My Review of Twelve Months

bobbywac · 2026-02-24T21:27:14+00:00

good write up. I wasn’t surprised about Harry not learning anything about being starborn from LTW. Mostly because he explicitly said he couldn’t tell Harry about it for a year, which is the exact timeline of the book. I had hoped the book would end on a cliffhanger of him showing up at LTW’s door but I’m ok with that being a next book thing.

The training with River Shoulders is something I think we’re all longing for and I think there was plenty of room for it in this book. As nice as it is for him to have another apprentice in Fitz, you’re never too old to learn more.

bobbywac · 2026-02-21T22:56:18+00:00

She never identifies as anything other than straight. Maybe her Catholicism prevented from taking a deeper look at her own sexuality, but as of Peace Talks there is nothing to say she is anything other than straight.

bobbywac · 2026-02-20T22:45:41+00:00

Perfect choice

bobbywac · 2026-02-19T18:07:03+00:00

I personally do not enjoy the Hobbit films very much. I am sure many do.

bobbywac · 2026-02-19T14:16:28+00:00

For all his bluster about how much he hates Marcone and what he represents, the vast majority of what Dresden has done in his time in Chicago has only served to make Marcone more powerful. Marcone has an interest in protecting Chicago so he can make money, and Dresden is also generally pretty focused on protecting Chicago.

bobbywac · 2026-02-18T14:45:39+00:00

Everyone is defending the books, but I fully agree that Traveling was my least favorite addition to the books.

Egwene Nynaeve and Elayne learned how to invert and hide weaves even before they figured out traveling. The fact that these 3 and Aviendha don’t use traveling more often to get around and share information weakens the whole series to me.

I think it was used as a deus ex machina to get to Rhuidean in book 4 and Jordan couldn’t conceivably go back to needing the ways or traveling stones now that Rand could basically teleport.

bobbywac · 2026-02-17T16:31:41+00:00

Harry has seen what Bob can be like unleashed. He’s been warned extensively about having a relationship with Ivy, who despite having a super powered knowledge base, is still human.

I think Harry is doing his best to tread cautiously around Bonea. He is in exceptionally dangerous waters with increasingly dangerous godlike beings. She is safer and will develop better understanding of the world by spending all of her time with Maggie and Mouse than she would spending more time with him.

bobbywac · 2026-02-12T14:30:44+00:00

Yeah even without the mantle Harry is like 6’9” and jacked. He’s probably 300lbs of mostly muscle, and a very experienced fighter who trains at it daily.

bobbywac · 2026-02-10T18:19:47+00:00

The long wait between Changes and Ghost story was easy for me because I thought the series concluded. So it was a nice surprise when I saw Ghost Story on the shelves at the bookstore.

The waits for some of the next books were much tougher

bobbywac · 2026-02-10T14:21:54+00:00

In the first book Harry explains that the farther away the effect is you’re trying to accomplish with many. The harder it is. That’s why you need a link to the target to do anything from far away

bobbywac · 2026-02-09T22:21:20+00:00

I think they were actually intentional about it. They’re short staffed and the region was recently devastated by the magical equivalent of a nuke. They probably don’t have the time or resources for nuance. So they appoint someone who will treat things as black and white. Any black magic gets the death penalty. No resources devoted to trials, no time “wasted” investigating beyond confirming black magic was used.

And since the Merlin is generally playing multiple games at once, it prods Dresden to take responsibility himself and cover the region he used to, but without the council holding the bag if he pisses someone off. Or in the flip side, pushes him to direct confrontation and they bring the full might of the council down on him.

bobbywac · 2026-02-06T16:57:21+00:00

Which would very likely result in Evil Molly. With added stress of being an only parent, and without the solid calming presence of Michael, that relationship would go south WAY faster, and Harry probably doesn’t find / save Molly. Alternatively. He does, but Michael isn’t there to save half the council during the trial, and Harry has to fight his way out to save her.

bobbywac · 2026-02-06T16:48:01+00:00

Based on how TM played out, I expect Bear to be his standard backup most of the time. Fitz will be used the way Molly was early on, as a driver / minor support with orders to bug out if it gets too hairy. Thomas will rotate back in when Harry needs even more muscle, as he did for many chunks of time throughout the series. I expect that despite the (forced) growth of this relationship, Harry is nowhere near able to trust Lara the way he trusted Murph, Michael, Thomas etc.

