Spoiler-Free Peace Talks Book Review
I am almost fully caught up with The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher and am loving every second of it. Peace Talks is book 16 of the 17 currently out, with Twelve Months (book 18) hopefully coming in the next couple of years, so it is not long until I am waiting along with every other Dresden fan!
Let’s get into the review as there is not much preamble available when you are 16 books into a series. This Peace Talks book review is spoiler-free. I will talk spoiler thoughts in a combined discussion post about both this book and the second part, Battle Ground (book 17) in the future.
Plot & Stakes
When you have stories like Changes and have covered so many stories and villains etc in a series this long, raising the stakes can be difficult – especially in a satisfying way. The stakes were definitely raised and I am so excited about it! I don’t feel like the story is too outlandish or crazy because so much work has been done in previous entries to set up something of this scale.
The fact that whatever is happening is only in this one specific city of Chicago is my only concern, as I don’t think we got any kind of explanation for this, but I am reserving judgment until I have finished the next book, Battle Ground.
In Peace Talks we see Harry Dresden take up both the roles of Warden and Winter Knight at the peace talks of the Accorded nations. He also has several other complications to deal with, all personal and nothing he can ignore, so as always, he is stretched thin and pushed to his limits.
The plot was a little slower than previous books, but I still felt like the pacing was good as I burned through the book and was never bored. It was the character work that kept me reading, which I will go into now.
Character Development
Because there is so much going on in Peace Talks, there is little room for character development, but we do get a good look into the relationships between Harry and those close to him. There are so many touching, emotional moments and am glad Butcher took the time to show us those without rushing them.
This book is part 1 in a larger story, so I think if we are going to see any major character development, it will be by the end of Battle Ground.
The World
As I have already mentioned in this Peace Talks book review, I think that the idea this huge thing is happening in only Chicago is a little odd. We have had no explanation for it, other than Dresden is based in the city and most of the stories take place there.
For the previous entries of The Dresden Files that have been set in Chicago you can mostly just ignore this, as it is just an understandable element of the urban fantasy genre, but with the events that are occurring and about to occur, I’m still to be convinced for this book.
Despite this, we definitely see the worldbuilding expand yet again, with the introduction of new beings/people etc – I can’t really go into any detail here! I am very excited for Battle Ground and to see how all the moving parts collide and the questions are answered. Jim Butcher has not failed to bring a story together satisfyingly so far, and I don’t think he is going to start now!
