'Ware spoilers.
Reviewing these two together. I read them back-to-back over a three day period, and they each tell only half of a story, so it makes sense to me.
These books are everything I've come to expect from the Dresden Files. Exciting, funny, unpredictable, imaginative - binge reading a couple of Dresden novels is the literary equivalent of mainlining cocaine.
There were things that caught me completely by surprise (Justine being Nemesis'd, Harry betrothed to Lara). There were things I saw coming but was nonetheless gratified to see come to fruition (Marcone taking up a coin, the White Council kicking Harry out, Harry and McCoy coming to blows). And there's the unique category of "I knew it was coming because I got spoiled but it was still a shock" event of Murphy's death.
And of course there were tons of interesting hints at what's to come that left me salivating for the next book.
And yet. I'm writing this review feeling both frustrated and disappointed.
The Dresden Files are 22 years old at this point. It's been a decade, more or less, since I first read them. A lot has changed about the world, and about myself, in that time, and I'm worried the series is not.
Harry has always been a misogynistic ass. It's always been ok with me, because Harry being misogynistic isn't the same thing as The Dresden Files being misogynistic. Any of the side stories Butcher had written bear this out: if it's anyone other than Harry telling the story (including the literal incubus) the stories become much, much less sex-centric. Plus you always had any number of people quick to call Harry out on being a misogynistic ass. And you had Murphy.
Like I said up above, I'm not sure if the series has shifted or I have (or both) but it just grated. The constant evaluation of every woman as a sex object. The White Court. Harry's chivalry. I was constantly rolling my eyes at it all.
There was one (very minor, story-wise) moment in particular that left me worrying Butcher has lost his way. In Peace Talks, Harry went to Butters' place to get patched up. While there, he discovers that not only was Butters' redhead werewolf bombshell girlfriend Andi there (not unexpected), so was another of the werewolves, Marci. This could have been perfectly fine. It could even have worked to reinforce my opinion that Harry's misogyny doesn't mean the series is misogynistic. Harry, of course, has a reaction that can be summed as “two chicks at the same time!” Butters could have responded with some variation of “we’ve got a non-traditional relationship, but it works for us” or even a simple “mind your business, Harry.” Instead, Butters’ response of telling Harry “Don’t screw this up for me” shows Butters thinking about it the exact same way. Throw in that this particular moment was completely irrelevant to the next 1¾ books (and I was looking for it to play a role somewhere) and it left a very bad taste in my mouth that the frequent appearances of Lara Raith didn’t really make any better.
Now let’s talk about Karrin Murphy.
She’s always been the main counterbalance to Harry, in many different ways. She’s also been the single easiest pushback against the Dresden Files as an inherently sexist series of books. Murphy was capable, intelligent, had plenty of agency and any number of well-done growth arcs. And now she’s dead, and there really isn’t anyone I can see who can replace her.
(side note: given how Gard talked about her at the end, I can’t see her being not-really-dead. That felt like Butcher himself saying to his readers “ain’t happening”)
Molly? Too deferential to Harry, and too sexualized. Mab? Too domineering towards Harry, too sexualized. Lara? A literal sex demon. The only character I can see filling that role is Freydis, maybe. She’s still pretty new, but she has the competence and the take-none-of-Harry’s-bullshit-ness, and though Harry comments on her attractiveness (of course) I didn’t feel like it was at the forefront of his awareness when dealing with her. (even with her propositioning him and Murphy, separately and together) But whatever happens, these books need that balance.
As for her actual death: I hated it. She died because Rudolph was scared and had shitty trigger discipline. Maybe Butcher was trying to make a point about how death can happen to anyone for any reason, but it didn’t feel like it. It felt like Murphy died because Harry’s arc required it. Karrin Murphy deserved better than to be shoved in the metaphorical fridge.
So we’ll see what the next book has in store. I’ll certainly read it, but (in the spirit of Harry’s “mystifying reference to mortal popular nonsense”) “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”