|
Slanderer posted:I think there are mentions in Death Masks that Harry lacks the time and/or skill to make permanent magical items that can function wherever (but he can make his cringeworthy unicorn-hair bondage rope because it only functions in his apartment). It's throughout the whole series that this is mentioned, really. Most of it is just practice and time which he is constantly improving. Teaching Molly helped him out a ton with fine control, so I wouldn't doubt the next items he makes will be way better than his previous stuff. Things like the summoning circle he had in his basement show a decent amount is also in straight cash. He bought the last one, but the ones before it I always got the impression he did most of the enchanting on those. He just doesn't have that much money usually to get something real fancy.
|
#
¿
Nov 30, 2014 03:00
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 20:23 |
|
|
I may have missed it, but has anyone read his new series? Aeronaut's Windlass? I'm looking for some new stuff while I wait for Sanderson and Butcher to come out with something else.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 8, 2015 00:09
|
|
|
Oroborus posted:Harry himself points it out in one of the earlier books, that he just shoves enough power into a spell to make it work. He's terrible at controlling his evocation, which is why he builds things like his staff and blasting rod. His training with Mab, teaching Molly (which is really the best way to improve your knowledge of a subject) and just more experience have really given him a lot more control though. Even his little "hair dryer" spell he uses is really the same wind spell he always used, just more tightly controlled so Molly would have had the power to use it. When he goes all out with that to battle some LIttle Folk after getting the winter mantle he can do a lot of damage with it, plus run it for a lot longer than his usual "Ventas Servitas" spell. Several times members of the Council and even Bob have remarked that his control is terrible when he's younger, but like any other wizard he's going to get a lot better with time. It's just surviving long enough to get to that point that's the problem.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2015 07:19
|
|
|
Clinton1011 posted:There are super magic computers in the dresdenverse. Donar Vadderung has one & Harry asked if he wanted to turn it off before he got any closer so it wouldnt fry. Donar just laughed at him. I always figured that was someone finally figured out the same thing Butters was working towards, and just made a Faraday cage that worked on magic as well. Tech works around Harry as long as it's in a circle, so maybe a more refined circle, or even as Harry said in one of the books that a circle doesn't have to be an actual circle, it just helps. Someone with enough skill and power (like Donar) could probably make a computer that had a circle built into the case to protect it. Make it part of the monitor as well and the whole thing should work no matter what you throw at it.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 1, 2015 08:04
|
|
|
Rygar201 posted:Yeah they know what he's done but not the How. So most people with sense are terrified of him. That was part of the reason Chicago started getting worse while Harry was dead. Most everything was at least aware that Harry didn't take kindly to people messing with Chicago, and based on his track record he was at the very minimum going to gently caress with you, if not destroy you for doing something there. Molly for sure, and I'm pretty sure Murphy state flat out that supernatural predators/evil dudes stayed away because Harry was there, and as soon as he was gone they started moving in. At some point the Fomor are going to have to be the focus of a book, as right now they're kind of background noise but they have to be doing something will all the low level talents they're scooping up. And if they can keep the White Council occupied enough in Europe to risk a fairly big Way station in Chicago they have to be fairly powerful.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 7, 2015 03:35
|
|
|
Vicissitude posted:Actually, wasn't there a situation where Harry said he actually could dodge a curse by hiding in the Nevernever? I seem to recall that. Yes. I cannot remember which book it was, but When Elaine and one of the fairie ladies had captured him in the Nevernever, Elaine used the fact that he couldn't death curse them if they left the Nevernever to get everyone to leave so Harry could escape. Plus, there is a spot or two somewhere else where he says he could, but risking an unknown jump into the Nevernever at the time was an absolute last resort. I think the first time he said it, his Godmother was still after him as well so he definitely didn't want to do it. I don't think it works on everything, but it is possible. Really risky and hard to do though.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 12, 2015 19:39
|
|
|
CainsDescendant posted:I really didn't like Butters becoming a Jedi, but I'm hoping that he'll be off knighting for a while and hopefully get less ridiculous before he comes back. I'm really hoping they reforge the sword. The lightsaber bit was cool, and kind of made sense in the story at the time. The sword was broken, and it had to protect Butters and stop Nicodemus, so a sword of, for lack of a better term, faith appeared in that instance. It did the job needed at the time in a suitably miraculous fashion, now that time is over. It really should be rebuilt.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2016 19:20
