Feels way too short and a bit of a money grab to split it into another book. I like Butcher and don't mind supporting him, but may make people mad paying for 2 books instead of one.

Next one is going to be interesting and probably epic.

and zero Kingkiller books this year!

I started reading the first one of these and got sidetracked by WoT. Sounds like I should pick them back up?

Carol Baskin said:

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I started reading the first one of these and got sidetracked by WoT. Sounds like I should pick them back up?

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For sure and like some of the other posters have said, stick thru the first few as they get significantly better. Dont mistake me, the writing level is no where near Jordan or Sanderson or some others, but they are a helluva lot of fun.

caleblyn said:

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and zero Kingkiller books this year!

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Like Martin, I expect Rothfuss will never finish his series. He made enough money that he can sit on his fat ass and whine on his blog instead of writing.

Liked the book, there is a death that I am irked by and feel it was chicken s*** the way it went down. Still really annoys me after finishing it.

Apparently in 2018 the tv rights were optioned by Fox21 tv studio, and confirmed by Butcher himself.
I forget if we ever discussed that, but the show could be super fun if done right...unlike scifi's version

tv1113 said:

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Liked the book, there is a death that I am irked by and feel it was chicken s*** the way it went down. Still really annoys me after finishing it.

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I agree. No where near enough gravitas was lent to the way it happened or its aftermath. Never thought I'd say it but the ending was too light-hearted. Otherwise it was ok.

Also FYI for you guys I wouldn't read a Christmas story beforehand. It kind of lets you know something is off at the end of this book during one of the parts.

I just caught up and ya'll are right, that death is horse manure. Especially with the circumstances that caused it. The rest of the book was absolutely epic though, though the Fomor were always a backseat bad guy compared to the Red Court in Harry's story, I'm glad they finally squared up with Dresden. It's pretty easy to guess that the wedding will be the setting of the next book. Lastly F*** the white council, they did him dirty but I suppose that's setting up the next novel since the wedding would confirm to them that he's a white court thrall.

hunter2012 said:

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I just caught up and ya'll are right, that death is horse manure. Especially with the circumstances that caused it. The rest of the book was absolutely epic though, though the Fomor were always a backseat bad guy compared to the Red Court in Harry's story, I'm glad they finally squared up with Dresden. It's pretty easy to guess that the wedding will be the setting of the next book. Lastly F*** the white council, they did him dirty but I suppose that's setting up the next novel since the wedding would confirm to them that he's a white court thrall.

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I will say we saw more than one character use intricate duplicates in each of the last two books, Mab was even able to have her's do some serious fighting..

From the other thread, thought it was a solid story enough to share here as it happens concurrently with the last chapter of Battleground.

DallasTeleAg said:

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Decided to post on this thread instead of the one about the 2 books for this year. I love how Butcher releases these little micro fictions.

Do not read unless you have read Battleground and the Christmas eve micro fiction

https://www.jim-butcher.com/the-good-people

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hunter2012 said:

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I just caught up and ya'll are right, that death is horse manure. Especially with the circumstances that caused it. The rest of the book was absolutely epic though, though the Fomor were always a backseat bad guy compared to the Red Court in Harry's story, I'm glad they finally squared up with Dresden. It's pretty easy to guess that the wedding will be the setting of the next book. Lastly F*** the white council, they did him dirty but I suppose that's setting up the next novel since the wedding would confirm to them that he's a white court thrall.

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I've heard that the next book is titled Mirror, Mirror. And that it will have to do with the Black Court

From what I've seen and heard that's been rumored for almost a decade now... Don't get me wrong, an evil twin Dresden sounds awesome, but it seems like Mirror, Mirror is on the backburner if it exists at all.

There's speculation that the next announced book "M..., M..." is going to be pushed back one book and Jim will write a book about the months after events in Battleground and Harry's issues dealing with the events in Battleground

I know that Harry has the knights in his life to help keep him grounded in morality, and he has his daughter to anchor him as well but I can't imagine that Murphy's absence won't have a major impact on him going forward. I felt like it was glossed over a little too easily in battleground, but I think her absence will have a pretty significant effect going forward especially with the winter mantle pushing him constantly. He is going to unleash on someone eventually and cross a line like he almost did with Rudolph, even though Rudolph 100 percent deserved it. Still annoyed at the whole thing.

I so agree with your last paragraph.

The question is was the death curse already spent at the end of changes, since he did technically die...

hunter2012 said:

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From what I've seen and heard that's been rumored for almost a decade now... Don't get me wrong, an evil twin Dresden sounds awesome, but it seems like Mirror, Mirror is on the backburner if it exists at all.

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I have not heard anything about this being pushed back and have watched most of his interviews. The series had a planned number of "case" books (20), which increased when he split Peace Talks and Battleground. He will then be capping it off with an epic trilogy.

