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He's also been in multiple gunfights and walked away from all of them without a scratch. Literally immuned to bullet.
First impressions after reading it:
I liked it, I prefer a logical and reasonable protagonist, so Luccio's POV was a nice change compared to Dresden. Overall it was as enjoyable as one can expect from a short story, and I hope we will get "For A Few Warlocks More" soon enough.
I'd have liked to see a bit more talk from Kemmler, he seemed like a nice guy.
Now on to observations and problems:
- Anyone else notices that the pentagram the Necromancers were using was of the same design Nicodemus used in "Small Favour"? Is it just coincident? It might be just the go to pentagram for Warlocks, or maybe it is hinting at a connection?
- I see many people have a problem with Luccio considering burning down the place, I don't really agree.
First off it would probably fall under not breaking the Law since once summoned fire is fire, so it would be vanilla arson that killed people not Law braking here.
Besides Luccio had a good take on the Warlocks position (upstairs) and where the rest of the people are (downstairs) so evacuating them and avoiding causalities was possible IMO, also I think it is implied that the Wardens have a certain immunity when fulfilling their duties, they definitely don't get beheaded if a Warlock dies resisting arrest.
- Oh my god! Magical Glasses! I have been saying for years Dresden should get something like that
- It honestly feels a bit unrealistic that a vanilla sheriff can shoot down a 40+ sized horde of the Undead, especially with Wild West era weapons, those things weren't known for range and precision. Did they had even rifling back then?
- While I understand sending the bulk of you forces to the Sherif Office it feels unrealistic that Grevane wouldn't keep a few undead on the roof
- It is also odd that an experienced Wizard like Kemmler would leave blood and skin on his bonds when escaping, a quick fire spell to burn the ropes was too much of a hassle? Feels like an obvious trap.
It depends on your metric. It's kind of like asking whether Marcone is better or worse than his less competent predecessors in the criminal world. If you measure by the level of direct violence, especially against kids and vulnerable people, he's better. OTOH, he makes crime pay well, and the drugs and vice and other trouble he traffics in makes life in general worse, from that POV he's worse than his predecessors because he's more efficient. If you're a street cop you're less likely to lose a fellow officer to violence with Marcone running stuff. If you're a drug enforcement man, it's far worse and you're more overloaded than before.
The vampires are like that. The White Court is easier to battle than the Red. The Reds are more physically and immediately dangerous, and they can convert you into one of them. The Reds can reproduce far faster, one Red can become hundreds quickly. WCVs need just as long as we do to increase their numbers, and are relatively much easier to kill. Lara in a nasty mood might tear through a SWAT team, but she won't make them into WCVs, and if they keep their head they may take her down.
The Black Court is worse on every metric, except that their weaknesses are so well known.
It wasn't Bianca's actions. She was a pawn on the board, even for her own people. Bianca wasn't the sharpest tool in the box.
Now that is a very good question, actually. I don't down that Somebody was using the Red Court as a pawn on the board. Some of them might even have realized it, but I think the Red King was so caught up in his own wonderfulness that he never suspected. I'm not at all sure who that Someone was, though.
I'm also not sure that things worked out just exactly as that Somebody intended. Whoever it was may have intended to destroy the Court. But the chain of events that led to Changes is so contingent that it's hard to imagine it being planned out in detail. It requires Maggie, who stems from that ill-advised sexual indulgence back in Death Masks. But that requires Harry's unbreakable shield, the magic rope, them being trapped there under those circumstances, etc. There are about 194,348 ways that situation could have played out differently: no Maggie.
I simply don't believe that every detail of everything that's happening is planned out years ahead of time by the villain. Not even Mab can do that. Instead, I think the villain(s) are really really good at improvising as they go along, they have a plan, yes, and they have a lot of foresight and contingencies worked out, but they still have to wait and see like everybody else. There are just too many ways things could go sour for it all to be One Big Plan.
For ex, imagine if back in Summer Knight, when he escaped Aurora's quicksand trap, instead of ending in the tree, Harry had slammed head-first into the trunk...and was instantly killed. It could easily have worked out that way.
Suppose on Demonreach, Karrin's bullet simply blasted through Maeve's body non-lethally, leaving her wounded and helpless but alive. The whole subsequent sequence of events changes. Or suppose Karrin's gun jammed. Etc.
The enemy is powerful, knowledgeable, and obviously superhuman in some ways. They have access to broad sources of information, but I don't believe that they can plan every detail ahead of time.
I think it may have been more or less that. Whether they planned the Fomor, or just figured that the vacuum would be filled by 'someone' and they'd play it as it lay is a good question.
I know it seems a little too obvious for many but I think Commodore Rook is the traitor. When Rook tries to buy Preddy, he mentions how his House has wide vision. Grimm takes this to mean that Rook will fight dirty for the ship but Grimm is attacked by silk-weavers immediately after, implying collusion with the Cavendish before Grimm was working for the Spirearch. It would have killed Bayard and Grimm, the only witnesses left to Rooks initial betrayal on the Perilous all those years ago. The rat-like cunning Gwen mentions seems on target, too. I think he had Creedy habbled to spy on Grimm. However I believe that Creedy wants out from under Rook's thumb.
And I am very excited about that duel. I has been formally given, accepted and started. Now to see it finished.
btw, I really, really, wanted to see that duel, It was frustrating when it did´happen
There was a minor plot point about the Spirearch suspecting that there was a traitor in his guard - which is why they had to tiptoe around in Habble Landing, or at least as close as Gwen gets to tiptoeing, LOL - but TAW never revealed just who the traitor was. I can't help that it will become a major plot point in future CS novels, Jim just loves to load whole arsenals full of Chekhov's guns, but the sixty-four million dollar question is who? My money is on Reggie Astor - again Jim just loves him some Chekhov's guns, and I get a very Kalarus Brencis Minoris feel off of the sleazy little punk.
Who do you think the traitor might be folks?
Her character seems to be intended entirely for titillation. Making her Butters trophy girlfriend really just cemented her in the role in my mind. That whole development seemed to be pure fan service.
Hopefully Jim will prove me wrong and she'll develop some real skill or become useful to the group in someway beside from a cheap porn thrill for Dresden in future novels. At the moment, as soon as she appears in a novel I guess how many sentences before she's naked / naked and injured / kidnapped.