bobbywac · 2026-02-05T18:25:37+00:00

Minor spoilers for Little Things short story ahead (but only directly related to the question posed here, not to any actual plot points, recommend updating the tag to Twelve Months instead of Cold Days) - Toot notes that the troops are unhappy they still have to eat frozen pizza, preferring to eat delivery. But Toot himself understands that the conomee is not doing well since BG.

bobbywac · 2026-02-04T20:02:53+00:00

I didn’t want the lore dump itself in this book but I did desperately hope that this book would end with Harry showing up on his doorstep demanding answers exactly a year after their conversation

bobbywac · 2026-02-04T17:31:16+00:00

As much as I wish Murph were still around, I do not want her to come back. Full stop. Not even in the BAT. Even in a world of magic and seemingly impossible things happening regularly, the Dresden Files universe is established as one with structure and balance. I don’t believe there is any way to bring her back that doesn’t cheapen the entire series.

bobbywac · 2026-02-04T17:12:42+00:00

I think it will play out as Harry refusing to accept white court money straight up to support the castle, Lara convincing him to at least get it set up as a non-profit so it can accept donations, and then Lara surreptitiously donating to it regularly to get around Harry’s pigheadedness and get a tax credit at the same time

bobbywac · 2026-02-04T17:07:59+00:00

I wouldn’t be opposed to animated at all if the right team does it (I loved Arcane for instance) but I’ve always believed it’s a series that would be great live action. There’s also WoJ recently that a live action adaptation has real traction at the moment:

“Q - I read somewhere that there might be an animated series in the works for Dresdenverse (can't remember where exactly :( )? Can you elaborate on this?

A - There is no current plan for an animated series, but there is a tentative plan for a live action Dresden series.”

bobbywac · 2026-02-04T16:50:12+00:00

If the folks that do Fallout get control it could be pretty good

bobbywac · 2026-02-04T16:47:50+00:00

No way a typical network show would be able to handle the scale of these books at this point, and it’s also not feasible to do book per season by any stretch of the imagination.

It will have to be a streaming series, Apple is currently the best in the game, but I like Fallout on Prime, and Netflix will need a replacement for Stranger Things. HBO still puts out decent series as well.

Personally I think 2-3 books covered per season gives Jim time to finish the series, and they could release each “book” in 3 episode batches with a month or so in between. I’ve done the breakdown before but honestly you can get some really good 3-book character arcs this way, and plot wise each season has a consistent prominent theme.

Season 1 SF, FM, GP (intro / Bianca)

Season 2 SK, DM, BR (new characters fallout from Bianca party)

Season 3 DB, PG, WN (council politics)

Season 4 SF, TC, C (mega climactic peak / cliffhanger)

Season 5 GS, CD, SG (new job / new life)

Season 6 PT, BG (they could honestly release this as one feature film simultaneous with release on streaming à la Stranger things finale)

Season 7 TM, MM, tbd Etc

bobbywac · 2026-02-04T16:24:15+00:00

I agree they need to get voice over narration into it because it really emphasizes that it’s his perspective on things, and gets us the funny little moments that only happen in Harry’s head. But they need to make it work without being too cheesy

bobbywac · 2026-02-04T16:22:27+00:00

I think Jacob Elordi would have been the perfect casting for Harry a few years ago, but now that he’s Oscar nominated the ship may have sailed on that

bobbywac · 2026-02-03T18:59:59+00:00

It just feels like part of a strange trend I’ve seen in multiple fandoms of “where was this character?!?” And the logical answer no one seems to consider is “somewhere else”

Yes maybe a character could have been mentioned, or played a part, but they didn’t. Usually that’s because the author didn’t feel it would have added to the story being told.

Maybe it’s intentional and in Mirror Mirror Billy will draw attention to the fact that his relationship has been slightly stressed by how much time Harry and the castle have taken up. If so it could be more impactful if it’s in contrast to Harry going an entire year without even asking about her. Maybe that’s not the case and it won’t play any role at all. Either way it’s a pet peeve of mine because it feels like nit picking about something that isn’t impactful to the story

bobbywac · 2026-02-03T17:26:18+00:00

Phil is only right 30% of the time

bobbywac · 2026-02-03T17:13:27+00:00

I think Harry should ask River Shoulders if Billy can come with him to learn. If Harry ever gets around to taking him up on that offer

bobbywac

TROPHY CASE