Storm Front Reread 2014

[Zeenat]

2/18 to 2/24: Storm Front

Discuss away!

[Zeenat]

A couple of things I noticed (I think I'm a third of the way through):

1) How normal Dresden is. I mean by Cold Days he has died, become a Warden, now the Winter Knight... He's CRAZY not normal. But he's an every day Wizard at this point.

2) Although much better than most first books in a series, We still run into a lot of heavy descriptions of magic and their world in this book. Which is fine, if you are a first reader, but as this is my... 4th? reread, I find myself skimming the explanations a lot.

[Sharon]

Hey, remember that we invited a few folks to join in this reread who haven't read the series yet. We should probably use spoiler links when talking about events in future books.

But yeah, he is pretty normal at this point. It's interesting to see how ...dare I say it? innocent Harry seems in comparison.

[J.]

Spoiler tags it is :)

(view spoiler)[
One thing that always strikes me is how different Harry's relationship with Murphy is at the beginning. Those two have come a loooooong way.
(hide spoiler)]

[Zeenat]

Harry/Murphy (view spoiler)[ It's funny, cause they REALLY didn't trust each other. at least until what was it... book 3? lol (hide spoiler)]

[Monica, White Council]

Thanks for the spoiler reminder. Definitely a good idea. That said, I'm looking forward to this discussion, especially in light of having already read the whole series.

Harry's innocence struck me as well when I started rereading. (view spoiler)[I also noticed how "small time" the danger seemed, if that makes any sense. At least to Harry, things hadn't started to connect into a larger scheme. Actually, we haven't yet seen how it all connects as of Cold Days, but it seems clear to me that some things have been in motion for a long time, perhaps since before Storm Front. So in the first few books, the Bad Guys haven't gotten as scary as they will later. Which is good. 'Cause Harry's definitely not ready for them.
Good point on his relationship with Murphy. I've liked seeing how that's evolved. And I look forward to seeing it evolve *more*. (hide spoiler)]

It's great now to be able to pick up on all the little clues missed the first time around!

[J.]

Monica: I remember being SHOCKED when (view spoiler)[ in Changes, the Red King's big bloodline curse was revealed to be a supercharged version of Victor Sell's spell. (hide spoiler)]

And then there's Bianca. (view spoiler)[Her grudge against Harry starts here, and tears Susan away from him a few books later. Then after he kills her, her "father" Ortega comes to gank Harry in revenge, then Ortega's WIFE starts the whole bloodline thing in Changes (hide spoiler)]. Oof.

[wayword_witch]

"No, I thought. It's Harry Dresden the, ah, lizard. Harry the wizard is one door down."

I burst out laughing the first time I read that and the second time too. I love the humor in this series.

[J.]

Just got to Toot Toot's first appearance. (view spoiler)[Ah, he was so small once upon a time :P(view spoiler)[. (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Zeenat]

LOL I remember meeting toot toot and thinking (view spoiler)[ even little fairies are bad asses here lol. Then toot toot turned out to be a sweetheart (hide spoiler)]

Butcher and his planning... The little things that predict what happens in the future.

[wayword_witch]

Toot-toot is definitely a fav. I always picture him talking very loudly, almost yelling, when he converses with Harry.

[J.]

Natasha: Same here :)

[Alex]

This thread is a great idea!
But I just did the reread last year in preparation to Cold Days, not gonna do it again now for Skin Game... :) Would have loved to have this thread last year! (why didn't I think of it?)
Everyone have fun!

[J.]

By the way: does anyone know how to view tagged spoilers through the mobile app?

[J.]

"I should mention that Santa is a far larger and more powerful faery than Toot." (view spoiler)[Ah, foreshadowing. (hide spoiler)]

[Mike Bryant]

Justin wrote: "By the way: does anyone know how to view tagged spoilers through the mobile app?"

i'm having the same issue on my tablet...(sigh)

[Ryan]

I gave up and am just using the browser on the iPad.

[J.]

I'm curious, what page is everyone on? :)

[Kat]

If you are on your phone, you have to use Safari to open the app. Then click on desktop version which will let you access all the other things the basic phone app won't let you do.

[Nickie]

This is my first time reading these books. I too love the humor and am really enjoying Butcher's take on magic, Wizards... I'm only about 6 Chapters in, so a bit behind, but great stuff so far! I'll catch up in the next couple of days though!

[wayword_witch]

Justin wrote: "I'm curious, what page is everyone on? :)"

Chapter 5 or so, but am a fast reader.

[Megan]

Just got it from the library so I'll try to start tomorrow. This is my first time reading them but I'm a fast reader too.

[J.]

Nickie wrote: "This is my first time reading these books."

