[polishgenius]

Was off work sick today so I got and read it.



Interesting. In many ways it feels like an anti-Changes: where that book was about burning down the status quo, this was about building, or at least finalising, the new one. Where that put Harry in the post desperate of places, this was about bringing him out of them. There's even a bit of bookend with his vampire opponents- that ended the Red Court, whereas this seems to be bringing the Black Court to the fore. Think we're very much in act three of the overall series.


The one-month-at-at-time structure of it actually suits Dresden very well. It's juggling a lot of things, but the structure made it possible for him to flit from plot to plot and it not feel messy.


If there is a nitpick I had, it's that the final battle felt a little... not tacked on, but the real finale was at Demonreach. There wasn't really any way for Butcher to wrap up all the other stuff completely cleanly, but there's a notable double-beat there.

I suppose another potentially would be putting all this weight on Thomas's anger at Harry and then 'for a while' is like two chapters, but I think that was part of the anti-Changes rebuild-Harry agenda, so I didn't mind.



Anyway, to the meat of it: the relationship between Harry and Lara is obviously the heartbeat of this novel, and it was done very well. Butcher's gonna have to be careful to make sure Harry doesn't cross any lines so that he doesn't become a monster (to us, as readers), but I think that's the aim here, to keep him this side of that line and that's his moral bulwark. And Mab's manipulative nature is delicious, but I'm fairly positive she's laid the seeds of Harry breaking free. Also: well, now we know there's an out to free Thomas- and maybe Lara- for a happy-ish ending.


That we got fresh information on Outsiders also makes me think this was the set-up book after Changes burn-down. Basically everything between Changes and Battle Ground was the dark forest, the Empire Strikes Back, and we're in the endgame now.