The Law

[Conspiracy Theorist]

The Law, just finished the first read through. It is set a month and four months after Battle Ground, so still not further in the time-line than Christmas Eve/The Good People

My theories about Bob and the internet appear to be correct, he can indeed access it and mobile phones in the Castle and appears to be streaming movies for Harry.

One of my theories about the Unseelie Accords was also bang on the money, Mab doesn’t care about Harry unless it also involves an insult to Winter, in this case damage to the company car. Then yes she gets involved.

Some of my speculation confirming Paranoid Gary is also correct, and he now appears to be working with Harry, but especially Bob.

[Regenbogen]

Me too. 

There is also mentioned that apparently the castle needs some kind of spirit to fully function. This seems to be before Bob was referred to as "the Castle", before " Little Things".

LOL I laughed about Harry's argument

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that Mab is involved because the company car was damaged.

Also about his forced politeness towards Marcone.

It seems that Will is there not only to help with the refugees and running the castle, but also to keep Harry functioning. Harry seems to kind of "black out" sometimes, even while being occupied with cooking for example, because thoughts about Murphy's moment of death come to him a lot. OK, no wonder, it has been only one month. I'm thinking about Will's "Harry, come back" comment while Harry was trying to fry eggs.

Paranoid Gary was hilarious.


Edit: @ CT: did you start reading at midnight? I just noticed the time stamp. I admit, I would have done that, too, if I had been awake that long, but I fell asleep at 23:30, woke up again at 3 a.m. and decided not to get angry at my inability to sleep on and simply start reading. LOL

[Regenbogen]

Sorry about the double post:

I also noticed, that there is no Maggie. Not even in Harry's thoughts. The only sign that there is a child in his life, was his answer to someone saying that people want better lives for their kids and Harry throws in "me too". That's it.

[Con]

I mean the novella is appropriately named everyone sticking to a convoluted letter of the law interpretation
but I feel like in the end the entire argument was a little moot for most parties

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Pimp got killed by St Louis which Marcone considers a legitimate case of business, Harry goes out of his way to save the guys life from supernatural threats, but just kinda shrugs when after all that effort mortals kill him. The Finnish are the ones who lose the most face while exposing themselves the most. [/spoilers]

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Harry saved the pimp from everyone else, he knew that he could not save him from himself. If his deal with St Louis didn’t kill him he would soon annoy someone else who would.

I suspect Laplanders punishment is a nice meal, a show and a night of romantic woo. Date Night. It would both horrify and demean her in her own eyes, and Nameless knows that he is storing up bad karma with her should she ever break free, but that may be the only way to punish her.

The Law part of the evolution of Harry as a schemer, we saw it first in Skin Game, and again in Battle Ground taking the Castle, here he out schemes Mab, arch schemer himself. Nicodemus, Marcone and now Mab have all been outschemed by Harry.

Harry has quoted Gandal “But it is said: Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.”

Harry has always been quick to anger, but he has learn’t subtle.

[vincentric]

I think Mab was satisfied for the entire incident with Harry's one line.

"Then I'll just learn to play harder."

Harry is just beginning to use his brain along with his Power. If he becomes a smarter thinker and more ruthless, Mab gains exponentially despite the minor time "wasted".

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Not more ruthless certainly smarter, he also outsmarted his old master Eb as well in Battle Ground. Eb even comments on it.

The other thing we learn, Harry has new Force Rings and a proper Shield Bracelet, but hardly had to use them, because he used his brain instead. This shows the turnover in the character, his subtle is waxing.

It can take  centuries for a Wizard to achieve subtle, Harry has managed it in a couple of decades, that may be why Mab is actually pleased with him.

It’s interesting that Nameless provides a new link to Kemmler and worked with him, Evil Bob would know this. That is a team -up Harry should fear.

[magnuskn]

Well, I guess that's the problem with a novella, you got just so many pages to tell your story and sidetracking eats pages. Hence no Maggie. Which was disappointing, but I presume that she'll get her moments to shine in the upcoming "one year of Dresdens life" novel.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

No Mouse, but we get introduced to a Basset Hound Peppermint, a friend for Mouse? No Toot so this must be set more than 2 weeks before Little Things. Marcone’s reaction to losing the Castle to Harry strongly suggests he was not responsible for the Boom, especially after a car bomb attempt on the Munstermobile ended badly for him. He never repeats a mistake. The Merlin is even more strongly a candidate for that.