|
|
|
Magres posted:With appropriate LotR references about reforging mythical swords To be fair to Butcher, requiring a knight to find and fight a dragon isn't unprecedented in his books.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2016 19:40
|
|
|
AllTerrineVehicle posted:They might be back at full strength if you just look at the numbers, but the Wardens took big casualties and difference between even a fairly experienced wizard and a veteran combat wizard is huge. Morgan alone was probably worth a dozen or more wizards by himself. Losing combat trained wizards also makes it much harder to train up new ones (see: they asked Harry loving Dresden to help educate recruits) Morgan almost took out the head Red Court vampire by himself didn't he? But asking Harry to train new warden recruits in battle magic, while it probably means they were more strained than usual isn't that much of a stretch. Dude can throw blasts of fire around like crazy. It was the fact he was teaching teenagers that really showed how hurt they were. Didn't Butcher say we're going to see more of the White Council fighting in the next few books? The Merlin seems like he'd be a terrifying individual, and it's not like the rest of the head guys are slouches.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2016 18:47
|
|
|
ImpAtom posted:The infertile thing I can buy, but the 'it's magically killing her' doesn't make sense to me unless it's an explicit twist which is pretty dumb forced drama. I can't believe I didn't notice this before, but "it's magically killing her" must just be a Thomas and Justine thing, because Thomas and Harry's mom didn't seem to have any problems with the pregnancy.
|
|
#
¿
May 29, 2016 08:32
|
|
|
NerdyMcNerdNerd posted:
That's really more of a holdover from old school PI movies. The PI always gets the poo poo kicked out of him, barely figures it out at the last second, beats the villain by the skin of his teeth, doesn't get the girl and rarely gets paid. Even tossing in the Knights Mantle he should still be getting his rear end kicked from time to time.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 21, 2016 15:59
|
|
|
Khizan posted:
To build on that, Mort is like Binder. He's probably better and way more powerful at his one trick than Harry could ever be, but he's only got the one trick. Harry is still way beyond his league because he could theoretically do just about anything, including the one trick Mort and Binder have.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 5, 2016 02:24
|
|
|
OneTwentySix posted:The end of the series. Or that it was a brand new ability no one had before, so it's implications hadn't been fully thought through by the characters.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 11, 2016 22:54
|
|
|
NerdyMcNerdNerd posted:She's the first one that comes to mind. The big thing is that Mab doesn't have time to train someone else to take hold of the power, so whoever it is, they've got to be someone who can throw down. Someone who's in the know. Someone that isn't an idiot. While I love the other possibilities, this one is actually flat out stated as a possibility by Mab as a backup if Harry hadn't taken it or had died. It would have taken some work on her end, but I don't think too much. I am looking forward to more from the White Council though, goddamn. I want to see what the Merlin can really do when he cuts loose.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 21, 2016 05:33
|
|
|
Mars4523 posted:Gard extended her an offer back in Aftermath. Also, she was apparently just some random Geat lady prior to becoming a Valkyrie, so I'm guessing that vanilla human Murphy would also be able to do the job. Yeah, the magic she seems to do is mostly either a boost to the normal abilities a human would have, and runic stuff that anyone could do if they knew how to write the runes properly.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 22, 2016 06:21
|
|
|
MasterFugu posted:it's the Einherjar(fallen warriors chosen by the Valkyries) that Marcone is contracting, not the Valkyries themselves. No, Gard was being contracted as well. Gard is more of a magical expert, the Einherjar are just grunts.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 23, 2016 07:04
|
|
|
Vicissitude posted:Yeah, Tilly has a modicum of magical talent and he got the supernatural shoved in his face hard. I'd like to think that he brings Murphy in after an extensive personal investigation into the strange things that get reported. Not full on X-Files and Mulder levels of obsession, but a calculated piecing together of facts that don't add up. He knows her already, and he knows that she's telling the truth about the stuff that slips through the cracks. Getting her in place with the FBI, even if it is a "rebound career" would be a good deal of increased power and effectiveness. Hell, with the Paranet she's got her own network of informants to bring in. I do think that the government is aware of all this stuff on some level. Even if it's just stories passed down through special ops units, or some deep dark group in the CIA or something like that. Even if they don't make a huge stink about it, the government probably has something in place for dealing with the supernatural.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 24, 2016 01:44
|
|
|
Wade Wilson posted:Nope. It was also a Kindle Edition in one of the Humble Book Bundle things. I think I got it for like 7 bucks on a Nook, I would have preferred it cheaper but it wasn't the worst price for a book.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 26, 2016 22:16
