Summer Knight - Butcher [Jan 16, 2022]

[Tonari no Emily]

RachelG. wrote: "I feel like I am pretty far behind the rest of you but plan to catch up over the weekend. I am so glad I switched to the audiobook.

I just finished Chapter 6 and this is probably not needing a sp..."

Merlin (this isn't really a spoiler either) (view spoiler)[It makes me wonder the origin stories of the Merlin. Like was the wizard that led in setting up the White Counsel named Merlin, or has that just always been the title of the leader... (hide spoiler)]

[Fazila]

Upto chapter 6 :

(view spoiler)[

1. Dresden is clearly in self-destruct mode

2. Loved seeing Billy come back! Also how nice of the wolf pack to care for him.

3. Mab- The intro did not surprise me. Common Harry! Stop ogling when you are in danger!! Dude really has lost his marbles.

4. Morgan is really out for Harry's blood, isn't he? For a guy who is constantly spying on Harry, he seems to have lost most of the details and is always reading the situations wrong! Either he is on the enemy's side or has a personal vendetta against Harry. Not sure which the way he is behaving.

5. Ooh! Introduction to the senior council members! Love we get a mention of Tera.

6. Why is the Council so against Harry? Sure he has made mistakes, but he never acted on his own or started any of the issues. They are ready to give him to the Red Court without even hearing his side properly.

7. I am guessing only 5 people of the Senior Council are on Harry's side. What is the Gatekeeper's plan? I am guessing he knows or at least guesses what's happening to Harry.

8. Also forgot to mention, for the Godmother to give up her bargain to Winter Queen is quite fishy. Why would she do that? There's more to it than it seems on the surface. I am intrigued!

9. Can't wait to see how Mab is going to work with Dresden and why she is so focused to clear her name when the worlds don't necessarily collide.

10. Will we get to see more of Michael? Also where is Murphy? Is she going to make an appearance? How is she faring after her encounter with the fake Dresden evil wizard who was playing with her nightmares? So many questions!!

(hide spoiler)]

[Choko]

About why the council hates Harry. I don't think this is a spoiler, but apart from his being raised by that evil dude and doing what he did and was on probation for, several times already there have been allusions to him having been meant to be something, like there is a prophecy about him or something... We don't have any details, but I suspect that has something to do with it.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

There’s a fan theory about Merlin: (view spoiler)[ that MacAnally is the retired original merlin… the one that built demonreach…

Altho, another theory is that he’s Nephilim (child of angel and human or fallen angel and human)… other likely Nephilim is Kincaid… (hide spoiler)]

[Katie]

RachelG. wrote: "I feel like I am pretty far behind the rest of you but plan to catch up over the weekend. I am so glad I switched to the audiobook.

I just finished Chapter 6 and this is probably not needing a sp..."

It's okay Rachel....I am super behind as well...moreso than you XD

[Choko]

Everyone can take their time, as long as you guys enjoy it:)

[Paula]

up to ch 18
(view spoiler)[I did not expect his dead girlfriend to come up. Of course the queens chose them because they are friends and would make for some laughs.

Nice to see him telling Murphy everything, it will makes things easier for her with her job and she will be able to help him with his problems with another perspective. I'm liking her more in this book

And the court politics with the faeries are fascinating with the three queens in each court and the knights (hide spoiler)]

[Tonari no Emily]

Timelord Iain wrote: "There’s a fan theory about Merlin [spoilers removed]"

I do hope we get (view spoiler)[ the mysterious background of MacAnally. Honestly I'd buy almost any unbelievable background cuz we only get hints here and there. I feel like Butcher will always keep him a mystery though. (hide spoiler)]

Also, do you get the fan theories and such from the Reddit?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Emily wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "There’s a fan theory about Merlin [spoilers removed]"

I do hope we get [spoilers removed]

Also, do you get the fan theories and such from the Reddit?"

Pretty much... I stumbled on that one during my last readthrough, I think, and the 2nd part a few days ago...

The wiki is also great for details missed while reading, and occasional theories in the comments...

Like, (view spoiler)[it's pretty clear that Mother Summer/Winter are personifications of 2/3 of the Norns & Fates from Greek & Norse mythology... they even give Dresden a string of Unraveling...

