Peace Talks

Peace Talks, Jim Butcher's newest installment in the Dresden Files universe is the culmination of all of Harry's experiences, pain, and victories blending into one great explosion that resonates with, “I am enough.”

It has been a long, long time since I have read any new snark coming from the mouth of Harry Dresden. There is a giant hole in my TBR stack that only a Dresden book can fill. This series are books that make you smile and not take life so seriously; they are the best parts of Urban Fantasy as a genre. The series taken as a whole is half Sam Spade (trench coat and all) and half the tv show Supernatural. It is wizarding with an attitude. It is a take no bullshit, going to do what is right, Dresden is going to smite the bad guy kind of fun. It is heart and soul and so many things. Although there have been a few short stories since Butcher's last book, it has been six years since the previous full Harry novel.

But let me tell you folks; this book is worth the wait.

We return to Dresden's world very near where Skin Game left off. You can read Peace Talks singularly. However, I think readers should read Skin Game. There are many plot points that Butcher touches on that might be lost on readers if you aren't vaguely familiar with them. Harry is still a member of the council and is the Winter Knight for Queen Mab. All of these twist and turn and pull Harry's loyalty in many directions.
Complicating things is a situation with Thomas. Thomas, for some reason, does something very uncharacteristic for himself and gets in trouble.

In Peace Talks, Harry, an “every situation can be solved with a tornado” kind of wizard, is faced with something he is not known for talking and subtleties. Peace Talks is just that; it is the gathering of most of the world's significant magical forces to talk. The idea is not to jump all over each other, whip fire around, or see who is wielding the biggest magical staff. Instead, it is talking in peace amongst your peers and hammering things out. Also, Peace Talks touches on familial issues: Dresden's relationship with his brother and Grandfather play a large part in the Narrative. We are blessed with moments of Harry interacting with reoccurring characters. Butters, Karrin, Molly, and Mouse all have standout moments. Especially Mouse, that dog has single-handedly made me want a Foo dog so that I may name him Mouse. Don't tell me Foo dogs aren't real.

“Okay,” Butters said. “So... that just happened.” He regarded the ectoplasm and then me and shook his head. “Your life, Harry. What the hell?”
-Peace Talks by Jim Butcher

Dresden seems more at peace with who he is in this book more than any book or short story written. He has great interactions with Karrin that exude hard-fought-for calmness and familiarity. It is lovely to read as Harry deserves some peace in his romantic life for once. There are also moments later in the book where, while battling a foe, Harry realizes that he is his own man and does not need to explain or defend it. Even to his most trusted advisors, friends, and lovers. You would think that by book 16, he would have figured this out by now. But there is a difference in knowing something and internalizing it. I believe that Harry has finally internalized that he is enough; he always been enough, and given his history and experiences, people should start believing in him.

This book is also a love letter to the idea of found family.

“Yeah, one second.” I finally found the folded-up piece of paper with the weekly passphrases on it in the depths of the gym bag. I unfolded it, shook sand off it, consulted it, and read, “All of my base are belong to me. What does that even mean?”
Peace Talks by Jim Butcher

A little back story on Harry's character. He is an orphan, both of his parents have passed away, and his grandfather had raised him. He has few people to turn to that are blood-related. So instead, he finds his people, his family. They become as dear to his heart as much as anyone who shares his blood. It is part of what makes Harry such a fun character to read. He has a certain authenticity; he genuinely loves the people he adopts as family members. Sometimes this is used to hurt him as we have seen in previous books, with his daughter used against him as leverage.

“Yer a wizard, Harry.”
Peace Talks by Jim Butcher

Pacing wise, this book feels different than previous Dresden stories. I know that this is marketed as having a small procedural arc like most of the Dresden file books do, this arc then sits inside a massive ongoing series arc. But although the end of the book does come to some conclusions as expected, it does not feel whole to me. Instead, it feels like it was written as 1/2 of a story to be concluded with Butcher's next book Battleground. This might be why they are being released close together as Battleground is due to be released on September 29th of 2020. This is pure speculation; Battleground might feel very much like its own book. But I think that we are going to get a more solid feeling of closure for Peace Talks when Battleground has concluded. Either way, Butcher is blessing us readers with two Dresden stories this year.

