Well that started off with a bang, but there wasn't much there to suggest where the story is heading. (Other than it's going to be bloody.) However, I do have to say that seeing Molly swimming with the two bull sharks, holding on to their pectoral fins, made me smile.
I don't know about anyone else, but after hearing Jim say that Peace Talks was going to contain a very high level of supernatural violence, I was somewhat disappointed by the amount of action we got in the first book. It looks like Battle Ground may make up for that decided lack of action, though at the same time I hope that Harry will soon get the time he needs to start thinking like a detective, and to start acting rather than just reacting.
Yeah, I hope we get some detective work as well. I hope Harry actually uses what he saw in that soul gaze to defeat the Fomor.
1. Harry isn't sure he can actually bind Ethniu before she kills him. He is also highly aware she is essentially invulnerable. Part of his plan to wound her and bind her involve the plaque and the knife. Curiously, didn't use either to fight the Kraken. In fact, he was so concerned Ethniu might be aware of his thoughts (although he really shouldn't keep saying her name...did her learn nothing from Skin Game?) he tried not to even think about the knife. He also didn't tell Murphy he intends to use Demonreach to hold her. Curiously, he was acting as though this is all his backup plan. But what then is Plan A?
I think he explained that very well. 1] There are beings out and about that can know and hear everything he is doing, i.e. Andriel for one. He doesn't want the enemy to know what he has in his arsenal prematurely. 2] With help he managed to defeat the monster without revealing anything to the enemy. Which is probably why he was attacked in the first place. Though I am a bit surprise he was so dainty with his fire magic while he was still able to use it. You'd have thought he'd have gone for one big KABOOM at it's head.
2. Ethniu's Eye is mostly what we know from lore. However, Harry isn't sure of what it can do beyond destruction. I suspect we will see a few shots of mass destruction but also some extra abilities that no one knows of. He also is unaware how she inherited her father's Eye.
Nobody is sure, at least he isn't playing the wise ass about it, some maturity maybe?
3. Harry doesn't think that there will be any way for mortals to not notice this. However,Christmas Eve seems to suggest things have calmed down. It quite clearly avoids mentioning whether the masquerade has fallen.
Perhaps as suggested this is what he will use the Placard for? However Christmas Eve might be a bit misleading. Remember I think it was Molly's remark about him "trying to tell them and they wouldn't listen?" Which apparently led to a lot of carnage? A lot of us assumed it was the Council, but what if it was the vanilla army and vanilla marines that didn't listen and a lot of them bloodied the asphalt which was a very real memory in Harry's head.
4. A big hole in Harry's education is Water magic. Listens-to-Wind, River Shoulders could help him with this. If Carlos trusted him more I suspect he could. It's interesting Harry has almost know desire to learn it and almost know knowledge of it...especially considering Wizards are meant to be jack-of-all-trades types unlike Sorcerers who only know how to blow things up...rather like Harry.
I don't know if that is really true. While yeah, there are plenty of gaps in Harry's knowledge, and plenty of areas he isn't the best at, from Storm Front on he has explained how water neutralizes magic, this was consistent with that.
5. Harry suggests that Ethniu was locked up for thousands of years. Except he can't really be right about that. At least for the last few hundred years she must have been leading the Fomor. And likely she was locked up in the early days on Ireland, so maybe a thousand years before Christ at the most. But that seems unlikely, considering she was second generation Fomor, and they weren't even the first gods of Ireland. The Tuatha De only show up around the time the Israelites leave Egypt which might have only happened 500 years before Christ. At best she was locked up for a thousand years. Unless of course, Balor locked her up in prehistoric times.
She may not have been locked up, but she was keeping quiet. The question is, why? Unless it turns out to be important, we may never know.
6. Harry thinks that even caught off their guard, beings like Ferrovax and Vadderung are still too dangerous to fight fairly. Which suggests that we might get to see a little of them both in action. Very small things but still. I doubt we will see either of them square up with Ethniu or anything. In fact, I doubt anyone but Mab will do that. In saying that, a few minnows like Harry and the Senior Council might try and slow her down.
Oh I think we will see them in action. Mab and Vadderung survive, we know that from Christmas Eve, but I think we will see a willowing out of a lot of characters.
