Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

[lightreads]

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


See, this is the difference between Jim Butcher and me.



. . . Well, okay, no, it’s not the difference, there are a lot of differences. He thinks women are smaller weaker men with breasts (nearly an exact quote); I do not. He doesn’t have a very good grasp on what sexual assault and rape are; I really, really do. He thinks it’s appropriate to go off on people of color who read his books and find them racist (how dare they, you guys!); I – yeah, you get the picture.



But the point here is that he thinks a book ends with a battle, and I think a book ends with, um, an ending. It’s continually astonishing to me that a guy could come up with a set of characters I’ve become this sincerely attached to when he doesn’t write any of the bits I really care about. I mean, werewolf battle with mobsters, whatever. Nice scenery, magic, it’s not like we don’t all know how this goes. But it’s like, I don’t know, it’s like Butcher thinks the tension actually lives there in the showdown of good and evil.



It really, really doesn’t. In these books, it particularly doesn’t, because the only surprise in a Dresden battle is how, never who or why. No, the interesting bits would be after the dust settles, with a number of uncomfortable interpersonal questions floating around, and the implications of power still in the air. But do we get any of that? Nope.





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Comments

[ecaterin]

It’s continually astonishing to me that a guy could come up with a set of characters I’ve become this sincerely attached to when he doesn’t write any of the bits I really care about

YES!!!!!!!! I'm rereading the series right now, and I find I skim the battles and read all the in between conversation bits, cause THAT'S where the real action is. And he must know this on some level, because he *does* write them into the story. His internal Lasciel is probably doing the subtle stuff, while his attention is elsewhere :P

But the point here is that he thinks a book ends with a battle, and I think a book ends with, um, an ending.

GAWD. It took him the better part of 10 books to start even tacking an ending on to his battle=ending endings. But he has gotten better about it at least :P

WHY do I like these books so much, when the flaws are consistent, offensive to varying degrees, and large enough to drive trucks through?? Must be the good fanfic :D

[lightreads]

WHY do I like these books so much, when the flaws are consistent, offensive to varying degrees, and large enough to drive trucks through?? Must be the good fanfic :D

A question I ask myself on a reguar basis.

His endings are . . . we, they're sometimes present, now. But they often have that tacked on quality of the end credits music video you get in a lot of movies, you know? Or, I know, it's like the bit at the end of the first Star Wars movie, where we have a battle, and that slap in the painful medal ceremony at the end.

[ecaterin]

LOLOL - I like the Star Wars ending comparison. Exactly so :D

I attribute the draw of the Dresden books to the same thing I attribute the draw of the Harry Potter books. Both serieses have serious flaws from a technical writing perspective at the very least, but both spin a good yarn. And we humans are all happiest when, deep in our back brains, we're gathered around a fire listening to our favorite yarns with rapt attention.

[readerjane]

We do get that. Because we have you.

[treewishes]

I wonder if it's a conscious "this is what my publisher says will sell / what I think I should write" vs a subconscious "this is what intrigues me / but I'll just not think too much about that"?

Which is just about the best argument for fanfic there is, really.