regarding Harry Dresden

[juldea]

I have finished The Dresden Files book #7, Dead Beat. Only a couple more to go before I'm all out. :( (I have also started watching the TV show; only the first three episodes so far. Several things are WRONG! in comparison to the books, but I don't yet hate the show.)

Okay, so this book actually made me stop to set it down and bang my head on something. Luckily, I was reading in bed at the time, so I just banged my head on a pillow for a while. Harry, Harry, Harry. You bargained with Lasciel. Bad idea.

Further thinking on it, I did realize that it's hard to not fall to that trap, though. Yes, I would rather die than allow my soul to become ensnared by a fallen angel, but rather so many others die with the necromancer god? Bad gamble. In that case, though, this is what Harry should do RIGHT NOW: walk up to Michael and explain. "Michael, I accepted Lasciel in order to save the world last weekend. I need your help removing her. If this has to involve killing me, so be it. The world isn't currently in mortal danger that only I can save it from." (If it is, and you spoil me as to the next few books, so help me I will end you.)

Comments

[jmspencer.livejournal.com]

I will not spoil at all, but I will say that the Lasciel thing is much more complex than it appears at the point you are at. It isn't until the end of White Night that you'll find out how much so.

[brewergnome.livejournal.com]

If you pretend they aren't related, the show gets better rapidly, though is always too compressed. More multi-parters IMHO.

Oh, except the werewolf episode which made me fall off the couch laughing as they did exactly what they spent MOST OF A CHAPTER talking about NOT doing in the book (conflating various types of werewolves and myths).

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have noticed that the show is really rushed. Also, I feel like Harry doesn't actually do enough magic. The shield bracelet has saved him once, now, and he's done some rune stuff, but in a visual show, I want to see him whipping out the ventas servitas! :)

But yeah, the rushedness of it explains the werewolf stuff - they didn't have the time to debate what the various types of werewolves were. They had to say "werewolf" and then speed through the rest of it. Heh. (This the episode I'm thinking of - #3, I think, Hair of the Dog? :)

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Ok, I believe you. But... grar!

Are you able to lend me Proven Guilty and White Night on Wednesday?

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

And Harry is such a stranger to the Bad Idea. I agree with your assessment of what he *should* do, but he's not that strong a person. Yet, anyways.

Dead Beat is my favorite book of the series (so far; I'm halfway through White Night at the moment), mostly due to excellent scenes with Butters and/or Sue :)

[ratbastrd.livejournal.com]

Yes, without doubt, Harry is a dope in that one. Having Harry succumb to her apparently very reasonable negotiation does kind of help make him more human though, I thought. That's what Lasciel does, afterall.

And I agree on the show. I've only seen one or two episodes more than you, and its not terrible. Its completely off from the books in a bunch of ways, and doesn't hold a candle to them, but its watchable at least.

In the mean time, I'm fiending for the next book to come out in paperback (my cheap ass...).

[doc-smiley.livejournal.com]

Once you get to (and past) the episode based on Storm Front Harry starts doing a lot more magic.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

I'm a paperback-only collector, too. No worries. ;)

And as of now, I have seen at least as many episodes as you, as I just watched two more. ;) The actress playing Bianca is trying VERY HARD to be Inara Sera. Heh.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Aha, good to know. Thanky. :)

[juldea.livejournal.com]

He was being that strong, however. He was walking out. The tipping point was that the world (and his friends in particular) was in danger at that moment and only he could stop it. Why can't he recapture that strength now that the world isn't in mortal danger? (It really does happen. Whole MONTHS go by inbetween books! :P)

I will have to do some serious ruminating to figure out what my favorite book in the series is. That said, I LOVE Butters, and the use of Sue was just brilliant. I agree with the Erlking's pleasure at her animation. ;)

[brewergnome.livejournal.com]

You beat me to it.

[brewergnome.livejournal.com]

Yes, I am.

They actually handle Bianca pretty well.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Just saw the first Bianca episode. Of course vastly different from the books in terms of how she and Harry interact, but as far as physical demeanor, they did do her well. Although - as I put in a comment to someone else - I feel like the actress is trying VERY hard to be Inara from Firefly. ;)

[phil-boswell.livejournal.com]

Somebody on Jim's forum had a great explanation for the differences between the books and the TV series, which went something like…

The books are Harry's autobiography, with editorial control and suchlike.

The TV series is the result of Harry needing rent money and selling his story to Hollywood.

If you look at them in that light, all becomes—if not exactly clear—more understandable.

[phil-boswell.livejournal.com]

In the mean time, I'm fiending for the next book to come out in paperback (my cheap ass...).

Keep your eyes on "Dog-Eared Books" who have run a "virtual signing (http://www.dogearedhalf-pricebooks.com/virtualsigning.htm)" for the last couple of books: they will ship you a signed copy. That's how I have signed copies of "Dead Beat" and "Proven Guilty" despite never having been closer to Jim than the other side of the keyboard ;-)

[ratbastrd.livejournal.com]

The actress playing Bianca is trying VERY HARD to be Inara Sera

Oh dear, I hadn't made that connection, very apt *snarf*.
Have to go watch Firefly again now, I think...

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Nothing about it was clear or misunderstandable. I've long accepted the fact that TV shows made out of books are not going to be exactly like the books, and sometimes far from it. I guess my initial comment can be read as if I were complaining, but in fact I was just stating the obvious. ;)

However, that "explanation" does do pretty well in trying to make them fit together. I suppose if I were Harry, I'd want Paul Blackthorne to play me, too!

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

I was specifically referring to "this is what Harry should do RIGHT NOW: walk up to Michael and explain." Harry has issues with Michael. I'm not sure if it's an inferiority complex, repressed hero-worship, or some combination thereof. But Harry is not strong enough to admit that kind of moral failing in himself to someone he looks up to that much.

Harry's really great at *reacting* to tense confrontation situations. He sucks at *initiating* anything that might result in a confrontation with a friend.