**No spoils.2.5 Stars I’m being mighty generous in rounding up here. I was tempted to round down for this one book.Immediate reaction after reading : Hooraaaayy!! It's finally over. Woohoooo!!..After some reflection : MEH. For how long and often I've been bashed over the head with how great this series is, I was seriously unimpressed. To be fair, the book wasn’t horrifically bad, but neither was it awesome as is widely purported. It could very well be attributed to 1st Book Syndrome, so I won’t end my Harry Dresden journey here, but it better get good quick, because I’m getting tired of mediocrity and less than mediocrity. I’m starving for a 5 star book. The plotline was good. Enough. Good enough. The characters were fine. They were nothing special and only one other than Harry made any kind of impression on me Murphy. A bit. Thought her taking care of Harry was kind. I’d like to see more of her. I liked Harry, but not a lot. He was.. ok. What really blew it for me was the nonstop droning of Harry’s inner thoughts. Typically, when I get stuck with a book that drones on and on, I skip and skim – you can’t do that with an audio version. Well, you could, but I’m not trying to get into the mess of trying to find my place and all that jazz, especially as I listen to these while driving. The long/short of it is that I spent a lot of my work commute time screaming at my car stereo for Harry to STFUUUUUUUP. Shut up, shut up, shut up! Ugh. I would drift off into random thoughts for minutes at a time and when I’d drift back, he was still droning on about the same stupid shit and I never missed anything important during these attention lapses. Never.In the “final showdown”, Harry arrives at the villain’s location and proceeds to “inner speak” for nearly 12 MINUTES before even attempting to approach the door. 12 minutes of, I’m Harry Dresden. I am speshul. I am powerful. They can’t bring me down. They don’t know who they’re messing with. I can do this and I can do that and they can’t do this and they can’t do that and I’m the best and I’m unstoppable and I’m so amazing and who do they think they are and I'll show them and I have another 10minutesofthisinfuriatinginnerbantertogobeforeItakeasinglesteptowardsthestupidfuckingdoorandonandonandon… STFUUUUUUP!!! I’m exhausted just thinking about it. I got anxiety listening to this, because I couldn’t skip ahead, as it was the final showdown and therefore, an important part of the story. Meanwhile, he gets his ass handed to him before he kinda lucks out at the end and defeats the villain. Where is all this frikkin power you incessantly speak of, Harry? Anywho, I’ve gone on long enough about it. You get my drift. There were snippets of good storytelling here and there and I see reviews that mention the series getting better after book 3, so I’m just gonna Wiki book 2 and skim the summary to see what happens. I'm then diving straight into book 3. If that's not better, I dunno if I'll continue.Lastly, if I could say one thing to Harry, it would be:Don’t talk about it Harry, BE about it.
JennyJen
Supreme nerd, rabid reader, music snob. Strong of opinion, loud of mouth, quick of wit. Lover of all things canine and feline, cynic of all things.
Find me at FictionFrenzy.com.
**No spoils.2.5 Stars I’m being mighty generous in rounding up here. I was tempted to round down for this one book.Immediate reaction after reading : Hooraaaayy!! It's finally over. Woohoooo!!..After some reflection : MEH. For how long and often I've been bashed over the head with how great this series is, I was seriously unimpressed. To be fair, the book wasn’t horrifically bad, but neither was it awesome as is widely purported. It could very well be attributed to 1st Book Syndrome, so I won’t end my Harry Dresden journey here, but it better get good quick, because I’m getting tired of mediocrity and less than mediocrity. I’m starving for a 5 star book. The plotline was good. Enough. Good enough. The characters were fine. They were nothing special and only one other than Harry made any kind of impression on me Murphy. A bit. Thought her taking care of Harry was kind. I’d like to see more of her. I liked Harry, but not a lot. He was.. ok. What really blew it for me was the nonstop droning of Harry’s inner thoughts. Typically, when I get stuck with a book that drones on and on, I skip and skim – you can’t do that with an audio version. Well, you could, but I’m not trying to get into the mess of trying to find my place and all that jazz, especially as I listen to these while driving. The long/short of it is that I spent a lot of my work commute time screaming at my car stereo for Harry to STFUUUUUUUP. Shut up, shut up, shut up! Ugh. I would drift off into random thoughts for minutes at a time and when I’d drift back, he was still droning on about the same stupid shit and I never missed anything important during these attention lapses. Never.In the “final showdown”, Harry arrives at the villain’s location and proceeds to “inner speak” for nearly 12 MINUTES before even attempting to approach the door. 12 minutes of, I’m Harry Dresden. I am speshul. I am powerful. They can’t bring me down. They don’t know who they’re messing with. I can do this and I can do that and they can’t do this and they can’t do that and I’m the best and I’m unstoppable and I’m so amazing and who do they think they are and I'll show them and I have another 10minutesofthisinfuriatinginnerbantertogobeforeItakeasinglesteptowardsthestupidfuckingdoorandonandonandon… STFUUUUUUP!!! I’m exhausted just thinking about it. I got anxiety listening to this, because I couldn’t skip ahead, as it was the final showdown and therefore, an important part of the story. Meanwhile, he gets his ass handed to him before he kinda lucks out at the end and defeats the villain. Where is all this frikkin power you incessantly speak of, Harry? Anywho, I’ve gone on long enough about it. You get my drift. There were snippets of good storytelling here and there and I see reviews that mention the series getting better after book 3, so I’m just gonna Wiki book 2 and skim the summary to see what happens. I'm then diving straight into book 3. If that's not better, I dunno if I'll continue.Lastly, if I could say one thing to Harry, it would be:Don’t talk about it Harry, BE about it.
