Little Things [spoilers]

[Mira]

Mister at the point of Little Things is 17-18 years of age. Everyone is noting he is quite old, by the calendar, but it is clear from Little Things he is as strong and quick as he has always been, with senses to equal Toot and Lacuna. The Little Folk are noted as being sensitive to to things, Harry has to Listen to even hear them sometimes. He is also relatively peacefully co-existing with The Za Guard. If he were a Malk Changeling, like Sarissa he wouldn’t age unless he chose mortal, and he would fall within Winter and would therefore allow Toot Etc to live, relatively unharnessed. Toot has only been Winter since Changes, prior to that he would have been fair game. A mortal cat wouldn’t make the distinction, a scion would. His blood thirstiness is also a Malk trait, they are worse than mortal cats. The constant reference to Tomcat suggests Mister is not fixed (we know Mouse isn’t) and yet he is not spraying, suggesting he is intelligent enough to not do so. The Mister Microfiction gives some idea of his intelligence.

Possible, but I am still not totally convinced.  In my life I've known some pretty large cats, and even ones approximately thirty pounds.  It seems huge, but not for an old tom.  Actually that is about the size a twelve week old Bloodhound puppy, which doesn't look all that big.  His blood thirstiness also isn't beyond the pale..  We were gone for a couple of days a while back, [yes, someone to feed and care for the cat] when we came home there were ten dead birds in our front yard, all neatly decapitated, bodies untouched, he did it out of boredom.. I've also opened my front door to a dead cardinal on the mat complete with a bit of green on the side like parsley.  I've come across dead critters in every dark corner of the house that the cat brought in through the pet door to share.  Sometimes her favorite game was to bring the critter in alive then turn it loose for more pleasure,sigh.  Age?  Though at 18 Gabby sleeps a lot these days run a rodent by her or fly a bird, you'd be surprised how quick she still is.  Also cats do know when it is best to live and let live, she also lives peacefully with two dogs.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

It’s not just size, Mister is missing his tail, and Malks have an unusually long tail, a tell-tail if he were a scion.

In addition one of Harry fondest memories of his father is of Malcolm finding a sick kitten and nursing it back to health. Harry’s memories were Lea’s playground for some time, she would clearly use them to manipulate Harry taking a spy into his household. Unfortunately Lea didn’t bargain with catnip, and because cat. I also posit Uriel may have had a hand in Mouse ending up with Harry, if My Shadow and his sister were destined to be creatures of the Circle, and Lucifer is behind the Circle. Not as a spy, but as a counterbalance like Soulfire. Harry had had no previous experience with dogs, (other than Lea wanting to turn him into one) and is quite baffled by Mouse initially, not realising he was going to be a BIG dog.

The Microfiction contains two clues, Misters food bowl is “EMPEROR” (Mouses food bowl, also Misters, reads “CHEWBACCA”)who was a Sith Lord, suggesting Harry’s subconscious (way smarter than Concious Harry) has realised this but accepts it, he has turned Leas spy. I wonder if eventually he uses Mister as a double agent against Lea in his forthcoming blow up with her over her deal with Margaret. The second is Mister refers to humans as monkeys, an insult the Fae use on humans when referred to as fairies. Where did he pick up that term? He is unlikely to have seen a monkey or be aware of that terms derogatory use.

[Mira]

It’s not just size, Mister is missing his tail, and Malks have an unusually long tail, a tell-tail if he were a scion.

There are domestic cats that have no tails, it is genetic to them and they tend to be larger than your average house cat.  Also accidents do happen, a cat I had years ago had a run in with a car, broke her tail and eventually it fell off.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

In Storm Front when Mister is first described as a kitten Harry found by some dumpsters, he is described as having recently lost his tail, Harry thought to a dog or a car because of his mistrust of both. It’s not genetic, or it might have been entailing it’s removal. Mister is not a Bob Cat.

Maybe one of Leas hounds bit it off, and Mister has been making Mouse suffer as a consequence.

[BrainFireBob]

I agree with the theory on Mister being intended as a changeling; although I'd also buy that this is one of those things that Jim intended as a surprise that he might not do because readers guessed.

I don't think it was Lea, though. I think it was Mab- Mab is the one we see using malks for intelligence gathering all the time. I think Lea was getting her info from Bob during his "free nights", as a corollary to the theory of her being his mother.

