I have two questions to ask everyone about John Marcone.  The first is probably just a yes or no question but the second one; well, if you want to take a stab at it, you may have to make a wild ass guess or perhaps you might prefer to call it, an educated hypothesis about future events.

Rereading the rant Nicodemus went on in Skin Game in Hades vault, when Nic claimed that Anduriel wasn’t controlling him, that in fact it was Nicodemus who led the Fallen, not the other way around, it got me thinking about Marcone.

We learned in Battle Ground that John Marcone is also a denarian and has probably been one since he was rescued by Harry and company in Small Favor.  Both Nicodemus and Marcone are smart and highly driven characters, and they both like to be in control.  They are used to getting their own way, most of the time.

Here’s my first question.  Do you think Marcone might be falling into the same error Nicodemus has made, thinking that he is in control of his partnership with one of the Fallen?  Sure, Marcone is very smart and careful, but a creature that has been in existence since near the very beginning of time itself might be able to slowly mold Marcone in ways the Baron of Chicago wouldn’t notice.

Part 2:  We know Nicodemus has a long term goal or endgame in mind.  Deirdre told Harry that she and Nicodemus were, “fighting to save the world.”  In Death Masks or Small Favor when Harry said to Nicodemus, “You’re a saint, Nic,” Nicodemus replied, “One day.”  The guy has a long-term goal in mind, which brings me back to John Marcone.

Before we knew that John Marcone had taken up one of the blackened Denarius, we thought of him as just a crime lord.  A very ambitious crime lord who was expanding his territory into the supernatural world, but in the end, just a vanilla mortal with at best twenty to forty years of life expectancy remaining.  Even if Marcone lived into his 90’s; generally speaking it’s real hard to be intimidating when you are in your 80’s or even your 70’s.  But theoretically, Marcone is functionally immortal now.  He can be killed, but it is very hard to do so.

So that leads me to my second question.  What is John Marcone’s long-term goal?  With the knowledge he must have received from Thorned Namshiel, John Marcone is probably thinking long-term now, well beyond the power he acquired by becoming the Baron of Chicago.

We know that Marcone has it in for Nicodemus, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t share; or come to share through the influence of his business partner, the same goals as Nicodemus.  Maybe Marcone sees himself or will see himself as the next leader of Denarians.  Maybe John Marcone will come to believe that he has to “save the world” the same way Nicodemus does.

In a really dark turn, maybe John Marcone becomes convinced to join forces with Nicodemus.  Harry and the KoTC have to face both Denarians, plus whatever cannon fodder Denarians Nic or Marcone can convince to join them.

On the other hand, it seems likely that in Mirror-Mirror Harry will meet a different version of John Marcone.  There has been some speculation that this alternate version of John Marcone will have radically changed after Dresden made a different decision in Grave Peril and travelled down a darker path.  I’m not sure where this idea came from; a WoJ that hinted at it or just an idea that has become popular with some readers, but this redeemed version of John Marcone might reveal something to Harry that he might later use to do what Michael couldn’t do with Nicodemus, get the John Marcone of his own universe to repent and redeem himself, perhaps helping Harry to stop Nicodemus once and for all.

I don’t know where John Marcone is going, what his long-term goals are or what they might become, but I don’t think John Marcone has the goals of a typical crime lord any longer.  He wants something more now.  What do you think? 

 

OK, I'm not really angry, but this quote from Peace Talks just might derail several ideas that I and other readers have been discussing the past week or two.  More than that, it confuses Jim's narrative.  Jim probably has it all worked out so it will make sense, but I still find it annoying.  So without further delay, here is what Ebenezar said to Harry in Peace Talks about what it means to be Starborn.

Ebenezar - "Every couple or three generations, the stars lineup just right, and what amounts to a spotlight plays over the earth for a few hours.  Any child born within that light-"
Harry -      "Is starborn. I get it. What does it mean?"
Ebenezar - "Power against the Outsiders.  Among other things, that their minds can't be magically tainted by contact with anything from Outside.  Which means.."