Less obvious, is their being 2 halves of Mother Nature, so being Gaia/Terra/Jord... the whole lineage thing is also confusing, since aspects of Summer and Winter consider themselves sisters, but can only have one mother...

And I think Mother Winter is Baba Yaga?...

Biggest thing I missed from Cold Days, was that the staff she complains about not have (and having a cleaver instead), is the Blackstaff that Ebenezer McCoy has... which would be like a Grim Reaper scythe, combined... (hide spoiler)]

[RachelG.]

Chapter 16: (view spoiler)[ I really feel drawn to Meryl for some reason and I am glad Harry will help her even if it is just a job. I'm not so sure she is just "some helpless girl". (hide spoiler)]

[Choko]

Meryl!!! My second favorite character in this book, after Murphy, but right before Toot:) She is so loyal and brave!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

The (view spoiler)[half-troll? She’s great… (hide spoiler)]

[RachelG.]

Harry sums it up the best at the end of chapter 19 when muttering to himself: (view spoiler)["when will you learn to keep your mouth shut?" I mean really, he has yet to learn to think before speaking. The earth creature formed at Walmart would be exciting to see. (hide spoiler)]

[Katie]

Decided to mix up the pacing a bit and try the audiobook. Love the narrator as I predicted :D

I'm around Chapter 6/7 right now...
(view spoiler)[Just have to say I'm glad to see some consequences of the actions of the MC. Sometimes they get overlooked in stories. And yeah. Dresdon and his friends have been through hell. Seriously.

Mab was a surprise. She is iconic to fae lore so seeing her in this series is a nice touch. And lets be honest...Dresdon wasn't really given a choice. Like if you say no to one of the Queens of the Fae...that's basically a death sentence.

Murphy is also suffering it seems :/ Dealing with her last brush with magic. And yeah. That magic was pretty much rape. Charm/illusion magic is gross. Don't try to mess with it in D&D even. Takes away all the control a person has :/

The new wizard friends are a great touch. Like the cast of characters. Especially the one who took Dresdon in after his incident. (What was his name again all?) Of course it looks like he has enemies in the court too. Many blaming him for the now war with the vampires. oof. When magical beings are in the mix just when do you say no? Because I'm with Dresdon on this one. Innocents were threatened. Plus that court was totally manipulating him and trying to get revenge. Dresdon is a chaotic guy. Sure. But the vamps aren't any better.

...reading comments now. Can't believe I forgot Billy! Love meeting more of Harry's friends. The werewolf is such a good boy <3

Merlin as a title is super cool. (hide spoiler)]

[RachelG.]

I finished this tonight and really enjoyed the ending. It moves pretty fast in the last couple chapters.

[Choko]

Katie, exactly, you really have to be suicidal to say a hard NO to the queens! And he was young and stupid when he made his first deal with them, but he should have figured out a way to make a better deal after, instead of breaking his word over and over. That has big bad consequences in the world of the Fae. So he has been digging his grave, sort of speak, ever since then... And also, what happened to Murphy was despicable!

Rachel, glad you enjoyed it!

On another note, I think both of you might really enjoy The Wandering inn!:)

[Tonari no Emily]

Agree with Choko about the Wandering Inn! I just finished Vol 1 and I loved it :)

@RachelG the fast pace of these books is definitely a plus for me. They're also not super long which is a nice change of pace from some of the absolute tomes I've been reading haha

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I mean... I'll try and get everyone reading Wandering Inn, but it's a big commitment, being so long... don't want to delay these BRs :D

[RachelG.]

I think I would really enjoy the Wandering Inn also but feel a bit overwhelmed by how long it is. I think I will start it the next time I am in a bit of a reading slump.

[Choko]

When do we start the next book in this series?

[Paula]

I have finished and it was a great book. The fae politics were fun. I liked it better than the ones before and it makes me excited to see where the series is going so im up to read the next whenever you guys can

[Paula]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Emily wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "There’s a fan theory about Merlin [spoilers removed]"

I do hope we get [spoilers removed]

Also, do you get the fan theories and such from the Reddit?"

Pretty ..."

(view spoiler)[ so cool! now that you say it I see the inspiration of the greeks and norths myths although not much with the whole gaia thing (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Choko wrote: "When do we start the next book in this series?"

