Dresden Files: Battle Grounds Trailer

[Ralin]

Spoiler

Elephant in the room guys. Last person Harry had sex with was Murphy. Harry can't consummate with Lara even if he wants to without banging someone else.

I'm guessing Elaine will resurface again soon.

[Broomstick]

A better wizard - or a specialized wizard?

Remember the pyromancer from Skin Game? Very, very good in her specialized area, not as good otherwise. Does this person just have access to some very specialized spells?

Or perhaps the person let the "partner" take over for that purpose?

I dunno - guess we'll see in future books.

This was book 17? Wasn't the original plan for 20 books and a capping trilogy? We're closer to the end than the beginning, here. Butcher supposedly had the basic arc planned from the beginning, or nearly so (book 3 or 4, certainly, when it was clear he'd get a lengthy series out of it).

Interesting that we found the meaning of the phrase "empty night". Which sounds a lot like the heat death of the universe, just sooner rather than later.

[Ralin]

Butcher has also said that the titles for the finale trilogy will be Empty Night, Hell's Bells and Stars and Stones. So do the math on that one.

[Lost Soal]

Make it 21 then since this and peace plan were supposed to a single story.
From his last Q and A one of the upcoming books will focus on the Dragons.

[Ralin]

It was always 'about' twenty books to begin with from what I remember.

[Lost Soal]

Watched an interview this morning from 6 months ago, he sketched out the 20 book series after his writing teacher asked him to sketch out the rest of his first book after chapter 3 and he, slightly, misunderstood.

The 2 book split for Peace Talks/Battle Grounds was because his publisher told him what he'd produced would be a 50 dollar hardback. He wasn't willing to charge that.

[LadyTevar]

Finally had the time to sit down and read "BattleGrounds".

Oof. That's heavy stuff there. Really needed that last epilogue to 'cleanse'.

[Lost Soal]

A better wizard - or a specialized wizard?

Remember the pyromancer from Skin Game? Very, very good in her specialized area, not as good otherwise. Does this person just have access to some very specialized spells?

Or perhaps the person let the "partner" take over for that purpose?

I dunno - guess we'll see in future books.

This was book 17? Wasn't the original plan for 20 books and a capping trilogy? We're closer to the end than the beginning, here. Butcher supposedly had the basic arc planned from the beginning, or nearly so (book 3 or 4, certainly, when it was clear he'd get a lengthy series out of it).

Interesting that we found the meaning of the phrase "empty night". Which sounds a lot like the heat death of the universe, just sooner rather than later.

From info given in recent interviews and Q&A sessions, 25 case books total for Harry Dresden, including the final trilogy, but he doesn't want to leave the universe so he's planning a spin off series, likely with Goodman Grey.
The events of the next year will be done in short stories, not entirely sure if this means a new collection or just loads of microfiction but he did tell James Marsters that he was doing a story with Toot toot and Mister on a mission and would endeavour to use words other than "little" since James apparently has some problems saying that word, so he obviously expects them to go to audio eventually.
Oh and time travel will most likely be in book 22, which probably means his fucking around will be what triggers Empty Night.

[Ralin]

From info given in recent interviews and Q&A sessions, 25 case books total for Harry Dresden, including the final trilogy, but he doesn't want to leave the universe so he's planning a spin off series, likely with Goodman Grey.

Not the Maggie and Mouse young adult series he was talking about before?

[Ralin]

Oof. That's heavy stuff there. Really needed that last epilogue to 'cleanse'.

It's an exhausting book in general. Not necessarily bad, but there's a reason why Butcher has never done one book-length battle before.

Also, guys, just noticed...it's Battle Ground. Not Battle Grounds.

[Lost Soal]

From info given in recent interviews and Q&A sessions, 25 case books total for Harry Dresden, including the final trilogy, but he doesn't want to leave the universe so he's planning a spin off series, likely with Goodman Grey.

Not the Maggie and Mouse young adult series he was talking about before?

Not sure, Goodman Grey was just the one he mentioned to Marsters.

[Mr Bean]

Finished it today
Spoiler

Observations and thoughts in no real order

Dresden is out of the council, I have a feeling he's going to create his own Wizard league sooner or later

The deaths, all the werewolves survived,none of the major players or characters aside from Murphy and Hendricks bite it. All the supernaturals survive, we don't see any paranetters die as far as we know. Aside from them the body count was low on named players. Heck both the knights survived.

Hell Knight Marcone, good to see our evil boy move up in the world. And now he's a legitimate threat 1 V 1 Dresden even if I wonder what the hell was up with those flintlocks.

The entire battle took place from the witching hour which is 3am normally, so the entire Battle of the Bean and the Battle of Chicago took place over three hours. Which makes sense for why jets could not scramble and overfly the city. I kept expecting Butcher to throw in some drone flybys or satellite flybys scoping things out.

We still have that third sword for the longest time and still no one's been wielding Amoracchius since Small Favors which I'm shocked we didn't see someone take up the sword in this book, from a random Chicago resident to some of the people from the short stories. Maybe see if Will is willing to wield it he can go all Great grey wolf Sif

On that note I want the next book to open with one of three things
1. The Wedding
2. The talk with Ethniu
3. Harry Dresden explaining at the national pizza makers conference exactly how Chicago has to re-pay the Little folk for their loyal service in defense of the city of Chicago.

[Lost Soal]

Spoiler

The Flintlocks are from a Short Story from Marcones POV. Ancient tech so no Murphionic field can affect them and each of the rounds have been enchanted by Sigrun to be hellish powerful. They are also fatal rounds which have killed great warriors (I think), the one that Marcone uses in the short to kill a Fomor wizard was taken out of Nelson at Trafalgar. They were meant to be his Ace in the hole to smash through Harry's shield.