I just finished reading Peace Talks last night aaaand I have THOUGHTS on it.
First off, I loved the scenes with Maggie and Bonea. It was great seeing them transition from 'plot points' like they had been the past few books to not-entirely-full-grown characters, and it was adorable. <3 It made things a lot more impactful when Dresden was considering things, and the 'why are you sending me back' scene when he moved to protect her was really well done/full of 'ack'. I'd been waiting a while to see those two and I was not disappointed.
I was also amused that apparently Laschiel knew over two hundred different recipes for pancakes. Definitely the Temptress.
Other than that, though... I kind of got a 'rushed' feel from the book. I know it's meant to be spread across two books so there's a lot that isn't going to come to fruition until later, but... it still felt like there were points where things got 'crammed in' and didn't really get fleshed out/didn't raise some things that felt natural. Two in particular stand out:
1.) At the beginning, when Harry and Thomas are talking about what the baby might end up doing to Justine... nobody brings up that Justine is protected. That comes up again later when Dresden touches Lara, and we have Word Of Jims about the other branches of the White Court being vulnerable to opposing emotions (courage, etc), but it seemed very odd that Dresden didn't even ask if that would make Justine safe. Given how it seems pretty rare for White Court to have kids it seems like it would be entirely possible there had never actually been a mother who was protected by love like Justine will be. I get that most of what Thomas did was probably motivated by that 'I have a solution in mind' comment in regards to protecting Justine, but... it just seems extremely out of character for Harry and Thomas to not even suggest it. Especially given that Harry knows how much Thomas cares for her, and what he would do if her life was threatened. It seemed like something he would have talked about for a bit or tried to help with. Which ties into my theory as to what's going on with Thomas and the assassination (more later), but if so then it feels 'rushed' for the purpose of making that possible.
2.) At the end, when Dresden is back in what is left of his basement. I *hate* assuming Jim Butcher forgot about something, especially with how much he remembers and how much calls back to things earlier in the series, and how things that are out of place are usually hints at something bigger going on, like Mab messing with his knowledge of fire spells, but... what jumped out at me almost immediately was that Dresden didn't have a copper summoning circle in his basement. There are two sentences devoted to it specifically; Dresden points out it had survived somehow, then ruminates over the floor of the living collapsing and shielding it from the worst of the flames.
But in Changes, Dresden had upgraded his 'old copper summoning circle' (direct quote from the book) to a brand new one. The swartalves had made it for him; he talked about how difficult it was to convince them to work with iron.
So does it mean something that the old one is there now instead? Or was it something that got overlooked with the thousands of other threads Butcher was keeping together?
That said, I still really enjoyed the book. And I'm looking forward to Battle Ground; I really want to see what happens next, and find out what was going on with Thomas. And I want to find out if the Lightsaber of Faith can cut through that titan bronze or not. >=D
Since it's the big thing still left dangling, my theory with Thomas/the assassination:
I think Cristos is a Grade A certified jerk.
Thomas was pretty obviously motivated with saving Justine's life. Thomas' actions were probably all meant to protect Justine, and the thing threatening her was the baby feeding off of her. There may be other ways to suppress the Hunger, but as far as we know Thomas only knows of one way to stop a White Court vampire from being able to feed: a wizard casting a spell.
We know from how things ended that the Outsiders were working with the Fomor and trying to disrupt the conference, or at least the response to the Fomor invasion - they started attacking the Outer Gates right before the attack so that Winter couldn't help out. If their goal was to make it as hard for the Accords to respond as possible, having an assassination attempt occur seven minutes into the conference would be a good way to do it; it would make them all even more suspicious and much less willing to work with each other, even against a huge threat. Since we know the Black Council is working with Outsiders, my theory at this point is that somebody dangled an enchantment in front of Thomas that would protect Justine so long as he attacked and killed somebody. If true, that means Cristos knew all about it and was 'diplomacing' to cause more problems with the swartalves and the White Court later, perhaps even counting on a rescue attempt once Thomas was moved.
Things still standing out:
- I think Wild Bill is infected by Nemesis.
I can't put my finger on what exactly it is, but something about how he was acting in the stop after Dresden visited Lara makes me think something is wrong/up with him.
- Who was in the third car trailing Dresden and Murphy? I thought the Jeep might have been the White Council following him, since it seemed old/they use older cars, but I have no idea who might have been in the silver car. That seemed White Court, but he was on the way to visit Lara so it didn't make much sense they would follow him there. Think that's going to be Important.
- It seems like Marcone was leaving a message for Dresden by putting Thomas where he did. Keeping the subbasement as it was would be one thing and would make some sense if he was trying to learn about the wizardy stuff Dresden had left around (did Little Chicago survive/does Marcone have it now?), but putting Thomas there seems pretty deliberately a message that he knew Dresden would be coming to rescue Thomas. I think Marcone might know about Dresden/Thomas.
ANYWAYS those are my initial thoughts. I was really glad to read another Dresden novel, and am really looking forward to Battle Ground now!
