Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
May. 15th, 2007 11:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.
Harry Dresden's faced some pretty terrifying foes during his career. Giant scorpians. Oversexed vampires. Psychotic werewolves. It comes with the territory when you're the only professional wizard in the Chicago area phone book.
But in all Harry's years of supernatural sleuthing, he's never faced anything like this: the spirit world's gone loco. All over Chicago, ghosts are causing trouble - and not just the door-slamming, boo-shouting variety. These ghosts are tormented, violent, and deadly. Someone - or something - is purposely stirring them up to wreak unearthly havoc. But why? And why do so many of the victims have ties to Harry? If Harry doesn't figure it out soon, he could wind up a ghost himself ...
I'd had some reservations about the previous two Harry Dresden novels, but found them an entertaining enough read to have looked forward to this one. What a mistake. Huge.
All of the comments about flat characters, expositional dialogue and plot contrivances apply equally to this book, but all are amplified and accentuated by the frankly stupid convoluted plot - in fact, a needlessly convoluted plot. Reading this, I felt that Butcher was trying to do two things:
1. he suddenly found that he knew where he wanted to take the overriding arc of the series and needed to tie in the backstory and events of the previous two books so that he could take that forward; and
2. he had a really good idea for a ghost-related story that he wanted to incorporate into point one because he didn't want to waste it.
What we end up with therefore is a plot that tries to tie in Harry's victory over a black sorcerer called Kravos with a plot by Bianca and the vampire Red Court to force a war with the White Council. The problem is that Butcher patently didn't think how his two elements would work together (in fact, whilst you're told that Kravos was working with Bianca and the Black Court vampire Mavra, Butcher doesn't bother to explain how the three knew each other, where they met, what Kavos thought to get out of the deal etc etc. In fact, whilst we know that Bianca was looking on this as revenge for Dresden having made her kill one of her favourite human servants, the motivation on her part doesn't really convince - firstly because we never heard of her being so angry in book two as to make her conflict with Dresden wider and secondly because it seems somewhat convenient to discover that vampires can learn and do magic and she becomes very powerful in the space of 18 months.
Spearking of the time period of 18 months, one of the biggest things to annoy me in this book was Butcher's total lack of regard to his own time line. This is most obviously demonstrated in a scene where Susan, Harry's reporter cypher girlfriend, volunteers a year of her memories to Harry's fairy godmother Lea in return for Lea saving his life. It's obvious to all where this is going and sure enough, Lea takes the last year of Susan's memories. Unfortunately, Butcher would have you believe that losing a year means that Susan has now lost all memory of her relationship with Harry. Had he done the maths from his first book however (as I ended up doing), you discover that the events in Grave Peril are happening 18 months after the end of Stormfront, the end of which sees Harry deciding to ask Susan out on a date. Fool Moon starts about 6 months after that (we're told it's autumn and Harry refers to the events of Stormfront as having occurred during the spring) and Harry makes it clear that he and Susan are having a sexual relationship. Even allowing for Harry being crap in bed, it is COMPLETELY UNBELIEVABLE that memory-loss!Susan would have totally forgotten her relationship with him. In fact, it smacks of lazy writing and a cheap plot device to create dramatic tension for the characters.
And speaking of a cheap plot device to create dramatic tension for the characters, Butcher compounds his inability to add with the fact that in this book he's decided that Harry is in love with Susan. Leaving aside the fact that Susan has never been anything more than a two-dimensional love interest/rescue interest, the Harry of Fool Moon saw her as little more than a shag buddy on account of how his one true love was the mysterious Elaine who betrayed him. If Butcher wants us to care about how Harry and Susan love each other, he needed to show us it in another book and he needed to develop Susan as more of a character in her own right because here, she's still a cypher and whilst Butcher uses the great cliche of love overcoming darkness, you simply don't care enough about her when he pulls his 'twist' by having her made a half-vampire and therefore unable to be with Harry for fear of killing and becoming a full vamp.
