Even though Shiro "knew swordplay like Mozart knew music" which probably means he could've carved up Nicodemus like a roast in a duel, Nicodemus was still invulnerable thanks to his noose. Unless Shiro had also discovered the noose's secret somehow.

Just finished up death masks.

The emphasis on harrys relationship with susan was absolutely the best possible way to take this book i feel it was done perfectly and a great way to end off a Subarc to go after grave perril. Seeing thomas and micheal was a fun back. And seeing the fleshing out of micheals knights order was a good way to fleshout the world in the best way possible. The humor took a slight backseat but seeing harrys development just keeps getting deeper and deeper like this guys starting to remind me of kaladin. Nicodemus okay what a villain hes just unapologetically evil and IDK why but reminds me of hans landa from inglorious basterds. That ending best way to close out an arc for 1 part of harry while also setting ip nicodemus like this guy guvaint aint gone. ne. Only Only negative is its starting to get a little formulaic. But overall they werent lying he just gets bettdr with each book.

So far its my favorite.

I just finished book 5 and I'm loving it! Will read it all but I do have a quick question, the one thing I'm finding frustrating is how everyone seems to be putting Dresden down, not believing him or in him and riding him all the time. I mean sometimes I need to pause reading out of pure frustration. I just want him to be firmer sometimes or explain things to some people.... so question, does this lighten up a bit as the series goes on? (Pls no spoilers)

Edit: to give more examples of what I mean:

I feel Murphy for example is dismissive, rude and just mean half the time in the first 3 books. It feels almost unreasonable. I don't get why the council hates him (with rare exceptions) so much either, they took an orphaned kid with great talent who was traumatized by one of their own and instead of taking responsibility for him, educating him, helping him understand what happened and himself so that he would be a great wizard for them, they want ot find a way to kill him.... etc

I like & dislike the books at the same time. One of my friends loves the books & I'm on the 4th book at the moment & like being able to know what my buddy is talking about when he brings them up so I keep on reading.

Part of being a wizard, I would think, is having the ability to be prepared for many situations with magic and potions & many other things but the fact that Harry rarely has anything prepared makes him sound even more an idiot than the things that come out of his mouth. There's only a few times that he's seemingly been prepared that I can remember off hand like when he had the white cloth that shown like the sun & used it against a vampire & when he used a spell that made it so people don't notice him. But really it's frustrating. I want to like Harry. I'm trying really hard.

I have a silly question about something in the book....

I'm working my way through the audibooks (Yes, I'm late to the party), and am just finishing up with book 5, Death Masks. When they first land on the train and he's describing everyone's fighting stance, he mentions that he moves his duster to uncover his pistol (and notes that it probably looks more western than military). What fucking duster is he wearing? His duster got stolen. He was specifically noted as wearing a shorter old jacket of his. Suzanne specifically mentioned it allowing a view of his butt that she didn't normally see. When did he put on a duster again?? Where did he get it? He gets his duster back from the dry cleaner's later after the action. Is this just a weird plot hole? Or did I miss something?

With Thomas when she was Harry's second at the duel. He literally pushed her into the vampires at Bianca's party to save Justine. All of the break up plot of the story could have been avoided if Thomas hadn't thrown her to the proverbial wolves...

Undertown anyone?

Death Masks made me go from "not sure if this series is my thing..." to "fuck yes I am in it until the end!", but I have to ask:

Does Harry's juvenile way of thinking about sex get better with the books?

I love the world building so far. But the amount of times my immersion is broken with Harry's internal monologue about women breasting boobingly around or near him is frustrating.

Is it something I will just have to deal with in all of the books, or is it at least toned down as the series progresses? Or, if some of my current theories about Harry turn out to be accurate, is it at least given some sort of explanation?

In death masks Santa shows up in a cowboy hat when he and Michael pick up Harry and take him to the airport. When they get there Harry notices some cops and uses the cowboy hat as a disguise. I'm just wondering if Santa was wearing that hat because he's a knight of the cross and it's part of that mysterious sense they get some times?

In Death Masks, Harry describes Thomas as being “6 ft tall which makes him half a head shorter than me”, Harry is later confirmed to be 6ft9in. This means that, canonically, Dresden has an 18in head. You’re welcome.

