u/GrabMyDrumstick

Spoiler warning all around, I suppose.

I've read every book in this series. I read them since there were only a few books, and I've torn through every single release eagerly since then. I love the characters, and I love the worldbuilding. There are quirks to Butcher's writing, but those were always easy to ignore.

But after a very long wait, I got Twelve Months on day 1. I started to read and just couldn't continue. I don't want to give up on this world - I'm invested in what happens. But there are some real challenges and I wonder if it's just me, or even if it is, if it'll get better.

• The fun part of these books was that Dresden was a burnt out dork who happened to be good at magic. Now things like his duster are presented without irony - it's reads as a nerd fantasy of what's cool, rather than the ironic contrast that made the books interesting. I'm ok with change, and with growth, but the reality of his life has now become so unrelatable that the lack of irony is starting to make the cringe of it very noticeable.
• Every character in Dredsen's life is the absolute best at what they do. Every woman is the hottest. Every man is the strongest or the smartest or the wisest. There is nobody in between, and nobody has flaws. Every ancient being is the oldest and scariest until another book comes along that has the new scariest oldest ancient being. This has been an issue for a while but after a break from reading these books, it's become really obvious and frankly it makes the whole thing a bit dull.
• These books started as noir with magic. Dresden was a detective. I miss him being a detective. You can increase the scale and the scope of the world and still make him a detective. Maybe this new book has this element and I just haven't gotten that far.
• When every book has a world-shaking battle that threatens the midwest, the stakes start to be difficult to take seriously.

Honestly, I want to be wrong about this, so if I'm missing something or the book gets better after the first 50 pages or whatever I read, please let me know.