|
|
|
Mr. Bad Guy posted:Nah, it's definitely the whole Mother, Maiden, Crone thing that the Faerie queens have going, with Mother, Queen and Lady. Pretty sure Hecate is one of Mother Winter's names. Pretty sure Harry summons her using the name Hecate at one point. Or, gets her attention anyways. I never was quite sure about who summoned who when he went to summon her from his grave site and she pulled him through to where she was.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 29, 2016 01:06
|
|
|
M_Gargantua posted:
I don't think he can. There was a point when he was asking Lash to help, and she was going to tell him how to get the coin out of something like 3 magic circles built by Harry with Svartelf help. Something he considered more than adequate to hold most anything he would ever have to summon or protect himself from. Having them in White Council control is just asking for every other Denarian to come a running to break them out, or with the Black Council floating around take them out and use them. Him having them all by himself is just asking to get killed. Better the church where they're kind of out of circulation than where you know they'll get used almost immediately.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 29, 2016 05:35
|
|
|
Wizchine posted:Jesus, I read it 10 years ago. I remember he had an exchange along the lines of "I killed the dragon so and so" who was one of the last ones on earth, and I though the implication was that both were heading for a showdown in the future. I think it was more that Ferrovax knew who Michael was, and would do what he could to kill Michael if given the opportunity. More of a "I dislike you enough to kill you, but not enough to waste my time going out looking for you," than anything else.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 3, 2016 20:22
|
|
|
Vicissitude posted:The yuppie vamp girl getting burned by Michael's faith could be construed as an assault on the vampires, or perhaps Harry overindulged and just got careless and wandered into a restricted area and thus violated his guest rights. These two though should be covered under the Accords. Michael made no aggressive move, the vampire grabbed him and got hurt. I'm sure there's some other creature somewhere that's dangerous if you grab it, Mab probably rightly assumes it's your own dumbass fault for grabbing someone without their permission and getting hurt. Next time don't grab people willy nilly. Same with the wandering around, if you don't want them going there, put up a sign or a rope. Otherwise you invited them in, it's on you to make sure they don't go somewhere they're not supposed to. It just seems like what NerdyMcNerdNerd said, a couple of misunderstandings and poor judgement calls that led to poo poo kicking off.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 10, 2016 19:37
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:Thing is, I think the Senior Council knows things are heading for something very big, and very horrible. Rashid and Ebenezar know for dead certain. Probably Listens-to-Wind, too. Annihilating the Red Court should be a giant red flag to the entire supernatural world that poo poo Is Going Down and things aren't what they used to be. Harry claiming Demonreach, too. There's been a bunch of hints that something happens every once in a great while, and guys like Nicodemus and Odin know about it. Nicodemus is on a timetable and doing crazy poo poo to get more powerful weapons, and he's hinted that he has a goal and knows something about what's coming up. I could have sworn he hinted that he missed out on it the last time it happened, and he wasn't going to gently caress it up this time. Ebenezer even said that Odin only pops in personally every once in a great while, when the feces is about to impact the rotary impeller. I'm guessing that the original Merlin knew about it, and if he wrote about it Ebenezer having his journals would imply he knows something about it as well. It feels to me almost like it's a cycle, where every few thousand years some huge confluence of events occurs, kind of like Halloween in the Dresden universe but on a grander scale and one is coming up shortly.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 15, 2016 18:59
|
|
|
tentacles posted:Every time I read this I pick up nuances I missed before I think this big thing that he's foreshadowing is more like a rebalancing of power. He implies he wasn't ready the last time it happened, but this time he will be with the things he's stolen from the vault. I think it's going to be like Halloween writ large, with mantles of power that are normally untouchable getting passed around.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 21, 2016 22:53
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:And finished Changes. What to say about it beyond that it's a roller-coaster ride from start to finish? Did notice a few things that I hadn't my first time - continuing the Harry-Merlin parallels, Ebenezar notes that Merlin learned from Odin. And somehow I'd completely missed Mouse talking during the dog part. It seems official now that Mouse isn't just a temple dog but a fully fledged Foo Dog, what with Lea calling him a demon and Ancient Mai in a previous book recognizing him as one. I'd be interested to learn more about Mouse and his fellows, Asian mythology is rare in this series. That bit with Mouse talking does kind of tie into Harry having a capital D Destiny too. He flat out tells Lea that Harry didn't pick him, Mouse beat out his siblings to get to be Harry's companion. Foo dogs must know something most other people don't.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 26, 2016 06:51