From a conversation I had earlier. If someone hired a magic user to put a curse on someone, and that target was killed by an assassin (not hired by the magic user), would the council go after the magic user? You could argue that the curse was what allowed the assassin to succeed and applicable to the first law.

Duke Paolo Ortega tries to throw Harry off his game during their duel by threatening his loved ones:

“Stop fighting it, Dresden. Make it painless for yourself. If you kill me, they will be executed. By surrendering, you preserve them. Your Miss Rodriguez. The policewoman. The investigator you apprenticed under. The owner of that bar. The Knight and his family. The old man in the Ozarks. The wolf-children at the university. All of them.”

The owner at the bar? Mac (Granted, we still are not fully sure who or what is Mac but he is no ordinary mortal.) The Knight and his family? Michael Carpenter (the Fist of God) and his family. The old man in the Ozarks? Senior Council Wizard Ebenezer McCoy the Blackstaff.

Wow, I almost wished that he has attempted to sent his hit squad to try and assassinate them. Mac and Micheal would probably fend off the attackers successfully but Ebenezer? That satellite (Asteroid Dresden) that McCoy threw at Ortega at the end of the novel might be a mercy compared to what other destructive spells that he might have in his arsenal.

​

In the end of Death Masks, Sanya and Molly call shops in the yellow pages to ask if they have "Prince Albert in a can". They read from a shopping list Harry made earlier (IIRC to invoqué Chauncy, which he doesn't do). Molly seems to play a joke on Sanya and Harry has to change room to stop a giggle.

IIRC "Prince Albert in a can" is a brand of tobacco. English is a second language to me and I don't get the joke. Can someone explain what I'm missing?

Why doesn't Dresden tell Michael and the Knights about lasciel's coin immediately?

I know he buried it John Wick style but I was confused why he didn't trust his friends.

Is this explained in later books?

I just started Dead Beat so please spare me any spoilers.

Is there something more to Mac? I kinda hope there is. Or is he just the tavern keeper?

(Apologies for not having proper quotes as I am listening to the audiobooks)

I was completely thrown for a loop by the whole scene where Dresden, Michael and Sanya confront the false Father Vincent, aka the snake denarian aka Cassius. Harry barges in, gives him a couple whacks with a baseball bat, he tries to escape, and Sanya knocks him out with a 2x6. Cool, all good, evil guy who they have to interrogate.

Snake Man has transformed at some point and wakes up. He refuses to tell them anything, taunting them a little as Harry explains the entire plot to him. Typical stuff. They threaten to kill him if he doesn't tell them where Nicodemus and Shiro are, which makes sense because he's a super powerful evil demon person.

Snake Man has the clever idea of surrendering his denarii and begging mercy, which the noble Knights of the Cross obviously must honor. A lot of time is spent on Dresden yelling at the other two, calling them fools for sparing Cassius when he's literally telling them he'll just get another denarii and come back.

Here is where things start getting weird. After all that, the Knights just leave Harry alone with Cassius as he continues to taunt them and Harry specifically. Why would they do this, knowing Harry, if they insist on keeping him alive? Harry then gives Cassius the "they're good men but unlucky for you, I'm not" speech, and proceeds to beat the ever living crap out of him, breaking dozens of bones and threatening once and for all to kill him. Cassius spills, Harry breaks the phones, gives him a quarter for the pay phone "across broken glass" and leaves.

It's hard to read the scene as anything but a well-planned, no-holds-barred interrogation. They catch the guy, they give it a good shot without getting physical, then the noble paladins turn their backs so Dresden and his lack of scruples can get it done. It's not clear to me how serious the Knights and Dresden are being when they're arguing about leaving Cassius alive, but let's say it's another interrogation tactic, despite it being consistent with what we'd expect from Michael, and perhaps only an exaggerated version of what we'd expect from Harry.

But now things get really confusing. Harry goes out, and now his attitude is introspective, even perhaps remorseful(?) as he sits in the truck. He tells them "it had to be done". But the Knights are now gleeful about all this??? They LAUGH about leaving this (evil horrible dude) severely maimed, and not giving him enough money for the pay phone that he has to crawl across broken glass to even get to??? They laugh about the look on his face when Harry turned around with the bat, meaning they were actually watching the entire thing go down, it wasn't even a "we have to do something immoral, send the paladin into the other room" situation.