Which means to me, why the hell was Morgan, the Merlin and anyone else on the White Council; who knows about Nemesis and what it means to be starborn, afraid that Harry was "molded to be a creature of Nemesis."?  That last quote is from Morgan's Microfiction.

Didn't they know that Harry is starborn?  Rereading Morgan's Microfiction for the umptieth time, he doesn't say anything about Harry being starborn, so I suppose it's possible Morgan didn't know.  But Morgan should have known that that possibility existed, unless he didn't know anything about being starborn.

Let me stop for a moment and say why Morgan should have known that Harry might be starborn.  Morgan states that he failed to keep his promise to Margaret to protect her child.  So Margaret LeFay contacted Morgan when she was pregnant.  I doubt it was a face to face meeting because the Wardens had been ordered to arrest Margaret on site and Morgan was a stickler for following orders, but I digress.  The possibility of being starborn only happens once every 666 years.  You would think that the higher ups in the White Council would be hyper aware of this date.  Do you see the issue here and the problems it might create?

Morgan should have been able to put two and two together and realized what Margaret was doing or at least suspected she was trying to create a starborn child.  Even if Morgan didn't find out about Margaret's death until a few days after it occurred, he should have wanted to establish the time of her death and Harry's birth.  Unless Morgan didn't know anything about being starborn or perhaps he had heard the term, but didn't know what it meant.  So under this scenario, Morgan knew about Nemesis but didn't know anything about people who are starborn.  I suppose that is possible, but it seems a bit weak to me.

What about the Merlin and others on the senior Council?  What is their excuse?  Surely, when they heard that Margaret LeFey had died while giving birth, they should have been asking what day she died and what time it was.  Shouldn't they have a calendar with the date and time for people who are going to be starborn marked off?  Wouldn't they have been checking the birthdate and time of birth of anyone showing enough magical talent
to be admitted to the Council, so they would know if that person was starborn?  We know that Ebenezar and Listen's to Winds know that Harry is starborn.  They can't be the only one's on the Council who knows this. 

Unless, they do know, but only Ebenezar knows that being starborn insures protection against Outsiders.  If that was the case, why didn't Ebenzar just tell the members of the Senior Council that Harry couldn't be tainted by Nemesis?  I understand that wizards don't like revealing secrets, but this idea borders on the ridiculous.

Other potential problems with this passage: 

Is Elaine starborn or not?  Because if she is, that kills the OP and a big chunk of a thread I started about Elaine being nemfected.  On the positive side, it might explain why Jim hasn't given us a straight yes or no answer to Elaine's starborn status.  So, I could still be right.

Was the White Council trying to create their own starborn?  Because, if Eb and maybe LTW are the only ones on the White Council who knows what being starborn means, it kills that idea.  It would also kill the idea I had that Harry being a destroyer is related to him being starborn.  I think this is highly unlikely, so if the Council wanted their own starborn, was that Elaine?  Did they fail or did they succeed?  We don't know.

Aside from knowing the date and time someone was born, is their another way to detect that someone is starborn?  Lea, Mab, Lash and I assume Odin/Vadderung know when Harry was born.  How did the Erl King in Cold Days and Drakul in Battleground know that Harry is starborn?  For that matter, how did Mavra know?  She specifically told one of the other Black Court vamps that Drakul got to eat anyone who is starborn.  Is there some supernatural data broker selling information on who is starborn or is there something in Harry's aura that clues them in?  A bit off track, but if it is something in Harry's aura that clues-in the characters mentioned above, can Bob see it?  Would Bob know what it means? 

Getting back to Elaine, if being starborn is something that can be detected with supernatural powers, Titania must know if Elaine is starborn, because she would be able to detect it.  You would think that those in the White Council who are in-the-know about what being starborn means would want to create their own starborn detector.  Times and dates of birth can be fudged or simply mistaken. 

