A quote from Ghost Story

[nialla42]

I finished Ghost Story this weekend (got the copy over a week late!), and I'm still not sure if I've processed it enough to comment about the contents yet. Packed full of interesting stuff. For now, a quote that amused me:

Comments

[spikedluv]

Hahaha, Bob! Which reminds me, I meant to comment on it, but I was nearing a fic deadline (and shouldn't have read it in the first place, but I couldn't resisst). It was . . . odd. Mostly, I think, because Harry could only interact with a few individuals, and therefore spent most of his time with ghosts.

[nialla42]

It weirdly reminded me of an "all school reunion" with characters and situations being brought into play, if only a mention, reaching back to the first book. But instead of catching up with everyone, we were stuck in Harry's POV, which made it feel like being a wallflower, even if he was off adventuring.

Though with the ending, I think this book was part two of the changes begun in the last one. Now that we're moving past the "generic spooky case goes awry" and into straight up Big Bad(s) territory, this has transitioned us into a whole new place for Harry, and one in which his friends and family think he's moved on from Mostly Dead to Truly Dead. And he's not. Hmm.

[aurora_novarum]

I was kinda sad (but it's understandable) that Bob is no longer with Harry. I think Bob is too breast conscious to write at least m/m slash (femmeslash he'd be all over). But I'm pretty sure he's an equal opportunity porn reader.

It was an interesting tale, but it felt like a very very long short story to me rather than a novel. Harry making peace with things--sad that Thomas was only an afterthought. (and I wish he'd let Murphy take up the damned--er blessed-- sword already. It's dragging out too much and I'm tired of getting hit by the anvils--unless I'm totally wrong, but...yeah).

Oh, I did like the twist of what had happened to Grasshopper. Her and Leandsidhe...wow. I wish that had been explored more.

[nialla42]

Bob's theory is likely "Porn is porn, but it's better with boobs

[ldyanne]

I think I felt the limitations of the single voice POV this time. I wanted so much more from this book. I wanted to know so much more about what had been happening with the other characters this time - Murphy, Thomas, Molly. It was so frustrating being stuck with Harry (as much as I love him) and the ghosts.

[iloveatlantis]

I felt the limitation of the point of view used this time, too. Things had changed too much with too many characters. Harry came back into a very different world as a spirit, and I really wanted to know more about what had happened during the time he was gone.

[nialla42]

I feel the need for the next series of short stories to be told from non-Harry POV, filling in the gaps until the next book.

We've got precedent in the previous short stories, with ones told from the POV of Thomas (Backup), Marcone (Even Hand, Dark and Stormy Knights), and Murphy (Aftermath, Side Jobs), so I don't see why this couldn't work as a way to work in more details of what's happening in Chicago without relying on Harry to narrate.

I would totally read a book with dual narration from Butters and Bob, the new dynamic duo. ;)

[ldyanne]

I would so totally read that book, too. Oh, yeah, I would love to have a lot of short stories that told how everything go to the place it did where Harry found it. I felt like we missed out on so much story being limited to Harry's POV this time.

[iloveatlantis]

I just finished reading it this morning. In some ways it didn't really feel (or read) like a Dresden novel, maybe because things were even more convoluted than in the other novels, and, like ldyanne said, being stuck with Harry's first person POV was sometimes very limited and constraining in this book, which I've never felt with a Dresden novel before. I really didn't feel as invested in the "live or die" aspect of what was happening in the world outside, to his friends and his town, for being stuck inside Harry's point of view, which was of necessity a degree divorced from those stakes no matter how much he might feel for the people he "had" been close to and the place he "had" lived. They had moved on; the entire story had moved on in his 6-month absence, and I never really felt the novel grounded the story *back* into that world as a real world (if that makes sense) of bricks and mortar and lives that could actually be lost, which might have something to do with seeing the entire thing through the eyes of a spirit.

[nialla42]

There was a lot of self-referential stuff, bringing up events from previous books. In a way, it made sense, as the book was sort of a culmination of Harry's Life That Was and moving on to the way things will be now. Ironically, just as everyone has accepted Harry is well and truly dead, he's not. Well, not exactly.

I do feel like I need to go back and reread the short stories told from Murphy's POV right after the cliffhanger of Changes as well as one done from Marcone's POV. IIRC, they play into parts of what's happening in this book a lot, but not everyone will have read them. The one about Marcone, in particular, dealt with the Formor.

I got a giggle out of the use of Star Trek imagery in Molly's head, when I got the feeling this book was essentially the literary version of hitting the Big Red Reset Button. We're back to where we were at the end of Changes as far as Harry's concerned, sans self-ordered hit. On his way to be a Knight, but with no one out in the human world knowing about it, but in fact thinking he's truly dead now

[ldyanne]

I did like that we got some backstory in this book regarding Harry and what happened to him with Justin DeMorne. I think it makes a lot of sense that we might find out about his mother while he's in the Winter Court. Nice thought!

[iloveatlantis]

I hadn't thought of it that way, but, you're right, this book was a great Big Red Reset Button.

I would love it if they'd use this to reveal more about Harry and Thomas's mother in the next novel.