Stop reading if you did not read the book! I am serious. This is full of SPOILERS.

There is another thread about the map, so I won't speak about that here, but I finished the book today and I had lots of things to say. You are warned, this is going to be long.

General comment:
I REALLY liked the book. BUT at first I struggled getting invested in it. The fact that every chapter changed the characters we were following was very distracting and it was difficult for me to find the motivation to keep reading at least until more than half of the book.
Like with TAW, I still think the characters are my favourite thing in the book. Cavendish is an excellent villain. Gwen, Ferus, Folly and Grimm, and the Spirearch too, are my favourite but I liked most of the others too. I am not a fan of Elaine, I mean, Calliope but in general I enjoy the others. Among the new ones, Ravenna is the best, but I liked all the others: Abigail (even when, you know...), the surface etherealist and the minor characters like the cats, Hamish and Tilde and Vincent.

Specific comments

1) I love the little details, like at the beginning Kettle telling Grimm that not many people would have taken a moment to think, or Gwen "calmly" shooting a revenant, or Abigail understanding what the glasses she gave her meant to Folly. I think the little details made the characters so great.

2) I am really, really mad about the Spanish names. I mean, yes, I know a writer is free to invent whatever names they want but most TOA names are written like nowadays, except by some Spanish ones. And yes, some of them are perfectly correct, like Espira, Chavez and Rafael. But, for example, it is (possible but) weird that Rafael becames Rafe and Espira is Renaldo instead of Reynaldo. Valesco is a very unusual name. I would have expected Velasco, which is very common. Raoul, Francesco and del Aurora are also quite uncommon writings, as Raśl, Francisco and de la Aurora would be more natural. But if that was all, I would be just moderately annoyed. What irritated me so much was the ship called CONQUISTODOR. Like...what? Can you imagine a ship named ConquerIr? 

3) I loved the duels. After having felt robbed of a proper duelling in TAW, I absolutely enjoy those. Still, I think like a lot of Grimm's duel depended of the intelligence Abigail gathered watched Valesco duelling a random character. As if a super expert duelist always used the same tactics and style. It is a reduced sampling 
Also, I have a question. I am pretty sure I've read that Grimm's duel was "at noon" and Abigail's "at sunset" but then it seems that they happened at the same time. What did I get wrong?

4) I was not so inlove with the tea meeting from the ladies scene. The attack on Abigail felt super weird and clumsy. It seemed that having a man in a female reunion, particularly if he just appeared to hit the victim, was not a valid reason for offense and duelling. It would be just a serious gaffe from the host. Also, if people heard that the great and terrible duelist had decided to hit a pregnant woman (the warriorborn coud smell the pregnancy) wouldn't have been embarrassing for Valesco? And more important, what exactly was the plan? Because as far as I understood, they did not know about Folly before the meeting, so for all they know Abigail would have gone into the reunion, trade some veiled insults, Hestia would have made her feel ashamed...and she would have left without Valesco having the chance of doing anything.

5) I liked the surface scene with the aetherialist and the old cat, and the battle with the Scyther 

6) I understand is very convenient for the plot but I would think the logical action for Grimm would have been trying to blow Ransom's ship instead of boarding it and trying to take a new technology.

7) PLEASE tell me they will rebuild Preddy. If the core crystal is undamaged (big IF) I think her personality could remain. Also, i suppose the rescuers will find (in the other ship) the crystal that Cavendish mentioned, the one grown in weeks, that could be so useful to the war. I am confident they will find Ferus's cane, so I imagine they could find that cristal too.

8 ) Valesco death was very satisfactory, and I hope someday we can have a satisfactory death for Cavendish too.

9) I was very sad about Ferus, a character I loved. But I understand that is the mentor's fate, in general.

10) Cavendish is Folly's mother!!??

11) Even when I understand why she did it, I am not too happy with Abigail risking Grimm's life. I liked Bayard's reaction and the fact that he did not immediately forgive her. I want them to reconcile and be happy with their baby but I feel the way it happened is more realistic and show Bayard's character. Also, I am afraid they will not have a happy ending. Anyways, I think Abigail could have try to show Bayard that even when she would do the same again she still regrets what she did to Grimm. For example, she could have offered to pay for Grimm's rehab with the best doctors. She is rich.

12) I loved that Espira is impressed with Grimm, he seems to respect him a great deal. I was looking forward to a scene with Grimm telling him "So, you slept with my wife..." and Espira blanching. And yes, we know they are exes (but not formally) and both of them have other partners but Espira would not know. Alas, that did not happen.

13) Last, and also Espira related. I seriously see no reason why he is not a prisoner in the end. I understood that his surviving men were allowed to march free, but I think he should have been Grimm's prisoner.

God in Heaven, that was super long. You have been warned though and I regret nothing. I expected so long for this I am enjoying it now :-)

I can field a few of those.

Point 3. The reason why Grimm had to duel Valesco is because that intel wouldn't have had any value a fight between Bayard and him. The thing they learned is that the Baron likes to toy with vastly inferior opponents and then insta kill them. Against anyone he thought was a threat, he wouldn't do that. He did it against Grimm because he knew Grimm wasn't on his level and it never occurred to him that someone might just accept so grievous a wound to land a strike, or have the ability to parry his strike in the first place.

