Battle Ground (The Dresden Files, #17) in SpecFic Buddy Reads

Sep 22, 2020 Niki Hawkes - The Obsessive Bookseller rated it liked it

Shelves: arcs, for-review

[2.5/5 stars] A miraculous, all-encompassing, book-long battle which involved almost every single side character we’ve met to date. It was expansive. It was action-packed. And it was well written. A truly cinematic novel of epic proportion!

You know, if you’re into that sort of thing.

I almost always enjoy Dresden novels, but I have to admit that this one required a bit more effort to get through than I’d hoped it would. As all-encompassing as the story was, in execution it was more an endless ser [2.5/5 stars] A miraculous, all-encompassing, book-long battle which involved almost every single side character we’ve met to date. It was expansive. It was action-packed. And it was well written. A truly cinematic novel of epic proportion!

You know, if you’re into that sort of thing.

I almost always enjoy Dresden novels, but I have to admit that this one required a bit more effort to get through than I’d hoped it would. As all-encompassing as the story was, in execution it was more an endless series of mini battles. The heavy hitters of this world all converged to save Chicago… one after another. You’d think with all of that constant action and excitement that I would be page flipping like mad to see what happened next. But instead I found the conflicts too repetitive to hold my focus. Reconnect with an ally; kill something. Rinse; Repeat. It didn’t offer a lot of plot variety. For me, anyway. I usually have trouble with battle scenes unless the focus is more on the overall tactics and strategy than the individual clashing of swords (or wizard staffs). This was very much the latter.

I did like the voice of the story – it’s comforting to “come home” to a Dresden novel, especially after all this time. I will say there was a very noticeable overuse of the word “freaking.” It was funny the first two times it was used, but then it got distracting from there. Even so, Harry’s a great character, made even better by the plethora of secondary personalities. Oddly, how engaged I was during any particular scene had more to do with how interested I was in the side characters within it (as it turns out, there were only three that had me completely enthralled). Butcher dramatically changed a few of the characters’ overall trajectories, which I appreciated because of the variety it added, but I’m not sure I’m on board with the direction some of them are now headed… we shall see.

Overall, for my personal tastes and expectations, I did not enjoy Battle Ground as much as I wanted to. I think the repetitive nature of it gave my brain a lot of free time to pick apart other aspects of the story I may not have noticed otherwise. I will still be continuing on in the series because when one of the books works for me, it REALLY works for me. As it stands, this one is just middle of the road in the whole scheme of the series.

Recommendations: if you’re already a Dresden fan, how could you NOT pick up this novel? My conservative rating is probably going to be in the minority, so keep that in mind. If you haven’t started the series yet, it’s a staple in the genre for a reason, but it does take a few books in before it really finds its “magic.”

I’d like to thank Berkley Publishing Group, Jim Butcher, and NetGalley for the chance to read and review an early copy of Battle Ground.

Via The Obsessive Bookseller at www.NikiHawkes.com

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243 likes · Like · see review

Sep 30, 2020 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, urban-fantasy, 2020-shelf, 2023-shelf, fanboy-goes-squee

Re-Read 8/23/23:

I am still stunned into silence.

There's something to be said, however, about the Dresden Files.

It kicks serious ass.

By this point in my reading UF career, I have to place Dresden at the very top of a prodigious list of great UFs. For REALLY good reason.

Original Review:

Words nearly fail me.

Even as I read this book, I was stunned into silence. (You know, one of those deep, inner-monologue silences that radiate deeply inward so much that I could hear a mental pin drop from forty m ...more

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Jul 20, 2021 Lyn rated it really liked it

Brilliant action / war novel, but also frustrating and disjointed.

I’ve noticed about Jim Butcher’s writing in the past few years that he’s getting better. But we can consider that he’s been writing Harry Dresden stories for more than twenty years. Storm Front first came out in 2000. Battle Ground is the nineteenth novel and there have been countless short stories along the way. Butcher’s writing has become more mature as the storyline has as well. The homey but cool urban fantasy introduced so l Brilliant action / war novel, but also frustrating and disjointed.