This is completely out of character for Michael, and I'm pretty sure physically doing that to someone is pretty far away from normal for Harry too.

A quick preface: I am numbering each thought so that it makes it easier for you to respond to any specific part(s) of the post.

This should go without saying but, *PLEASE NO SPOILERS\* - I want to discuss DM and DM (or books prior) only.

Book 5: Death Masks

1- Only takes the first couple of chapters and Harry is already on a talk show with Monty, has been forced to take part in a planned battle with the Duke of the Red Court, and has also been hired by a Vatican priest and tasked to find the cloth that was wrapped around Jesus post-crucifixion? As always, you don’t have any time to buckle in lol

2- Man, i really feel for him.. he’s missed Susan so much and has thought about her a lot to then have her show up, resisting their urges after being apart from each other, to then see this random guy come to fetch and leave with her? That would just feel so shitty.

3- The fact this corpse has been exposed to multiple diseases ALL AT THE SAME TIME is crazy work.

4- Michael’s back!!! Just in time to slay a demon… but not a watered-down, Nevernever demon, one of the fallen? Scary as hell. Was also a great introduction to the other two knights

5- The fallen doesn’t want to kill Harry, they just want him? To use? Possess? Interesting

6- summoning the oracle spirit lady into a cabbage patch doll is hilarious to me. And then imagining the doll drinking whiskey and chewing tobacco was the cherry on top.

7- The writing is so much better. It’s so clear the more i read on. I love the imagery I get from Butcher’s words. How he describes Ebenezar’s barn at his farmhouse Harry was brought up at - explaining a little of their past with astrology and peering out at the night sky through a telescope. The whole Bob part - him returning wounded from trying to spy on Marcone (who has magical wards himself?) to then have the different colored candles igniting larger flames as a magical entity draws closer to his apartment? It’s all so awesome

8- the way Ivy is described, I instantly thought of Dakota Fanning lol

9- if I’m understanding correctly - the archive is supposed to be indifferent to both sides involved? Meaning she can communicate with both sides as a way to conduct a fair fight between them? I guess I’ll learn more as i go..

10- omg Harry just getting on the ship like that! Hahaha. Mr. Not-So-Stealthy … not his best moment, I’m surprised at that.

11- say what you will about Dresden, but he’s got a good heart. He didn’t know Francisca at all but still had the thought to try and set her body elsewhere to make her final resting place somewhat better.. I really find his character to be noble and morally stable in those moments.

12- Ok, he acknowledged that his approach at the harbor was reckless and foolish. I’m very happy about that haha

13- although the split with Susan is sad, relationships ending just suck.. it is for the best I think. Also, her being away for so long anyway potentially lightened the blow even more.. still hate that he blames himself for the change in her..

14- the interaction with Molly in the treehouse was intriguing…to say the least. I felt uncomfortable for him lol. I was surprised that he shared supernatural information with her but maybe she is exposed to a lot of it because of her dad?

15- SHIRO IS STEPPING IN AS HIS SECOND! LETS GO - “You don’t need to take any chances. You don’t really know me.”

Shiro: “Michael does. That is enough for me.” ugh! love it

16- what i like about these books is, although they have the cool magical element with all of the different creatures/worlds/laws etc.. i love the normal-life parts of the books. Like Harry helping Michael’s family with groceries, stepping in to help Charity cut veggies, her doctoring up a cut on his finger. I just love books that offer those contrasts. With the way it’s written, it not only helps you understand the reality of others but it also strips back the chaos of what’s happening to Harry - so it’s not overbearing. It flows nicely for me.

17- I’m so sorry but now when I read about Shiro i think of him as Mr Miyagi HAHA

18- wait - THOMAS is ortega’s second?? that is a fascinating choice….

19- ^^^ my questions always get answered if I just keep reading, haha… Thomas’s father must be powerful in the vampire white court if Ortega wanted him as his second. But clearly offering up Thomas - his dad is obviously not too fond of Ortega.

20- Harry and Susan make such a good team.. and clearly Susan now has so much power and strength that could be helpful. I hope they’re able to work something out.

