Cold Days
Read and finished this week, digitally to boot (but more on that later). I still very much enjoy the Dresden Files series. I'm still amazed that the books are able to keep a certain freshness, each one tying up loose ends while laying more thread for the future. Harry hits the ground running again, and it's a good story, expanding on the roles of the faerie courts well beyond how they've been portrayed thus far.
There are elements of the formula, however, that I'm becoming less enchanted with. I've read opinions on how thw Twilight series was so popular largely for playing on female wish fulfillment. And I've friends who stopped reading the Antia Blake series becaue of the gratuitous sex. The sex itself didn't bother me so much as the escalation - both in power and relationships - to the point where I felt there was really no risk of failure/loss and thus lost interest. The Dresden Files certainly does escalate power, but to far the series has managed to keep the threat scaling as well. And while it doesn't have gratuitous sex, it does have gratuitous attraction/sexuality. I wonder if that's just playing into a more male-based wish fulfillment paradigm.
There's a tense attraction between Harry and Karrin that's been going on for a long time, but even when they admit it, they're afraid to pursue it. But beyond that... Well, nearly every female character Harry interacts with ranges from "very attractive" to "supernaturally stunning." In Cold Days alone, at least two women skirt the line of throwing themselves at him with the "if it's offered, you're not forcing it" line, and another tempts him outright. And then there's four or so female characters who get a rise out of him without trying, per se. And, naturally, he avails himself of none of them because that would be wrong. I'm almost curious enough to actually go and try to figure out the percentage of the book that Harry is going on about one hot chick or another. Whatever the case, it feels like it's getting to be on the high side.
Something to think about...
I think the "who's the real bad guy" plots are just getting a little more transparent to me. Practice, perhaps? Lily and Maeve put up a moderately convincing appeal, but I just didn't buy Mab being the corrupted one. Even before other clues started dropping, it just didn't fit - Thomas being called keyed me in, but Demonreach was far more solid proof. If Mab were the baddie, she had plenty of time to "infect" Harry while he was down, or could have acted against the island then. No, when they made there pitch, it just made them suspect in my eyes, and Mab's orders suddenly made a lot more sense.
The revelation of the real purpose of the Winter Court is big. Though if Summer buffers humanity and Winter, and Winter buffers the world against Outsiders, are the Wyld just sort of there? The literal meaning of being the Gatekeeper, too. Yeah, you sort of expect the "Outer Gates" to be a little more figurative.
I'm not sure what I think of the Winter Knight mantle's influence. It's good to have Harry struggling with something like that, yes. But I'm not sure I like the particular flavor. It's a little bit too... animal. Okay, the faerie are connected to nature, and the Winter Knight fills a role well-suited to a predator outlook, but while the focus on fighting and killing makes sense, the focus on fucking seems a little out of place to me. I guess it works for tying it in with Harry's urges and personal story, but as a mantle of office, it strikes me as pointless. The Winter Knight is that Court's hitman, not its champion stud.
Cat Sith was pretty cool, even if I keep thinking it should be pronounced "she" (as with sidhe) rather than "sith." Final Fantasy 7 taught me that - and I think it may actually be correct, given Gaelic pronunciations. Sad to see him... well... turn to the dark side. Hmm. Foreshadowed, that?
Edit: Looking at the Wikipedia entry's listed pronunciation and cross-referencing, I'm further convinced I'm right.
So Harry's got a "parasite" threatening to eventually burst forth from his head. Something that causes his headaches, but has enough presence to bargain with Mab and/or Demonreach, helping sustain Harry in return for silence. And yet, it sounds like the end result is distinctly hostile to him. Theoretically, it could be traces of Lash, but that seems a little uncharacteristically violent an end goal, considering she more or less sacrificed herself to save Harry before. What else would be in him?
Minor Details:
- After Ghost Story, I think I expected to see more out of Butters than pulling bullets out of people and stitching them up - that was a bit disappointing.
- There's a lot of fae using firearms with no mention of metal issues. Sure, you can avoid steel grips, but still.
- Basically no presence of the Fomor this time out, which seems strange as Ghost Story was positioning them as major players.
- Kringle... really? How many people is this guy?
