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4.25 AVERAGE
4.25 AVERAGE
“She was a creature of sorrow turned to such rage that her beauty had become a knife that stabbed at the eyes of any who looked upon it.”
Epic, intense, heartbreaking, hilarious, terrifying, poignant, and absolutely, irrevocably meaningful.
Big spoilers ahead, so don’t read if you haven’t read Peace Talks and Battle Ground.
This book was insane. Avengers: Endgame, who???? A 400 page climax to it’s predecessor, Battle Ground has easily landed a spot as one of my favorite Dresden books. Maybe even #1 above Changes. This book grabs you with intense action on page 1 and doesn’t let you go until the final scene of the book. Sure, there are some breaks from the actual fighting, but anybody that’s read this knows that the “in-between” scenes don’t even really offer much reprieve.
Side note: This book has one of my new favorite “first lines” to a novel. “Apocalypses always kick off at the witching hour.”
Where to begin? So much happened in this book that left my jaw on the floor.
I haven’t sobbed over a book very many times in my life. Some stories induce tears, sure, but Karrin’s death left me ugly crying multiple times. I’m still not really okay about it, because it genuinely feels like I lost an old friend. It’s hard to imagine the Dresden-verse without her, and I’m going to have a Murphy-shaped hole in my heart for a long time.
“I already miss you so much.”
The final confrontation with Ethniu was so well-paced and brilliantly executed. It left my palms sweating and me hanging onto every word until the final resolution. Seeing nearly every faction that we’ve encountered in this series come together to fight this being to protect Chicago was epic on a scale that we haven’t seen from this series yet, and it makes me even more excited to see what the fuck is going to happen in future books.
Harry’s character development is concerning, to say the least. He’s still got all of his classic traits, but he acted too Fae-like in several instances during this story for my comfort. Namely during his encounter with Rudolph, and the trickery he placed on Marcone to get his home back towards the end. It makes me wonder if the mantle is taking him over slowly without him realizing it. Not to mention that Mab is twisting him to her will by placing him in situations where she KNOWS he’ll choose to take responsibility and help others, even if it means selling his soul one piece at a time.
The other big WTF was towards the end where Mab announces that Lara and Harry are going to get married for a White Court/Winter Court Alliance... oh my god, Butcher is cruel to poor Harry. There’s a small part of me that wonders if the Dresden Files is going to end tragically. The theme of it so far has been a long, slow downward spiral for Harry, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to let up any time soon. Needless to say, I’m excited for the next book.
There’s a lot more that I could talk about, like Marcone taking up one of the freaking COINS, a lot of really great character interactions, fucking Butters stepping up to the plate, an Outsider possessing Justine?????
This book was amazing, I finished it in 4 days. It took me through a rollercoaster of all sorts of different emotions, and I’m so glad for the experience. 10/10
Epic, intense, heartbreaking, hilarious, terrifying, poignant, and absolutely, irrevocably meaningful.
Big spoilers ahead, so don’t read if you haven’t read Peace Talks and Battle Ground.
This book was insane. Avengers: Endgame, who???? A 400 page climax to it’s predecessor, Battle Ground has easily landed a spot as one of my favorite Dresden books. Maybe even #1 above Changes. This book grabs you with intense action on page 1 and doesn’t let you go until the final scene of the book. Sure, there are some breaks from the actual fighting, but anybody that’s read this knows that the “in-between” scenes don’t even really offer much reprieve.
Side note: This book has one of my new favorite “first lines” to a novel. “Apocalypses always kick off at the witching hour.”
Where to begin? So much happened in this book that left my jaw on the floor.
I haven’t sobbed over a book very many times in my life. Some stories induce tears, sure, but Karrin’s death left me ugly crying multiple times. I’m still not really okay about it, because it genuinely feels like I lost an old friend. It’s hard to imagine the Dresden-verse without her, and I’m going to have a Murphy-shaped hole in my heart for a long time.
“I already miss you so much.”
The final confrontation with Ethniu was so well-paced and brilliantly executed. It left my palms sweating and me hanging onto every word until the final resolution. Seeing nearly every faction that we’ve encountered in this series come together to fight this being to protect Chicago was epic on a scale that we haven’t seen from this series yet, and it makes me even more excited to see what the fuck is going to happen in future books.
Harry’s character development is concerning, to say the least. He’s still got all of his classic traits, but he acted too Fae-like in several instances during this story for my comfort. Namely during his encounter with Rudolph, and the trickery he placed on Marcone to get his home back towards the end. It makes me wonder if the mantle is taking him over slowly without him realizing it. Not to mention that Mab is twisting him to her will by placing him in situations where she KNOWS he’ll choose to take responsibility and help others, even if it means selling his soul one piece at a time.
