{"id":12681,"date":"2020-11-18T21:05:57","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T02:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=12681"},"modified":"2020-11-18T23:03:30","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T04:03:30","slug":"peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Peace Talks \u2013 A Novel of The Dresden Files \u2013 by Jim Butcher \u2013 An SF&F Book Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in 2018 I did a review of Jim Butcher\u2019s Dresden Files urban fantasy series.<\/a>\u00a0 In that review I enthusiastically recommended the series but noted that the last installment was released back in 2014.\u00a0 This year Butcher published the sixteenth and seventeenth volumes in the series, \u201cPeace Talks\u201d and \u201cBattle Ground.\u201d\u00a0 Somewhat unusually these two books comprise a single story.\u00a0 So that means that the ending of Peace Talks is a great big \u201cto be continued\u201d notice.\u00a0 Normally that would be extremely annoying but because the two books were released back to back it\u2019s tolerable.\u00a0 Another unusual situation is the fact that I haven\u2019t read a Dresden Files book in several years.\u00a0 For that reason, I\u2019m having trouble deciding if the \u201cvoice\u201d of Harry in the book is the same as it used to be.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to say that it isn\u2019t the same.\u00a0 Part of this may have to do with the changes in Harry\u2019s status since his last story.\u00a0 Now he is the \u201cKnight\u201d for Mab the dangerous Winter Queen and also the father of a young girl, Maggie.\u00a0 I\u2019ll have to go back to the previous book but I believe they have tamed down Harry quite a bit.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t read the earlier books then you don\u2019t want to jump into the series at volume sixteen.\u00a0 Read my review of the series<\/a> and decide if you want to start up with this very long but very good urban fantasy series.\u00a0 If you have read the earlier volumes then I\u2019ll report that the series is shaping up to be just as chaotic and crazy as ever.\u00a0 As is Butcher\u2019s way, the story starts out with an existential crisis developing in Harry\u2019s life and then blossoms into the apocalypse.\u00a0 Whenever something really bad happens the scramble to avoid catastrophe leads to a crisis that is orders of magnitude worse.\u00a0 I will say that the pacing of the initial crisis seemed a little slow in spots based on my memory of how Butcher did these things.\u00a0 And maybe that has to do with this being a two-book story.\u00a0 But by the end of the book things were falling apart very nicely and Harry was right in his sweet spot, trying to save the world without any reasonable hope of even saving himself.\u00a0 All his enemies were his only possible allies and all of his friends were alienated and hostile.\u00a0 I won\u2019t throw in any spoilers.\u00a0 All the old characters are back and we see some of the damage done in the last book is still haunting the characters here.\u00a0 Murph is seriously injured in a leg and arm.\u00a0 She is no longer with Chicago PD and is awaiting additional surgeries and rehab to partially recover from her injuries.\u00a0 Molly Carpenter is now the Winter Lady, Mab\u2019s lieutenant and she has used her connections to provide Harry and his daughter with a home.\u00a0 It is an apartment that is contained within a sort of embassy building owned and run by the Svartalves (dark elves) who are very serious about security.\u00a0 This was necessary because in the last book the Red House Vampires finally burned Harry\u2019s crummy home to the ground.\u00a0 And his Volkswagen Bug was also finished off.\u00a0 Now he\u2019s driving a reconditioned and ancient hearse that he calls the Munstermobile.<\/p>\n

I will say that the annoyance of having the book end in the middle of the story is acceptable because having Harry back is worth it.\u00a0 I expect really good things from Battle Ground and if you\u2019re a Dresden Files fan you have no choice but to jump in and enjoy the wreckage that Harry drags in his wake.\u00a0 Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in 2018 I did a review of Jim Butcher\u2019s Dresden Files urban fantasy series.\u00a0 In that review I enthusiastically recommended the series but noted<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,237,4,242],"tags":[68,200,1485,10,38,1355,1486,59],"class_list":["post-12681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-book-review","tag-fantasy","tag-harry-dresden","tag-jim-butcher","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-the-dresden-files","tag-urban-fantasy"],"yoast_head":"\nPeace Talks \u2013 A Novel of The Dresden Files \u2013 by Jim Butcher \u2013 An SF&F Book Review - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Peace Talks \u2013 A Novel of The Dresden Files \u2013 by Jim Butcher \u2013 An SF&F Book Review - Orion's Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Back in 2018 I did a review of Jim Butcher\u2019s Dresden Files urban fantasy series.