Dresden Files: Series Timeline

[Katarn]

Besides, being able to help pin SF at the year 2000?  Totally made my week. Or would have, if there hadn't been a new chapter.

We shall form the Society of 2000.

Actually, the interesting thing about your attempt versus the other attempts to pin down the timeline definitively through minor details is that Jim more than likely knew when the Chicago Mayoral elections take place since Death Masks took place in late February and the mayoral election always occurs in Chicago on the last Tuesday in February. That could, of course, be a coincidence but it would seem to be an awfully convenient one if it is.

Yea that was my logic too- it's not a random day of the week Jim might've misplaced, or a baseball game that could've been any of 3 seasons (although thanks to this and cass I'm pretty sure it's '09)- it's still a minor detail, but one that has more weight and merit to it.
You may also join the Society of 2000 

[cass]

Par-tay!  
*tosses confetti*

Couldn't have been '07-- Tampa had a record of something like 60-odd wins and 90-odd losses.  (Ok, fine, 66 and 96, and finished in the basement of the AL East.)  Harry knows at least a little baseball; he wouldn't have picked them to off the Yankees that year. Even early-ish in the season.  Likewise with '08--I don't think anyone expected them not to collapse.  (Although, if asked late enough in the season, this might be plausible. I still stand by 2009, especially with Bastian's election year info.)

Can we change the official timeline to years now? Can we? Huh? Huh?  

Edited to add: should we add Curses to the timeline in the first post?  Even if we don't place it in a specific year, shouldn't we at least place it in 9 ASF, (mid to late?) summer?

[lovejoy69]

Yeah, I'm a proponent of Storm Front being set in 2000- makes chronology a ton easier.

Also, one thing I picked up re-reading Death Masks- it's an election year. (DM 116).  Does that help any?

EDIT: City elections are every four years- 2003 being the most likely (too late in the series to be 1999 or early for 2007)- making 2000 Storm Front.

I HAVE SOLVED THE TIMELINE CONUNDRUM.  Nobel Prize, please.

In terms of being easier to calculate chronologies, yes, setting Storm Front as if it were 2000 would be way more convenient. In terms of when they were actually written, and unless Jim was for some reason intentionally setting the early books future-dated, IIRC Jim has said in Q&A sessions that he had written SF while still at the University of Oklahoma, and also that Fool Moon and Grave Peril were ready before Storm Front eventually sold.
Since SF was published April 2000, it would seem that those were written in the late 90's. For Harry to be about a year younger than Jim, Harry would have been 25 in 1997.

The only other real-world date that comes to mind is that Stroger replaced the old Cook County Hospital in December 2002. Of course, hospital construction must have been in progress for quite some length of time before that, so Jim could have become aware of the upcoming hospital move some years ahead of the actual move if he was tracking major Chicago planning.

[Praeceps]

In terms of being easier to calculate chronologies, yes, setting Storm Front as if it were 2000 would be way more convenient. In terms of when they were actually written, and unless Jim was for some reason intentionally setting the early books future-dated, IIRC Jim has said in Q&A sessions that he had written SF while still at the University of Oklahoma, and also that Fool Moon and Grave Peril were ready before Storm Front eventually sold.
Since SF was published April 2000, it would seem that those were written in the late 90's. For Harry to be about a year younger than Jim, Harry would have been 25 in 1997.

The only other real-world date that comes to mind is that Stroger replaced the old Cook County Hospital in December 2002. Of course, hospital construction must have been in progress for quite some length of time before that, so Jim could have become aware of the upcoming hospital move some years ahead of the actual move if he was tracking major Chicago planning.

Harry being a year younger than Jim has nothing to do with Harry being born a year after Jim. If Jim wrote the first book when he was 26 and Harry was 25 that would make Harry a year younger than Jim when it was written and since the books are usually set about a year apart and almost always released a year apart that gap in age would always remain relatively the same. The books could have been set in 1225 DR (the Forgotten Realms calender) or in 15000 B.C.E. and Harry's age difference from Jim would remain the same.

@Priscellie: Note that this mistake of logic is still reflected in Harry's personal timeline.

Also, I have yet to see how this statement can mean anything but that the books take place at least during or after 2000:

The end of the twentieth century and the dawn of the new millennium had seen something of a renaissance in public awareness of the paranormal.

P.S. I'm aware that the new millennium actually began in 2001 (do to the lack of a year 0) but most people wouldn't know that and thus Harry could be making that extremely common mistake (hell all the news networks and most people I talk to make that mistake). Furthermore, before anyone says that statement could be referring to a year or two before 2000, grammatically it cannot. Since it is referring to the end of the twentieth century in the past tense that means it has to be over already.

[Serack]

Now if only this kind of sluthing could determine who was on Demonreach with Peabody.

[cass]

*sigh*
I guess we're just not good enough, Serack.

I'll do the TC re-read tonight, happy?

[Praeceps]

Now if only this kind of sluthing could determine who was on Demonreach with Peabody.

Did you see my post in the new WOJ/transcription thread?

[Serack]

Did you see my post in the new WOJ/transcription thread?

yezzer

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

In terms of being easier to calculate chronologies, yes, setting Storm Front as if it were 2000 would be way more convenient. In terms of when they were actually written, and unless Jim was for some reason intentionally setting the early books future-dated,

I think a number of people do that just to have lead time in case of, oh, your series being set in New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina happening, or something of equivalent scale that would turn your series into explicit alternate history if you did not have lead time.

[Katarn]

I think a number of people do that just to have lead time in case of, oh, your series being set in New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina happening, or something of equivalent scale that would turn your series into explicit alternate history if you did not have lead time.

right, or New York before September 2001.  While I think BAT will eventually cause this, I suspect it's why Jim is intentionally vague- in politics or any historical reference- he waited a LONG time to mention Zambrano or Jack Sparrow, both of who are technically "knowable" since c. 2000, giving a long time for any story to take place.

[phoenixjustice]

*sigh*
I guess we're just not good enough, Serack.

I'll do the TC re-read tonight, happy?

Turn Coat is great but it's hard for me to get through, because of

(click to show/hide)

Morgan's death

I still haven't completely forgiven Jim for that. =P

[Beamer]

HARRY'S TIMELINE:

AGE 0 (1972):   Harry's mother, now Margaret Gwendolyn Dresden, dies in childbirth.  She is murdered by a ritual entropy curse, courtesy of Lord Raith.  Jim says Harry is about a year younger than him, so he would have been born in 1972.

If 1972 is correct then SF is set in 1998 or on the other hand if SF is set in 2000 then Harry was born in 1974.

The 1974 date fits my pet theory that Harry was born under a full moon

[Priscellie]

If 1972 is correct then SF is set in 1998 or on the other hand if SF is set in 2000 then Harry was born in 1974.

The 1974 date fits my pet theory that Harry was born under a full moon

...I need to tell Jim that, because that's FREAKING AWESOME.  I don't think he intended it at all, and it's a ridiculously cool coincidence.

[Serack]

...I need to tell Jim that, because that's FREAKING AWESOME.  I don't think he intended it at all, and it's a ridiculously cool coincidence.

I'd love to hear what he has to say about that.  If he doesn't consider it spoilery

[MegaPuff75]

Has anyone brought up the fact that Ortega can't be from the 13th/14th century because in changes Lea says that Arriana turned Ortega because he was a conquistador which would put him at the 16th century because the conquistadors didn't go to the Americas till then so Arriana would have no reason to hate conquistadors until then.