Fantasy Book Club discussion

First, I really have loved the Dresden Files since 2003 when they were recommended by another favorite author Michael A. Stackpole on his Stormwolf website. The idea of a wizard P.I. in Chicageo was right up my alley. I devoured the series. Around book 10, I started listening to them from Audible since I'm a full time grad student. The change in the world of Dresden was radical. It shifted away completely from any of the detective genre relation with all the events. I absorbed it and soldiered on. I have spent increasingly more time away from the series between new releases with grad school and other interests taking up my time. I picked up Skin Game last night and after a couple of hours I've given up. Dresden has been a favorite of mine for a long time with the wonderful characters, deep lore, fantastic mystical Chicago Underworld and humor. But listening to Harry get kicked around and spout Indiana Jones like catchphrases in combat has worn thin. Don't get me wrong, Jim Butcher is a great writer who's worked his tail off and is deserving of all his success but I realized I have grown apart from his writing. I don't enjoy his work anymore and that makes me very sad.

:(

You'll find a new series to fill up the gap! :)

You are not alone. Skin Game was the last Dresden book I read or will read for exactly the same reason. The idea of a guy being a punchbag though the whole book only to find yet another hidden reserve at the very last moment is getting really old. Cold Days had some hope for improvement: (view spoiler)[Winter Knight seems to be kicking back from the beginning of the book (hide spoiler)], but punchbag Harry was back in this book.

Also, how many times will we have (view spoiler)[all the villains coming back alive and kicking only to depart in shame at the end of each book? See Nicodemus as an example. (hide spoiler)]

Moved to series discussions.

It wasn't so bad for me as I read the first 14 books over the course of two weeks. The story line is moving forward and I guess it doesn't seem so bad when you haven't been waiting so long just to get a little more of the same with a bit of story. Ghost story was the only one that I was dissatisfied with and i still enjoyed it. Clearly it is all because I watched Hercules when I was a kid and they recycled bad guys all the time.

I never even made it through the first Dresden book but it could be I didn't give it a fair chance. I did, however, have a very similar experience with Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. Made it to book 9 or so then fell out.

I absolutely love the dresden files series. The first 3 books are slow going but the books get better and better until changes which is the best book of the series. Cold days and skin games are not as good as changes but i still enjoyed them. Yeh the punch bag harry is getting abit old but think about it this everything he goes up against is alot stronger and more powerful than he is so he is going to get beat up alot. I think there is a bigger story that incorparates all the books but it has not been revealed yet. The storyline itself gets more unrealistic each book, Harry gets pitted against bigger and badder monsters each book while trying to keep the monster he is becoming i enjoy this very much. I also enjoy reading about the relationship between the different characters. Well anyway i have had abit of a rant and i cant wait for the next book peace talks which sounds like something is going to go terribly wrong knowing the dresden files world.

I"m not quite through with the series yet, but I"m getting there, I think. (With the "Sword of Truth" series, it just hit that "I'm done" moment after Book 5; with this it's just a more nagging "I'm getting tired of this" feeling.)

My main issue is (Like many) "Harry the Punching Bag"; this syndrome does seem to be taking over more and more of the series as it progresses; it's like playing a D+D game where the villians evolve and get stronger, but the main character stays largely the same, at least power-wise.

The other is the continuing growth of the metaplot. WHile I like an arc in a book series, I think the metaplot stuff has largely supplanted the "Wizard PI casefiles" that drew me to the series in the first place.

I'm still reading because I do like the relationships between the various characters; Butcher does have a knack for crafting well-realized, likable characters for the readers to latch onto.