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Finished Ghost Story
... so obviously my guess about this book -- well, all my guesses, actually, were COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY WRONG. Oh well! Actually, I realized by the time I was about a third of the way into the book that it would have made all Harry's character growth in this book utterly pointless if I'd been right, so it's probably just as well that Butcher didn't go that direction after all.
*breathes* I think I need to digest the book a little bit before I'll have coherent reactions to it. I've got to say that it's completely unfair that the ending makes me want the next book so bad, though.
Okay, apparently I do have things to say, as it turns out:
-I really loved that this book, for the most part, took the heavy hitters out of the picture and put the second-string magic-users and normal humans into the limelight. Even though I was disappointed (at first) in the six-month time-jump, the slowly unfolding picture of how things had changed in Harry's absence turned out to be really awesome.
-Bob! Not evil after all! squeak! I loved Bob in this book - that he really is a friend of Harry's, albeit an amoral one, and seeing corporeal!Bob in his spirit-world hideout was a fantastic treat.
-I've always really liked Molly and I loved how this book developed her. She's really turned into a marvelous, complex character - I love how her better nature and dark side are in perpetual struggle, and how she is as powerful a wizard as Harry, if not as developed, but in a completely different way. (Also, the battle on the Enterprise bridge in her head -- that should have been too cheesy for words, but instead it was AWESOME. In a totally cheesy way.)
-Did not see the ending coming. AT ALL. But I am a total sucker for unreliable narrators and tight POVs of characters who've had their minds messed with, so I loved that.
-In fact, I read the last couple of chapters with my hand over my mouth, squeaking.
-I did miss Harry's interactions with most of his friends in this book. He was so isolated, and it looks like he'll be very isolated in the next book, too. (Also sort of a bad guy. Or at least, stuck in some truly horrendous moral quandaries. There are more ways to turn a person into a monster than by directly manipulating their thoughts. Eeps.)
-Also, I really missed both Thomas and Mouse in this one, even though there were plot reasons for their absence. I started figuring about halfway through the book that there was some plot rationale for the fact that Thomas had not been mentioned yet - that something was being held back in reserve regarding him. On the other hand, I am deeply, DEEPLY disappointed that he's basically spent the last six months, while everyone else is ponying up and getting their asses kicked protecting Chicago, in an emo funk. Really, Thomas? REALLY? You'd better be damn badass in the next book to make up for it, that's all I've got to say.
-I'm glad that Maggie (and Mouse!) are with the Carpenters, not shuffled off to some remote corner of the globe.
I don't want to wait another year for the next book; waaaaaaah!
*breathes* I think I need to digest the book a little bit before I'll have coherent reactions to it. I've got to say that it's completely unfair that the ending makes me want the next book so bad, though.
Okay, apparently I do have things to say, as it turns out:
-I really loved that this book, for the most part, took the heavy hitters out of the picture and put the second-string magic-users and normal humans into the limelight. Even though I was disappointed (at first) in the six-month time-jump, the slowly unfolding picture of how things had changed in Harry's absence turned out to be really awesome.
-Bob! Not evil after all! squeak! I loved Bob in this book - that he really is a friend of Harry's, albeit an amoral one, and seeing corporeal!Bob in his spirit-world hideout was a fantastic treat.
-I've always really liked Molly and I loved how this book developed her. She's really turned into a marvelous, complex character - I love how her better nature and dark side are in perpetual struggle, and how she is as powerful a wizard as Harry, if not as developed, but in a completely different way. (Also, the battle on the Enterprise bridge in her head -- that should have been too cheesy for words, but instead it was AWESOME. In a totally cheesy way.)
-Did not see the ending coming. AT ALL. But I am a total sucker for unreliable narrators and tight POVs of characters who've had their minds messed with, so I loved that.
-In fact, I read the last couple of chapters with my hand over my mouth, squeaking.
-I did miss Harry's interactions with most of his friends in this book. He was so isolated, and it looks like he'll be very isolated in the next book, too. (Also sort of a bad guy. Or at least, stuck in some truly horrendous moral quandaries. There are more ways to turn a person into a monster than by directly manipulating their thoughts. Eeps.)