I could maybe, maybe have stood all this if Butcher didn't resort to his stock plot-moving trick of having people do stupid things for the sake of them. For example, he needs the magical sword Amoracchius to fall into Bianca's hands - so he has Harry drop it in front of his godmother. He needs Harry to walk into Bianca's court so even though he knows it's a trap, he has Harry go there anyway. He needs to put Susan into Bianca's hands, so he has her fake an invitation, even though Harry's told her it's too dangerous for her to go. He needs Harry to be beholden to Lea, so he suddenly informs us of a previous promise, has Harry break it and then has Harry make a second promise and break it, even though he knows it will give Lea power over him. The list just goes on and on and it's so lazy and so boring to read that many times I had to put the book down for fear of throwing it hard enough to break an object that I actually value.
There are a number of loose ends in the book that Butcher doesn't bother to explain - e.g. apparently Susan works out that Kavos is somehow connected with Bianca - we never find out how. Lydia, a teenager who begs for Harry's help and becomes a pawn that Bianca uses against him, is literally brought out to be put in peril before being rescued and perfuntorily sent to the Catholic Witness Protection Programme without ever having her involvement (particularly how Bianca knew of her) explained.
I think that the above summarises most of my issues with the book but I can find one more paragraph to point out that Butcher still has the flat-secondary-character problem that's plagued the previous two in this series. Because Murphy is sidelined for most of this book, we're given the new character of Michael, a true righteous man and knight of God who could not have been more beige and lifeless if Butcher has tried. Thomas, a vampire of the White Court who appears for the final third has some more spark to him but still reminded me of every standard vampire in modern contemporary fiction. It's the severe lack of credible female characters that grates me the most however - all of the women are two-dimensional, whether they're villains or rescue-cyphers and it's beginning to seriously annoy me.
The Verdict:
I'm only going to read the remaining books in the series because they've been lent to me and a friend says that Book 4 is a better read. If I'd been buying these for myself, then this would have been the drop-dead point because whilst I think there's a lot of potential in the series, the characterisation of the supporting characters and the overall plotting are just complete crap and it's a shame because there's a lot of interesting world-building going on that could have been handled so much more convincingly. If you've started the series, then definitely give this one a miss.
Harry Dresden's faced some pretty terrifying foes during his career. Giant scorpians. Oversexed vampires. Psychotic werewolves. It comes with the territory when you're the only professional wizard in the Chicago area phone book.
But in all Harry's years of supernatural sleuthing, he's never faced anything like this: the spirit world's gone loco. All over Chicago, ghosts are causing trouble - and not just the door-slamming, boo-shouting variety. These ghosts are tormented, violent, and deadly. Someone - or something - is purposely stirring them up to wreak unearthly havoc. But why? And why do so many of the victims have ties to Harry? If Harry doesn't figure it out soon, he could wind up a ghost himself ...
I'd had some reservations about the previous two Harry Dresden novels, but found them an entertaining enough read to have looked forward to this one. What a mistake. Huge.
All of the comments about flat characters, expositional dialogue and plot contrivances apply equally to this book, but all are amplified and accentuated by the frankly stupid convoluted plot - in fact, a needlessly convoluted plot. Reading this, I felt that Butcher was trying to do two things:
1. he suddenly found that he knew where he wanted to take the overriding arc of the series and needed to tie in the backstory and events of the previous two books so that he could take that forward; and
2. he had a really good idea for a ghost-related story that he wanted to incorporate into point one because he didn't want to waste it.
What we end up with therefore is a plot that tries to tie in Harry's victory over a black sorcerer called Kravos with a plot by Bianca and the vampire Red Court to force a war with the White Council. The problem is that Butcher patently didn't think how his two elements would work together (in fact, whilst you're told that Kravos was working with Bianca and the Black Court vampire Mavra, Butcher doesn't bother to explain how the three knew each other, where they met, what Kavos thought to get out of the deal etc etc. In fact, whilst we know that Bianca was looking on this as revenge for Dresden having made her kill one of her favourite human servants, the motivation on her part doesn't really convince - firstly because we never heard of her being so angry in book two as to make her conflict with Dresden wider and secondly because it seems somewhat convenient to discover that vampires can learn and do magic and she becomes very powerful in the space of 18 months.
