My book reviews for The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher starting with book #16, Peace Talks. Please be aware that these reviews contain spoilers for previous books in the series.

HARRY DRESDEN IS BACK AND READY FOR ACTION, in the new entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files.

When the Supernatural nations of the world meet up to negotiate an end to ongoing hostilities, Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, joins the White Council's security team to make sure the talks stay civil. But can he succeed, when dark political manipulations threaten the very existence of Chicago - and all he holds dear?

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Peace Talks Book Review

I’d forgotten how good these books are. Peace Talks has sat on my bookshelf taunting me since Christmas and at first, I put it off because I was busy with blog work, then reviews and eventually I hit that moment of uncertainty when you’ve been away from a book series for so long. You know the one. Will it be the same? Was this going to be the book that ruined it all? (and if it did for you, that’s your prerogative but don’t start a debate with me please) – I was acutely aware that the only other book series (not including Star Wars novels) I’d read that had reached this length I’d had to abandon. So far though Butcher has done a great job, in my opinion, of keeping the story going and changing Harry’s life in a way that seems like life changes rather than spitting out random ideas and hoping they work.

Going into Peace Talks I knew that the next book was called Battle Ground which pretty much told everyone that the peace talks in Peace Talks were going to end really badly. The question in my mind was, how big was Harry going to screw up this time? As much as I love Harry he does have a certain knack for getting into trouble and I did expect this to be something involving him. And unsurprisingly, he is right in the middle of things in Peace Talks with quite a few people pissed at him.

The majority of the book was probably a three-star for me as it is quite a mediocre book, with certain moments pushing it up to a three-point five. But it was the grand reveal that got it to the four stars because as usual Butcher worked his magic and blew me away with the monumental situation Dresden and co now find themselves in. They’ve come up against some pretty big bad guys, and have done some really crazy things… but this? Could Dresden finally be out of his depth? It was all these feelings, the consequences and the set-up for the next book that brought Peace Talks to a 4-star rating for me.

It didn’t surprise me when I later found out that Peace Talks and Battle Ground were originally one massive book and the publisher requested that they be split. It wasn’t just the way this one is written that made me already think that it had been one book split into two;  it was how quickly Battle Ground came out after Peace Talks. It took Butcher six years to write Peace Talks, and before that, it was one book a year. Then suddenly it’s two books in one year? That didn’t add up to me, and the only way it made sense was if they were originally written together. The way Peace Talks is written and ends pretty much confirms it for me.

So if you’re a Dresden Files fan and haven’t read this one yet expect things to be a bit different and feel a bit off. It’s still really good, it’s just not the same style we’re used to. In a way, we should be glad that we got the full story rather than a severely edited cut-down version even if it does mean we end up with one book that’s not quite what we were expecting.

THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET SERIOUS FOR HARRY DRESDEN, CHICAGO'S ONLY PROFESSIONAL WIZARD, in the next entry in the No. 1 New York Times and No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling Dresden Files.

Harry has faced terrible odds before. He has a long history of fighting enemies above his weight class. The Red Court of vampires. The fallen angels of the Order of the Blackened Denarius. The Outsiders.

But this time it's different. A being more powerful and dangerous on an order of magnitude beyond what the world has seen in a millennium is coming. And she's bringing an army. The Last Titan has declared war on the city of Chicago, and has come to subjugate humanity, obliterating any who stand in her way.

Harry's mission is simple but impossible: Save the city by killing a Titan. And the attempt will change Harry's life, Chicago, and the mortal world forever.

Content Warnings:

Battle Ground Book Review

I’m not going to lie; I put off reading this one for a bit. I picked it up from the library, and it sat on my shelf for a good month or so before I got the courage to read it. After the events of Peace Talks there was never any doubt that the war that was promised was going to be epic and there would be complete and utter destruction. Of course, what else did we expect from a book called Battle Ground?

I’ve seen Battle Ground described as Avengers: End Game, and it’s not a bad analogy. It’s the crossover event of The Dresden Files series. Everyone and anyone that has popped up in the previous sixteen books appears, and then some. If you’ve been reading this series for a while like me, it may take a bit of remembering on some counts (there’s been a lot of books and a few dozen other fandoms in between). It was nice to see things that Harry had done years ago come back and pay off, not because he’d planned it that way but because he’s just a decent guy. Even better was watching the powerful names blink in a certain scene because Harry had the aid of a group that they never cared to pay attention to. Despite a Titan being the endgame, Harry doesn’t lose sight of the little guy and that is what the people who claim to be “worried” about him (aka worried about how powerful he’s getting/the “monsters” he’s hanging out with) fail to see.

Overall, I enjoyed Battle Ground a lot. I felt that it was well-paced, it used the wide array of characters and factions well, and it was great to see some of them really let go for a change. We’ve never truly seen just how powerful some of the Fae are until this book, and we also got to know some characters a bit more too. There’s nothing like a devastating world-ending war to reveal people’s true nature.

And of course, in such an event people died. Normally I keep my reviews spoiler-free, however, I need to talk about one of the deaths, and it is a huge spoiler. It’s going beneath a spoiler cut, of course, but if you’re one of those people who can’t quite resist clicking… for your sake, resist. You do not want to know in advance.

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I am sure a lot of people saw this one coming, and if I’m honest, I think I knew as soon as Harry tried to keep people safe under the guise of helping the non-supernatural community, therefore, keeping them well away from the fighting. But I fooled myself into thinking that this character would stay somewhere safe. But as soon as they appeared on that motorcycle I knew.

I am, of course sadly talking about Karin Murphy, Harry’s long-time friend, partner and finally lover.

And yes, I am upset that she died; I am in fact quite pissed that she died, but probably not for the reasons you’re thinking.

This is the second time that Butcher has killed off a love interest of Harry’s, and while I don’t believe he was ever in love with Susan, he still cared for her immensely. He built up the tension between Murphy and Harry for the entire series just to end it like this, and I’m not a fan of authors who give their characters a happy ending just to whisk it away for the sake of torturing them more. And Butcher has certainly tortured Dresden enough.

I’m just waiting for the “it was all a set-up” esque plot where it’s revealed that some big bad has been plotting to make Harry feel so much pain so that he’ll snap, and honestly, if it turns out to be Mab I’m out of here. In this book, we are given a real glimpse of who Mab was before she became the Winter Queen, and she took Murphy’s death seriously, bestowing honours on her even though she was a mortal. While she wants Dresden to be less obstinate, she also keeps making the point that she chose him for a reason and a broken Dresden is of no use to her.

What also annoyed me about her death was that Butcher waited until she was disabled to kill her. In Battle Ground, she is still recovering from the serious injuries that Archleone gave her in Skin Game (The Dresden Files #15), and that is why Harry tries to get her to stay in a protected sanctuary. While she takes part in the battle against the Fomor during the novel, earning herself a kill worthy of the honours bestowed by Mab and others, she does so with ranged weapons the entire time. While it is a testament to her skill as a warrior that she is able to do what she does, it bothers me as a disabled person that Butcher reduced her to such a weakened state before killing her off. The manner in which she died, at the hands of a deluded misogynist, does not help things either. It just feels like Butcher had to completely destroy her physically before she died, making her completely vulnerable in ways that she has never been before.

I know that some readers feel that Butcher is a misogynistic writer, however, until this instance I have not had an issue with his writing. To be clear, it is more the disabled angle that bothers me than the gender of the character.

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