|
|
|
420 Gank Mid posted:Think of it as the tutorial level, sometimes the game has to beat you over the head with some of the mechanics before it can get subtle. Well when Sasha and Micheal were heading to the airport in one of the earlier books, they were discussing that they could each perceive Nicodemus and the other Denariians inside the airport, but they each felt it differently. I think Sasha smelled rotten food, but for Micheal it was more like a Detect Evil spell from D&D. I think it definitely is based on the personality of the wielder.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2017 20:13
|
|
|
Angry Lobster posted:And yet we have Ebenazar McCoy, who's described as one of the most badass mages in battle but never appears to wear any gadget except his staff, so I guess it depends on personal style. He had a pretty crazy ring when he ran into Kincaid before they all went to destroy that vampire nest. He didn't use it, but it seemed lethal enough if he was willing to use it on Kincaid. Granted, that's about the only thing he seems to have but Butcher has said that the older Council members are just like Harry in that they have stuff they don't tell anyone about just in case they get attacked. If no one knows about it, no one can prepare a defense against it.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 19, 2017 22:17
|
|
|
Vateke posted:Nitpick: I'm pretty sure the Denarians were dropped from the Accords precisely because they defied them in Small Favor. I think that even though the Knights haven't signed, none of the less evil signatories ( the Fae, the White Council, Marcone) see it that way. They treat them as people to be respected and not messed with, though that may just be because as long as you're not taking away someone's free will they have no power over you. I doubt any member of the White Council would deny a Knight assistance, nor would Mab or Titania gently caress with them without a drat good reason.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 24, 2017 03:40
|
|
|
Up Circle posted:This sounds awful Yeah, but I could easily see someone like the Army or the CIA having a few guys around who know about some weird poo poo, and are allowed leeway to deal with it. Kimmler had a hand in WWI and ran around during WWII, there's no way some army unit didn't have to deal with it. Someone somewhere knows about it, it's just they don't talk to Harry or the White Council officially or at all.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 25, 2017 00:25
|
|
|
MadDogMike posted:Hmm, actually that does bring up one thing. a lot of supernaturals are able to outright co-opt mortals under their control if not into downright membership. Something more decentralized might be the only things that can work, a powerful MiB group is likely to get infiltrated and subverted to somebody's agenda, especially since if they aren't somebody pawns to begin with they probably won't know enough to be aware of the risks of being vamped/mind-whammied/etc. Doesn't work if ALL the mortals know the supernatural exists (hence the fear of setting them off as a whole or even giving them a target they can vaguely grasp) but for a secretive agency it's too easy to get a few hooks into the right targets. Hell, the Church probably is as close as we get to a major MiB style anti-monster group, and as mentioned the Denarians seem adept at pulling their coins out from them and generally screwing with them, and this is with outright divine intervention on their side. Government agencies probably don't have a prayer of doing better if the head of the White Court can grab a chopper off a navy ship with minimal notice already. It doesn't feel like the supernaturals are the secret rulers of the world for all their power (though the bad guys obviously want that bad) but they are powerful enough and have generally been around longer than most world governments so by default they can probably take on a small part of the mortal world while it's centralizing into a threat against them. If there's no single target to aim at though it's another story; starting to think Paranet might wind up being one of the greatest things Harry has set up in the long run, there's not a lot you can target to wipe the whole thing out without making too many waves. The Paranet is great, but it really needs some more people like Harry and Carlos to help bring in the firepower. One of the books talks about how whole cities on it have gone dark, and no one is left who is powerful enough to go in and find out what happened, let alone deal with it. It would work great though for something like I think Harry wants, which is finding Council level talents, telling them about the laws, and passing them on to someone who can train them before they go all evil warlock. Right now it's more of an early warning system that's missing the response portion of an alarm system. Toss a couple of wardens into the mix who can go and deal with some random creature or problem when it's just started, and you could easily have a very, very powerful system.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 26, 2017 18:49
|
|
|
I liked Jury Duty, might be nice to be able to read the rest of them.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 22, 2017 21:48
|
|
|