- "Nemesis?" Shouldn't some Outsider disease-entity-presence have a name that is at least a little rarer, if not totally alien? But apparently this name is sufficient to gain attention.
There are elements of the formula, however, that I'm becoming less enchanted with. I've read opinions on how thw Twilight series was so popular largely for playing on female wish fulfillment. And I've friends who stopped reading the Antia Blake series becaue of the gratuitous sex. The sex itself didn't bother me so much as the escalation - both in power and relationships - to the point where I felt there was really no risk of failure/loss and thus lost interest. The Dresden Files certainly does escalate power, but to far the series has managed to keep the threat scaling as well. And while it doesn't have gratuitous sex, it does have gratuitous attraction/sexuality. I wonder if that's just playing into a more male-based wish fulfillment paradigm.
There's a tense attraction between Harry and Karrin that's been going on for a long time, but even when they admit it, they're afraid to pursue it. But beyond that... Well, nearly every female character Harry interacts with ranges from "very attractive" to "supernaturally stunning." In Cold Days alone, at least two women skirt the line of throwing themselves at him with the "if it's offered, you're not forcing it" line, and another tempts him outright. And then there's four or so female characters who get a rise out of him without trying, per se. And, naturally, he avails himself of none of them because that would be wrong. I'm almost curious enough to actually go and try to figure out the percentage of the book that Harry is going on about one hot chick or another. Whatever the case, it feels like it's getting to be on the high side.
Something to think about...
I think the "who's the real bad guy" plots are just getting a little more transparent to me. Practice, perhaps? Lily and Maeve put up a moderately convincing appeal, but I just didn't buy Mab being the corrupted one. Even before other clues started dropping, it just didn't fit - Thomas being called keyed me in, but Demonreach was far more solid proof. If Mab were the baddie, she had plenty of time to "infect" Harry while he was down, or could have acted against the island then. No, when they made there pitch, it just made them suspect in my eyes, and Mab's orders suddenly made a lot more sense.
The revelation of the real purpose of the Winter Court is big. Though if Summer buffers humanity and Winter, and Winter buffers the world against Outsiders, are the Wyld just sort of there? The literal meaning of being the Gatekeeper, too. Yeah, you sort of expect the "Outer Gates" to be a little more figurative.
I'm not sure what I think of the Winter Knight mantle's influence. It's good to have Harry struggling with something like that, yes. But I'm not sure I like the particular flavor. It's a little bit too... animal. Okay, the faerie are connected to nature, and the Winter Knight fills a role well-suited to a predator outlook, but while the focus on fighting and killing makes sense, the focus on fucking seems a little out of place to me. I guess it works for tying it in with Harry's urges and personal story, but as a mantle of office, it strikes me as pointless. The Winter Knight is that Court's hitman, not its champion stud.
Cat Sith was pretty cool, even if I keep thinking it should be pronounced "she" (as with sidhe) rather than "sith." Final Fantasy 7 taught me that - and I think it may actually be correct, given Gaelic pronunciations. Sad to see him... well... turn to the dark side. Hmm. Foreshadowed, that?
Edit: Looking at the Wikipedia entry's listed pronunciation and cross-referencing, I'm further convinced I'm right.
So Harry's got a "parasite" threatening to eventually burst forth from his head. Something that causes his headaches, but has enough presence to bargain with Mab and/or Demonreach, helping sustain Harry in return for silence. And yet, it sounds like the end result is distinctly hostile to him. Theoretically, it could be traces of Lash, but that seems a little uncharacteristically violent an end goal, considering she more or less sacrificed herself to save Harry before. What else would be in him?
Minor Details:
- After Ghost Story, I think I expected to see more out of Butters than pulling bullets out of people and stitching them up - that was a bit disappointing.
- There's a lot of fae using firearms with no mention of metal issues. Sure, you can avoid steel grips, but still.
- Basically no presence of the Fomor this time out, which seems strange as Ghost Story was positioning them as major players.
- Kringle... really? How many people is this guy?
- "Nemesis?" Shouldn't some Outsider disease-entity-presence have a name that is at least a little rarer, if not totally alien? But apparently this name is sufficient to gain attention.
Comments
Post a Comment