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thebartthe 's review for:
Battle Ground
by Jim Butcher
I like this book a lot more than the 3 star rating suggests, but can't bring myself to give it a 4 star rating for a couple of reasons. The main one is that I can't help but shake the feeling that Peace Talks and Battle Ground should have been one book. Yes, it would have meant cutting down on some of the action here in Battle Ground and some of the other stuff in Peace Talks to make it fit in one book, but I think the story would have been significantly stronger for it.
Jim Butcher writes action scenes really, really well -- among the best there is, probably. Where I'm struggling a little bit is both with the scope and the stakes of the action. For the stakes, they're pretty solid -- he has to defend Chicago, and that goes a long way towards giving the book the emotional heft it needs despite the fact that the Big Bad, Ethniu, as terrifying as she is, has no personal connection towards Harry Dresden. Compare that to, say, "Changes," where the stakes were so *personal* even as they were epic, and the defense of Chicago rings slightly hollow.
And I wonder if the scope was a little too big. The entire book is one action scene, and with very few exceptions, most of the major players we've been introduced to over the preceding 16 books are involved. This feels like a precursor to the final book where everybody gets together for one big apocalyptic clash, but by that point, I worry it'll almost feel like a repeat of this book: An extended action sequence as Harry and his allies face terrible odds, until Harry himself saves the day at the last possible second? Granted, that's essentially how most of these books work out (and, uh, fantasy books in general), but in this case, I just worry that the beats will feel the same when we read the concluding book in the series, since the scope here was so epic -- instead of a couple of key allies, we got literally almost everybody involved!
Now, we don't know what's going to happen in the next few books. It could be that this was the last hurrah for many of these allies, and they'll be picked off one by one over the next few books as we race towards the finish line. But if it ends up that the gang gets back together again for one last showdown, I do worry it'll feel like a retread of this book.
All that being said, I still really enjoyed reading this book, and I still stayed up way too late reading it so I could finish the book. And this book is clearly setting up a major shift in the series going forward, and I can't wait to see what happens next. I suspect this book will likely work a lot better in the context of a full readthrough of the Dresden Files series, rather than as the latest installment, because it'll be clearer how this book fits in the overall picture.
Jim Butcher writes action scenes really, really well -- among the best there is, probably. Where I'm struggling a little bit is both with the scope and the stakes of the action. For the stakes, they're pretty solid -- he has to defend Chicago, and that goes a long way towards giving the book the emotional heft it needs despite the fact that the Big Bad, Ethniu, as terrifying as she is, has no personal connection towards Harry Dresden. Compare that to, say, "Changes," where the stakes were so *personal* even as they were epic, and the defense of Chicago rings slightly hollow.
And I wonder if the scope was a little too big. The entire book is one action scene, and with very few exceptions, most of the major players we've been introduced to over the preceding 16 books are involved. This feels like a precursor to the final book where everybody gets together for one big apocalyptic clash, but by that point, I worry it'll almost feel like a repeat of this book: An extended action sequence as Harry and his allies face terrible odds, until Harry himself saves the day at the last possible second? Granted, that's essentially how most of these books work out (and, uh, fantasy books in general), but in this case, I just worry that the beats will feel the same when we read the concluding book in the series, since the scope here was so epic -- instead of a couple of key allies, we got literally almost everybody involved!
Now, we don't know what's going to happen in the next few books. It could be that this was the last hurrah for many of these allies, and they'll be picked off one by one over the next few books as we race towards the finish line. But if it ends up that the gang gets back together again for one last showdown, I do worry it'll feel like a retread of this book.
All that being said, I still really enjoyed reading this book, and I still stayed up way too late reading it so I could finish the book. And this book is clearly setting up a major shift in the series going forward, and I can't wait to see what happens next. I suspect this book will likely work a lot better in the context of a full readthrough of the Dresden Files series, rather than as the latest installment, because it'll be clearer how this book fits in the overall picture.