No skipping to the end, but it's past time for Jim to get a co-author (or more) who can crank out a book every 12 or 18 months, with Butcher providing the outline, direction, and editing. As a fellow human, I certainly sympathize with Butcher's RL events; many of those events are very painful and some are time-consuming. But his events are the type of things we each go through, yet have to continue to function in our jobs and in other aspects of our personal lives. I've read many an author explain their process - I get up in morning, I sit down, and I write XXX words. Viola, a year later, the novel is finished. Butcher apparently isn't of that persuasion so he needs co-author(s) who can write on a deadline regardless of what RL throws at them.
And you can't tell me that Butcher's publisher hasn't, isn't, and/or won't be pushing this approach. Speculating, but I'd bet the publisher won the fight over splitting Peace Talks into two books because they like money too, Butcher hadn't been pushing out any new product, and they had to be concerned about a shrinking number of fans who were still willing to pluck down hard-earned $$ for a book after many years of waiting. (Collections of short stories don't count, BTW.)
As a customer, I expect an end to the series. I thought I'd live to see that but those odds grow longer each day nothing is published. For that reason, I certainly would never recommend anyone start this series - or any other with an overarching story - until it's finished. And I'm sorry I recommended Dresden to a friend 15+ years ago based upon Butcher's early pace, since now there's no chance she'll be alive when the series ends.
