Cold Days - Jim Butcher

[Blueferret]

Just finished reading it.

A New Enemy Threat introduced here. More powerful than The Fomor or The Black Council.

I'll answer any queries you might have if you want.

How'd you manage that? It comes out tomorrow.

[Inkthinker]

Digital release + fast reader? Depending on where you live, you might get as much as 12-16 hours jump on East Coast USA readers. Australian, maybe?

[felix77]

It got released a week earlier here in Asia.

[Blueferret]

It got released a week earlier here in Asia.

I see. Very cool. Got mine and working my way through it as we speak.

[felix77]

Great! Tell me which were your favourite parts.

[Mister Ferro]

I am still reading but I went holy frak when we find out that
spoilers:

SantaClaus goes hunting!!!!

end of spoilers

[felix77]

You'll get another surprise about him at the end of the book.

[Ian Pressman]

I burned through this one in a scant fourteen hours. And now I have to wait a year or two just to see what happens next. The cliffhanger Butcher left us with is enough to make my head split, hur-hur-hur.

spoilers:

No, but seriously, who else was a little terrified to discover that Lily could throw down all Firestar-ish like that? Holy crap, she was one of those background characters I always considered fairly flimsy beforehand, and just when we discover her heretofore unknown levels of magical bad assery, she get gets taken from us with a bullet to the temple. How depressing is that? I wanted to learn MORE and she gets capped. /sadness. Props to the way Butcher built up Fix too. He became a man when we weren't watching, and then that man became an Elf Samurai. I love these books.

end of spoilers

[Jared H.]

Just finished. Good stuff. Much better than the last few, I think. And I'm very much looking forward to what comes next.

Also:

spoilers:

Looks like my prediction from last book was right. The parasite has gotta be Lash. Also, it's looking more and more like Dresden will keep combining powers(can't wait for hellfire to get added back to the mix).

end of spoilers

[felix77]

I wish we'd gotten more info on The Fomor and The Black Council in this installment.
But i've to admit that this new Big Bad introduced here ties in real well with events from the previous books.

[Expletive Deleted]

I thought it was only okay. The pacing was a little uneven, with too many slowdowns for exposition and continuity. Interesting exposition and continuity, for the most part (I really liked the reveal of Demonreach's true nature), but it wasn't integrated into the action as well as it has been in the past.

In terms of specifics, spoilers:

I liked the ending twists quite a bit. Butcher totally got me with the Sarissa/Molly switch, even if the sappy moment with Mab at the very end was unnecessary. The stuff with the Outsiders is interesting, but they're not compelling antagonists just yet. Powerful, but no personality. I'm iffy on the idea that they've been behind almost all the corruption we've seen thus far. Some of it makes a ton of sense, like Aurora in Summer Knight, but some of it seems superfluous. For instance, we needed an explanation for where the FBI werewolves and Victor Sells got their power, but I think "power corrupts" works fine as their motivation without an explicit, intentional corruptor being involved. Also, I get what Butcher was going for with Harry slowly losing control under the Winter Knight's influence, but the constant leering at every female character was somewhat off-putting.

end of spoilers

[Blueferret]

Vagazzeled

[Hazard]

I wish we'd gotten more info on The Fomor and The Black Council in this installment.
But i've to admit that this new Big Bad introduced here ties in real well with events from the previous books.

To be fair it's not like the Formor are that important or that much of a threat. I mean they are, but they are a bit too much like the Red Court, powerful but lacking the Pizzazz of a Big Bad.

As for the Black Council we did learn something, just in a roundabout way.

[felix77]

But the Big Bad we got introduced here is a little too nebulous for my taste. I'd prefer someone like Kemmler or Lucifer in that role.

[Mister Ferro]

But the Big Bad we got introduced here is a little too nebulous for my taste. I'd prefer someone like Kemmler or Lucifer in that role.

Jim is probably saving Lucifer for the BIG APOCALYPTIC TRILOGY!!!

And on another note
spoilers:

Santa Odin just told Harry the way out of BEING the Winter Knight and Winter Lady roles for both him and Molly.

end of spoilers