navyjack posted:Also, the books have been optioned into a TV series by Lin Manuel Miranda, so we’ll get to a GRR Martin situation where the TV outstrips the books. Can't, the TV series is apparently a prequel. Which is unfortunate, I was kind of hoping for a Martin situation so we could actually get the end of the books.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 8, 2017 20:09
|
|
|
ConfusedUs posted:Have you guys read any of the assorted series that are gaining popularity where they're urban fantasy but explicitly not the real world? I read Flex recently, which has a main character kind of like that. In those, if someone obsesses over something enough like Star Wars or videogames they can do magic which is based on that sort of thing. So videogame people can easily steal cars and run away from the cops, or pull a bazooka out of nowhere. In Flex the main character obsesses over bureaucracy enough that he starts being able to do magic based on paperwork. It makes more sense than I'm explaining, but it isn't bad.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 25, 2018 01:33
|
|
|
ConfusedUs posted:I just re-read the entire Alex Verus series over the last week-ish. It was better than I remembered, I remembered it being pretty good. I did about the same thing, read all of Alex Verus over a week or so and it wasn't bad. Quick reads, which is nice. And I don't know about Richard. I think wherever he went he got some sort of different magic. Alex talks about the gates he makes being odd somehow, and while it could be a focus that doesn't seem like something Richard would have been gone for 10 years figuring out how to get.
|
|
#
¿
May 24, 2018 19:28
|
|
|
Wolpertinger posted:Or, if you want to go cliche and very literal all his friends and allies, together, can - sure, he can't single handedly save everyone by himself, but he doesn't have to. There is one catch to all of these theories about Verus though. The dragon said that if he sees the context, it's stuck. No chance to change it. Whatever out he may have had before he asked for clarification may very well be gone.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2018 07:11
|
|
|
gerg_861 posted:I was thinking about this as well. Michael was once asked to go on a dangerous mission and refuses until Uriel says that it is for a soul. Then he says something along the lines of "well of course I'll go, why didn't you say that to begin with." But if being the Winter Lady slowly erodes Molly's soul (as seems to be heavily implied) then what will Michael do for his daighter's soul? I don't think you can give up the mantle like that though. Every other time we've heard of something transferring the person who held it had to die. I doubt there's a way to voluntarily give it up to some other vessel of Winter, but I'm guessing Michael would try and possibly could find a way. I don't think Molly technically "chose" to accept the mantle, she was just closest at the time it transferred so there could be a loophole. So far as we've seen though, the courts haven't really tried to mess with the Knights and it's probably for the best. Michael tore through those dudes at the train station like they were made of paper, and having the sword make it so the wielder has a chance against pretty much anything (even dragons) means the Knights could do some serious damage.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 13, 2018 17:47
|
|
|
Old Kentucky Shark posted:I'm not going to lie, the first season is real loving plodding. But after a certain point, once it gets the initial BDSM lesbian bodyguards out of its system, it just starts to slip off the rails and gets weirder every episode, until you end up with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4JHso2QyXE I think having Richard be like 5'2" was amazing too. Compared to Kahlan he was short, but compared to Zedd he was loving tiny. They had to be messing with Goodkind with that casting.
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2019 17:03
|
|
|
So, what, six months or so until it's actually out? I assume final editing still needs to be done, plus printing and all the other stuff involved in publishing a book.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 18, 2019 18:40
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:I like the early books more when it's more directly playing with noir tropes and Dresden is overall smaller and weaker and more consistently desperate. Too much of the later books he just solves problems by levelling up. On the plus side, even in the later books there are characters that just plain out class him in terms of power and skill. He's way more dangerous than most of the Council, but the head guys are on par if not more scary than he is. That's not even getting into the various Fairy and Vampire courts.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 25, 2019 20:49
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 20:23 |
|
|
ImpAtom posted:The Red Court launched an absolutely devastating first strike. Like remember that the White Council we see in the series is one which lost 99% of its best fighters and was forced to throw literal newbies into the meat grinder because they had no other choice. They were so desperate that they recruited Dresden after all. And the Merlin (I think the Gatekeeper helped, but it's been a while) managed to use one ward to hold off a Red Court army chasing them so they could portal out and save their wounded. Seeing them all cut loose should be interesting.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 28, 2019 19:46
|
|