Mirror, Mirror is supposed to be an alternate reality book where Dresden made a different choice in one of the earlier books. Also, why are we spoiler tagging Mirror Mirror? There is nothing spoilery about a book title.

hunter2012 said:

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Another thing is the nature of Cassius' death curse(i.e. die alone), it appears to just affect his love interests so far, Susan, Luccio, and now Murphy. It does not seem to affect family like Thomas or Maggie. It will be interesting to see if it affects Lara after the marriage, because arranged or not Dresden will probably fall for her at some point if they actually marry. I have a feeling the white queen will not want to be subjected to a death curse if she were to know about it.

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I'm excited to see where the marriage leads. I have ALWAYS liked her character. If they were to ever bring this to the screen, they better cast her correctly. I have also always felt Harry would be interested in her, if it didn't mean making a thrall of himself or dying.

Small update but I got notice that he came out with a short story in an anthology called Heroic Hearts. The Dresden story is called "Little Things", apparently Toot-Toot and Mister the cat are the POV characters. I want to check it out at some point. I've like all the other short stories as it fleshes out the supporting cast extremely well.

Any word on the next novel?

Do you have to read books 1-4?

Or can you just hit the series with #5 if that is where it takes off.

My personal opinion is that the books are good enough to start at the beginning. Just know that the best is yet to come. Honestly I don't think they're bad books and they're short reads anyway. It does flesh out some of the characters better so you will miss some context on some of the characters if you start in later books.

CoolaidWade said:

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Do you have to read books 1-4?

Or can you just hit the series with #5 if that is where it takes off.

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Book 1-4 is just a lot more of a detective series with fantasy than a fantasy series with detectives imo. The fantastical aspects of what Dresden can do really pick up after that.

Book 1 is the only one that I was a little impatient reading. You can just tell it was one of his first books, not nearly as polished as his later stuff.

I've said this in another thread, but this is how I picture Dresden in a live action, and I hope that if it ever happens, he's the first person they call.

hear me out





In fact, here's Harry and Murphy right here

CoolaidWade said:

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Do you have to read books 1-4?

Or can you just hit the series with #5 if that is where it takes off.

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Don't buy the bull**** others have peddled.

Books 1-4 are perfectly good books. The first one i still love, because of the nostalgia of the journey. Book 3 is one of my favorites in the series, and extremely important. The first 4 books introduce SO many characters, so much of the world, the magic, the villains, etc. The #1 aspect of this entire series is the character development and growth, throughout the series. Missing key points to these relationships and such would be doing yourself a huge disservice.

Also, these books are a continuation of the characters and the world. Things that happen continue to affect what happens in the next book. Do NOT skip them. I just can't imagine having ever skipped those books. The thing is that book 5 and onward just get so freaking fantastic, that the first 4 start to get overshadowed. But remember, this series is hugely popular, and it got so by readers starting with book 1, and wanting to read more.

I have gone through the series in book form and audio book at least 4-5 times, and never skipped a book. Even my least favorite, Fool Moon, is still a fun book. These things can be read in a single long weekend, so there really is not reason to skip one.

Wanted to add this. I enjoy a lot of Daniel Greene's channel. He went through the series about 2 years ago. He has many videos and reviews for the Dresden Files, but I think this one is an interesting one. Specifically because it is a video on why you should read the series... when he had just finished book 6. If books 1-4 are not worth your time, then why would someone tell you to read an entire series they themselves haven't finished, after seemingly 2 good books.

Now, granted, Dead Beat (Book 6) is extraordinarily epic, but the point remains:

The 3rd book is really good, and I would tell someone if they got no enjoyment out of 3 to not continue on. 1,2,and 4 are all meh for me. From book 5-15 is just a hell of a ride. 16 and 17 were actually not quite as good despite the epic story for me. He had to come down from Changes/Cold Days/Skin Game because those were just too damn good.

CoolaidWade said:

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Do you have to read books 1-4?

Or can you just hit the series with #5 if that is where it takes off.

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I saw Butcher speak at GenCon a few years ago. He said he wrote book 5 as an easy entry point for new readers to the series. One of the characters introduced (who is very often a fan favorite character) is there to stand in as a neophyte to Dresden's universe and provide context for newcomers.

Good bump. Been too long since I read a book in Dresden Files. I've read through Book 5 so looks like Vignette (Book 5.5) is next.

Great series even with just what I've read so far.

edit: just read Vignette in about 30 seconds. Onto Blood Rites (Book 6). Lol.

Some people consider book 6 to be the worst of the series, but I really like that book.

As a fan of the series, I don't skip any books on rereads. I enjoy them all, and the more time I get to spend with Harry Dresden, the better.

Been working my way back through all of them for the umpteenth time, and I'm on Peace Talks now. Marsters is really the best.

I'm on book 11 of my WoT re read and was pondering what to burn through next so thanks for this bump. I loved Dresden 1-10 or so, the one that ended in a big fairy war kind of lost me for a bit. I think I'll hit this up for a visit after Tarmon Gaidon.