The Dresden Files

That makes sense, yeah.

Honestly, it was my understanding that the identity of the Fallen was extremely confusing because it was never correctly explained.

I don´t think the shadowy appearance of the whispering Fallen is an indicator for it being Anduriel, it would be very different from how he usually acts. Furthermore there was no Denarian nearby and the typical Fallen are bound to the coins, which limits how they can interact with the world without a host. Lastly the balancing of the 7 words of lies allowed Uriel himself to speak his 7 true words, who is leagues above Anduriel on the cosmic power scale.

Therefore i believe that the angel that whispered into Harrys ear was a Fallen whose not bound to a coin (there are quite a few of those) and has power on Uriels level, which would mean it was Lucifer. Wouldn´t be the first time the Denarians got direct help from the big man below.

Doesn't Anduriel have power over all shadows, such as letting Nick wiretap through them? Seems like a reasonable extension.

Then it would have been Nicodemus who spoke the words and not Anduriel, even if he is the one who grants the power, thus not giving Uriel his 7 words of truth. The Fallen not being able to influence mortals/the world without a host is the whole point of them being bound to the coins.

Yes, that was my reading of it as well.

Harry has never actually expressed regret for killing the Red Court (only for killing Susan to do it, as others have said), excepting his "well oops" moment when he finds out about the Fomor-filled power vacuum. When he learns that most of the Fellowship of Saint Giles fell along with the Reds, he promptly says that wouldn't have changed his decision a bit. What he flagellates himself about is the decisions that led up to the moment, chiefly accepting the Winter Mantle. But he had very few options there either, and he doesn't give himself enough credit for ordering them from least to most bad and taking the least. Hell, he even tried Uriel first and only went to Mab when that didn't work, even though he ought to have known beforehand that it wouldn't. Edit: In fact, he did know, because he arranged his suicide and erased his memory before contacting either entity. But he still made the attempt on the off chance he could get an angel to play ball and avoid the "least evil option."

Involving Molly in his attempted suicide and bringing her to the fight is something he deserves his own and others' blame for, though. But they've worked through that as best they can.

I got the impression Justin sent He Who Walks Behind because that's the weapon he had available—he'd made a deal with this demonic entity and not necessarily a whole legion of lesser ones, so he sent this one. And, as Harry realizes in hindsight, HWWB wasn't trying to kill him, nor was it dicking around for funsies, but was testing the young Starborn for reasons of its own. So going after Harry was probably as much HWWB's decision as Justin's.

I thought Bob explained that. Harry told Bob to forget that knowledge, forever, with no chance of some future master of the skull retrieving it. The only way Bob could fulfill that order was to split Evil Bob off and send it away; merely locking it up would leave open the possibility of unlocking it later.

Edited by HeraldAlberich on May 6th 2024 at 1:15:44 PM

I haven't gotten around to reviewing Cold Days, but I don't want to do a double-time with Skin Game, especially since I definitely will with Peace Talks and Battle Ground. Here we go:

• A few untranslated bits; "Ditto" was left as is, which is definitely an eyebrow-raiser. There's also at least one instance of "Hook" remaining as is; that one is more bizarre, since others are translated as "Hak", which would be correct.
• Is it me or is there a lot of quipping and Whedonesque talk in this one? Harry mentioned he talks smack as one way to deal with fear, so either he was in a state of constant panic all book (all things considering, understandable) or this was a try to push Winter in him to an outlet of sorts.
• Man, this entire book happens in the course of 24 hours (and change, not counting Harry's rehab sessions with Mab at the start). Talk about a serious first assignment.
• That bit about calling Odin Vadderdung for a chat being like trying to do that with Trump or Soros... that... definitely aged like milk.
• Sharkface was supremely unimpressive. It made sense considering that he was only a distraction from the real plan, but so far Outsiders had a pretty poor track record; we don't really see them when Harry (who's the closest thing to their kryptonite) isn't present. Cornerhounds will pick up some slack in Peace Talks, at least.
• My man Ace, an even bigger loser than Madrigal was. He did okay during his ambush in the botanical garden, but doing all this because he blamed Harry for all the shit that happened back in Summer Knight? My guy, you were the one who sold out to the Red Court and loaned their assassin first.
• The Sidhe family drama was surprisingly engaging. The whole final bit with Maeve was really somber, more than I thought it would be.
• ...hmm. There are some other things I would like to touch upon, but I can't find the words. I should definitely not postpone writing down my impressions for so long next time. It was a good read, overall, even if it felt quite different from the previous status quo (which is no doubt intentional, considering Harry literally returned from the dead (in a sense) as a whole new person).

The Fae Courts are ridiculously dysfunctional. Like...damn near every family in this series. Seriously, I think the Carpenters are the only somewhat healthy family unit. And even they have a Warlock turned Fae daughter with a bundle of personal issues and a body count to her name.

But what do you expect when it's Detective Noir.

So is Ace dead?

Ironically, Harry screwed up things by taking himself off the board for a year with his suicide.

If he hadn't, he might have been able to make things get not quite so horrible.

Tbf I'm pretty sure it only lasted a year spefically because Uriel needed him as a ghost to stop corpsetaker.

Humans have free will so angels have to work around it and take advantage.

Plus Uriel is a genuine Nice Guy so I figured he did want Harry to also learn from this experience.