If you take on the Dresden Files, 16+ books, it might seem overwhelming. A lot is going on. But trust that even if you haven't read the previous books, you will enjoy this one. It is full of snark and quips, great plot, pacing, and standout moments. And, if you have read the previous books, you will fully appreciate it as it almost feels like he wrote it with the fans in mind. Butcher needed to remind longtime fans why this series is so much fun, and he does that in spades. As we have Battleground set to be released this fall, it is a banner year for Dresden Fans. If Battlegrounds is anything like this one, I don't think fans will be disappointed.

Some of this is my fault, I should have gone back and refreshed myself on Dresden before I read this. I should have re-read the last book.

The book jumps right in to the story and gets going. The little jokes and “human” feeling to Dresden is present and really why I love his books. One thing that was rough is that it does have conclusion, but the relief comes when you realize the next book is already coming! It's another turn in the Dresden universe and I am excited to see where it goes

Executive Summary: I've been waiting for this for a long time, and thankfully it delivered. More importantly though I'm happy we already have a release date for [b:Battle Ground 23106013 Battle Ground (The Dresden Files, #17) Jim Butcher https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1587778549l/23106013.SY75.jpg 42654036] because so much was left unresolved.Audiobook: I bought both the audiobook and the hardcover because I sadly no longer get free review copies of Mr. Butcher books as I was lucky enough to do in the past.James Marsters is Harry Dresden to me, so there was no way I could skip the audio. I mostly listened to this in audio, primarily while waiting for my hard cover to arrive, but also because it's so much more convenient to listen than read.This series is a must listen for me for sure.Full ReviewI've been slacking off on my reviews lately, but there is no way I can't do at least a little review for this book. I've been a huge fan of Jim Butcher and the Dresden files since the TV show came out. It's one of the series that got me back into recreational reading after largely giving it up in college.I thought I've been waiting for this book for about 5 years. Turns out it was actually 6 years. Mr. Butcher has written some other stuff in that time, including some Dresden short stories, but after the early pace of the series, it's been a bit tough to get used to having to wait a long time. That said without going into spoiler territory, I thought this was worth the wait. If you didn't get the background on this book, in several interviews since it's announcement, Mr. Butcher talked about part of the reason this book took so long and how it resulted in him splitting what he'd done into two books. This one and [b:Battle Ground 23106013 Battle Ground (The Dresden Files, #17) Jim Butcher https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1587778549l/23106013.SY75.jpg 42654036].And to me that really shows here. We're not talking a [b:Changes 6585201 Changes (The Dresden Files, #12) Jim Butcher https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1304027244l/6585201.SY75.jpg 6778696] level cliff-hanger or anything, but this book sets a lot of things in motion and does not resolve them in the kind of way he's done with most of the previous books.That isn't to say this feels like an incomplete book. Given the stakes of things, I think he found a good place to pause the story. But that's really what it is, a pause, not an ending. And of course you get the usual Harry Dresden snark, great supporting cast and kick-ass fight scenes.Overall I tore through this book in 2 days. If my hard cover had shown up earlier in the day I might have finished it in 1. So while not as strong as the last few entries in the series, it's still was an easy 5 star book for me. There are few book series I put aside everything to read, and I suspect this will always remain one until the final book. Now to start counting the days for [b:Battle Ground 23106013 Battle Ground (The Dresden Files, #17) Jim Butcher https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1587778549l/23106013.SY75.jpg 42654036].

This one wasn't my favorite. This novel felt like a weak part 1 to a 2-part story. My hope is that once Battle Grounds releases, we'll think of these two novels together as a larger story.

I felt like this book tried to make a case that this situation was more grand and more dire than any situation Harry's ever faced before. Everything is dialed to 11. There was a strong theme running throughout this book of loss of control, and combined, it read to me like a telenovela. I can enjoy schlock, but the rampant sexual tension throughout the book was a turn-off for me. I like the budding romance between Harry and Karrin, but the rest seems forced to me.

I hope Harry is able to shed the Winter Knight mantle; it makes him a less interesting character to me. This topic of loss of control was much better handled with his struggles with Lasciel, such as in in Dead Beat, in which Harry overcomes temptation through strength of character.

Well damn, things are getting just a bit insane, wild ride, such a good read

JIm butcher never fails to impress with the world of Dresden Files. so much going on its just too hard to summarise lol. Vampires, Fairy realm and creatures, outsiders from time and space, and the mortal world stuck in the cross fire. so good

Everything about this series is just a wild ride, the characters, the action, the world building. Hands down Harry Dresden is my all time fav wizard and my fav urban fantasy series of all time. If you have not read the Dresden Files do so!!!!