I'm trying to create a narrative where all of this makes sense, but it's a bit difficult.  Most of the Senior Council doesn't know that Harry is starborn.
I refuse to believe that, at least for now.  So, the Senior Council knows that Harry is starborn, but for some unknown reason think he might be vulnerable to Nemesis.  Being a destroyer that Morgan feared might be related to Harry being starborn, but it might be something else.  A lot of supernatural heavyweights and at least one supernatural middleweight know that Harry is starborn, but we aren't exactly sure how all of them got this information.  Elaine might also be starborn, but she might not be one.  If Elaine is starborn, then she can't be nemfected, unless there is a exception that can allow Nemesis to posses someone who is starborn.  While this would explain why Morgan and the Senior Council feared and still fear Harry, it completely violates what Ebenezar told Harry in the long quote above.



     

   

So I'm rereading the entire series for the first time since 2020.  Only this time I'm doing something different.  I'm starting with Battle Ground and going backwards from there.  I'm hoping I might see clues and connections that I might have missed by reading the normal way, first to last.  And I have already found something.  It may not lead to a huge revelation, but I think it could be a fun one.

In the scene that leads up to Harry and company running into Drakul and the Black Court, Toot toot warns Harry about bad guys in the park ahead and Harry realizes the park is really Graceland cemetery and the bad guys are necromancers.  When Harry clues in Ebenezar about this new threat, Eb says to Harry, "...You've fought necromancers before. You've fought in that graveyard before...."  The rest of what Eb says is unimportant.

First, how many fights has Harry had in Graceland Cemetery?  Off hand, I can only remember the fight Harry and Michael had with the Nightmare in Grave Peril.  Am I forgetting another one?

Much more interesting and to the point, how did Ebenezar know about it?  I can only think of a few reasonable ways Ebenezar might have known. 

One way involves an off screen diner Harry had with Eb in one of the books prior to Changes.  I don't remember which novel it was, but near the end of the novel Harry decided to forgive Ebenezar for not telling Harry about his mother, so he invited Eb out to diner.  In a hypothetical conversation in this off screen diner, Eb might have asked Harry how one of Harry's best friends was a KotC.  This might have led to Harry telling Ebenezar about various adventures he and Michael had been through together.  It could have included a description of the fight with the Nightmare.  It is a plausible explanation, but I don't like it and I will tell you why below.  But first, here are the other possibilities I've thought of.

Ebenezar might have been spying on Harry, but that seems unlikely for a number of reasons.  The most important one is I don't think Eb could stand back and do nothing while Harry is almost getting killed.

Ebenezar made a deal with a supernatural entity to keep an eye on Harry and send him regular reports.  I suppose Eb could have made a deal with Lea.  It seems a little far fetched to me, but it's possible.

The White Council had agents under veils spying on Harry.  They didn't care if Harry lived or died.  When Ebenezar joined the Senior Council he gained access to the files the Council had on Harry.  I like this one.  It could mean that one day Harry gets to read part of one of the reports on him.  It would also confirm; to a degree, the thread: "This is why the Council is afraid of Harry Dresden," which can be found in the DF Reference Collection in the same DF Spoiler section you are currently in.

I don't think Jim made a mistake here.  His beta readers would have caught it and I suspect Jim would have realized it before the beta readers got to it.  I also don't like the off screen conversation cluing Eb in because it that would be weak writing.  What would you think if you asked Jim at a book signing how Ebenezar knew about the fight Harry had inside Graceland and Jim answered, Harry told Eb about that off screen?  That is the kind of weak writing I see on some TV shows I won't name on Amazon Prime, Netflix and Disney+.  Jim is better than that.

Will Summer react at all?

My guess is they will react because Summer and Winter always seem act in opposition to one another.  However, perhaps Winter’s alliance might not matter until it’s formalized or publicly announced.

That last argument seems a little thin to me, so here’s two ways that I think Summer might react.  One way would be to try to kill Harry.  First, Lara is off limits because Summer doesn’t want to risk starting a war with the White Court. 

