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Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop
Oh boy oh boy oh boy. I didn't even notice there was a new book coming up until I noticed the old thread that I'd bookmarked had closed! Time to reread Cold Days to refresh myself for the 27th :)

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Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop

Taran_Wanderer posted:

You lucky dog. I don't even know where I'm going to pick up my copy on the 27th. Curse all my local bookstores going out of business.

Yeah I'd probably have been active in the last thread if it wasnt for the fact that doing that would just make me yearn for the next book, which we all know happens as soon as we finish reading the latest one. This way its a super great surprise!

I own physical copies of everything else except Cold Days. My Dresden collection is much like harry himself, odd, mostly beat-up, and goony. I read the first one by accident, it was a library discard with its cover missing, and while I remember being pleasantly surprised by it, it still seemed cheesy and I thought it was a one-off. Years later I ended up with a pile of books from a closing Waldenbooks (owned by Borders iirc), one of which was a copy of White Night hardcover for 30 goddamn cents. Got hooked after that.

Already preordered the kindle version with some amazon credit I had laying around :D

Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop

Oroborus posted:

I went to use my Kindle for the first time in a couple of months to get it ready for Tuesday....and it's completely dead. I don't even know what to do now...guess I have to buy a hard copy. Does anyone know if you can switch a kindle preorder to a physical one?

I have no idea how to switch it, but cancelling it probably won't be a problem, don't think you're charged until the 27th anyway. If for some strange reason you have the worst luck in the world and you can't cancel and support won't help you (both very unlikely), you can read it directly from your amazon account in a browser with their cloud reader.

Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Remember you can also download the kindle for PC app and just read it on your computer (presuming you have access to a computer since you're here).

You don't even need the PC app, you can just read straight from your browser! The magic of the ~*cloud*~

Just finished rereading Cold Days, should've waited and timed it so I'd be done at 12am the 27th. Anybody have any recommendations for which books I should go reread in anticipation of Skin Game? The more crackpot theories it gives me, the better.

Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop

Anias posted:

Go reread the denarian/lash books.

A good suggestion. Just sped through Death Masks, reminded why the Denarians are some of the best villians in the Dresden files.

Also no other book series makes be want to get a pinboard and start scribbling down stuff and connecting it with red string like a crazy person quite like this one.

Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop
Just breezed through Blood Rites since it followed Death Masks. Not a lot of denarian stuff in it obviously but I did notice that a few times before the Hellfire even shows up on his staff Harry loses, or near-loses, his temper and the energy/magic he builds up is described as "crimson". Which I thought was pretty interesting considering the last time he had and used magic described in such terms is after gaining back his power and more from Kravos in Death Masks. I'm not entirely sure if this is just to show that the source of his power at the moment is tainted or that Harry himself can be the source of that kind of angry, murderous magic. Probably both though, Butcher has always written it as if Harry is constantly walking a line of temptation and power. Perhaps even one his mother didnt thread so well.

Speaking of which, I hope we get a little more tidbits at least from Skin Game on that front. The links to The Merlin and the Arthurian legend there just tease at me, from her last name being so close to le Fay (sometimes considered The Merlin's biggest nemesis), Mab's particular interest in Harry, hell even her middle name (Gwendolyn) is used early in its etymology as a name for the wife of Merlinus, the proto-Merlin basically. And lest we forget that it seems like the infection that the adversary uses seems to have originated from the athame of Morgan Le Fay. How this all might connect to Harry being the Warden of the Merlin's prison, and his mysterious starborn birth stuff, is just to fun a web of mystery not to speculate about.

And it just occurred to me that although we know Ebenezer is Harry's grandfather, we know absolutely nothing about his grandmother. I mean, it could be completely insignificant and just be normal person that Ebenezer has simply far outlived, but considering that he's still around and its never mentioned once nor has Harry gotten more details about his family that he must know existed, it just suddenly seemed to me as a subtle but suspicious omission.

Ok, I'm going to stop now. Is it the 27th yet?

e: should I spoiler any of this? I really wouldnt want someone new to the series to read it :ohdear:

Logan 5 fucked around with this message at 12:36 on May 26, 2014

Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop

Skippy McPants posted:

Someone new to this series should have the common sense to avoid threads like this, and if they don't, it's their own drat fault.

Only spoiler stuff related to new releases.

Okey dokie.

Oroborus posted:

Wasn't Merlin born of a mortal woman and an incubus?

Yes I believe so. Although my knowledge of the Arthurian legend is mostly hodgepodge media over the years and what I read online (aka wikipedia). I'd love to hear what anybody with any bit studied background in it thinks.

