There is no Black Council

[Mira]

She probably did rationalize it a lot like that. But Goodman Grey didn't have any reason to lie about her being a piece of work, even if implying she was in the same general league as his father might have been more to pull Harry back from the edge of doing something frightened or violent just over his parentage than a strictly accurate comparison.

We knew that back in Fool Moon when Harry had his little talk with Chauncy, that they were looking forward to welcoming her, but she changed.  Her love for Malcolm apparently redeemed her and made her change, and any Knight of the Cross will tell you redemption is possible for anyone if they want it and work for it.  So yeah, she was a piece of work, but equal to Mr Grey's father? That is another question, and an important one is, did she conceive Harry as a starborn as an act of redemption, or for another reason?

Indeed, but they often are not so cliché about it. It unfortunately felt like Harry was pretending to be Marcone, rather than the voice of the real Marcone (in Even Hand). Just broke the immersion for me.

I think that is the problem of style of the author more than anything else.  That is the problem I have with the other point of view stories, no matter what the subject is or who is telling it, it still sounds like Harry telling it, or more accurately, Jim.  I think it would be better if when he does his short stories from a point of view other than that of Harry, he write them in the third person instead of the first.

[Yuillegan]

We knew that back in Fool Moon when Harry had his little talk with Chauncy, that they were looking forward to welcoming her, but she changed.  Her love for Malcolm apparently redeemed her and made her change, and any Knight of the Cross will tell you redemption is possible for anyone if they want it and work for it.  So yeah, she was a piece of work, but equal to Mr Grey's father? That is another question, and an important one is, did she conceive Harry as a starborn as an act of redemption, or for another reason?

I think that is the problem of style of the author more than anything else.  That is the problem I have with the other point of view stories, no matter what the subject is or who is telling it, it still sounds like Harry telling it, or more accurately, Jim.  I think it would be better if when he does his short stories from a point of view other than that of Harry, he write them in the third person instead of the first.

I get that, she certainly was headed for a southbound train but managed to redeem herself. The truth about her reasons for conceiving Harry will probably only get known when we know a bit more about what she was getting up to, and at least more about what being a starborn means.

True enough. But there are writers who do a great job of it too, so it can be done more believably. Some of the short-stories were less Harry like. I thought Cold Case was alright, and Back Up. So Jim can do it alright. But her just didn't get there with Even Hand. The story itself was interesting enough, and you forget some of the issues when the action heats up, but I agree that it often felt like like Harry telling the story. But it is a really hard thing to do so I can't be too hard on Jim either. I think you're idea for the short stories would work but it might defeat some of the purpose for Jim writing them. I think Jim said that he often wants to get in the head of the character so he can understand that character better, or show us (the readers) things we might not see. Particularly how others see Dresden.