The detail about Mister's tail being clubbed by some form of apparent misadventure, with the distinguishing characteristics of malks being intelligence, size, and long tails over housecats, was also the light bulb for me.

Changelings appear required to choose in adolescence/young adulthood. Choose magical heritage, gain superpowers but gain restrictions. Choose mortal, have free will, lose the benefits of being Fae. The only exception we've seen is Sarissa, who explicitly tells us she made a deal with Mab to protect herself from "hereditary insanity"- that entailed living 50% of her life as mortal and 50% as Fae, with an additional personal favor of being required to maintain Mab's connection to humanity for the favor.

That's a longwinded way of saying that the only person we've seen exercising the power of delaying Choice well outside the window- is Mab. And Mister has disappeared for periods, as I recall. At 17-18 years, Mister is certainly well past the age he should have Chosen.

Would his siring matter? I think I'd lean towards Grimalkin if he goes down this path- Grimalkin has seemed less unfriendly to Harry than other malks generally. Harry goes on and on about how Winter is generally ruthless, but family ties are acknowledged- Grimalkin might be disposed to indifference instead of hostility over good care of his kin.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Mab took over handling Mister post Grave Peril, when he became interesting to her as Winter Knight. Before that it was all Lea. Harry was only part of the price from freeing  her from Nemesis, I suspect both Mister and Bob were part of the deal. A good spymaster has a spy in your household, a great spymaster has more than one, they can check if one has been turned by romance novels or catnip. Besides Lea always gave that stalkery vibe.

Note Bob is openly Bob The Castle now displaying Winter Blue. He is clearly in from the cold with Winter, and into the greater cold. Bob is probably spying on the Castles inhabitants for Mab (and the female ones on his own behalf, for ahem security purposes).

His change of sanctum will take him off the White Council hit list as well, they are looking for a skull with glowing orange eyes. He now only has to worry about being targeted as Harry’s HQ. Which is almost immediately it seems.

[Regenbogen]

Nice.

Anyone else have comments on the rest of the anthology, though? Worth / not worth?

For me it is. I would totally recommend Kevin Hearne's story without reading it. Though I don't know, if it is useful to know the Iron Druid beforehand. This story though is from the dog's POV. I've read several short stories from the dog's POV, and it is hilarious!

Then there is Kelley Armstrong. The author of the series "Women of the Otherworld" and many more. I like her style in writing and have read most of her books. This story seems to be in the setting of her young adult series, I have forgotten the title.

And of course Patricia Briggs. Tbh I wanted the book at first because it was mentioned on her website. Her story is from the Mercy Thompson universe and features one of the old dangerous werewolfs looking for love, if I remember correctly. Could be funny or tragical. Or both.

Then there is Anne Bishop. I have not read a complete book by her, because I started accidentally somewhere in the middle and stopped, because I was too confused. But I liked what I've read so far.

The others I have never read. But after reading my favourite authors, I'm going to try out the others.

The way I see it, the anthology is kind of a teaser to find new good stories.

So far I have only read the Butcher story. But I started the Hearne story today.


((((((((( EDIT: I have started to read the story by Kevin Hearne.

Warning to the new readers:
It contains spoilers about the end of the Iron Druid series. But you can read it without knowing the series. The dog explains every important thing.
I don't think the spoilers would ruin the series for you. It's about how the druid's life is different because of what happened, but it doesn't say what it was that happened. )))))))

[Mira]

Mab took over handling Mister post Grave Peril, when he became interesting to her as Winter Knight. Before that it was all Lea. Harry was only part of the price from freeing  her from Nemesis, I suspect both Mister and Bob were part of the deal. A good spymaster has a spy in your household, a great spymaster has more than one, they can check if one has been turned by romance novels or catnip. Besides Lea always gave that stalkery vibe.

Note Bob is openly Bob The Castle now displaying Winter Blue. He is clearly in from the cold with Winter, and into the greater cold. Bob is probably spying on the Castles inhabitants for Mab (and the female ones on his own behalf, for ahem security purposes).

His change of sanctum will take him off the White Council hit list as well, they are looking for a skull with glowing orange eyes. He now only has to worry about being targeted as Harry’s HQ. Which is almost immediately it seems.

