I have a suspect nobody has mentioned yet. Remember how Harry was able to choke Nicodemus into unconsciousness on the boat in Small Favor at the end of the climactic scene?

And how one of the Swords lit up for him? It was only a single flash, but it was enough to repel Anduriel at a critical moment.

If Harry had blown his head off during Proven Guilty due to a mistake on LC, he never would have been there to stop Nicodemus from taking the Sword, corrupting it, and also gaining the majority of the free-roaming coins in the process.

I think that on the particular timeline our Harry is on, and with the events that happened during Small Favor, whoever was behind that Sword flash had a vested interest in keeping Harry's head attached to his shoulders.

I don't see Mab there, neuro, but I do see Esmerelda from the Eebs.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious! If you say it loud enough, you'll always sound precocious! Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

^ Lots and lots of good words in that song.

Personally, this was my selling point:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M2FrnlNH9s

I cracked up at the slow-motion walk. His haircut that day probably had something to do with it, as it was stuck straight up off the front of his face.

I still say Jeffery Donoven from burn notice would make a good nicodemous

He probably would, except that I'm going to have difficulty immersing myself in the fact that he's a cold, calculating, heartless bastard who wants to remake Humanity's perceptions of him after most of the burn notice episodes. That character kind of sticks like a needle on a phonograph in my mind. "When you're a spy, and you want to ensure the demise of the human population, it's best to cut out the tongues of your minions and then provide a nice dental plan."

The runes blocked Shagnasty, but not the Denarians, Harry, the Archive, or the normal humans. The Denarians were probably as bad in intention as Shagnasty was, and the Fallen were probably at least in Shagnasty's league of power, if not beyond. Maybe the runes only block supernatural creeps who don't have souls?

The Warden question came up again in the Pre-GS thread, too, and it was noted that while the Warden apparently had something to do with preventing Shagnasty from using the Nevernever to travel to the island, the two human-seeming people were able to do so, and they were able to bring fae creatures through with them.

Two possible explanations for this come to my mind: First, that whatever is blocking Shagnasty from using the Nevernever, fae creatures are exempt from it. Or second, that once a portal is opened, any creature can pass through, even those who would be blocked from entering on their own.

If the second explanation is true, then the same magic which empowers the runes on the cottage and the tower may be what is blocking entrance onto Demonreach from the Nevernever. The wards around the island might prevent anyone who doesn't have a soul from entering the cottage or the tower, or from even opening a portal onto Demonreach from the Nevernever. Very human-centric magic. And maybe good for Harry, defense-wise, if he decides to move out there.

Still, I think this is only one of many equally likely possibilities.

Are we certain the Skinwalker is soulless? I think Bob only stated that it has no need for gender. It certainly seemed well acquainted with what Soulfire was capable of, and of its origins. I'll grant that knowledge of it doesn't necessarily imply that the Skinwalker has a soul.

Jim has stated that the Skinwalker boasts a form of intellectus in the Shagnasty section of the WOJ thread. Here's the relevant part of the quote:

"Q:  How and why did the skinwalker take Thomas?
A:  Thomas was distracted by Binder’s minions and the skinwalker saw the opportunity.  It knew that Thomas is important to Harry, but not necessarily that Thomas is Harry’s brother.  The skinwalker exists in more than one dimension at a time and it has its own kind of intellectus when it comes to evil – it knows what will hurt you and scare you, even though it may not really know why."

DemonReach is also a spirit, and also has access to a form of intellectus. There is a metaphysical component to the Skinwalker, though whether a spirit or soul is attached isn't clearly defined. There is also the physical and mental effect it had on Harry when Dresden viewed it with his Sight to consider. 

Absolutely not.  Other than those five sample chapters, there is to be NO discussion of material from Ghost Story until July 26th.  We'll post our updated spoiler policy soon.

Thanks. That means I can keep debating until the 26th.

No, Bob didn't say that LC now matched the power flows in the real Chicago, so the problem was solved; he said that LC had a power flow set up the wrong way the last time he looked at the model, but that now, when he was looking at it, the power flow was correct. One scenario involves the real world changing but the model staying the same, while the other involves the world staying the same and model changing between one viewing and the next. If the real world had changed, Bob and Harry wouldn't have had any need to go through the part of the discussion in which they talked about how someone would've needed to get past the wards, examine Little Chicago, and realize how to fix the problem. Bob would have known the difference and we would've had an entirely different mystery to think about.

Proven Guilty, page 471, paperback:

"I found something wrong with Little Chicago's design." I swallowed. "Oh. Wow. Bad?" "Extremely. We missed a transition coupling in the power flow. The stored energy was all going to the same spot." "That's ... like a surge of electricity going through a circuit breaker, right? Or a fuse box." "Exactly like that," Bob said. "Except that you were the fuse. That much energy in one spot will blow your head off your shoulders." "But it didn't." I said. "But it didn't," Bob agreed. "How is that possible?" "It isn't," he said. "Someone fixed it." "What? Are you sure?" "It didn't fix itself," Bob said. "When I looked at it a few nights ago, the flawed section was in plain sight, even if I didn't recognize it at the time. When I looked at it again tonight, it was different. Someone changed it." "In my lab? Under my house? Which is behind my wards? That's impossible." "No it isn't," Bob said. "Just really, really, really, really, really, really difficult. And unlikely."

The issue that I'm taking with Bob's statement is that he never stated where the transition coupling was at on LC. Kind of odd, considering that he's the one who brought up the conversation. Altering the power flow out in the real world so as not to have Dresden blow his head off his shoulders, even if it was only a momentary alteration, would have been much easier as opposed to someone going into Harry's subbasement. And Bob knows that. Bob being locked in Harry's basement doesn't exactly lend itself to his noticing a momentary flux in the power flows around the city, ya know? After all, Bob didn't notice the mishap until a few nights later- even though he saw it hiding in plain sight the first time he looked at it- so he therefore wouldn't have been looking for any shifts in the power flows around the city to begin with. (Simply put, whomever kept Dresden from going kablooey acted by momentarily taking the circumstance out of the cards, rather than risk a fix in front of Bob.)

On top of that, we have Bob stating that in all likelihood, no one did get into Harry's basement to fix the issue. It was fixed elsewhere first, and in the basement after the trial run.

I've also generally found that the either/or principle applies when we have all the information. We don't know why Bob missed the transitioner, even though he said he could see it.

As for how someone else knew LC was messed up- if they were running their own version, they probably noticed when all those small chinks and nicks appeared in the buildings, roads, etc. and took care to fix the model, lest they end up having to fix a much, much bigger problem.