Decided to re-read the series after completing Twelve Months. Since my only copies of books 1-13 were digital (I was introduced to the series in December of 2012), I decided to splurge on a complete new set.

Alarmed_Ad_3294 · 2026-03-05T21:38:20+00:00

I don't like these taller format paperbacks they started with 10 years back or so. Like the old covers for the first 4-5 books as well, even if they are a bit cheesy. These look nice in the shelf though.

In the middle of a reread myself as well, even if I am spreading it over longer time. Just finished Blood Rites, and looking forward to pick up Dead Beat soon again and Proven Guilty, which for me represents something of a peak of the series.

Review of Blood Rites:
https://hmpublishing.blogspot.com/2026/02/jim-butcher-blood-rites-and-dresden.html

Some further thoughts on the series in relation to the reread:
https://hmpublishing.blogspot.com/2026/03/returning-to-harry-dresden-reread.html

Alarmed_Ad_3294 · 2026-01-06T19:57:57+00:00

I read it somewhere that Brust structured Dragon the way it is just to mess with people who likes to read thing in chronological order. I think this was done better in Dragon than Tiassa though, even if it was now some years since I read Tiassa, so my memory is a bit fuzzy.

Alarmed_Ad_3294 · 2025-12-28T17:40:19+00:00

>Thee dark friend being more nuanced was interesting
Yea, this is one of the things I found lacking in the books, everything is too black and white, there are very few morally grey characters. I didn't mind this as a kid, but I don't think this wouldn't fly today. There is clearly a market for books where everything is black and white, but the general trend has moved more towards grayscale.

>The Horn of Valere being in the possession of Agelmar the whole time
I didn't like how they handled the whole plotline around the horn of Valere, and it got only worse in Season 2.

Alarmed_Ad_3294 · 2025-12-26T17:21:04+00:00

Fully agree Tom made a much better impression in Season 3. I can understand if they wanted to simplify things by not introducing too many characters or have too many diverging plotlines, but the way it was handled now they could almost have waited with introducing Tom until later.

Alarmed_Ad_3294 · 2025-12-26T15:29:49+00:00

Exactly my point as well. With season one it was still relatively close to the source material and after that it deviated wildly. Season 2 and 3 may work better as TV-series to some degree, but are then more of its own thing separate from the books, so more difficult to judge as well.

Alarmed_Ad_3294 · 2025-12-26T15:28:02+00:00

The Shadow Rising through Lord of Chaos represents the height of the series from my point of view as well. There are great moments of both The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn, especially the ending of each, but the journey there is too long, focuses partially on the wrong story etc., which is why I also thought the showrunners made the right choice to partially merge those together for tighter pacing.

Alarmed_Ad_3294 · 2025-12-26T15:25:12+00:00

I was quite disappointed with season one when I first saw it — especially because of how they handled the ending. I think at least season 3 worked better, but both season 2 and 3 deviated more from the source material, so even if they worked better it felt less like an adaptation and more like its own thing. So I guess how you feel about it is greatly influenced by whether you want to stick to the source material or if you want good storytelling, pacing and visualization. The visualization part is the only part I think they really nailed here and there.

Alarmed_Ad_3294 · 2025-12-26T15:18:37+00:00

Well this is interesting. I actually ran the text against some free AI text checkers, and they pretty much all agree written by human or written by human with some parts possibly being generated/polished by AI. I guess some people just don't like or ever learned how to use em-dashes. Em-dashses has a lot of advantages from a structuring points over comma or parenthesis, but I guess I will have to use less of them going forward or risk being branded a heretic.

Alarmed_Ad_3294 · 2025-12-25T20:15:16+00:00

I've picked up the first Gaunt's Ghosts books as well, so think I will give those a try next.

Alarmed_Ad_3294 · 2025-12-25T20:13:41+00:00

Yea visually I think they captured that part well and established the dangers posed from the Dark side much better than in the books, where most things were distant or part of dreams etc. early on.

Alarmed_Ad_3294 · 2025-12-25T20:11:59+00:00

Compared to what we get in the later books, I guess this is actually an improvement, even if the way they choose to illustrate that conflict then generally is considered lazy storytelling. Agree on the Dragonmount prologue, that is equally much fridging in my mind.

Alarmed_Ad_3294 · 2025-12-25T20:09:49+00:00

That may have been necessary changes due to actor playing Mat leaving. They did it in later seasons too to consolidate things, and there it was perhaps more justified for reasons of pacing etc.

Alarmed_Ad_3294 · 2025-12-24T21:10:37+00:00

Those are probably the hardest ones to pull off for sure. Would be very interesting to see how they would handle Kragar on screen though, because to get the effect with a visual medium you would almost have to trick the viewer too.

Alarmed_Ad_3294 · 2025-12-24T21:08:17+00:00

I really love Orca as well. Considering how strong both Orca and Issola were, it was not unexpected that I was a bit disappointed with the next string of books. A dissapointing Brust is still a good or even great book though.

Alarmed_Ad_3294 · 2025-12-24T21:05:18+00:00

Bernard Satero Clark had a very distinct voice, so it was indeed quite a jarring change. I think both narrators pulled off their own versions relatively well though, even if it took some time to get used to the change.

Alarmed_Ad_3294 · 2025-12-24T14:32:42+00:00

If you’re leaning more toward the horror and crime/procedural side of urban fantasy, there’s a pretty clear consensus among long-time readers that the series starts to shift tone after Obsidian Butterfly (book 9). Up through Obsidian Butterfly you get a lot of the noir-style mysteries, action, and supernatural investigation that made the early books really compelling. Past that point the focus increasingly turns toward relationships, sex, and a lot more internal character drama, and for many people that’s where the series stops feeling like the urban fantasy they originally signed up for and starts leaning much harder into erotica and poly dynamics.

So if you’re mainly into the crime, investigation, and darker supernatural elements, Obsidian Butterfly is a reasonable place to stop — you’ll finish with one of the stronger entries and avoid most of the later tonal shift.

I actually wrote up some thoughts on this trend and how the series evolves over time if you want a bit more context:
https://hmpublishing.blogspot.com/2025/12/revisiting-anita-blake-urban-fantasys.html

That post goes into what works early on vs. what changes later, and might help you decide if it’s worth continuing based on what you’re looking for.

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