sholio | Dresden book 5

Enough meta for a while; I need to think about something else. How about Dresden Files, book 5?

I just can't get into the show. I'm sorry; I've tried; I skipped forward and watched ep 6, which seemed to be the big one that made people squee, and I just can't get into the show the way I've gotten into the books. I like TV Harry, but I don't like TV Murphy at all, and I prefer Bob as a skull, and I miss the other recurring characters. Yes ... I'm a book snob. Maybe when I finish the book series, I'll go back and watch the TV series for my fix.

The books, meanwhile, are achieving new heights of awesome.

I'm really falling in love with the recurring cast, particularly Murphy and Michael; in their own different ways, they both make good foils for Harry's down-and-out, extra-legal dogooder-ness. Not so much Murphy in this book, but she was ten kinds of cool last book, taking on the ogre with a chainsaw. *squee!*

Harry refusing the demon's bargain, even in the face of (nearly) certain death. Squee again! What I love most about Harry, I think, is the way that under all the layers of snark and attitude, he's such an incredibly good person. I like the way that he's slowly building up a group of people around him who are able to see that. I also like the way that his situation slowly evolves, with each book a little different than the one before; it's not just "the next adventure of ...", but an internally consistent world where little details from earlier books become major plot points in later ones. I love that.

And I also love a good death fake-out; this one was especially convincing because they'd just killed Shiro, and I'm still sad about Meryl from the last book. It's true -- you have to keep the audience guessing; it's so much more suspenseful when you really don't know if the characters are going to survive. And while I was hoping for an "out" (I'd actually guessed that Harry might accept the demonic coin in order to bring Michael back; if anything could make him go darkside, offering him the chance to save his friends would do it) I wasn't sure whether to expect one.

"My faith protects me. My Kevlar helps." Hee.

I'm going into town this afternoon to have lunch with friends, and I think I'll see if Barnes & Noble has the rest of the books while I'm there ...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's strange...for some odd reason Death Masks comes out close to the bottom whenever I rate the books in this series. Of course given the quality of the series that may be praising with faint damnation; but for some reason this book never made as big an impression on me as the others. There are lots of things in the book that I loved, the confrontations with Ortega, Sanya the atheist Trotskyite knight, more John Marcone, the introduction of Butters, Ivy and Kincaid, and of course the bit with the silver coin; but I can never muster much love for the book as a whole in spite of it.

I have to agree with you about the TV series, if things don't pick up in the next few episodes I'll probably drop it. I'm a big fan of both Jim Butcher's and Robert Hewitt Wolfe's work but the show just doesn't seem to hold my interest.

To each their own. I didn't enjoy the previous book as much as this one, but that's mostly because the court intrigue (with both the faery courts and the wizard court) didn't interest me as much as the more fast-paced, running around and shooting stuff plots. Still, all of the books so far have had their good moments. Oh yes, Sanya, the atheist Knight of God, is great!

There's just something lacking for me in the TV series, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Of course, part of what makes the books so much fun is the interwoven plots with so many characters, and the TV show can't really do that; compared to the books, the plots feel very truncated. I think the show might be more fun and feel more like the books if they were doing plot arcs, kind of like "Supernatural" does.

I love them both! Actually, I didn't even know there were books until a friend pointed them out to me; I liked the series a lot, and started reading because they weren't showing new eps fast enough. I just finished Blood Rites, which means I'm one past you, I think, and I'm about to start Dead Beat.

I can't really separate the books and the series. Harry is Harry anywhere. I like Murphy better in the books, but in spite of JB's descriptions she looks like TV Murphy in my head. And Bob looks like TV Bob. I like TV Bob better, I think, because TV Bob has been more open about worrying about Harry. (I am alllll about Harry.)

I miss Mister, and I miss the recurring characters, and I miss the Blue Beetle, and I miss Thomas (oh, Thomas). But as I watch I sort of figure they're...out there, somewhere. :: waves vaguely ::

I think on the whole, I like the books better, but the TV show works really well for me, too.

And.... Argh, the coin! :: frets ::

Okay, you do have a point about TV Bob worrying about Harry. I really like that, too. Of course, from what I've seen so far, TV Harry doesn't really have anyone *else* to worry about him. *sniff* But yeah -- I like book Bob, but I also like TV Bob though I think of him almost as a different character.

It's also true that the nature of the series is such that you can imagine all of the book characters somewhere just out of sight.

I've just started "Blood Rites" and eeee, the fu-dog puppies! *dies of the cuteness*

OMG the PUPPIES! HEE!

And the Kongdemon!

You have to post again when you're done reading this one - so much happens in it! So much changes for Harry! *peers over your shoulder* Are you done yet?!

I don't really have anything to say, but thought that I'd pass on a link I just found, to a short story Butcher wrote as a prequel to the Dresden Files: Restoration of Faith (http://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/restoration/). Kind of clichéd, but it's so Harry in a nutshell and also provides some interesting background info. :)

Also! A vignette, Publicity and Advertising (http://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/vignette/).

Oh, the things reading Wikipedia articles will help you find...

Oooo, thank you! I shall go take a look at these! I love the Internet for stuff like this ...

While I agree that the books are much better -(I tend to think that is the case most of the time) I am enjoying the show. This is not say that it is perfect - I do have problems with how deal with Murphy but overall I think it is a decent show. It not as detailed a world as the books, but then I wasn't expecting it to be. There is no way you can take those books and compress them in 42 minutes of story telling - not and do them any sort of justice. So I see BookHarry and TVHarry as two very different things.

I like TV Bob. I think that as of right now, in many ways he a lot like he is in the books - it is just that we see a person there instead of a skull with glowing eyes. But would I want Jim Butcher to do that in the books - no way. A talking skull (or talking head) works in the books. It doesn't on TV. And on TV they are doing more with Bob and his past and how he came to be in that skull, so that is plus.

Well, like I replied in a comment above -- even though I prefer the talking-skull incarnation of Bob, I do like TV Bob ... thinking of him kind of a different character. He's a little more approachable in the TV series, more human and more concerned about Harry. And I do like that.

I kinda wish that the TV series would do longer arcs rather than the one-shot episodes, because it seems to me that one of the things the series is lacking is the richness of the books, and dwelling on plots for longer than a single episode could maybe help with that.

They did do a good job on casting Harry, though...

Dude, where were you when we did the Dresden roundtable at Tart! XD

It has it's merits, but overall, if it weren't for the folks loving it and making it a family night kind of thing, I wouldn't be watching it anymore. Well, save for the fact that Claudia Black will be on it tonight. And the fact that though I was greatly perturbed by the change in Bob's character, I've come to like TV!Bob and want to see the big upcoming ep about him. But otherwise, it's just frustrated (and, frankly, bored) me too much. I don't really like TV!Harry at all. I should be excited to watch the series, since I love the books pretty well, but I find I'd much rather be watching Stargate SG-1 and getting my Daniel/Vala fix. (I saw most of the new eps on youtube; now I'm salivating to see them big and purty on the TV...)

Dude, where were you when we did the Dresden roundtable at Tart!

*laughs* I only started reading the books a few days ago!

There's going to be a Bob episode? I might watch that. I like the way that he interacts with TV Harry; he's really like a different character from Book!Bob.

yes, yes, and yes. ;)

Yes -- he gets skull-knapped.

Yes, I like his interaction with Harry too, I love how he worries for Harry (And I loved the way Harry felt sorry for him when he confessed why he'd gotten trapped in his own skull in the first place).

And yes, I agree he is a very different character from the books -- to the point where, when he acted letcherous in that one ep, the way Book!Bob normally does, it seemed a little out of character and forced! ...

Dresden book 5

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