Point 4. Whether it was noble of Valesco or would be considered an honorable move was irrelavant. The point was to show that Aurora could bully Albion and they couldn't do anything about it. Plus, whether anyone else thought it was a valid reason was irrelevant. Valesco knew that Bayard would never allow that to pass without a fight to the death.

Point 6. They couldn't just blow Ransoms ship. It was clearly established that trying to use the cannons would have been suicidal. In fact, they nearly did use the cannons to kill both ships before the Pikers showed up

Point 7. I am not sure they have to rebuild Preddy, just repair her. The whole reason Gwen went down with the ship was to make it land relatively intact and light signal flares so it could be found. Since they were bound together, that also means it's likely Mistshawk went down mostly intact too. So, we are most likely going to see an Albion flagged Mistshark in the next book, given that it's whole crew is dead and Calliope captured.

Point 10. Where did you get that idea?

Point 11. Abby's actions were perfectly in character for someone who is a covert agent of the Spire, is emotionally attached to Bayard and is not an honor bound duelist. She couldn't let that duel happen because Bayard would probably lose. She would lose the love of her life AND it would have been a massive blow to her spire. So, she stopped it from happening by subterfuge, like the spy she is.

point 13. It was established at the end of the first book that Grimm would accept the parole of an Auroran that acted honorably. He also knew that while Espira was clearly not on board with the Mistmaw plan, he also would never betray his spire so there was little point in taking him back for questioning. With Espira free, he could be a potential ally against Cavendish's master at a later date. Plus, as Grimm said many times, he isn't a fleet ship and there isn't officially a war yet. He didn't actually have a legal ground to take him. It's the same reasons why no one tried to start a fight with the Conquistador. Neither would go down easy and they acted like honorable men in the fight

I certainly hope he is working on it. I really liked the first book. It had all the charm of Dresden but none of the corny pop culture reference. I don't mind that in Dresden but it's nice to see an alternative.

Bonnie is still a spirit of air. She is like Bob, she won't have free will or experience feelings the way a human would.

This is a case of me purely throwing "stuff" at the wall and seeing if it sticks. I am pulling for Thomas. In my version, he takes up the sword and the holy power banishes the demon, freeing him and letting him and Justine live their dream life, have kids and go into old age.

My fault. I didn't realize how old the thread was. I didn't know that there was a Dresden File Accelerated though, so some good came of it.

Forgive me for bumping an older thread, I just wanted to throw an opinion in on something that has bothered me since I read Your Story.

Lawbreaker shouldn't be a power IMO. From reading the novels, breaking the Laws doesn't make you stronger at magic. It changes your personality, makes you want to keep breaking the laws. It's a temptation, one that will eventually turn you into a bloodthirsty monster that is less likely to show restraint in how you pursue power. Like all the hoops that Sells was willing to jump through to power his curses. That's much more of an RP thing and I feel that it's much better covered as an Aspect, perhaps as part of your Trouble. Being a lawbreaker carries just as many social implications and combat ones. As an Aspect, it can be used as a Compel too. It can be tagged and used against you in certain instances. Look at all the grief Harry caught from being a known Lawbreaker. It can be used as a positive in social situations. If you are making an intimidate check, tagging a Breaker of the First Law aspect is a solid move even if you are repentant.

The only way I see Lawbreaker as a power is as a -0 refresh choice to reflect the taint on your aura that certain people can detect. Like Marked by Power but with less upside.

Distance alone is no protection; not when the wizard is focusing his will and intent on interactions with the internet via the computer.

Harry hexes things down at a distance regularly; granted, his long-range Hexus spell is specific and intentional, but we see him unwilling to even step into an Intensive Care ward; the one time I recall, he only did so when he could be sure he had empty rooms adjacent to the one where he was interviewing Pell, and he STILL kept the time to a minimum, and left ASAP.

And THAT was with him intentionally keeping his focus on Pell, on Pell's testimony, and symptoms.

To interact online, Harry would de facto be focusing his will upon the computer.  There's no other way TO interact with the internet.  It'd be one blown computer after another!

Similar with running water:  there is a dampening effect, but it's not a reliable warding.  In White Knight, Harry freezes a big chunk of water in the bay.  In Small Favor, Harry raises a shield while standing in open water.

The only reliable way I see, canonically, is for a muggle in a circle to run the thing, and follow Harry's directions.

Mind you, it could get pretty sophisticated...  Get a projector, and a screen outside the circle.  Harry could interact with this sceen largely as if it were a touchscreen, while the computer-operator, watching Harry carefully, could duplicate things on the active/electronic screen.

Yet, in Skin Game they were able to use running water to operate near sensitive electronics without blowing them. I don't want to get too deep into that since this isn't the spoilers board but I assume you know what I am referencing. I think it's fairly clear that if Harry were to get clever, he could find a way to use a computer. He's never going to do it, because that's not who Dresden is, but he theoretically could without too much trouble.