Well, it doesn’t get good yet. It’s somewhat improved over the first, but still has issues with wild solipsism driving the actual narrative, synonymous with Dresden himself. He still can’t remotely write women and it’s full of all types of fan service where they are concerned. Honestly, I feel like the fantasy trash mood this book occupies is the same ven diagram of people who watch B movies. Second hand nostalgia and so-bad-it’s-fun-but-not-good.

Then again, it does again subvert some expectations of the genre with who the bad guys are and the magic system being 10% different than you’d expect. Tidbits of Dresden’s past come up. The narrative finally acknowledges that Dresden is basically Xander from Buffy grown up, with his relationship to women. White knighting, but actually just sexist and an idiot most of the time. Yet, still women get in their own way at every turn. Butcher may not know he’s got a huge blind spot for this in his writing just yet, but will soon, I think. Again, popcorn commercial fiction, foundational to contemporary urban fantasy. Mostly bad with some stuff that stuck to the culture, altering the space.