I’ve noticed about Jim Butcher’s writing in the past few years that he’s getting better. But we can consider that he’s been writing Harry Dresden stories for more than twenty years. Storm Front first came out in 2000. Battle Ground is the nineteenth novel and there have been countless short stories along the way. Butcher’s writing has become more mature as the storyline has as well. The homey but cool urban fantasy introduced so long ago has become an institution and Harry is at the center of a universe of myth and fantasy.

But, Butcher’s dialogue still bugs me. He throws in humor which sometimes tends towards campy and the exchanges between characters can devolve into syrupy melodrama – some of the scenes read like B film soap opera. But then again, in a kooky way, that’s part of the charm and even though I cringe in every book at some really bad dialogue, I also find myself smiling at some pop reference or corny dad joke.

This is one of his more serious works in the series and without a doubt the most epic in scope. Not just the next book in the wildly popular series, this is a direct sequel to Peace Talks and the action in this one starts immediately following those events. The world is literally threatened with destruction from mythic forces and Harry and the whole Dresden creation is in the fight.

It occurred to me at some point that this could be the last Dresden book, so changed is the story arc after this one. Chicago will be changed and Harry’s life and group dynamic will be as well. To Butcher’s credit, he is not just mailing in another chapter, he is boldly gambling on some shifts in the story that will likely cause some narrative problems but will make for a better story moving forward.

Like the 1962 David Lean film Lawrence of Arabia, some of the best scenes in the book are after the big fight. The final few chapters deal with some mundane problems that have arisen as a result of the new world order.

Finally I am left with an optimistic expectation of more from Butcher. He’ll turn 50 this year so we can hope that he’ll continue to provide us with more Harry Dresden stories, and that this new direction will further develop this fascinating world building.

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Aug 22, 2023 Trish rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I am NOT alright. And I'm not talking about the 39°C fever I got this afternoon after coming home from the office. This book broke me.

As announced at the end of the peace talks in the last book, the last Titan is coming to Chicago to lay waste to the city and kill every major player but especially the members of the Accords. They only had a few hours to prepare. Thankfully, at least some of them are indeed competent so they didn't just stand around in the meantime.

So yes, the ENTIRE book is the ...more

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Oct 04, 2020 Lindsay rated it really liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy

If the first book was all setup, then this one is all payoff. The peace talks, sham that they were, have failed. All out war between the Fomor and their mad titan leader and most of the rest of the supernatural world has begun with Chicago the battle ground, and there's no hiding the supernatural world from the mortal one this time.

If it worked well enough for the Avengers with Infinity War and End Game, there's no reason it shouldn't work in the world of Harry Dresden. And with many of the same ...more

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May 27, 2021 Emma rated it liked it

I suppose with a title like that, no one should be surprised that the book was a seamless sequence of battles- but there really wasn’t anything else and so they lost their power to thrill and in fact, became a bit of a bore. Dresden books are usually full of Harry’s friends and characters we already know, but this one had ALL THE PEOPLE and ALL THE FIGHTS. Too much.

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Oct 05, 2020 Alexis rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, fantasy-urban

After the end of Peace Talks, you expect Butcher to hit the ground running with this one. You will not be disappointed.

I suggest this is almost as Earth shattering as Changes was and the fallout can't be anything less than massive. Some of that fallout you might see coming after the end of the last book. Others I promise are going to hit you out of left field.

The first half of this is largely action, something that Butcher does really well. Unlike most Butcher books though, where Harry is usuall ...more

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Dec 29, 2020 Christina Pilkington rated it really liked it

Talk about nonstop action and epic battles! If that’s your thing, you will love Battle Ground. As for me… not so much. I still really enjoyed reading Battle Ground, but I found myself getting a little slumpy during the middle of the book.

Part of what I love about the Dresden series are the quiet moments of character development and world-building/mythology that happen in between the action/fight scenes. Butcher is usually great at pacing his books where neither character development nor action ...more

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