We don’t see the Gargoyles, obviously they are being saved for NEXT BOOK.

I think Nameless and Ms Laplander and Max will likely end up in Goodman Grey’s stories, and The Law is a good way of introducing them to the Dresdenverse. Max I think will be in NEXT BOOK following his invitation to Game Knight (you bet everyone is calling it that behind Harry’s back).

[Mira]

Well, we learned that Marcone may pay off Animal Control to declare Mouse a health hazard.
We learned that Kemmler had something to do with starting both WWI and WWII.
We learned that Harry is grieving heavily and suffering from PTSD flashbacks, but is trying
to carry on instead of curling up in a fetal position feeling sorry for himself.
We learned that while Bob may have access to the internet, his ability to hack into sites to get information is limited, hence he needed help from Paranoid Gary.
Supporting a bunch of homeless families and revamping a large castle is a huge drain on Harry's funds..  In spite of all the diamonds he collected in Skin Game he did a lot of whining about lack of funds.
The explanation they came up with to "explain" what happened during the battle for Chicago backfires sometimes..
Harry accepts seemingly that Murphy's death was an accident.
The courtship of Lara is going to be very complicated.
Harry and Marcone have reluctant respect for one another.  Harry also knows Marcone's weakness and used that to get the information he needed.
Rawlings and some of the police force are still on Harry's side. 

So all and all the first part of the story was a bit slow in my opinion, but got better towards the end.

[heidi_storage]

I also noticed, that there is no Maggie. Not even in Harry's thoughts. The only sign that there is a child in his life, was his answer to someone saying that people want better lives for their kids and Harry throws in "me too". That's it.

Harry should never have been made a custodial parent; JB just can't write Harry-as-dad or Maggie well. Children are annoying, inconvenient pains in the rear (I say this as the mother of four sweet, awesome kiddos who are lights of my life), and it is massively difficult to forget about them.

[Regenbogen]

Harry should never have been made a custodial parent; JB just can't write Harry-as-dad or Maggie well. Children are annoying, inconvenient pains in the rear (I say this as the mother of four sweet, awesome kiddos who are lights of my life), and it is massively difficult to forget about them.

LOL
I completely agree.
I don't think about my kids all day long. It is different, when they are still babies, but at a certain age they become more and more independent and don't need to be cared for all day any more.

I imagine they are difficult to write, but he DID bring her into his life, so there she is. Even if she doesn't life with Harry in the castle yet (maybe she's still at the Carpenters', maybe she's at a boarding school for safety), it just feels weird to me, that after he decided to be there for her, in this story which goes over days (ok, months, but the main action are the first days), there is not even a small reminder of her existence. Like "Maggie doesn't like scrambled eggs" or "after a short trip to see Maggie I went to the lawyer." Except the short "me too".

What I mean is: JB decided Maggie had to be a part of Harry's life, because everything else would be out of character for all characters involved after Changes. So there she is, and can't be ignored or simply written out of the story for convenience. That's not how it works in real life, especially when you are a single parent. She doesn't need to be a constant presence but no mention in a 99 pages story confused me.

As a side note: as mouse isn't there too, he presumably is with her.

[magnuskn]

Completely disagree, Harry being a dad has been one of the best things in the last books. I felt the absence of Maggie in this one, but, again, since this is a novella, I presume that the limited page count made Jim focus entirely on the main plot, with absolutely none of the side plots one would expect in a full novel. Hence, none of the side characters who were prominent in the last books popping in to say hello (no Butters, no Mouse, no Michael, no Uriel, no Molly, no Maggie).

[kel0700]

I also noticed, that there is no Maggie. Not even in Harry's thoughts. The only sign that there is a child in his life, was his answer to someone saying that people want better lives for their kids and Harry throws in "me too". That's it.

Harry does mention Maggie. He talks about money he's left aside for her and how he has barely enough left to run the castle for 18 months.

[Mira]

Harry does mention Maggie. He talks about money he's left aside for her and how he has barely enough left to run the castle for 18 months.

Yes, he does, and at that point in time, he is dealing with his grief and injuries, the castle is still
being repaired and remodeled.  So in many ways it would be best if she remain at the Carpenters for the moment.  Notice Mouse isn't at the castle either, he is with her.  Except for Marcone's threat to sic the city health department on him, Mouse isn't mentioned either.