Dresden Files

My headcanon has Oberon's stuck in that rock they trade back and forth with the seasons and Maab and Titania like him where he is just fine.

Goodman Grey being a ********** is awesome, he is living proof you can be a monster but not act like one.

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Cbf with spoilers at this point, but Grey was an awesome character in general. I hope we see him pop up again down the road.

Binder is fun too, really liked him ever since his commentary on vampires at the end of Turn Coat (! thanks Lenardo).

Intrinsic_sl said:

Just finished and loved it. It would not bother me in the least if we had 100 more Dresden books to read. These are way too far and few between.

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100 might be stretching it, but I could definitely go for more, and that's saying a fair bit given how prolific Butcher is.

Got the wife hooked, she is on book 4 just ran into Cat Sith for the first time or Malk as Harry knows it at this time.

This series is pretty solid.

I can't read more than one or two books a month because Harry's voice really grates on my nerves. But the first book was pretty good and every single book after the first one has been better than the last. It's really impressive.

Reading Proven Guilty right now. Good stuff.

I can't read more than one or two books a month because Harry's voice really grates on my nerves.

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The one thing that bugs me about Harry is that there's obviously a fair bit of Mary Sue-ing (or whatever you call the male version) going on. I'd bet a bunch of money that Butcher drinks a ton of coke, prefers Burger King to McDonalds, jogs as his primary form of exercise, is weird around women, has serious parental issues, etc etc. Most of Harry comes off as an idealized version of the author transplanted into an urban fantasy setting. Hell, Harry even looks more or less like Butcher without the power metal hair (although the longer hair on the covers is pretty close) - tall, pale white, dark hair, dark eyes, 5pm shadow look going on, etc. And he gets fairly repetitive with some of the references, especially stupid stuff like Wile-E-Coyote and other Loony Toons characters which are totally wrong for the vibe.




But that's a fairly minor complaint in the scheme of things. The books still engage me enough that I've read them all at least twice. Just finished by re-read of Skin Game, and pretty much stand by my original assessment (good read, but a bit silly in places and Harry was an idiot the entire way through).

Again I recommend the audio books, Marsters does an amazing job.

Yeah I was tempted to pick it up for Skin Game re-read just to hear Marsters read it, but ended up deciding I'd rather stick with the old fashioned way (and not drop the money).

Last few books are really good. If you have started latching on to things you hate though it's just time to move on. You won't stop finding things to hate, and there's literally tens of other books in the world you could move on to enjoy.

Just, for the love of God, don't become one of those people that reads an entire series just to bitch about it on the internet.

Dresden is hardly a 'Gary Stu'.

He makes stupid, human mistakes.
He suffers constantly for his mistakes.
Even with the... (Spoilers) ...helping him out, he rarely manages to pull things off on his own. It is always with the help of his friends.

I agree with the sentiment that if you are trying to pick apart the books like that, it might be time for you to find another genre/author/series.

zzeris_sl said:

Guys, I haven't read this series since Turncoat but the Gary Stu argument is very valid. Also, is he running out of stuff to write about? This dying and then becoming Mab's bitch(extreme exaggeration I'm sure) just doesn't seem as interesting to me. How are the last few books compared to the middle ones which I think were probably the best ones?

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butcher has a general timeline/outline of where he wants to go with the story, there are ummm...5 books left i believe.

ghost story imo is the weakest of the later books, but they are all comparable quality wise to the middle ones.

Rime_sl said:

Dresden is hardly a 'Gary Stu'.

He makes stupid, human mistakes.
He suffers constantly for his mistakes.
Even with the... (Spoilers)

Spoiler

Soul Fire or Winter Mantle or the Fallen Spirit in his Head

...helping him out, he rarely manages to pull things off on his own. It is always with the help of his friends.

I agree with the sentiment that if you are trying to pick apart the books like that, it might be time for you to find another genre/author/series.

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My point wasn't that Harry is somehow written to be perfect, just that there's a lot of self-insert elements going on with the character. Either consciously or otherwise, Butcher obviously started with himself as the rough template for Harry in many respects and then expanded with the detective/wizard elements from there. It's not a criticism as such (although I can make plenty of those).

As for picking the books apart, it's something I do while reading without really thinking about it too much. When you've been reading fantasy voraciously for 20 years, then find a particular series you enjoy enough that you re-read it 3 times (mostly, I skipped the first three and Ghost Story on round two) in the space of 2 years, then you start picking up on stuff as you read it. That's all it is. I do it out of love for the series, not because I'm trying to trash it.

You know what series I hated? Malazan. And I don't spend weeks doing re-reads or picking it apart on internet forums, I just leave it to collect dust on the bookshelf and don't ever talk about it - why would I spend time talking about something I don't care for?

I like the Dresden Files. Enough to read a 15 book series 3 times in 2 years, and then feel disappointed that there isn't more every time I finish it. It's not perfect, but what is? But there's only so much you can learn about the author without realizing he inserted (consciously or otherwise) strong elements of himself in Harry (although to be fair, he was so specific about some of Harry's preferences that it was something I started to pick up on from the first time I read the first book). That's not necessarily a criticism of the series, you could argue that it's a tool which makes Harry more realistic as a character, I just find it interesting enough to discuss, just as I do some of the logical inconsistencies and storytelling flaws. I just like talking about books I like, and there's only so many times you can say ''man that thing with the Dinosaur was awesome!''

Azrayne_sl said:

That's not necessarily a criticism of the series, you could argue that it's a tool which makes Harry more realistic as a character, I just find it interesting enough to discuss, just as I do some of the logical inconsistencies and storytelling flaws. I just like talking about books I like, and there's only so many times you can say ''man that thing with the Dinosaur was awesome!''

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The Coke references are definitely intended as a tool. It gets mentioned in every book as Harry's non-alcoholic drink of choice. Other characters in the world recognize that about him as well as short-hand for how well they know Harry.

You have a point about the physical description (Tall, dark hair, white). But then, if white male Authors can't write about white male main characters...

That's gross.

Dresden as wish fulfillment? Yup! Not much of a Gary Stu though, in fact with how much shit he gets put through and how often he fails I think he's really the opposite.

Without a doubt, Dresden is a projection from Butcher.

But how could you write as many books as he has on the character without their being generous bleed-through?

I enjoy books all the same, even if Dresden tends to eat dirt more than smile recently.

The plan for Dresden is to have 20-ish case books and an "Apocalyptic" capstone trilogy. It is in the FAQ on his website. So you have at least 8 more Dresden books.