked up his capacity for caring and self-sacrifice. In fact I think it's already happening with Thomas's Hunger at the very least, given that it was willing to cooperate with Harry to save Thomas's life (admittedly for more or less self-interested reasons).
This book did feel more like aftermath/setup than anything else, but it also feels like we're getting back to a new normal after everything has been completely disrupted the last few books, with Harry getting a new base of operations, a more stable situation with most of his family, and even his old VW back.
Oh, I really like the gargoyles, too. And Lara's MASH helicopter.