kareila_books | #22: Jim Butcher, Skin Game (Dresden Files #15)

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I'm starting to get annoyed by Butcher's increasing reliance on hiding things that Dresden knows or has done until a "big reveal" moment - in essence, surprising the reader but not the protagonist. That may be part of a magician's trade, but in a narrative, it feels like a cheap trick for building suspense.

I also don't appreciate feeling like I've not witnessed important events that have happened since the previous novel. Did I miss a short story somewhere that explained the onset of this "parasite" that somehow survived his near death experience to plague him with symptoms for years, or did it just suddenly appear because it was convenient? Usually Butcher does a better job of setting up that sort of plot device.

That said, the ultimate payoff was very satisfying, and again, as with Cold Days, I find myself wanting to reread the first part of the series as old, mostly forgotten adversaries from ten books ago pop up for another round of action.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

whatisthegood

However, I can't figure out at this time of morning how to make it non-spoilery. Comment is going to your email instead.

And re: the "big reveal" moment -- while I agree with you that Jim Butcher may be on the verge of overusing it, I think it's appropriate for a "caper" story. At least, I remember that Ocean's 11 did something like that, and I understand that the older Rat Pack movies had a similar setup and reveal. Going back and rereading, things like Dresden picking a fight with a certain uber-powerful character almost immediately upon meeting, now seem like planning, not just testosterone. So it worked for me, I guess.

From:

whatisthegood

To summarize the non-spoilery version of my email to you, it hasn't been all that long. I think. The relevant timeline goes from the end of White Night onward. Let me think about how long the "incubation" period was...

From:

kareila

I think that in White Night, Molly is still a teenager, and in Skin Game we're told she's now in her late twenties. They implied it was about 12 years, I believe.

From:

whatisthegood

WOW (Molly's age). I think you're right! I remember a scene where the police are interrogating her about recent deaths during a horror movie convention. She looks older than she really is. Dresden uses the fact that's she's _underage_, a minor, being interrogated without a parent or guardian present (which is generally illegal) to get the cops to back off. "Underage" varies from state to age, but her being under 18 is a safe bet.

Well, it's nie to see characters in a series who actually age. :)

From:

kareila

You do have a point, but there's a difference in that with movies, you're rarely inside the character's head - so it's less jarring to discover if he was hiding something from you.

From:

whatisthegood

Upon reflection, I have to agree with you. Given how much the secret plan would have been on Harry's mind, the narrative feels "artificially" edited. (You know what I mean.) It's not playing fair with the reader.

Now, Sue the dinosaur in "Dead Beat"? Totally legit, esp. since it wasn't even a hidden plan, but rather inspired on the spot. I mean, talk about "Chekov's gun" on the mantle... We the reader had clues about our expectations. (Not saying anything more specific, since some readers here might not have read that novel yet.

From:

dmsj

I was very confused when I got to that stage.

To be honest, I found the beginning (read: first 1/2 to 3/4) of this book to be very slow-going, but of course, as with any Dresden novel, the last 100 pages are what REALLY counts and where Butcher does his best writing. In this book, it was actually the last 30-50 pages that made the whole rest of the book worth it. I almost gave it a 5 star rating in Goodreads based on the ending alone... but since it really did take me a long time to get into it, and I didn't enjoy the first part as much as I hoped, I dropped it to a 4. But the ending, as Oliver said the other day, really should rate about a 7/5.

Polka may never die... but it might just Jedi.