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4.25 AVERAGE
4.25 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So yeah, this shouldn't have been a whole book. Maybe a novella. If I had been editor, it would have gone "finish the plot of Peace Talks IN THAT BOOK and then make a book about stopping a war, because there's a reason 'blow by blow' accounts are only interesting to academics."
There are 2 moments of real emotion here and both felt exploitative. Lots and LOTS of filler. Lots of things that didn't make sense given the people doing them, the timing, and the preceding elements. Like the whole thing with Ebenezer. And Mac. And Carlos. Just...what happened there?
I'm gonna need a compelling reason to give a shit about book 18. From mega-fan to mildly interested in 2 books. Ouch.
CONTENT WARNING:
There are 2 moments of real emotion here and both felt exploitative. Lots and LOTS of filler. Lots of things that didn't make sense given the people doing them, the timing, and the preceding elements. Like the whole thing with Ebenezer. And Mac. And Carlos. Just...what happened there?
I'm gonna need a compelling reason to give a shit about book 18. From mega-fan to mildly interested in 2 books. Ouch.
CONTENT WARNING:
Spoiler
loss of a loved one, extreme gore, war, harm to animals and children, coercion of will
What a ride this book was, it was so addictive i could not stop reading!
Non stop action, twists, strong consequences.. grim and dark moments..
Im not a fan of long battle scenes, but in this book it was very exciting.. what a ride..
Non stop action, twists, strong consequences.. grim and dark moments..
Im not a fan of long battle scenes, but in this book it was very exciting.. what a ride..
Jim Butcher is a major league heavy hitter. Every book is at least a triple and most of them are blown right out of the park.
Part of the strength of the Dresden Files is the wonderful world building. His characters have well defined limitations. Neither the villains nor any of the other characters are unassailable. So very powerful, but with realistic limits. These limits make and keep the story "real."
If urban fantasy is anything you like, and you've not read Jim Butcher, you've got seventeen great adventures awaiting you!
1
1
Part of the strength of the Dresden Files is the wonderful world building. His characters have well defined limitations. Neither the villains nor any of the other characters are unassailable. So very powerful, but with realistic limits. These limits make and keep the story "real."
If urban fantasy is anything you like, and you've not read Jim Butcher, you've got seventeen great adventures awaiting you!
1
1
For Butcher's incredibly blue balls dryness of Peace Talks, this decidedly is all about the release. But when the writing is not variable enough to pull off different versions of "bang, boom, pow" with literally every single side character stuffed into the margins of this thing. Having a lot of the EXCITING same EXCITING stuff happening all the EXCITING time just gets EXCITING extremely dull and not EXCITING compelling at all. Least of all when this really wants to be FURY ROAD, but Butcher can't make anything simple or distill anything down into easily absorbable cause-and-effect events.
I've always thought that after a certain point Dresden as a character becomes less interesting and now (if not for a good long period) overwhelmingly predictable, and the series should have focused more on Molly once her transformation took place, but I'd shudder to think what Butcher would think a Catholic raised girl would have on her mind after supposedly "defying" the beliefs of her parents by flirting with much darker forces of magic, without spoiling anything.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Butcher will never end this cow, or at least make it seem like it's ending against his will, like some "dumb" thing the publisher is demanding from him. It's starting to feel like The Walking Dead all over again, but with the quality of the TV show mixed with the seemingly endless wandering of the comics. The more that gets added to this world the more its logic clashes over itself. Having pretty much every major event happen in Chicago was a hump I got over fairly quickly but it happening over and over and over again makes it seem like the major power players of this world see it as they would aliens and NYC in any American Hollywood blockbuster.
I've always thought that after a certain point Dresden as a character becomes less interesting and now (if not for a good long period) overwhelmingly predictable, and the series should have focused more on Molly once her transformation took place, but I'd shudder to think what Butcher would think a Catholic raised girl would have on her mind after supposedly "defying" the beliefs of her parents by flirting with much darker forces of magic, without spoiling anything.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Butcher will never end this cow, or at least make it seem like it's ending against his will, like some "dumb" thing the publisher is demanding from him. It's starting to feel like The Walking Dead all over again, but with the quality of the TV show mixed with the seemingly endless wandering of the comics. The more that gets added to this world the more its logic clashes over itself. Having pretty much every major event happen in Chicago was a hump I got over fairly quickly but it happening over and over and over again makes it seem like the major power players of this world see it as they would aliens and NYC in any American Hollywood blockbuster.
This series has been a staple in my reading life since 2015 and if anyone wants to try it, I highly recommend the audio version. James Masters is outstanding!!
Battle Ground brings in many characters that have not been seen in a while. From Toot Toot, and River Shoulders to Marcone and Bob the Scull. Even some new creatures like Dracul (father of Dracula) and unicorns (but not the Disney kind).
I normally do not like long drawn out war/fight scenes, but the story is balanced out so its not just one long fight from the first to last page. I ended up rooting for the known villains I got to know in past books because let’s face it the new villain in this book is beyond words. The story also brings forth unexpected heroes like Butters the polka loving medical examiner.
And as the geeky fan that I am I just watched a YouTube interview between James Masters (the narrator) and Jim Butcher (the author) where Jim talks about why he wrote the first book.
There is also a sweet short story right at the end of the book you may not want to skip.
Recommended
Battle Ground brings in many characters that have not been seen in a while. From Toot Toot, and River Shoulders to Marcone and Bob the Scull. Even some new creatures like Dracul (father of Dracula) and unicorns (but not the Disney kind).
I normally do not like long drawn out war/fight scenes, but the story is balanced out so its not just one long fight from the first to last page. I ended up rooting for the known villains I got to know in past books because let’s face it the new villain in this book is beyond words. The story also brings forth unexpected heroes like Butters the polka loving medical examiner.
And as the geeky fan that I am I just watched a YouTube interview between James Masters (the narrator) and Jim Butcher (the author) where Jim talks about why he wrote the first book.
There is also a sweet short story right at the end of the book you may not want to skip.
Recommended
I just — holy crap. This book was a whirlwind from the very first moment and doesn’t let up one bit. The events in this book will have crazy ramifications on the continuation of the series and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
adventurous
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The Christmas Eve novella took this one to 5 stars for me as the first half of the book was not my favorite. I enjoy the fights but didn’t need those that weren’t related to the bigger battle. I know that’s how Harry’s world ends up much of the time, every thing coming to a head at once, but it seemed like the stakes were so much higher this book and I could have done with out Dracula’s dad. That being said I cried more during this book than I have all the others combined and basically cried my way through the Christmas Eve novella on top of that. This is the last book of the series so far and I’m hoping I don’t have to wait too long for the next one (someone better save Thomas NOW!) and I’m looking forward to see the ramifications all of the things that happened in this book. With that I just want to say that Mab deserves every happiness and Butters is the hero we need but don’t deserve
All of the characters I love in this series and make Harry interesting (Mouse, Michael, Thomas, Maggie, Susan, Murphy, Bob, Molly as mortal, and to a lesser extent Charity) are all sidelined or minor at this point. Butters has his moments here, but it doesn’t feel like enough. Chicago as fantasy war zone sounds like an intriguing idea, but without more of the characters I love it falls a flat. This was a rough one for me. Harry just seems to be moving from action scene to action scene in this one, like he himself is just trying to get to the end of the book so it can be done in order to move on to the next one. Maybe this would have been more interesting if a good chunk of it were told from other characters’ perspectives as they intersected with Harry.