Fun and fast paced. This book was all the things I like about the Dresden Files without some of its more cringy aspects. I love the wider world that Butcher creates and seeing all the different factions come together in this book makes for excellent tension.

I continue to find Harry the least interesting part of the books which is a problem when it is written in first person. The side characters seem more alive than Harry himself and every time Harry goes off on one about how the odds are against him and this is his biggest challenge ever I find myself wondering about what one of the other characters thinks about what is happening.

This book is a solid entry in a solid fantasy series.

I need to make a distinction between the story and the writing here.

The basic story is decent. It's also only half a story, if I understand correctly, because it was split in two after being deemed too long for a single volume. The story we got in this volume is fine, but it's not complete, and there are only a few major beats in it, though they're very major indeed. The splitting of the story has not, of course, affected the sale price, which is somewhat higher than average for most complete stories. Publishing realities are what they are, and I don't propose to value works based on their length, so I'm not making too big a fuss about that. But I feel compelled to mention it.

The writing is atrocious. I'm not sure if these have always been this badly written and I overlooked it, or if the prose has gone downhill, but it's not good. The narrative voice clearly wants to be clever, and it doesn't work — too cutesy by half. Harry's family focus also gets shoehorned in awkwardly at weird times; not that it shouldn't exist, but it's badly out of place. Butcher also delves far too much into the bad sexual focus that is the stock in trade of plenty of other, crappier urban fantasy. You have to expect a bit of that given the previous development of the White Court, but it's excessive.

This is apparently the 16th of these I've read. I always thoughy Butcher was on the better end of the urban fantasy spectrum, admittedly a cursed genre to begin with, but I'm wondering if I've been wrong about that. I'd like to know where this story is going, but I'll have to think hard about whether to read the follow-up when it hits later this year.

  Peace Talks had a difficult job. It was the first mainline entry into the series following Skin Game, arguably one of the best books in the series thus far (second only to Changes in my opinion). Whether or not it did this, I'm still not entirely sure. I'll probably need to read Battle Ground to get a full grasp on where this book succeeded or failed. Because for once, this is a Dresden book that doesn't stand on it's own. That alone makes this book stand out from the rest of the series thus far, by extension making it very hard to gauge within the wider context of the series. It just feels incredibly different, breaking at this point, 15 books worth of tradition. 

The standard formula for a Dresden book is, a decent chunk of time has passed since the last one, Dresden's doing something small, a thing happens, Dresden has a shit couple of days, then we get a final chapter which wraps up the book, and sets up what Harry will be doing in his time between books. And arguably, this book does follow that structure to the letter. Except we know the next book is an hour later, not a year. 

This leads to some mild issues in my opinion. The first of which is that a lot of stuff that's set up as part of this story, is left entirely unresolved. This includes the main villain, who's only introduced in the final act of the story. Speaking of the final act, I wasn't all that into it. The big fight Harry has towards the end has really strong emotional beats, but it does also feel like we're retreading ground with that particular relationship being strained, albeit in a much more interesting way this time. 

The pacing also feels a tiny bit off in this one. Not a whole lot really happens. Most of the book is concerned with the political aspects of the world, which, while being incredibly interesting, just doesn't really fit the vibe of the series thus far. Long term, this is probably going to pay off in spades, since it feels like we're seeing the endgame for the series beginning to fall into place. 

It was a lot of fun seeing the White Council return to focus, who've been absent since Changes, as their reunion with Harry has been getting built up for the last two books. And lo and behold, the more things change, the more they stay the same. They're still the same group of sanctimonious assholes who seem to constantly have horse blinders on. I enjoy the White Council's presence, but the lack of nuance that some of them have, is getting to be tiresome after 16 books. I'd expect Merlin to have at least an ounce of good characterization, especially given how often he's an antagonist, but thus far, he's just a total prick, with little to no actual justification for it anymore. When we started the series, it made sense, but for fuck sake, even Morgan came around. MORGAN. And he was the king of dickheads for 11 whole books. 

Ebenezer was a highlight, as per usual, especially getting to watch him and Harry struggle against each other in relation to Maggie. As I said in my review for Brief Cases, I really enjoyed seeing Harry as a dad, and seeing Thomas as an uncle was really cute. 

