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A review by beezmcdeez
Battle Ground by Jim Butcher
5.0
“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