![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Just finished reading it today...
I've got to be honest. It... wasn't my favorite of the Dresden Files. I didn't hate it, but it kind of frustrated me, and there were times I was tempted to stop reading to spare me that frustration.
And I'm not sure if the reason for my frustration is because I went into the book with the wrong expectations or if because it contained certain tropes I'm not a fan of and I locked onto those tropes.
Initially I thought Harry would be completely on his own, that no one would be able to see or hear him and most of the story would be focused entirely on the dead side of things. I'll be honest that I was actually a little disappointed that Harry was able to make contact with his friends so quickly, but I got over that.
What really bothered me, though, was what felt like - to put it simply - Harry being always wrong and everyone else always right. I got so weary of Harry blinking (so much blinking. Please, stop with the blinking!) and realizing that so-and-so had a point. It made me rather desperate for at least one tiny moment in which someone blinked at him and realized that he had a point. I'm not a fan of what I like to call "the hero on a constant learning curve" - in which in order for the character to grow and become a better person everyone around him as to be wiser and smarter and point everything out to him. I don't like it when the overall feeling I get from a story is that the hero is wrong and everyone else is right, or only the hero makes mistakes and everyone else doesn't. Which, yes, I know that isn't what is actually going on - Harry's friends do make mistakes and have moments where they're wrong. But because this is a first person story with an unreliable (and self deprecating) narrator, it makes it easy to feel like everyone has one up on Harry and Harry is lucky to be able to rub two brain cells together.
And, I think, all the more so because Changes had such wonderful shades of gray, I felt. In fact, I also wonder if Changes ended up being a bad influence on me. Changes we had Harry at his most dangerous. Ghost Story we had Harry at his most weakest, which leads to my next issue...
I also suspect that I may not be a fan of stories where the hero is gone for a while, comes back, everything has changed, he's stumbling around trying to catch up and is mostly failing. In fact, they seem to mostly screw up. Although to be fair, I think Ghost Story did a better job with that trope than other stories or shows. I can't remember any exact examples of shows or stories that ended up planting the seed of my dislike for the trope, but that I have issues with it says that seeds were indeed planted. Something, or things, out there did something similar and didn't do as good a job of it as Ghost Story, or I think what was done in Ghost Story would have frustrated me a whole heck of a lot more. I don't think it's a bad trope - quite the contrary, I think it has great potential - but somewhere down the line, like with the hero having a child they didn't know about, it was done in a way that soured me toward that trope.
But enough with the negative. Onto the positive. I liked that it dealt heavily with the aftermath of Changes. The fight scenes still kicked butt. And the ending totally redeemed this book. I did not see that coming at all. And though I was mostly "meh" with Ghost Story, I can not wait for the next book.
I've got to be honest. It... wasn't my favorite of the Dresden Files. I didn't hate it, but it kind of frustrated me, and there were times I was tempted to stop reading to spare me that frustration.
And I'm not sure if the reason for my frustration is because I went into the book with the wrong expectations or if because it contained certain tropes I'm not a fan of and I locked onto those tropes.
Initially I thought Harry would be completely on his own, that no one would be able to see or hear him and most of the story would be focused entirely on the dead side of things. I'll be honest that I was actually a little disappointed that Harry was able to make contact with his friends so quickly, but I got over that.
What really bothered me, though, was what felt like - to put it simply - Harry being always wrong and everyone else always right. I got so weary of Harry blinking (so much blinking. Please, stop with the blinking!) and realizing that so-and-so had a point. It made me rather desperate for at least one tiny moment in which someone blinked at him and realized that he had a point. I'm not a fan of what I like to call "the hero on a constant learning curve" - in which in order for the character to grow and become a better person everyone around him as to be wiser and smarter and point everything out to him. I don't like it when the overall feeling I get from a story is that the hero is wrong and everyone else is right, or only the hero makes mistakes and everyone else doesn't. Which, yes, I know that isn't what is actually going on - Harry's friends do make mistakes and have moments where they're wrong. But because this is a first person story with an unreliable (and self deprecating) narrator, it makes it easy to feel like everyone has one up on Harry and Harry is lucky to be able to rub two brain cells together.
And, I think, all the more so because Changes had such wonderful shades of gray, I felt. In fact, I also wonder if Changes ended up being a bad influence on me. Changes we had Harry at his most dangerous. Ghost Story we had Harry at his most weakest, which leads to my next issue...
I also suspect that I may not be a fan of stories where the hero is gone for a while, comes back, everything has changed, he's stumbling around trying to catch up and is mostly failing. In fact, they seem to mostly screw up. Although to be fair, I think Ghost Story did a better job with that trope than other stories or shows. I can't remember any exact examples of shows or stories that ended up planting the seed of my dislike for the trope, but that I have issues with it says that seeds were indeed planted. Something, or things, out there did something similar and didn't do as good a job of it as Ghost Story, or I think what was done in Ghost Story would have frustrated me a whole heck of a lot more. I don't think it's a bad trope - quite the contrary, I think it has great potential - but somewhere down the line, like with the hero having a child they didn't know about, it was done in a way that soured me toward that trope.
But enough with the negative. Onto the positive. I liked that it dealt heavily with the aftermath of Changes. The fight scenes still kicked butt. And the ending totally redeemed this book. I did not see that coming at all. And though I was mostly "meh" with Ghost Story, I can not wait for the next book.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 05:41 pm (UTC)From:Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm now who does that remind me of??
Oh I know, McKay in his observations around Sheppard and same can be said
around others too.......who are so sure THEY are right
It used to grate on me when they did that in SGA also e.g. they were sure
he was in the wrong when it came to Sumner situation.
I have long believed that until you are doing it, all the 'I would haves' mean
nothing.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 12:07 am (UTC)From:nothing.
Yes, because on the one hand it's easy to point out foibles when you're standing on the sidelines. On the other hand when you're not on the sidelines; when you're the one going through the experience rather than observing it, that's a whole lot of something else all together.
The thing about The Dresden Files is, as I said, it's first person, and utilizes it's supporting cast as various voices of reason or intervention, and that creates an air of what feels like Harry constantly being reprimanded. All the more so with Ghost Story since it was dealing with the aftermath of Changes and the consequences that resulted from that. Add to that Harry being way out of his depth and mostly powerless, and it equals something that really rubbed me the wrong way.
In fact, now that I think about it, I wonder if that's what really bothered me - that Harry wasn't the Harry of past books, tossing magic around and being dangerous like he used to. that he was severely limited and so heavily dependent on others. I don't know. All I know is that I didn't enjoy this book as much as the others.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 12:11 am (UTC)From:(((NODS)))
That very well may be the problem
Thanks for warning me off as I love the Harry of magic and danger.
I see Joe in that role...........
no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 12:20 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2012-02-01 07:35 am (UTC)From:I will say that the ending totally caught me off guard. I was not expecting the twist on it. I'm waiting to see how Harry gets himself out of this mess....