Skimming through Dead Beat now. Noticed that when Harry's in Bock's book shop and "Shiela" helps him find the Die Lied der Erlking he notes that the book had been compiled out of old wizard writings by the "Wizard Peabody early last century".

Foreshadowing :allears:

Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop

Ramadu posted:

Welp, I'm out. Curse all of you on the east coast! I've still got like 4 hours to wait.

I'm guessing everyone postin spoilers got a physical copy of the book earlier today, cause it ain't 12 am here yet and my kindle doesnt have it.

That said yeah I'm out until I do. I'll probably be back in a few hours though :v:

Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop
This book can be summed up in one word

Parkour!!!!!!!!

Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop

Mars4523 posted:

Honestly I want to just see Butters fail utterly at being a Knight and get killed or crippled after a mission or two. The guy became a Knight pretty much on pluck alone, but let's face it, he's completely in over his head. Even if Michael, who is crippled, Sanya, who is constantly busy, or Murphy, who will need months of PT to return to form, manage to train him on a few sword techniques, there is no way at Butters' age (middle) and level of fitness (poor) he will acquire a reasonable level of skill needed to go up against the beasties Knights face off against. And given how busy Knights are, I doubt he'd be able to sit out the multiple years he'd need to develop those skills from scratch.




Hey man, what, don't you have any Faith in Butters? I mean after all he's got the force with him. You're being just like Luke in assuming that the old little green talk-weird guy couldn't possibly be Yoda

But yes I do agree with the Ascher bit. Combined with Harry's internal monologues that are still cringeworthy despite the excuse of the Winter Mantle, its at best a really poor writing choice. Aside from that though, I thought that the whole Lash (brief) return was pretty weak, especially given how much backstory she and Dresden have.

Anyway, I actually suspect that what Michael says is true and that Nick can't really bend the Grail to any truly sinister purpose. Which would mean that, despite him being an absolute monster and now harboring a hatred for Harry that probably eclipses that he feels for the Knights, he might actually want the Grail to do something genuinely good with it. Probably self-serving in some way, but also will end protect a lot of people or save them or something. Not that it matters too much, we're all fairly certain that the Grail wasn't his primary objective, but I feel like the next time he shows up Dresden might have an ethical crisis.

Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

I just wish Dresden was making a little more progress as a character in this area instead of backsliding so badly. The high point on his character arc in this regard was probably when he told Molly that sex with his apprentice was never, ever going to happen because that would be morally wrong.

Reading this reminded me of that scene, and I suddenly remembered something I had to go back and verify about it: Harry pours not just water on Molly, but ice water. Don't know if its intentional or not, but what with Harry's habit of Naming things I'd say its entirely possible the starborn baptized the new Winter Lady long before even Mab had ideas for it.

Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop

Wade Wilson posted:

I'm pretty sure Inez was her own entity, because she's referenced a few times prior to Ghost Story as something people occasionally see wandering the graveyard and I doubt very much that she would be anything other than what she was described as (a very old and powerful little shade that haunts a particular graveyard).

Pretty sure Inez is her own entity, but that doesn't necessarily mean that she is only a really powerful shade that just haunts a graveyard. I mean, that could be all she is/it is, but iirc that Dresden does make some comment in his discussion with her speculative that she is more than that. The discussion references a lot of the forces working by proxies too (obviously referring to Mab and Demonreach), so it seems possible to me that even if she is just a powerful shade that could've been a hint that she was also talking to Dresden as a proxy.

E: ok whoa, out of curiosity I went back and read that bit, and there are several large signs in that conversation that point out that she is very much not just the ghost of a little girl.

Logan 5 fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Jul 28, 2014

Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop
Okay so I went deep down my own little rabbit hole and read and reread those bits from Ghost Story, and here is why I dont think Inez is a ghost:

  • Before Harry starts the conversation with her he thinks to himself "I decided to be careful. What were the odds she was really a little girl, as she appeared?" Hint hint.
  • When Harry identifies her as the "Famous ghost of Graceland" she laughs and says "I have been called so" A pretty evasive answer, and more interestingly one that sound to me like something one of the Fae would say if avoiding the truth but speaking no lies.
  • She seems to have a lot of knowledge about Dresden's current condition at the time, and knowledge of his new status as the Winter Knight, which I think is what she refers to when she calls him a "newborn". This is speculation on my part, since she then claims that Harry will be a "monster", but it is entirely possible to me as well that she could be referring to Harry's new status as a soul, or even something that has changed post-Changes in his mysterious-birth/starborn stuff. Regardless she knows way more than we'd expect a ghost to, even a really powerful one.
  • Inez also seems to have some future knowledge of Harry's possible or even likely future, or at least knowledge of large events that are very much likely to happen in the future, which considering the enormity of the events that Harry is increasingly involved with is a scary amount of knowledge.
  • She identifies monsters as "power and choice", which sounds like Dresden to me, who is usually reiterating that what you choose to do with your power is what defines you. Monsters also "provide a forge for the steeling of souls." Which seemed like an interesting bit of foreshadowing...
  • Inez also says "This little world is so small. So dull. So dreary[...] You aren't shackled here, Mr. Dresden. Why remain?" You can take this to mean that she sees Harry' spirit could have/can move on to What-Comes-Next, but I dont't necessarily believe that that is what she is referring to if you assume that Inez is not merely a ghost. In either case, its a lot of insight for her to have.
  • At the end of their conversation Harry says "You aren't the ghost of a little girl." To which she smiles and says "If I am no ghost than why do you look so haunted?", and then she abruptly vanishes without any fanfair, noise, visual, or any other indication that she was leaving somehow. You could take this to be an indication that she was a ghost, but I think that's a mistake. First off, this is after Harry notices that the statue is missing, i.e. Inez is the statue. If the ghost was controlling the statue, wouldnt the physical statue be there in place if the ghost teleported away in the same manner that Harry did in Ghost Story? If your next thought is that she is a ghost but she used magic to move the statue, that doesnt seem likely either as we later see that a ghost's magic doesn't work on the physical world. We also discover later that only absolutely insane ghosts can interact with the physical world. But Inez doesn't strike me as a pyscho-killer ghost; she's too polite, too talkative, too seemingly knowledgeable and too not-a-shade-at-Mortimers-house, like all the other insane killer ghosts.
  • Harry then then remarks on her disappearance and refers to her as another "cryptic supernatural entity" like he so often has to deal with.
  • Then Harry talks to the statue of Eternal Silence, who I and probably everyone else assumes is Demonreach. The very first thing Silence/Demonreach says is "An insufferable entity[...] Her soul is made of crooked lines." Her soul, he says, and as we know from Ghost Story someone's soul is very much not their ghost. As far as I can tell too, there is no reason why Demonreach would lie about this either. More importantly, or perhaps most importantly, is that shortly afterwards Harry is nearly blown apart by Demonreach's sheer force of will capital letters mind talk, part of in which Demonreach explains that "PRECONSIDERED VOCABULARY EXHAUSTED." It's a fairly short amount of dialogue leading up to that point too, meaning that 1) Demonreach knew in advance who Harry was going to be talking to, and 2) wanted Harry to know said hinty snippets of information about her/it.

All that makes me pretty skeptical that Inez is a ghost, even a very powerful one. The proxies thing that I mentioned before is said later by Lea regarding Eternal Silence in the 2nd time Harry rests in his grave and after he shares the memory of He Who Walks Behind. I still think it could apply, but it really isnt clear and much more beyond this is pure speculation.

Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop

ImpAtom posted:

Yeah, but that doesn't mean they actually got around to finishing them off.


"Were" could also mean "they're not there anymore." That is, if anything, a really strong hint those guys are still around and kicking.

Isnt that highly secure location the sadistic torture dungeons of the Erlking? Not that that means they couldnt have gotten out though. Seeing as how they "belong" to the Erlking now he would be at liberty to trade them with other Fae. And if whoever traded for them has it out for Harry in some way...

At least I can imagine Titania doing that solely based on a revenge motive.

Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop

Rose Spirit posted:

So I don't know if any of you like jewelry, but I was at SDCC the other weekend and



More like Thomas' pentacle necklace. I mean come on, its all pristine and not even bent, warped, or scarred in any way.

Also its missing a pentagram shaped ruby held in place with super glue.

Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop

Wade Wilson posted:

Not any more. When Dresden got it back in Cold Days he remarks about how Mab apparently had it fixed.

AlphaDog posted:

Pentagon shaped.

Not something you want to gently caress up if you're a wizard...

Well poo poo, you're both right. I guess I just like the idea of someone doing Dresden cosplay with a beat to hell pentacle necklace with a superglued ruby in it (obviously a fake gem and some cheap necklace from amazon or something instead of that high priced one)

Also I need to read The Rook it seems.

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Logan 5
Jan 29, 2007

Bash -> To the Cop

Fellwenner posted:

The movie version of Night Watch is terrible.

Is this that crazy Russian movie where I understood nothing and at some point a guy drives a sports car on the side of building.

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