I don’t think Titania would send the Gruffs after Harry because it is too overt now that Harry is the Winter Knight.  I suspect Summer / Titania would be covert.  She might hire a mercenary to do her dirty work.  Not directly of course, there would be a go between, a cut out.  This has been hinted at; in a backwards manner, by Jim Butcher himself.  In a recent interview Jim mentioned that Harry will get his own Valkyrie bodyguard inTwelve Months.  My guess; and it’s not a real hard guess, is that Lara hires the Valkyrie to protect Harry because she needs Harry alive tot get Thomas out of Demonreach and to protect the alliance with Winter.

The second way Summer could move to balance the scales with Winter is to form an alliance of their own.  I suppose Summer could align with some faction we haven’t met yet, but I doubt that will happen.  I think the most likely partner for Summer is the Svartalfs.  Wizards and the Fae don’t really trust one another so I don’t think the White Council would make a good candidate, though I’ve been wrong before.  The Swartalfs probably suspect that Lara Raith had something to do with Thomas Raith’s escape from the dungeon in what was formerly Marcone’s castle and of course they are right about that.  The Svartalfs still have a score to settle with Thomas and they may suspect that Harry has found a magical way to shield Thomas.  The Swaretalfs are normally a very insular people but circumstances might make them rethink their normal policy of remaining aloof.

What do you think?

I've been thinking about Twelve Months and I think it will be a different type of story than anything we've read so far in any of the previous Dresden Files case books.  It almost has to be different.  I'm paraphrasing here, but on more than one occasion Jim has said that the story of every Dresden Files novel is the worst two or three days of Harry's life in that given year.  Except for the first three or four novels, which take place about only 4 to 9 months apart from one to another. 

Up till the present, all of the previous Dresden Files novels have had Harry playing beat the clock while facing seemingly insurmountable odds, but not this time.  OK, at some point in the next novel; probably near the middle of the novel, Harry will realize he is facing a deadline to accomplish some seemingly impossible goal, but almost certainly, it won't be like Death Masks, Turn Coat or Changes; where a Red Court vampire challenges Harry to a duel right at the start of the story, or when Harry has a wounded Morgan show up on his doorstep asking to hide him from the Wardens or when Susan tells Harry in the first paragraph of the first chapter that the Red Court has kidnapped Harry and Susan's daughter.  I'm guessing Twelve Months will be more of slow burn type of story.  The conflict or conflicts in Twelve Months will unfold at a more deliberate pace   

So, that has me asking what the through line will be; the main story, that will flow through the entire novel.   I suppose we could get twelve short stories, one for each month, but I seriously doubt Jim would take that route.  So, what will Twelve Months be about? 

We know Harry will be dealing with the trauma of losing Murphy and the general trauma of what occurred during Battle Ground.  We also know that Harry talked to Michael about reinventing himself, becoming The Wizard of Chicago; whatever that will mean.  Though Harry has always self-identified as the black sheep of the White Council, someone skeptical of the leadership, the quality of their decision making and even their morality, he has also seen himself as being part of the same Council.  Now he has to create a new identity for himself.

So, the above give us a couple of themes which might carry through the novel: grief, recovery and reinvention.  However, themes are not the plot, they are ideas which underlie the story.  So in asking what the story will be, we need to look at the elements Jim will be working with. 