In terms of plot, this is probably the single most tense book in the series. Any type of tension you can think of, this book has it and then some. From the first few chapters this book constantly feels wired to blow, but you never know which bomb it is that's gonna go off first. Harry is constantly on the verge of getting caught in a major fracas, either at the hands of enemies, or his erstwhile allies in the White Court. It's great. 

Thanks to this, it's yet another page turner, and unlike some of the books in the series, it's a page turner from the word go. 

Overall, I don't have too much to say about the book, as a lot of my feelings are in escrow while I wait to see how some of the dominos fall in the next book. Given the slightly off pacing, but overall enjoyability of the book, I'd rate this a 3.75/5. It's closer in quality to some of the early books, like Death Masks, and, if not for the huge amount of characters, would feel a tiny bit out of place in this era of Dresden. 

Here we go again... Yet another Harry Dresden and yet it's both more of the same as well as different.The first nine books were all mediocre to me - three stars because I felt generous - and ridiculously stupid for reading nine ok'ish books in a row till the Stockholm Syndrome set fully in with [b:book 10 927979 Small Favor (The Dresden Files, #10) Jim Butcher https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1298085176l/927979.SY75.jpg 2054834].So, we're at number 16 (!) now and most series have become bland, boring and/or been warped beyond recognition (cf. [a:George's 1402383 Elizabeth George https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1235518043p2/1402383.jpg] Lynley!). In fact, it's somewhat similar with respect to the “beyond recognition” part:Harry Dresden, who used to be a “a male chauvinist pig; [...] a misogynist arse” by my own words, has turned into a mostly-decent human being. A very long-lived human being (think centuries!) and a wizard to boot.“It's not about who they are,” I said quietly. “It's about who I am. And the example I'm setting.”Maybe it's all me who enjoys a Dresden who - in the midst of a pitched battle - thinks that “Sometimes the best defense is a T. rex”. Comic relief, hilarity ensuing while the forces of the unlikely good and the most-definitely evil battle it out. That too is Harry Dresden.Or maybe it's Butcher who - by now in his mid-forties - still looks like an irredeemable nerd but has grown together with his wizard hero into something that not only other nerds can respect.How could I not love someone who explains “home” like this:“But there's a deeper meaning to home. Something simpler, more primal. It's where you eat the best food because other predators can't take it from you very easily there. It's where you and your mate are the most intimate. It's where you raise your children, safe against a world that can do horrible things to them. It's where you sleep, safe. It's where you relax. It's where you dream. Home is where you embrace the present and plan the future. It's where the books are. And more than anything else, it's where you build that world that you want.”Apart from all that, my four stars are still generous because this book feels like Butcher tried (successfully!) to become reacquainted with his characters himself - they're all there: Murphy, Molly, Mouse, Maggie, Michael, Lara, Thomas - pretty much everyone makes a (more or less) short cameo appearance.Don't get me wrong: You'll feel right at home with this book if you like Dresden. It's just that “Peace Talks” feels a lot like a transitional book; at its end, nothing is resolved. It's not a horrible cliffhanger either. It's just that once you've read the final sentence, you'll realise you'd have been ready for the main action. Which is likely what's coming up in “[b:Battle Ground 23106013 Battle Ground (The Dresden Files, #17) Jim Butcher https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1587778549l/23106013.SY75.jpg 42654036]”. While it's not a huge deal, it's sad that we have to wait yet another few months.Even worse, though: Having everyone meet Harry again - who is sorting out his legacy anyway already - is a bit like having his life pass by... It feels slightly as if Butcher is working up courage for Harry's endgame. That, too, could just be me again.Either way, this book most likely won't sway you in either direction: If you liked Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden before, this book won't change that. It might, in fact, inspire more sympathy for Harry.On the other hand, if you don't like Harry (yet), you won't be convinced by reading this book. It doesn't lend itself to be a starting point for the series either - you'll hardly know who's who and why they are as they are, as “Peace Talks” is about how all the Houses, factions and monsters we all know come together to make peace - or shoot to kill?Secondly, “Peace Talks” is probably some slight nod to us, the readers, who (mostly) held our peace for those six long years after its glorious predecessor, “[b:Skin Game 19486421 Skin Game (The Dresden Files, #15) Jim Butcher https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387236318l/19486421.SX50.jpg 23811929]”, was published.I have high hopes for Dresden, Butcher and, most of all, “Battle Ground”. I just hope that won't be Harry's last dance...“Promise me you'll fight smart,” I said. She bumped her head against my arm and said, “How would you know if I did?” Blog Facebook Twitter Instagram