[Aptorian]

So, which is your favorite book?

Bonus question, how would you rate them in order of your favorite and least favorite?

EDIT: Oh and, lets make this thread friendly for newbies. All big revelations go in black boxes.

[Sindriss]

Proven Guilty was awesome

[Abyss]

DEAD BEAT, absolutely and without a doubt. The book is great fun. The finale is sheer urban fantasy lit brain crack candy wrapped in uber bacon and slathered in awesome sauce.

In fact, my question back in yo face Apt' is why you think WHITE NIGHT is better than DEAD BEAT?


- Abyss, ...en gard... pun intended... so to speak...

[Aptorian]

There was just something special for me about White Night. The detective mystery was one of the better ones, the flashback was awesome (Dresden is scary), and I really, really liked the showdown with Ramirez and Dresden. It's funny compared with some of the other ones like Dead Beat, Summer Knight, etc. it's not that spectacular, but I just really liked the feel of this one.

EDIT: I'll get around to compiling my list of the books in order of which I liked best tomorrow morning, to tired now.

[Slow Ben]

Seconded Dead Beat. So freaking awesome from start to finish.


"Polka will never die!"

[Assail]

Abyss, on May 25 2009, 01:53 PM, said:

DEAD BEAT, absolutely and without a doubt. The book is great fun. The finale is sheer urban fantasy lit brain crack candy wrapped in uber bacon and slathered in awesome sauce.

In fact, my question back in yo face Apt' is why you think WHITE NIGHT is better than DEAD BEAT?


- Abyss, ...en gard... pun intended... so to speak...

Totally agree. Dead Beat was amazing. Haven't read Turn Coat yet though.

[Traveller]

I just finished Dead Beat. Best one yet.

[Use Of Weapons]

I'd have to put _White Night_ above _Dead Beat_ also -- purely because I preferred Elaine to Butters as a supporting character.

My sequence would go:

White Night
Dead Beat
Summer Knight
Small Favour
Proven Guilty
Turn Coat
Death Masks
Blood Rites
Grave Peril
Fool Moon
Storm Front

[polishgenius]

Death Masks is my favourite. Was the first one where my jaw really dropped and I'm not sure he's bettered it yet. As it goes:


Death Masks
Small Favour
Proven Guilty
Dead Beat
Turn Coat
Summer Knight
Blood Rites
White Night
Grave Peril
Fool Moon
Storm Front

I think. Everything below Small Favour and above Grave Peril is pretty much even.

[Chance]

Dead Mask was the turning point easily my favorit, where I knew that I would be reading the files until I ran out of books...(had the first 9 at hand...)

White Night and Dead Beat shared and close second...White Night for ending, supporting cast as well as great flashback. Dead Beat doesn't need any explaining right

Small Favor and Proven Guilty as a distant third with the rest as even more distant somewhere further down the ladder...

This post has been edited by Chance: 26 May 2009 - 01:07 PM

[Abyss]

Altho SUMMER KNIGHT was close, i fully agree that DEATH MASKS was a turning point, mostly i'd suggest in terms of Butcher's ability as a writer - the action scenes in DM are his best up to that book in the series and finale of DM is SO perfectly cinematically written you can see the movie in your head, notwithstanding the sheer fantastical elements of what is happening where in that sequence.

But DEAD BEAT was still better.

Order...

Dead Beat - still the champ
Death Masks - close second
Turn Coat - maybe because i just read it and it's in my brain.
Summer Knight -

Spoiler

because 'I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAERIES!' is the best battlecry ever, barring only 'For the pizza lord, charge!'

...
White Night -

Spoiler

great finale, good story.

Small Favour -

Spoiler

a lot about this book to like but it never quite hits the high notes, the
denarians aren't quite as cool, the finale isn't quite as wow, as some higher up.

Proven Guilty -

Spoiler

i like the running film gags.

Blood Rites -

Spoiler

good finale, good Kincaid scenes.

Grave Peril -

Spoiler

Intros Michael and it has a dragon.

Fool Moon
Storm Front

...tho i have to admit the middle four couple shuffle depending on my mood. I'm certain on my top three and bottom three tho'.

Kind of funny to contrast the above with the malazan books where the first three are (more or less) everyone's faves on the basis of 'holy fnck did i just read that?', while Butcher got better with age and only started hitting the hfdijrt levels in later books.

- Abyss, ultimately, all about the earth-shattering ka boom...

[RangerSG]

I'm not ready to vote yet, as I haven't come close to getting up to date on the series yet. But I will say I flat out loved the

Spoiler

Walmart Chainsaw Massacre

in Summer Knight. I read that this morning and that whole section was pure awesome.

[Eddie Dean]

I picked Dead Beat, but I can think of 3-4 others that I was just as consumed by.

Spoiler

You just can't beat it though, when Dresden jumps on the dinosaur and yells, "Ha Mule!"