*We know Harry will be going out on dates with Lara Raith.
*We know that Molly will have a role in planning these dates; Mab ordered her to set them up, most likely after negotiating with Lara or possibly
  Lara's proxy, on where the dates will be held and other important elements related to these public outings.
* We know Lara was caught off guard by Mab's declaration that Lara would marry the Winter Knight to cement the alliance between
   Winter and White Court; however, we can confidently guess that Lara will quickly realize she has been given a golden opportunity to firmly place
   Harry under her control.  My guess is if Mab makes an early appearance in Twelve Months and Harry points this out to her, Mab will respond that it
   is Harry's responsibility to see that this doesn't happen.
  Speaking of Mab...
* We know Mab expects demands that Lara and Harry will get married at the end of Twelve Months.  Does this mean there will be twelve
  dates?
* We can confidently assume the Winter Queen has been or will be setting up Lara for something else beyond being an ally of Winter.  Mab always
   plans for multiple possible outcomes in any given situation.  Possibly Mab sees Lara as a potential replacement for Molly, though that is just a
   guess on my part.
* We know that Harry told Ebenezer that he won't try to get out of being the Winter Knight unless he can bring Molly out of Winter as well.  Maybe
   we will see the beginnings of such a plan take place in Twelve Months.
* We can safely guess that Ebenezer will go ballistic when he hears that Harry and Lara are making public appearances together, that they are
   romantically involved.  The rest of the Senior Council and Harry's friends; maybe former friends, on the Council, like Luccio and Ramirez, won't be
   very happy either.
* We know that LTW will be coming back at or near the end of the story to tell Harry if he and his allies will help Harry understand what it means to
   be Starborn.  Whether this will play an important role near the end of Twelve Months or set up an important plot point in a later novel is anyone's
   guess.  If this element is important to the end of Twelve Months, I think that would likely mean that Outsiders will be playing an important role in
   Twelve Months, necessitating Harry learn more about being Starborn ASAP. 
   Speaking of Outsiders...
* We know Justine is possessed by Nemesis and that she is pregnant.  However, her pregnancy won't carry through the entire the entire novel,
   though it will probably be an important story element for the first two thirds of the novel.
* We know that Waldo Butters has the perfect weapon to harm Nemesis and probably drive it from Justine and her unborn child, without harming
   either one of them.  We can guess that at some point Waldo will become involved, but perhaps Jim will have Waldo preoccupied with another
   mission to keep the easy solution from being an option.
* We know Thomas is locked up under Demonreach, but there isn't any time limit on how long he will remain there.  Maybe a time limit will be
   introduced, but we have no way to know if such a thing will occur. 
* We can safely assume that if Thomas is released from his imprisonment, the Swartalves will still be looking for him.
* We know there is a "Men in Black" like organization; the Librarians, who will almost certainly have an operative or two in Chicago.  They will
   almost certainly be interested in Harry.  Being a mortal, he is the easiest member of the supernatural community; the ones with power, not low
   level members who hang out at Mac's, to keep track of and perhaps even approach.  Conversely, Harry might notice he's being followed and
   decide to initiate contact himself.
* Harry made a promise to the survivors of those people who followed his Banner during the Battle of Chicago, that they can come to him once,
  should any of them need his help.
* Finally; just to be clear, the earlier point that Mab expects Harry to marry Lara Raith at the end of Twelve Months does set up a ticking clock, just
   a really slow clock.  And also, not a ticking clock leading to an outcome as dramatic as Demonreach blowing up and taking half of North America
   with it or Ethniu destroying the mortal world.  The stakes in Twelve Months are much more personal and life altering for Harry than end of the
   world for everyone else. 

So, we have some potential for strong drama, some possible comedy on the dates with Lara and Harry; plus, maybe there will be some Outsiders besides Nemesis making an appearance, or not.  Then there is this new group, the Librarians.  A possible threat, but perhaps also possible allies.  Lots of possibilities but no easy to identify story here.  How do you think the story will play out, or more clearly, what will the story be?

I'll make this guess on how Twelve Months might start, based on nothing in particular.  Molly, or more likely a proxy she sends in her place because she is busy with Winter Lady duties (Also, because Jim will want to keep Harry isolated from his strongest ally), will deliver a message to Harry describing the details of his first date with Lara; where it will be, what he is expected to ware and so forth.  If Molly sends a proxy in her place, it will be someone like the Redcap who Harry despises.  Harry will be told on a Monday that date will be on Friday and he is expected to make a good showing for Winter.  Harry will brood about being used as; not a brood mare, a brood stud, for Mab.