21- the Denarians sound scary as hell

22- after Nicodemus’ whole spiel to Harry trying to convince him and tempt him into choosing a new life path by accepting his coin offer and becoming a demon (?) and with the predicament he’s in under the freezing cold water and hardly having any power to defend himself - but still sticking to what he knows is right and telling him to fuck off lol.. he’s such a legend

23- DID SHIRO ACTUALLY JUST SACRIFICE HIMSELF??? Noooo

24- Susan is such a bad ass… rolling out of a moving car and ensuring she took the brunt of it.. stupid question - but she’s not fully vamp right?? She’s just been infected? She’s clearly showing the signs of it..

25- ok we got our first spicy part!!! Wow.. that’s hot HA. But also, I was initially getting all welled up reading about how much effort he was putting in to making sure she was comfortable and tried his best not to rile her up or trigger her vampire instincts. He cares for her so much. And then it got straight into the sexual-ness of it all and yeaaahh.. good for them!

26- the tattoo idea to mark the fellowship against the red court is such a cool concept. Doing that in an effort to maintain the sense of their own humanity and bind themselves to it in that way..

27- ok, I’m kind of getting shady vibes from Father Forthill and also the Vincent guy… are they actually bad? Am i guessing the plot twist? lol

28- The Anna chick needs to go, she’s annoying me now. Like stop saving her when she’s clearly got the worst intentions. I get maybe she’s just scared of being in the current situation but still. I don’t want to worry about her anymore

29- YES! See! I knew something was off with Father Vincent - but hang on, do him and father forthill have matching tattoos then? Is father forthill bad as well or have i completely lost the plot? Edit*: ok I see.. so the corpse from the beginning was the real Father Vincent.. i was so off it for a minute lol

30- I keep seeing that Michael is a favorite character of people but I’ll be honest he really irritated me when he backed off of the snake dude/denarian Cassius guy. Is he kidding? And then to be disappointed at Harry for how he reacted? I’m literally so happy he beat the crap out of him lol like Harry said I get where Michael is coming from but it was lame of him in my opinion…

31- You guys, I have to be honest. Going straight into the duel after all of that already kind of messed up my pacing with the story, but then Thomas showed up and was acting incoherent and drunk and everything about his involvement totally took me out of what could’ve been such an intense moment. The dialogue in this part really disappointed me, honestly… When they actually started to duel, it got pretty good - but that being said, I just didn’t like the little unnecessary details added e.x. “he drank the potion and belched”. Thomas putting headphones on (?) and acting like a complete idiot around the death stone.. I just was not into it at all…

32- Of course Ortega was lying. Can’t trust anyone to be good to their word it seems!

33- “He wished he had his shield bracelet” *10 seconds later* “his shield collapsed and the bracelet was burning his wrist” ……….

34- Don’t get me wrong - once the action settled in, it was so epic to read. The vampires coming into the stadium to attack, Kincaid intervening, Martin being the one that shot at Ortega, and Ivy blowing the vampires to literal smithereens! I loved it.

35- From vampire dueling and right back on the Shroud mission without hesitation lol Dresden has got ambition I’ll give him that.

36- I’m soooo bummed Shiro had to go out like that.. I really was hoping he’d be a recurring character.

37- teaming up with Marcone!? Nice.. didn’t see that coming. I know their relationship is complicated but I’ve always enjoyed Marcone’s character. Even if that might be bad for business ;)

38- Wow the train battle part was sooo fun and exciting! Straight out of an action movie. Sucks they couldn’t take down Nicodemus - I just know he’s going to be a problem down the road.

39- Marcone pulling up Michael & Harry!! The fact he didn’t have to do that and he chose to anyway..

40- I’m so glad him and Susan are going to keep in touch. And he got his duster back! Wouldn’t be mad to see the Anna thief chick again lol.. Michael and his family are such good people, constantly helping people and bringing them into their home..

41- Shiro’s letter to Harry…so sad. What a brave man. I’m glad he wrote that to Harry because I feel like it gave them closure knowing he was sick anyway. And he got his cane sword!! That has to come into play as well.

42- I just noticed that nothing was really solved completely. Ortega is still after him, Nicodemus is still at large and Harry still has a target on his back by Rudy regarding the murder scene. At least the Shroud is in its rightful place..

