I agree with most of it, but I disagree about first books. I think The Sorcerer's Stone is almost perfect and I think the writing is better than SF. That said, I completely agree about Butcher learning faster and I think he is now a much, much better autor than JKR.
My issues with the first books of both are that they mainly fall into the same trap. Most chapters are pretty much "I went to a place, and this thing happened. I left that place." Tons of first books fall into the same pattern. Iron Druid was a particular offender throughout the entire series, and Alex Verus would have fit it if Jacka's chapters were shorter. It's the kind of thing that comes from writing based on a rigid outline, mostly (though not really in Jim's case; it's formulaic, but I believe he wrote Storm Front pretty much as he went). Outlines are great, but I prefer it when books don't read like an outline.
Sorcerer's Stone was mostly about the wonder of uncovering a secret world, and it's got a fair bit of wish fulfillment baked into it (poor, abused Harry is saved from a devastatingly poor home life and is revealed to be not just special, but wealthy and famous, and he's a star athlete based on some kind of natural talent). It's fine for what it is, and I like it well enough, but I'm not the target audience for it.
And yeah, Bad Alias, some of the details of the supernatural creatures were retconned a bit, but the point is that magic itself functions in the exact same way from Storm Front through Skin Game. And Harry didn't even know that there were multiple Queens until Summer Knight.
The thing about Vampires is that White Court vamps don't follow the same rules. I assume that's what you're talking about. Because Red Court + Black Court can't do thresholds, and have never been depicted crossing one. So it's not "some breeds," it's "one breed," and that's because they're born human (and still apparently have trouble calling on their Hunger after crossing one). I think Harry even stipulates
In Storm Front, the only thing I recall about the Nevernever as it relates to vampires is that they wouldn't be able to rip someone's heart of their chest with a simple spell on the mortal realm, and would have to do it in the Nevernever. That rule gets twisted in Changes, but that took countless human sacrifices and a leyline, which is the kind of thing you'd notice in Chicago (and way too much effort to kill a mob enforcer). The only other thing I can remember is their "corporeal form" bit, which I took as a reference to the Red Court fleshmasks, which we see in Storm Front.
The Chauncy bit is kinda whatever.
