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[Review] Battle Ground
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Moriarty
Feb 9, 2021, 5:04:35 PM2/9/21
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(Minor spoilers only)
Short review: I think Harry and I are done. Thanks for the mostly enjoyable journey Jim, but I'm getting off the Dresden train.
Longer review: This was a sprawling mess. It tediously went from fight to fight. Random villains from previous stories popped in, were beaten, and exited stage left, some intact, some not. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.
The main villain has no realistic goals or motivation other than MUST DESTROY EVERYTHING MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yawn.
And unforgivably, (spoilers)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
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.
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...Marcone's character has been utterly ruined. He was such a dangerous and interesting character precisely because he got where he was in the supernatural world, despite being wholly un-supernatural, by sheer determination and intelligence. Having him suddenly become one of the blackened denarii, with no explanation, turns him into Yet Another Supernatural Baddie. The series is crawling with them already.
Maggie's "death". Ugh. Harry is informed of his daughter's death. Grief sets in, poor Harry! Two paragraphs later he realises she's really alive. Oh well, problem solved, let's move on. Awful, awful writing.
Pulling a New Big Bad out of nowhere in the last few chapters was just plain silly. Yes I know Nemesis had turned up earlier ("Cold Days" maybe?) but the big reveal that it was really behind Ethniu's rampage with nary an explanation of how/why was, again, poor writing.
Lastly, Chicago has just had a major supernatural war fought on its territory. Buildings have been levelled, 20,000 of its citizens died, killed by a Titan, demigods, giant sea-frogs, various fae, actual vampires and other assorted supernaturals. Yet a few throwaway paragraphs towards the end indicate that it's all being airbrushed away by authorities as a "terrorist attack". Yeah right. Maybe Butcher will expand on this and deal with it properly in later books. I, for one, am unlikely to find out.
-Moriarty
Short review: I think Harry and I are done. Thanks for the mostly enjoyable journey Jim, but I'm getting off the Dresden train.
Longer review: This was a sprawling mess. It tediously went from fight to fight. Random villains from previous stories popped in, were beaten, and exited stage left, some intact, some not. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.
The main villain has no realistic goals or motivation other than MUST DESTROY EVERYTHING MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yawn.
And unforgivably, (spoilers)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
...Marcone's character has been utterly ruined. He was such a dangerous and interesting character precisely because he got where he was in the supernatural world, despite being wholly un-supernatural, by sheer determination and intelligence. Having him suddenly become one of the blackened denarii, with no explanation, turns him into Yet Another Supernatural Baddie. The series is crawling with them already.
Maggie's "death". Ugh. Harry is informed of his daughter's death. Grief sets in, poor Harry! Two paragraphs later he realises she's really alive. Oh well, problem solved, let's move on. Awful, awful writing.
Pulling a New Big Bad out of nowhere in the last few chapters was just plain silly. Yes I know Nemesis had turned up earlier ("Cold Days" maybe?) but the big reveal that it was really behind Ethniu's rampage with nary an explanation of how/why was, again, poor writing.
Lastly, Chicago has just had a major supernatural war fought on its territory. Buildings have been levelled, 20,000 of its citizens died, killed by a Titan, demigods, giant sea-frogs, various fae, actual vampires and other assorted supernaturals. Yet a few throwaway paragraphs towards the end indicate that it's all being airbrushed away by authorities as a "terrorist attack". Yeah right. Maybe Butcher will expand on this and deal with it properly in later books. I, for one, am unlikely to find out.
-Moriarty
Moriarty
Feb 9, 2021, 5:10:08 PM2/9/21
to
On Wednesday, February 10, 2021 at 9:04:35 AM UTC+11, Moriarty wrote:
> (Minor spoilers only)
Ahem, that's Battle Ground by Jim Butcher.
-Moriarty
> (Minor spoilers only)
Ahem, that's Battle Ground by Jim Butcher.
-Moriarty
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