-Also, I really missed both Thomas and Mouse in this one, even though there were plot reasons for their absence. I started figuring about halfway through the book that there was some plot rationale for the fact that Thomas had not been mentioned yet - that something was being held back in reserve regarding him. On the other hand, I am deeply, DEEPLY disappointed that he's basically spent the last six months, while everyone else is ponying up and getting their asses kicked protecting Chicago, in an emo funk. Really, Thomas? REALLY? You'd better be damn badass in the next book to make up for it, that's all I've got to say.
-I'm glad that Maggie (and Mouse!) are with the Carpenters, not shuffled off to some remote corner of the globe.
I don't want to wait another year for the next book; waaaaaaah!
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- Russian Chekov! Ensign Molly, with the soundtrack! Spock Molly!
- OMG Poor Thomas. Granted, OMG Poor Thomas is a decent reaction to most of the books.
- Butcher knows what "decimate" means! That made me squeal with delight. Using that word when they mean "annihilate" is something that really bugs me about a lot of writers.
- Come to that, he also knows what a "quadrant" is.
- I missed Mouse.
- MISTER SAVES THE DAY.
- Butters is as badass as I knew he was.
- Mort is surprisingly badass. I loved Harry's admission that he wished he'd noticed pre-mortem, though it's understandable that he wouldn't have, to some degree; most of Mort's badassness has to do with ghosts, which Harry couldn't perceive much IIRC, and definitely didn't understand the complexities of. That reveal that he was protecting the ghosts from being EATEN - *shudder*.
- Dear Justine: WHY DID YOU NOT THINK OF THAT BEFORE. JEEZE. (Sidenote - I'd seen their earlier relationship as a pretty good if not literal example of a relationship between an asexual person and a sexual person, to a degree, in which one person needs that type of interaction and the other can't really provide it). Come to think of it, WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THAT BEFORE.
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*cracks up* SO TRUE.
I'd seen their earlier relationship as a pretty good if not literal example of a relationship between an asexual person and a sexual person, to a degree, in which one person needs that type of interaction and the other can't really provide it). Come to think of it, WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THAT BEFORE.
Oh ... wow. That is a REALLY good point. I hadn't thought of that either. *ponders*
One thing about Justine doing this is that she's no longer protected from the White Court, though. The thought had occurred to me before - actually, what I was thinking at the time is that if one of the other White Court really wanted to remove Justine's protection, "all" they'd need to do would be to have one of their human mind-thralls rape her. But there's something about the simplicity of this solution that does not really work for me. It's too easy, for one thing, too simple; magic in the Dresdenverse is generally messier than that. It bugs me that Justine and Thomas's mutual inability to touch each other is the sort of thing that can be "easy on, easy off" just by having sex with another person (though I guess now he has to feed on her without going ahead and having sex with her, or they'll be back to the way they were - easier said than done, I suspect!). And if they don't, she's vulnerable to Thomas's whole messed-up family...
- Butters is as badass as I knew he was.
BUTTERS IS SO AWESOME THAT MY CAPSLOCK CANNOT CONTAIN IT!
And I was kinda boggled at Mort turning out to be such a mensch. Mort, apparently we hardly knew you! I did like the way that Harry never would've come to this understanding of him if he hadn't had this experience. Actually, I am optimistic in general that Harry's tenure as a ghost will have long-lasting repercussions on his relationships with various people; it won't just be a case of "well, he was dead - oops, we fixed it and will never mention it again!"
And finally, in conclusion, WORD GEEKERY FOR THE WIN. \o/
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It IS a little too good to be true, come to think of it. It's going to come back to bite them. The way it showed up right at the end of the book makes me think that it's going to be a Big Deal in the next book, on further reflection. After all, Butcher just wiped out a major big bad faction with the Red Court, and I don't see the Black Council business being wrapped up or being anything more than maddening hints anytime soon, which means that another Big Bad would have to show up, and I can see Lara being one of the warlords who's angling to fill the power vacuum... she's always been able to HOLD Justine in terms of keeping her hostage, and exert some level of control that way, but if she can actually threaten Justine, she'd have a lot more control over Thomas, and by extension, Harry, who is (much as I love Thomas) a much bigger player. Especially now that he's the Winter Knight, with all that goes along with that.
On the other hand, it's not like she couldn't have just had Justine beaten up, shot, or whatever, but there's a difference in style between that and eating her. Lara is practical, but the White Court in general do appreciate style.
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