The Dresden Files are hitting their 20th Anniversary! In celebration of this landmark, and the two newest books in the series, Peace Talks and Battle Ground, fan and audiobook narrator James Marsters spoke with author Jim Butcher about the books. You can watch the panel here (the two discuss translating noir into narration, jumping through different vocal registers, and Butcher’s plans for future books—including some spin off plans) and check out some panel highlights below!
Having done Shakespeare and Moliere on stage, James Marsters explained: “I get nervous talking to authors if they’re any good!” Despite that, the two share a rollicking conversation:
- Jim Butcher explained that the first Dresden Files book was written in school in order to show his graduate school writing teacher she was wrong about things—but upon reading it she realized he could sell the book! Twenty-five years later he’s still teaching things she taught him in class. “I’ve made a career of being dumb and rolling with it.”
- Butcher was excited to have Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer reading his book, because Spike was the character who got him to watch Buffy in the first place. (The Halloween episode apparently made him snort spaghetti through his nose in laughter.)
- Butcher also mentioned that he needs to write other books occasionally so he doesn’t get so annoyed with Harry Dresden that he’ll kill him—“I’ve done that once!”—but in the next book he’s planning to have Harry take stock of all the losses he’s gone through.
- Butcher initially wanted to bring both books out in back-to-back months as an homage to Back to the Futures II and III, but printing issues meant it had to be back-to-back quarters. Although this plan could be revisited for a time travel book. (Though, according to Marsters, this might “break” him as a narrator.)
- Butcher also mentioned being “surprised by the humor” Marsters brings out in his reading.
- And as for the future of the books, Butcher says: “I figure I might as well make my plans like a wizard.”
And then, as if the conversation hadn’t been fun enough, Mr. Butcher’s cat made an appearance!
Peace Talks and Battle Ground are in stores now from from Roc Books!
So a possible time travel plot… can we please undo That Thing that happens in Battle Grounds? Because that… that was a Very Bad Thing to do, I’m legit pissed at Jim.
@1:
I didn’t like it either. But I didn’t like that the fallout only lasted one freaking chapter. And I didn’t like that Michael Carpenter wasn’t in some way instrumental to helping end the fallout.
I would have been on board for that event if Darth Dresden had actually become a thing with consequences for a whole, instead of being neatly tied up in under 2 minutes. It cheapened the event too much.
Interesting that a spinoff series might revolve around Goodman Gray. If I had to guess who would be the protagonist, I never would have picked him.
@1 – Same here. The following chapter, while beautifully written, fell flat for me because of how pissed I was. I mean, talk about taking the utterly predictable route. The entire fanbase called it after Peace Talks with all the heavy-handed hints.
Holy crap, if they ever adapt Half Life then James Marsters can totally play the G-Man based on that picture!
@@.-@
Heavy-handed hints about The Thing, or the aftermath? I don’t have any places at the moment where I interact with other fans (I’ve been stewing about it alone until now, since the day BG was released), so I haven’t had a chance to hear the entire fanbase’s opinion. But That Thing caught me flatfooted. I’m generally bad at predicting things, though.
@6 – The Thing. It’s been predicted for years, but became almost a sure thing after all the hints in Peace Talks.
The Thing That Happened has been predicted by a lot of people for a long, long time. The big surprise for many readers would have been if it never happened.
I also appreciate that the Thing That Happened and the epilogue of Battle Ground sets up a potential new direction for one particular character. Harry has had a certain viewpoint of that character that’s been in place since about five minutes after he met that character, and that character has done a lot to reinforce that viewpoint. But then I reviewed the things that that character has actually said and done over the course of the series. And after that mini-reread, I think that there’s a lot of room for Butcher to point out that Harry saw exactly what he wanted to see, and that this character’s tendency to reinforce Harry’s opinions may have been influenced by fear of coming across as weak.
@6
“I’ve been stewing about it alone until now”
Am there, doing that. I’ve expected That Thing, but NOT because the story required it, or because it was plot driven. It was the obvious move for a writer who has no idea how to write strong women who aren’t majorly compromised about human morality & don’t have phenomenal beauty. If you go back through the books overt female sexuality is the trope most exploited, so That Thing was inevitable, uninspired and offensive.
Look at the men in the DF. Short, tall, muscular, wimpy, rugged, handsome, unkempt, heroic, villainous, powered, vanilla. Suburban mom looks like a pin-up. Old female wizard ends up in cute, young body. Female faeries & WC vampires are breathtaking.
Add to all that, BG was like a movie that’s all car chase & cameo appearances, I’m pretty much done. (I only ended up here because it mentioned Marsters – the only BG high spot for me.)
@7
That’s the best reason I’ve heard for Butcher to have done something completely different. Unexpected.
@8
I wish I understood what you are talking about, but spoilers, I guess.
Replying to @6, D Epet. I have to disagree with one of your points on the appearance of the female characters throughout the series. Mr. Butcher has been very clear throughout that the vampires and the fey may look stunning, but it’s not the reality. The White Court vampires, for example have a human appearance – and it only makes sense to have literal sexual predators be sexually attractive to their prey – look more like insects once they shuck the human form. Insects, bloody insects. Breathtaking, I’ll grant, but not exactly the archetype of ‘beauty.’ Then there’s the fey. Again, it’s been clear that however beautiful they may appear, it’s an appearance only for oh-so-many of them. See the descriptions of ones like Jenny Greenteeth, or the one who kidnapped Georgia on her wedding day, and more. Ones like Mab and Molly may be actually beautiful – though calling Mab beautiful may be underestimating what she actually is – but the majority of the fey seem to have true underlying appearances which verge on the alien, rather than the human ideal of breathtaking. As much as I enjoy the series – and I’ve introduced more than one friend to it, who now curse my name for doing so – I do have my own quibbles with it. I’m not the author, though, so I’ll keep my carping to myself. But an underlying theme for the entire series has been the nature of illusion and reality, and how difficult it can be at times to tell the difference. And the appearances of “breathtaking” vampires and members of both the Seelie and Unseelie Courts are just one manifestation of that theme. So, maybe focus on the structure of the story?
@10
While I appreciate your analysis of the issues I have with the story, I will “focus” on anything that jumps out at me, or even niggles in the back of my mind about TDF or anything else, as I so choose.
That the beauty of evil characters is a facade doesn’t matter to the point I was making. The falseness isn’t gender limited & the vast majority of the time well & truly hidden. That Butcher can’t write a strong vanilla woman w/o beautifying her, granting her power, having her reject morality or bumping her off is, dare I say it, stereotypical for too many male writers. Also, for me, most good fiction boils down to the humanity in the story. BG pretty much eliminated the only human worth mentioning. Harry can whing & feel bad about Chicago’s dead, but now the survivors are just faceless & nameless. Harry’s regard for them turning to charity work as he loses his connection. gah.
I would hardly imagine any author would “carp” at his failings- those “quibbles” we poor mortals find with the work. Readers’ feeling & opinions still exist though, and if there are opportunities to express them, some of us will.