\u00a0 In that review I enthusiastically recommended the series but noted\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Orion's Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-19T02:05:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-19T04:03:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"photog\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@orionscoldfire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@orionscoldfire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"photog\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"photog\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3\"},\"headline\":\"Peace Talks \u2013 A Novel of The Dresden Files \u2013 by Jim Butcher \u2013 An SF&F Book Review\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-19T02:05:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-19T04:03:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/\"},\"wordCount\":644,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"book review\",\"fantasy\",\"Harry Dresden\",\"Jim Butcher\",\"review\",\"Reviews\",\"The Dresden Files\",\"urban fantasy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Book Reviews\",\"Reviews\",\"Science Fiction \/ Fantasy\",\"SF&F Book Reviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/\",\"name\":\"Peace Talks \u2013 A Novel of The Dresden Files \u2013 by Jim Butcher \u2013 An SF&F Book Review - Orion's Cold Fire\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-19T02:05:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-19T04:03:30+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Peace Talks \u2013 A Novel of The Dresden Files \u2013 by Jim Butcher \u2013 An SF&F Book Review\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/\",\"name\":\"Orion's Cold Fire\",\"description\":\"All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Orion's Cold Fire\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg\",\"width\":4022,\"height\":1419,\"caption\":\"Orion's Cold Fire\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/orionscoldfire\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3\",\"name\":\"photog\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg\",\"caption\":\"photog\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/author\/photog\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Peace Talks \u2013 A Novel of The Dresden Files \u2013 by Jim Butcher \u2013 An SF&F Book Review - Orion's Cold Fire","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Peace Talks \u2013 A Novel of The Dresden Files \u2013 by Jim Butcher \u2013 An SF&F Book Review - Orion's Cold Fire","og_description":"Back in 2018 I did a review of Jim Butcher\u2019s Dresden Files urban fantasy series.\u00a0 In that review I enthusiastically recommended the series but noted","og_url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/","og_site_name":"Orion's Cold Fire","article_published_time":"2020-11-19T02:05:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-11-19T04:03:30+00:00","author":"photog","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@orionscoldfire","twitter_site":"@orionscoldfire","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"photog","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/"},"author":{"name":"photog","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3"},"headline":"Peace Talks \u2013 A Novel of The Dresden Files \u2013 by Jim Butcher \u2013 An SF&F Book Review","datePublished":"2020-11-19T02:05:57+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-19T04:03:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/"},"wordCount":644,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["book review","fantasy","Harry Dresden","Jim Butcher","review","Reviews","The Dresden Files","urban fantasy"],"articleSection":["Book Reviews","Reviews","Science Fiction \/ Fantasy","SF&F Book Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/","name":"Peace Talks \u2013 A Novel of The Dresden Files \u2013 by Jim Butcher \u2013 An SF&F Book Review - Orion's Cold Fire","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-11-19T02:05:57+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-19T04:03:30+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/18\/peace-talks-a-novel-of-the-dresden-files-by-jim-butcher-an-sff-book-review\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Peace Talks \u2013 A Novel of The Dresden Files \u2013 by Jim Butcher \u2013 An SF&F Book Review"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/","name":"Orion's Cold Fire","description":"All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization","name":"Orion's Cold Fire","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg","width":4022,"height":1419,"caption":"Orion's Cold Fire"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/orionscoldfire"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3","name":"photog","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg","caption":"photog"},"url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/author\/photog\/"}]}},"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12681"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12687,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12681\/revisions\/12687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}