Dresden 13 -- Ghost Story

I just finished up Jim Butcher's 13th Harry Dresden novel, and I have some mixed feelings about it.

BE FOREWARNED.  HERE THERE BE SPOILERS.

I knew that Harry was dead.  I knew that this was going to be the focus of the novel.  I just didn't know that the entire thing was going to be quite so much of a "beat up on your main character" sort of endeavour.  I don't know how I feel about that.  See, I sort of love Harry Dresden.

Yes, he frequently makes things go boom.  Well, okay.  He makes EVERYTHING go boom.  But to me, that has long been part of his charm.  He makes the right things go boom, the baddies.  He is also always aware of the costs.

This book spends an inordinate (to me) amount of time rubbing his face in old wounds, making him aware of the fact that he doesn't really seem to know the costs, and I think that this isn't quite true.  Harry has always carried guilt and scars over what he's done.  It is part of what has kept him from going over to the "Dark Side" (and he would be proud of me for the Star Wars reference at this juncture) in his actions.

I think, or rather I hope, Butcher is using this book to clear the stage for a new phase in Harry's life.  I foresee Molly becoming a Girl.Friend. instead of just kid/chick/apprentice.  I'm fine with that.  She should be a good match for him.  I foresee the thing with Mab becoming an all-out war with Faerie.  That, too, should be awesome entertainment.  The White Council has got to show back up at some point, too.   I rather suspect the Angels and the Fallen will come back to town since they are apparently still mucking about behind the scenes, and I am almost positive that Harry will wind up wielding one of the Swords (as will Daniel Carpenter...who doesn't see that coming...).

Ultimately, this book had sort of a feel of anticlimax to me, and I'm not sure why.  Maybe there was just so much time spend rubbing his nose in his sins, describing the ghosts and their nifty world, and memories of things in Dresden's life that it just felt a little fragmented to me.  Or something.  I don't know.  The revelation of who Harry's killer was felt rushed.  I was not surprised; it made a great deal of sense, but it felt like Butcher was just cramming it in there to finish it out.  So did the scene at the end with Mab.

The best scene in the entire book was the Star Trek scene in Molly's head.  It was well done, and well up to the geek standards I've come to expect from Butcher.  I loved all the ST cliches he threw in, including the obligatory red shirt.

I hope this book is a bridge to a new phase in Dresden's life.  I kind of get the feeling that "everything has changed."  Sometimes when an author does that, amazing things are possible.  Sometimes when that happens, well, everything has changed, and the series is never quite the same again.  As a major fan of Harry Dresden, I'm hoping that Butcher isn't tired of his grumpy, geeky wizard, and that he hasn't decided to throw him out the window just yet.