The other big WTF was towards the end where Mab announces that Lara and Harry are going to get married for a White Court/Winter Court Alliance... oh my god, Butcher is cruel to poor Harry. There’s a small part of me that wonders if the Dresden Files is going to end tragically. The theme of it so far has been a long, slow downward spiral for Harry, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to let up any time soon. Needless to say, I’m excited for the next book.
There’s a lot more that I could talk about, like Marcone taking up one of the freaking COINS, a lot of really great character interactions, fucking Butters stepping up to the plate, an Outsider possessing Justine?????
This book was amazing, I finished it in 4 days. It took me through a rollercoaster of all sorts of different emotions, and I’m so glad for the experience. 10/10
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Jim Butcher's BATTLE GROUND...that was a rough read. Not that it was poorly written, but that it just...dang it.
This is effectively a 400 page third act pretending to be a book on its own. If there are pacing issues, it's pretty much because there is only one real break in the go-go-go the entire novel. Sure, there are some micro-pauses here and there, but from the opening chapter until the finale you just keep pushing forward.
And there's no real time to mourn.
This is effectively a 400 page third act pretending to be a book on its own. If there are pacing issues, it's pretty much because there is only one real break in the go-go-go the entire novel. Sure, there are some micro-pauses here and there, but from the opening chapter until the finale you just keep pushing forward.
And there's no real time to mourn.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Jim Butcher definitely doesn’t write novels in a series just to have books to sell. He doesn’t follow what a lot of writers do where each volume in the series follows a successful template. With each volume Butcher had been making unexpected plot variations to keep the readers on their toes and changes the course of the series completely. This story starts out like several of the others in the series where there is yet another new monster or being on the way and Harry aligns his allies to take on the challenge. This new foe is on a definitely larger scale with massive powers - and even with many of the allies participating (you see most of the folks from previous novels) it is not clear how things will turn out. The extended battle scene is the bulk of the book and I was going to downgrade my rating because I was getting bored with it. There is a totally unexpected ending which again changes the whole course of the story and will affect the next few volumes. These innovations made me give a higher rating to this book. There is also a bonus short story included in the book which is a relevant addition to complement the novel. I have now caught up with the series and must wait an unknown amount of time for the next one.
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
informative
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
One of my least favorite of the series. I don't like the way Butcher writes fight scenes and this is basically one giant fight scene.
I must say that this was a phenomenal book and the roller coaster ride I was expecting. Writing style and pacing were great as well as the storyline.
Damnit Jim! I almost threw my device across the room into the wall! Stars and Stones! I was so pissed at the loss of that character that I almost stopped reading right there. You know exactly what you did! Also I did not see the two twists coming at the end. How the.... where the..... was he able to get that? It makes one reassess moments over the mid part of the series and now I have to reread the series again. Now that last twist made me go “Oh Shit!” a la Alexander Hamilton in the Hamilton Musical where Burr confesses that it is unlawful to bring his “little something on the side” to meet the others.
Now where it ended was great! Thank you for ending it where you did. IF you had to end the series there, I would be content because most of the loose ends had been tied. Please don’t abandon it! I have questions!
This is another blockbuster of a book! A wild ride I didn’t know I needed to take! A must read for any Dresden Files fan!
Damnit Jim! I almost threw my device across the room into the wall! Stars and Stones! I was so pissed at the loss of that character that I almost stopped reading right there. You know exactly what you did! Also I did not see the two twists coming at the end. How the.... where the..... was he able to get that? It makes one reassess moments over the mid part of the series and now I have to reread the series again. Now that last twist made me go “Oh Shit!” a la Alexander Hamilton in the Hamilton Musical where Burr confesses that it is unlawful to bring his “little something on the side” to meet the others.
Now where it ended was great! Thank you for ending it where you did. IF you had to end the series there, I would be content because most of the loose ends had been tied. Please don’t abandon it! I have questions!
This is another blockbuster of a book! A wild ride I didn’t know I needed to take! A must read for any Dresden Files fan!
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Only rating this so high because the ending was really good. Lost me halfway through when a major char was killed. So much so that I put the book down for a good 9 months. Then back half was a slog to get to the end. Will probably still read the next one though
Tempted to give three stars as the entire book being one giant action sequence dragged a bit, but, as usual with Butcher, things were tied together surprisingly well.