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A review by the_sammy
Peace Talks by Jim Butcher
2.0
This is a tricky review to write. I used to really enjoy the Dresden files but I took a pretty long break between the last one and this one. Coming back a few things hit me.
The writing style is still easy to read, quick to work through, and very good at getting the point across.
The story is pretty formulaic but it was never going to win any awards for plot twists, especially when there's a part 2 and a bunch of stuff that's not been revealed yet including the reason behind the inciting incident in the book. All in all a solid read that won't leave you shocked.
Now onto the bad stuff. Dresden by now has a mantle that makes him more bestial, all base instincts. All this seems to do is give Butcher the opportunity to write about how much he wants to fuck every woman in the series, and even notice the "developing attributes" of underage characters. That's gross.
And talking of the women it's clear Butcher has a type; tall Amazonians who can kill you with their thighs and drip bisexuality. Only girls get to be bisexual though, it's clearly too gross to have two men romantically involved. Every woman has a page dedicated to how gorgeous and dangerous they are, and while my lesbian brain can get behind it I can't help but feel cheated that half the pages in the book were just copy pasted about bulging muscles and huge tits.
Lastly on that front; threesomes. Butcher includes a strange scene where two characters are categorised as "the hottest" and "the second hottest" (type of magical being) don't even get their personalities ported over from previous books. They're trophy wives now, only present to show that the man is winning at life enough that he gets two women.
My final complaint is Dresden. Damn this man is whiny. We're over a dozen books in and most of this book was recapping how complicated the situation in this book is; not very. Yeah it's bad, sure, but after everything that's happened it feels like he's just sadwanking over how tough life is. It's making for a very unlikeable character who you just want to slap and tell to get the fuck on with it.
I will be reading the sequel to finish it off, but unless it pulls something big out of the bag and ditches all the misogyny I'll be done with the series.
The writing style is still easy to read, quick to work through, and very good at getting the point across.
The story is pretty formulaic but it was never going to win any awards for plot twists, especially when there's a part 2 and a bunch of stuff that's not been revealed yet including the reason behind the inciting incident in the book. All in all a solid read that won't leave you shocked.
Now onto the bad stuff. Dresden by now has a mantle that makes him more bestial, all base instincts. All this seems to do is give Butcher the opportunity to write about how much he wants to fuck every woman in the series, and even notice the "developing attributes" of underage characters. That's gross.
And talking of the women it's clear Butcher has a type; tall Amazonians who can kill you with their thighs and drip bisexuality. Only girls get to be bisexual though, it's clearly too gross to have two men romantically involved. Every woman has a page dedicated to how gorgeous and dangerous they are, and while my lesbian brain can get behind it I can't help but feel cheated that half the pages in the book were just copy pasted about bulging muscles and huge tits.
Lastly on that front; threesomes. Butcher includes a strange scene where two characters are categorised as "the hottest" and "the second hottest" (type of magical being) don't even get their personalities ported over from previous books. They're trophy wives now, only present to show that the man is winning at life enough that he gets two women.
My final complaint is Dresden. Damn this man is whiny. We're over a dozen books in and most of this book was recapping how complicated the situation in this book is; not very. Yeah it's bad, sure, but after everything that's happened it feels like he's just sadwanking over how tough life is. It's making for a very unlikeable character who you just want to slap and tell to get the fuck on with it.
I will be reading the sequel to finish it off, but unless it pulls something big out of the bag and ditches all the misogyny I'll be done with the series.