Here is a question, where was Mouse?  Mouse would have known immediately what was up and dealt with it.  Presumably he is with Maggie, so the kids, or at least her must be still staying with the Carpenters until the castle is done completely or she now is away at school. 

[Conspiracy Theorist]

I had thought that myself, no sign of Maggie and Bonny, it does strike me though that Little Things means an obvious introduction between Maggie and Bonny and Bob “this is your uncle Bob who runs the Castle and is a pervert’

[Mira]

I had thought that myself, no sign of Maggie and Bonny, it does strike me though that Little Things means an obvious introduction between Maggie and Bonny and Bob “this is your uncle Bob who runs the Castle and is a pervert’

It's been a bum rap on uncles ever since there has been uncles... Given Bob's history however, a case can be made for it.  I guess Harry could threaten to hand him over to Mab if he misbehaves, he is terrified of her if I remember correctly from Grave Peril. 

[Conspiracy Theorist]

It does strike me that as Bob the Castle can project on the Castle surfaces and previously shown to receive the electromagnetic spectrum, he should be able to access the internet for the Castle inhabitants opening a window on any castle surface, without Harry’s Murphyonic field screwing things up. Bob has himself entered the silicon age after all. This gives him an edge over Alfred, who is still Stone Age.

This means that wizardofchicago@bobthecastle.com can now be a real thing, once the local network is repaired. I bet the first thing Harry would do is e-mail Goodman Grey, given the foreshadowing in Peace Talks.

Harry is stuck in 2014 Netflix had already started streaming and Amazon Prime started streaming that year, he can access both via Bob the Streamer, he can read a book in his (hot) shower via Bob the Kindle projecting on the shower wall (that’s how he punishes Bob in the future). He can use Amazon and EBay, and he can fully participate in the Paranet via Bob the Server.

[morriswalters]

Downgraded from talking head pervert to Alexa with Fairies. Bob has been diminished.

[Mr. Mouse]

Downgraded from talking head pervert to Alexa with Fairies. Bob has been diminished.

Alexa was Amazon's attempt to reproduce Bob.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Now that would be a fun scene, Bob trying to engage with Alexa or Siri, to try and pick them up, thinking they too are spirits of intellect. Harry would never let him live it down.

Bob is everything he always was, in this form though it gives Harry a significant power up technologically that other wizards do not have, and more importantly with wider society, something Harry expressed an intention to do at the end of Battle Ground. Bob can still take on new knowledge perhaps with even greater capacity and computational power as an aid to Harry. We know there will be Gargoyles giving Bob a remote capacity.

Bob is his current form can act as a discrete server for the entire Paranet, and scan in books new to him increasing his database, supplementing it with material from the internet, on science, history, art and porn (very important given Harry’s impending nuptials.

One could posit as the castle had been taken apart once, that its wards can bear being separated. With Bob is residence, one could take a flattish, rectangular piece of stone and use it off-site to remotely access Bob the Castles capabilities plus the internet, messaging etc, basically a tablet, an Bobpad. Harry therefore regains the use of Bob in battle, whilst Bob is safely ensconced in the Castle. Best of both worlds. And Harry Can look at cat videos. To everyone else or it is just a chunk of stone, as only the holder of the Castle can access it.

I hope Bob doesn’t pick up any computer viruses.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

One thing I have noted is that Harry has invited Winter Fae to reside at the Castle (that surprised me) and that Bob has adopted Winter colours (also surprising) The Castle has become a Winter Fortress in the mortal world. This suggests that Harry may be trying to forge a new connection in the Never Never for the Castle perhaps with Arctis Tor, with Mab’s help. Is this the reason for his meditation? He is willing it into existence changing facts on the ground to make it so as quickly as possible.

The access from the Never Never is a major defensive flaw, unless it backs onto somewhere equally secure as the Castle. I have theorised in the past there is a direct link from Arctis Tor to Demonreach as the Gatekeeper and Maeve both used the Never Never to get to Demonreach before it’s defences became fully active and it became unsafe to use that route.

The Gremlins came from the roof not the Never Never, suggesting this is being addressed.

Aside from protecting the Castle in the Never Never, this could give Harry a secure short cut to Demonreach something he definitely needs.