Oh man, you are going to have so much fun :D

[Madderakka]

I completely forgot about the naked outside in the rain scene. I was laughing my butt off at 2 am reading that.

I also had forgotten how often he was without his charmed items while fighting.

[wayword_witch]

Madderakka wrote: "I completely forgot about the naked outside in the rain scene. I was laughing my butt off at 2 am reading that.

I also had forgotten how often he was without his charmed items while fighting."

I love how Harry disagrees with his, ahem, lower half. Jim Butcher is the first male author I've encountered whose writing I love. Gives a new perspective.

[wayword_witch]

Madderakka wrote: "I completely forgot about the naked outside in the rain scene. I was laughing my butt off at 2 am reading that.

I also had forgotten how often he was without his charmed items while fighting."

I love how Harry disagrees with his, ahem, lower half. Jim Butcher is the first male author I've encountered whose writing I love. Gives a new perspective.

[J.]

Natasha wrote: "I love how Harry disagrees with his, ahem, lower half."

Especially considering the abilities of some of the creatures he faces throughout the series :)

[Nickie]

Harry does have a sense of innocence, and yet he can be fearless?careless?arrogant? Haven't quite decided yet. His interaction with Marcone was so ballsy, but not sure where it is coming from. Seems like he often just bulldozes his way through situations and then thinks about them.

[Mike]

He's young and stupid at this point. He grows and learns from his mistakes later on. Although, sometimes it takes a while. :-)

[Jana]

What Mike said. :) As well Harry is one of those people who really feels like he can't turn responsibility over to others because if something goes wrong he feels like it's his fault. So he throws himself into the firing line over and over again in the name of helping others.

[wayword_witch]

Ok, way behind here but I got a little teary when Harry started talking about his home at the begining of Chapter 8. Kim Harrison (my other fav author) has said that sometimes, in a story, the setting can sometimes become a character unto itself. I feel like this might have happened with Harry's basement apartment.

[Angie ~aka Reading Machine~, White Council]

Just finished my fifth re~read. I have to admit that I keep finding new information to the series as a whole that I missed the other times. Looking forward to seeing if I'm right soon.

[Maiara]

Zeenat wrote: "A couple of things I noticed (I think I'm a third of the way through):

1) How normal Dresden is. I mean by Cold Days he has died, become a Warden, now the Winter Knight... He's CRAZY not normal. B..."

Hi, I'm new to the group. Right now I'm reading book 7, so I thought it was safe to click on this thread, and right at the first post I got a bunch of spoilers. Could you please edit your post with the spoiler alert? I got really disappointed to read them, and I guess this would happen to any other person who haven't reached these parts you've mentioned yet.

Thank you.

[Myst]

Well to be fair, this group was created several years ago. Most of the reader's have read the series multiple times.

And if one reads the plot synopsis for the books (or looks at some of the titles), you can sorta guess some of what the book contains.

Note in message 3, there's a reminder that not everyone's read everything yet as well so spoiler tags would be appreciated, and after that tags are used. (The post author for post 2 could've gone back to add tags though I suppose...)

Based on other threads I've looked at, avoid all topics about Cowl on this board until you're caught up on the series, there are spoilers in those threads for future plots. Avoid the Harry and Molly thread, the Mavra and Nicodemus thread. I'm anxiously awaiting time until I open other threads so I don't spoil more than what's already been said. (I'm halfway through book 7 too.)

[Monica, White Council]

Hi, Maiara, welcome. Yes, I think it took a few posts before we realized that there would be spoilers for those not through the whole series within the early books' threads. Since then, we've tried to use the spoiler tag. Sorry about the spoiling!

[Maiara]

Monica wrote: "Hi, Maiara, welcome. Yes, I think it took a few posts before we realized that there would be spoilers for those not through the whole series within the early books' threads. Since then, we've tried..."

Hi, Monica. Yes, I have seen that you guys added the spoiler alert fot the following posts, but my suggestions was to edit the 2nd post of this topic, so other people don't read what I accidentally read. The author just has to click on the "edit" button.

Thank you :)

[Maiara]

Myst wrote: "Well to be fair, this group was created several years ago. Most of the reader's have read the series multiple times.

And if one reads the plot synopsis for the books (or looks at some of the title..."

Hi, thank you for the answer. I understand that this group was created a long time ago, but since it's an open group, it's expected that new people come.
And, to be honest, I don't read the book synopsis if I'm not there yet.

My suggestion was exactly what you've said, that the author of post 2 edit it so the spoilers are not the first thing you see once you click on the link for this page.

And no, I don't think I'll click on any other thread anymore. But thank you for the tips, though :)