However, Harry will be pulled out his self pity mood when one of the people Harry promised to do a favor for, shows up asking to collect on that favor.  Whatever help this person needs, it will look like a relatively simple task for the Wizard of Chicago to perform but will reveal a much deeper threat, not just for that individual but for many others as well.  It will be the kind of thing that Harry would have called into the Council when he was a Warden, but he can't do that any longer.  Harry will need to use all his skills and some luck to survive, make good on his promise and show up for his first date with Lara on time.

Maybe this new threat will involve Outsiders or perhaps a group of Fomor who weren't able to retreat to Lake Michigan and instead took up temporary residence in Undertown or maybe it will be Cowl or some major family of the White Court looking to take Lara down a peg or two or perhaps the Librarians will pose some existential risk we can't yet imagine.  It could also be some combination of these or other supernatural players. 

Whoever, whatever or wherever the threat comes from, Harry will only get a glimpse of it in the first month of Twelve Months.  He will need to use his detective skills to find and put together clues in the following months.  All the while he will also have to deal with Lara and Mab's schemes, unwanted interference from Ebenezer, his seeming inability to help Thomas and his own depression and sense of loss.

My alternative beginning involves Harry running down a clue to Justine's whereabouts, which misses Justine but uncovers something else.  Something scary, sinister and only hints at what is to come.

Now it's your turn.  Be as detailed or not as you like.  What are you expecting to see in Twelve Months? 

I'm near the end of rereading; well, mostly re-listening to all of the Dresden Files case file books.  On my first read through and then listening to the audio book of Peace Talks, I just assumed that Cowl was around but keeping out of sight.  He makes a good suspect for summoning the cornerhounds and I think there was even a WoJ that came out a few years ago that Cowl is sometimes operating in the background but we just don't see him.  (Yes, I know there were threads on this subject back in the day, I don't think any of them caught what I'm about to mention.)

However, this last time I was struck by what Warden Chandler said to Harry just after Harry left the Raith chateau:
Chandler’s smile didn’t falter. But it took on an aspect of granite, somehow. “No one’s that disingenuous, Dresden. The Winter Lady gets you quarters inside the svartalf embassy. Not long after, a known personal agent of Lara Raith and a frequent ally of your own gets inside, somehow, and attempts to assassinate Etri. Hours later, you visit the assassin’s significant other, then have a meeting with Ms. Raith.”

“Um,” I said. “Sure, I mean, when you put it like that, I see how that might look a little suspicious… ”

I swear, sometimes I just want to hit Harry upside his head.  He either doesn't know how to defend himself from false allegations or he misses an obvious clue.  In this case it may have been both.  By the way I'm not accusing Chandler of anything specific.  He just happened to be the warden who spoke directly to Harry.

Harry should have mentioned that Chandler's description of Harry's day left out his meeting with the two current KotC and one former KotC.  That by itself goes against the narrative that Harry was consorting with nefarious characters all day.  Perhaps even more glaring, Harry could have asked, "If you were following me around, why didn't you help me and Senior Council member McCoy when we were attacked by Outsiders today?  You must have seen that after I visited Justine, I didn't leave immediately.  I was checking for magical trace energy outside of her apartment when McCoy appeared.  We had a brief discussion before a herd of cornerhounds came after us.  It would have been nice if there had been some wardens around to help out."

I'm wondering if all of the wardens followed Harry around or if they did it in shifts.  Actually, it makes sense that Ramirez did the following, he's the one who had the magical ink on his hand that would allow him to follow Harry around.  He could have contacted the other wardens through magical means when he wanted all of them to confront Harry outside the Raith estate.  That makes Warden Ramirez's actions look very sloppy or makes them look very questionable. 

Plus, Ramirez was obviously more than physically injured by what Molly did to him.  There's more going on with Ramirez than what has been openly stated.


   

 

If you go to Jim's upcoming works page there is now a scale showing Jim's progress on various projects.  About 2 weeks ago he was at 65% done with a novella for the Cinder Spires books and now he at 90% finished.  He's at 10% of Twelve Months and presumably will restart on that after finishing Warrior Born, the Cinder Spires novella.

Here's a link https://www.jim-butcher.com/faq/upcoming-works