Generally, when Katie is ready... she has the most non-book commitements, I think...

So far it's been about 1 book a month... Fool Moon in mid-November, Grave Peril December 15th, Summer Knight January 15th... book 1 was done alone, since most people had read it already...

[Katie]

Choko wrote: "Katie, exactly, you really have to be suicidal to say a hard NO to the queens! And he was young and stupid when he made his first deal with them, but he should have figured out a way to make a bett..."

Right?! Kinda of a no brainer there!!

Thanks for the book recommend! I actually saw it on some people's feeds and caught interest, so I'll have to check it out. Wait....how long is it? O.o

[Katie]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Choko wrote: "When do we start the next book in this series?"

Generally, when Katie is ready... she has the most non-book commitements, I think...

So far it's been about 1 book a month... Fool Mo..."

haha, yeah.....

We typically do one a month like stated. And I just like to flex the schedule based on everyone else's reading and the like. Also gives me the time to read them at a nice and slow pace XP

How is February looking for everyone? What are we thinking for Death Masks?? My BR schedule is fairly open. So I leave it all to you in case you're overbooked :D

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Katie wrote: "Choko wrote: "Katie, exactly, you really have to be suicidal to say a hard NO to the queens! And he was young and stupid when he made his first deal with them, but he should have figured out a way ..."

We've been discussing length alot, and Soo found the most accurate/updated numbers... it's twice the length of Wheel of Time...

The webnovel has 8 volumes and counting... so far the first 3.5 volumes have been turned into 5 ebooks/audiobooks... it's expected that the current 8 volumes will take 20-23 ebooks/audiobooks to release... and the story isn't done yet... the author write ALOT... later volumes are longer, and I think the author writes faster, since each volume was written in about a year of releasing chapters 3 days a week?... the author takes regular breaks, working on other projects, and just resting... I think the variety of POVs helps with writing so much...

But yea... it's an investment... I've only done the audiobooks, so far... there's already like 200hrs of audio for the first couple shorter volumes...

[Katie]

@Timelord ~ Oh wow! I didn't know it was that kind of format. I think it being mainly an e-book makes it easier to write in such a way. I mean look at Homestuck and the content there as a web comic.

Oh gosh though! I get what you mean with length. 200hrs??? I'll dip my toes into it sometime in the next few months and see if I'll like it ^~^ Because right now I'm at a bit of a slog with WOT....so don't wanna have too many of those rn. lol

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Katie wrote: "@Timelord ~ Oh wow! I didn't know it was that kind of format. I think it being mainly an e-book makes it easier to write in such a way. I mean look at Homestuck and the content there as a web comic..."

I think Wandering Inn has better and more immediately rewarding pacing than WoT (after the first couple hours / 300 pages)... so much great stuff, and you don't really get frustrated waiting for the "big stuff" to happen, the way I generally did with WoT... Wandering Inn has LitRPG elements with levels and classes, but they're pretty light, most of the time... the focus is more on characters/etc... there IS a sense that the story is building to a big epic fantasy style showdown at some point, tho... several Big Bads spread around the world, and weird dreams from one of the main characters...

[Katie]

@Timelord ~ That's so good to hear! And I've been meaning to read more Lit RPG books. Being a D&D nerd I think I'll eat that stuff up. lol. Definitely gonna check this book out after I get some other reading done :D

[RachelG.]

I would be interested in staring Death Masks around the 15th if that works for everyone.

[Tonari no Emily]

Fine for me!

[Choko]

Sounds great!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Me too

[RachelG.]

I submitted a BR request for it to start Feb. 15. Hopefully I did it correctly.

[Katie]

Works for me! Thanks for making the request Rachel!

[Katie]

Finished the audiobook for this one! Have to say it made the terrible writing more bearable through narration. lol Because Dresdon is always going to inner monologue his 'sexual frustrations' on these women. *eyeroll* Is the author going with mommy issues or what? Dude wasn't raised right. Seriously.

Anyways. Okay read. I like the fae stuffs.

(view spoiler)[It was a nice supernatural mystery as always. I like learning the workings of the courts and the like.

It was nice seeing someone from Dresdon's past again. Learning some more backstory there...

