A Brief Rant

[nonionay]

In other news, I just started reading the latest Harry Dresden book, Changes, and I really hope that the titular changes actually take place in Harry's character, because the macho-macho thing is really starting to bug me. That and the fact that Susan is back, and I was so glad when she initally left, so long ago. Her presence reduces the narrative and dialogue to cliche.
It just seems like Harry as a character hasn't actually grown over the course of these books. New stuff gets lumpily attached to him--he gets new powers, new roles--and though he is occasionally broken, he either quickly heals or ignores the wounds. He still hasn't learned to work well with others, or that maybe his reliance on brute force might be a bad thing. With the exception of Murphy, he has yet to react to women like they're human beings and not Women. Will the ignored wounds finally come back to haunt him? Will he realize his well-intentioned chivalry actually makes him an ass? We shall see. Reviews of this book are good, but I fear the changes are going to be plot and world-based, not character-based.

Comments

[westrider.livejournal.com]

Trying to avoid Spoilers, all I can really say is that I think you'll be happy with some of the changes and not so much with others.

I think Butcher's been getting better as a writer as the series has progressed, but yeah, he's still saddled with some unfortunate decisions made when he first created Harry. We'll see if he manages to do something about that in the second half of the series.

It's odd, but my biggest problem with Changes was really the fact that a writer who so frequently floods his books with pop culture references made it all the way through a book that long without dropping either a Bowie or a ZZ Top reference :P

[shadesofmauve]

I know I've mentioned this before, but I have the same problem with the egregious lack of Bowie.

I definitely need to reread Changes before I pick up the new one.

[fenmere.livejournal.com]

That's actually the second to latest book. There is a new one after that called Ghost Stories. I think you'll find at least some of the changes you're hoping for enacted, and some of them not yet. He's moving, ever so slowly, in the right direction.

Most of these changes occur between the two books, due to the events in the climax of Changes, of course. And, I expect either a little backsliding or even more character growth in any subsequent books.

You might also appreciate (or loath) Side Jobs, which is good to read between the two books. It's a set of short stories that take place interspersed throughout the series, and a couple of them are written from the perspective of the other characters. There is one written from the perspective of Murphy, and I'd like to see your reaction to it.

[criada.livejournal.com]

Good to know about the newest book. I haven't been paying much attention. :-) I did know about Side Jobs, though, and I do look forward to checking it out, particularly the Murphy novella. If they'd had it at the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, I totally would have bought it. Instead I had to sate myself on the one Butcher, some Kat Richardson, and a whole bunch of Raymond Chandler.

[fenmere.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Julie bought me 12 C.J. Cherryh books, so that's what I'm doing.

The other Side Job story that's sharply different is the one written from the POV of Thomas.

[samildanach.livejournal.com]

This. I just finished Ghost Story this weekend, and... yeah.

(edit to fix title)

[samildanach.livejournal.com]

For that matter, Butcher was GoH at Norwescon this past spring. When asked, "How did you get your editor to allow you to turn in Changes?", he replied, "Because I included the outline of Ghost Story".

[shadesofmauve]

I haven't read the new book (Ghost Stories, I think), and it's been awhile since I read Changes, but as I remember there are changes in the world and plot that seem to be majorly pushing towards character development to happen in the next book(s).

As someone who loves the books but is frequently caught screaming "TALK TO MURPHY, DAMNIT!" while reading, I do hope he learns something.

As westrider commented earlier, Butcher seems to be 'saddled with some unfortunate decisions' from when he started. One of those is making the character so damn powerful, nessecitating the ever growing parade of big bads. And one of them, I think, is the noir detective stereotype of seeing the female client walk into the office and filing her away as a 'blond with legs up to here.' It works early on in a kind of joking "hey, I'm writing a noir detecitve magic thing" way, but it's a gimmick, and becomes a more and more unpleasant one.