Spearking of the time period of 18 months, one of the biggest things to annoy me in this book was Butcher's total lack of regard to his own time line. This is most obviously demonstrated in a scene where Susan, Harry's reporter cypher girlfriend, volunteers a year of her memories to Harry's fairy godmother Lea in return for Lea saving his life. It's obvious to all where this is going and sure enough, Lea takes the last year of Susan's memories. Unfortunately, Butcher would have you believe that losing a year means that Susan has now lost all memory of her relationship with Harry. Had he done the maths from his first book however (as I ended up doing), you discover that the events in Grave Peril are happening 18 months after the end of Stormfront, the end of which sees Harry deciding to ask Susan out on a date. Fool Moon starts about 6 months after that (we're told it's autumn and Harry refers to the events of Stormfront as having occurred during the spring) and Harry makes it clear that he and Susan are having a sexual relationship. Even allowing for Harry being crap in bed, it is COMPLETELY UNBELIEVABLE that memory-loss!Susan would have totally forgotten her relationship with him. In fact, it smacks of lazy writing and a cheap plot device to create dramatic tension for the characters.
And speaking of a cheap plot device to create dramatic tension for the characters, Butcher compounds his inability to add with the fact that in this book he's decided that Harry is in love with Susan. Leaving aside the fact that Susan has never been anything more than a two-dimensional love interest/rescue interest, the Harry of Fool Moon saw her as little more than a shag buddy on account of how his one true love was the mysterious Elaine who betrayed him. If Butcher wants us to care about how Harry and Susan love each other, he needed to show us it in another book and he needed to develop Susan as more of a character in her own right because here, she's still a cypher and whilst Butcher uses the great cliche of love overcoming darkness, you simply don't care enough about her when he pulls his 'twist' by having her made a half-vampire and therefore unable to be with Harry for fear of killing and becoming a full vamp.
I could maybe, maybe have stood all this if Butcher didn't resort to his stock plot-moving trick of having people do stupid things for the sake of them. For example, he needs the magical sword Amoracchius to fall into Bianca's hands - so he has Harry drop it in front of his godmother. He needs Harry to walk into Bianca's court so even though he knows it's a trap, he has Harry go there anyway. He needs to put Susan into Bianca's hands, so he has her fake an invitation, even though Harry's told her it's too dangerous for her to go. He needs Harry to be beholden to Lea, so he suddenly informs us of a previous promise, has Harry break it and then has Harry make a second promise and break it, even though he knows it will give Lea power over him. The list just goes on and on and it's so lazy and so boring to read that many times I had to put the book down for fear of throwing it hard enough to break an object that I actually value.
There are a number of loose ends in the book that Butcher doesn't bother to explain - e.g. apparently Susan works out that Kavos is somehow connected with Bianca - we never find out how. Lydia, a teenager who begs for Harry's help and becomes a pawn that Bianca uses against him, is literally brought out to be put in peril before being rescued and perfuntorily sent to the Catholic Witness Protection Programme without ever having her involvement (particularly how Bianca knew of her) explained.
I think that the above summarises most of my issues with the book but I can find one more paragraph to point out that Butcher still has the flat-secondary-character problem that's plagued the previous two in this series. Because Murphy is sidelined for most of this book, we're given the new character of Michael, a true righteous man and knight of God who could not have been more beige and lifeless if Butcher has tried. Thomas, a vampire of the White Court who appears for the final third has some more spark to him but still reminded me of every standard vampire in modern contemporary fiction. It's the severe lack of credible female characters that grates me the most however - all of the women are two-dimensional, whether they're villains or rescue-cyphers and it's beginning to seriously annoy me.
The Verdict:
I'm only going to read the remaining books in the series because they've been lent to me and a friend says that Book 4 is a better read. If I'd been buying these for myself, then this would have been the drop-dead point because whilst I think there's a lot of potential in the series, the characterisation of the supporting characters and the overall plotting are just complete crap and it's a shame because there's a lot of interesting world-building going on that could have been handled so much more convincingly. If you've started the series, then definitely give this one a miss.