Susan's arc is so sad. So I guess her memories of Dresdon came back or something at the end of the last book? Forgot about that... I don't think Dresdon used the fae object he got from the mothers? So maybe he can use that on her?

All in all it's a decent fast paced mythical mystery. Just could do a bit without some of the descriptors. Hell. More of the boys playing DnD together would be preferable. Sounds like the guy needs some good guy friends. (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Katie wrote: "Finished the audiobook for this one! Have to say it made the terrible writing more bearable through narration. lol Because Dresdon is always going to inner monologue his 'sexual frustrations' on th..."

From interviews, (view spoiler)[it's basically explained as repressed urges/hermit tendencies from thinking he killed Elaine for like a decade, his first love... I think...

Anyway, agreed... some people don't like Marsters' early narration much (I can hear alot of mouth noises sometimes, I think, but I endure)...

Harry got Susan's memories back after she was half-turned in Bianca's basement, and used her to help get Justine out alive...

Minor spoiler but I think it was mostly explained at the end of book 3: a red court vampire turning isn't complete until the victim kills/drinks another person... Bianca tried to set it up so Susan turned by killing Harry... but she held herself back... love/lust brings the urge to the forefront, tho, so that's why Susan cut herself off from Harry and her old life and disappeared... we'll learn more about her situation in future books... obviously a dangling plot thread... (hide spoiler)]

[Katie]

@Timelord ~

(view spoiler)[Yeah, I didn't click the link you sent for fear of spoilers. Don't necessarily agree with that assesment of Dresdon from the interview. But to each their own~

haha! I saw that too! Some people comment on that a lot. Doesn't bother me much. If anything it makes his narration nuanced? lol

Right Right Right. I do remember that little fact! Thanks for sharing! She's only half a monster right now. But those urges must suck. It will only be a matter of time.

Do you know the item I'm talking of timelord? There was an undoing item the matrons had given him? He still has that, right??

Thanks for not spoiling too much~ (hide spoiler)]

[Choko]

The previous Summer Lady used it to unravel/undo the statue of the girl she was about to sacrifice and who eventually became the new Summer Lady...

[Katie]

Choko wrote: "The previous Summer Lady used it to unravel/undo the statue of the girl she was about to sacrifice and who eventually became the new Summer Lady..."

Thank you thank you! I knew I missed it somewhere!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Katie wrote: "@Timelord ~ ..."

Yea... The Matrons/Mothers (view spoiler)[are the Dresdenverse version of the Norns/Fates... so that unraveling magic was basically a snippet from the Loom of Fate, I think?... used up by the Summer Lady instead, tho, to destone the Summer Knight for her misguided plan to destabilize Faerie...

If I remember correctly, there's more to that plotline in the future, tying in to the finale of the series... don't get many details on that until book 14, tho, I don't think... when the first layer of curtain is finally lifted, and the True Players are revealed... (hide spoiler)]

[Choko]

Yes, the very important part was spoiler for the previous book (view spoiler)[ that when the last Summer Lady was dying, at that point, she started thinking that she didn't understand what was happening and why, as if she was waking from a dream... Was she acting under her own will, or was something compelling her? (hide spoiler)]

[Katie]

Oh wow! I love it that the (view spoiler)[Fates/Norns are involved. Hugeee powerful entities. Had some Norns in a D&D campaign. Don't fuck with the Norns. They got big scary plans. O.O

Ohhh! I like that play with words Choko! Not all is as it seems... (hide spoiler)]

[Fazila]

Finished this couple of days ago. Forgot to update. I really enjoyed this one. The fairy Court politics was a bit confusing at times with all the back and forth happening. (view spoiler)[ Some new characters to look out for. Glad Dresden was able to save the world from possible climate dangers. The whole werewolf clan having Dresden's back was good to see. Dresden and Murph make a good team when they are not being idiots. So I am enjoying them working together. Glad to see she is also slowly recovering from her brush with evil demon- Dresden like. Didn't they use the cloth, unraveling on the statue of the summer girl to make her come alive? Also that cannot be used again right!? Also the Summer lady @Choko I r right. Something's fishy there at the time of her death. (hide spoiler)]

[Katie]

Glad you enjoyed the book Fazila! :D