[Abyss]

Eddie Dean, on May 29 2009, 11:33 PM, said:

I picked Dead Beat, but I can think of 3-4 others that I was just as consumed by.

Spoiler

You just can't beat it though, when Dresden jumps on the dinosaur and yells, "Ha Mule!"

(re DEAD BEAT)...because

Spoiler

Polka. Will never. Die

.

There's a bit in TURNCOAT
SPOILERS SPOILERS TURNCOAT SPOILERS
YOU WILL SERIOUS REGRET READING IF YOU READ THIS
SERIOUSLY DO NOT NOT SPOILERS NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T
READ THAT I'M TRYING TO SAVE YOU FROM YOURSELVES HERE NO
NO DON'T DO IT SPOILERS FOR SWEET FUCK'S SAKE DON'T!

Spoiler

...that refers back to DEAD BEAT that really summarizes why that whole bit was
awesome.
Harry is confronting the sr Council with attendant warden enforcers and rather than just wipe him off the face of the planet they actually pause, and he's stunned to still be alive then then he thinks,,,, paraphrasing....
"I realized they aren't confronting scared outclassed little me... they are confronting the powerful dark warlock they have feared
since i killed a senior wizard and his pet demon when i was seventeen... i'm the wizard who rode an undead dinosaur against the Heirs of Kimmler in a battle that flattened Luccio and Morgan before they even got there... and won."

- Abyss, read that bit, sat back and had a 'hell yeah' moment.

[Assail]

Just finished Turn Coat. Easily my favourite and (I think) best written books by Butcher. Amazing and so damn sad. It was just as funny as the others coupled with a higher quality of writing, not to mention some cool 'unveilings' of some people, so to speak. 

Still pretty sad currently,

Spoiler

Morgan's death sucked and over the last couple books (Ever since his almost kill on the Red King)

I've grown to like him a hell of a lot more.

[Abyss]

Assail, on Jun 2 2009, 04:35 PM, said:

Just finished Turn Coat. Easily my favourite and (I think) best written books by Butcher. Amazing and so damn sad. It was just as funny as the others coupled with a higher quality of writing, not to mention some cool 'unveilings' of some people, so to speak.

Still pretty sad currently,

Spoiler

Morgan's death sucked and over the last couple books (Ever since his almost kill on the Red King)

I've grown to like him a hell of a lot more.

i was both surprised and impressed that Butcher went ahead and did that.

Spoiler

it made perfect sense and was a logical end to the story, but even so, that character was a staple of the series until now.

- Abyss, even so loved the book.

[Fox]

Dead Beat was, and might still be, my favorite, but Turn Coat may replace it. I haven't quite decided yet.

[RangerSG]

Fox, on Jun 8 2009, 07:04 PM, said:

Dead Beat was, and might still be, my favorite, but Turn Coat may replace it. I haven't quite decided yet.

I'm pretty much convinced Dead Beat is my favorite. You just can't beat the pure audacity of

Spoiler

reanimating a dino skeleton and riding it into battle.

Though I really enjoyed the change of focus to learning more about the Carpenters and the political maneuvering in Proven Guilty too. It's like he knew that he wouldn't top the chaos of DB, so he changed it to a much more introspective story, and one that worked quite well to me.

This post has been edited by RangerSG: 20 June 2009 - 01:35 AM

[Abyss]

I enjoyed PG, especially the way Butcher hit whole new highs with his film references. My problem with the book is that

Spoiler

there was a lot of reference to awesome things happening off screen... the original strike at Arctis Tor, Michael's rescue of the Wizards, whatever the fuck happened between Titania and Mab.... the big finale at the White Council is tense as all hell, but then Michael charges in and it's like, okay, that was neat, but i would rather have been reading about whatever was going on there... Charity and Thomas do shine in this book tho'.

It's solid Dresden, but coming after DEAD BEAT it had a hell of an act to beat.


- Abyss, fan.

[RangerSG]

Abyss, on Jun 22 2009, 08:33 AM, said:

I enjoyed PG, especially the way Butcher hit whole new highs with his film references. My problem with the book is that

Spoiler

there was a lot of reference to awesome things happening off screen... the original strike at Arctis Tor, Michael's rescue of the Wizards, whatever the fuck happened between Titania and Mab.... the big finale at the White Council is tense as all hell, but then Michael charges in and it's like, okay, that was neat, but i would rather have been reading about whatever was going on there... Charity and Thomas do shine in this book tho'.

It's solid Dresden, but coming after DEAD BEAT it had a hell of an act to beat.


- Abyss, fan.

Oh, I also would've liked to have seen all (or even a good bit) of what you mention. I guess that's the flip side of using a 1st person PoV for your story though. Harry (and thus the noble readers of Harry) can only know what he can see. And it's not like he wasn't plenty busy throughout the book. But if I have to trade missing out on the odd event (which has happened even in say...the Malazverse) for Harry's snark and narrative, I think that's more than a fair trade.

This post has been edited by RangerSG: 22 June 2009 - 03:57 PM