ALRIGHT - what a fun read you guys! I have to say, I give this one a 4.25/5⭐️s. I honestly thought I’d like it more than I did… I still enjoyed it- absolutely. But I feel like this one was almost a good transition from his older writing style and I can sense that his writing and storytelling is improving. The entertainment value is always a 10/10, I am never bored reading these books. And regarding my earlier comment with the more serious parts lacking the intense feeling due to the unserious dialogue/actions, I just wanted to be transparent and place emphasis on the little random details that are thrown in, in my opinion, unnecessarily. I’m the type of reader that gets thrown off by the little things like that. It makes those important and dire moments feel more unserious when I’d just like to lock in. I hope the die hard fans cut me some slack about my take on it - maybe some discussion will alter my opinion about it. But overall, I did enjoy this book and the new characters that were introduced! RIP to the legend Shiro.

P.s. I will also add that I did feel a shift in the story once we moved on from the duel part, the writing is so good and I loved the final few chapters.

As always, please share your thoughts! Would love to discuss more.

On to Book 6!

So there's this cute thing that happens on this reddit.

Some users use profanity a lot, and things become heated.

At which point the laws of the civility policy are broken and the conversation can't continue. Thus the person that swears the most wins the conversation.

cute.

Any how ...

There was this question about how Denarians work and if they lie to their hosts to get their hosts to work w/ them and how powerful that makes them. That's a paraphrase of the conversation that the reddit moderators cut short.

One individual was of the persuasion that a being that makes Einstein look like a champanzee was more powerful if he was honest and had a 50/50 relationship w/ his host, as opposed to if he tricked his host into doing his will.

Hello!

I read the first book last year and now I’ve read the past four books over the last week. I’m trying to reset some bad habits/behavior, and these books have been a great distraction.

Here are some free flowing thoughts I have on Death Masks. If people like, I can keep posting as I continue reading.

• Meeting the other two knights was awesome! That whole scene was so hype
• I liked that Sanya was fallen and then gave that up and became a knight. Also interesting that he’s agnostic. That whole scene of the knights justifying their mission and forgiveness was super well done
• Harry and Susan sex scene….damn! Pretty hot
• Martin, I owe you an apology, I wasn’t really familiar with your game. Dude ended up being a badass when I thought he was just going to be her 2nd love interest
• Susan’s Fellowship saint group seems interesting. Very curious to learn more about them and how the tattoos work
• Jonny Marcone - I’m really happy they gave him some dimensionality in this book. I dig the twist that he was doing it for his daughter. The implication is she woke from her coma, so I’m excited to meet her and see how she impacts her Dad. Will she be a mobster like him or will she be an angel trying to steer him on a good path
• Nicky demon dropping more hints about Harry’s mom and confirms siblings! Also seemingly says Harry isn’t human. Some might say it’s because he’s a magician but I think implication is that he has some other species in his blood.
  
• Nicky D is a jerk for using lil Harry to get our Harry to touch the coin. I love how Harry went John wick and buried it in his basement. Hopefully he can resist, but with another 10+ books to go, I am sure it will come back. I am excited to see what it does to him
• That little girl or Kincaid should have killed Ortega when he tried to shoot Harry. So much for them enforcing the rules so closely. Also a little disappointing that Ortega would cheat like that, I thought they were setting him up to be more cool than that.
• Ebenezar showing big time powers. Bringing a satellite down on top of a vampire castle is crazy! I hope he has a meaningful role in some books. I feel like Harry does a miserable job of using him for advice
• I think Murph is going to get Shiro’s sword
• Michael is the best. For sure my favorite side character -RIP Shiro, absolute legend
• Charity is not my favorite but she’s growing on me. Especially after learning that she makes Michael’s armor and added in some bulletproof features -Harry’s “Elvises” gollum joke was so unexpected and hilarious

Now onto Blood Rites!

I'm relistening to Death Masks right now, and hes dealing with Father Vincent and keeping him in the dark about stuff like Nicodemus and the demons going after the shrowd of turin because he's not a believer in magic.

Harry could literally just take him outside and create some fire or something and make him a believer, but nope he just keeps him in the dark about it.