Y'all still with me on this one?

Well here's a question to get started if we are going to do this:

Harry doesn’t share information which leads him to be misunderstood. Is this a character flaw? Does he learn from it? What purpose does this have for the story?

It has been a while since I read this so I don't remember the detail completely. I do have to say that Harry is a decidedly flawed character, that's why he is lovable, so whether this is a flaw doesn't really matter.

I read it too, but I have read propably 7 books since. Dulls the details.

There are several times when he could have made his life easier by just telling people things, especially with the police chief, forgot her name. And the terminator guy following him around could have helped if he had been told what was going on. He doesn't seem to learn that lesson but I know this is a series, it wouldn't do for him to fix his flaws in the first book. I enjoyed the book and I think I would continue with the series, he is an interesting character.

I have to go dig this one out again.  I do remember thinking that his tendency not to share information wasn't really so much a character flaw in itself, but a trust issue.

Edited because my grammer sucks this evening.

This one is going to be a hard book to discuss.  I've read it two or three times and don't want to reread it again.  The trouble is, I've read all of the books so far, so my analysis is going to be influenced by the rest of the series.

Harry plays along with Susan when she plays a yes and no game with him, could he have avoided this? What do you think the writer was trying to achieve by Harry playing along?

From what I remember this was Harry being awkward and not dealing with women well. Harry is not a smooth operator, if he were one of the Doctors from Doctor Who he would be Eleven.

Hmm, I don't remember that. Susan is the reporter right?

Yes she is the reporter, I feel like I shouldn't talk too much about their relationship though because I'm not sure how much would be spoilers to anyone who hasn't read the other books.

Don't worry about spoilers on my account, they don't bother me. As long as it's not something big like "Bruce Willis was dead all along".

I have Fool Moon on my list for the lit challenge for 2013, and plan to get to it in January, then I have the next four on the TBR pile.  Not sure if I will get to all of them.  My husband was tired of the series before he read all the ones we have.   I'm like Barb, little spoilers no big deal, but no biggies please.  (BTW, love that movie Barb, one of my all time favorites)

See that's the problem, I'm not sure that it wouldn't be that big a deal. Anyway moving on: How does Harry treat women? Does it suit the story and the time setting? How does this affect your initial opinion of the story and of Harry?

I think Harry is intimidated by most of the women in these stories but it's mostly because Butcher writes pretty strong female characters. I do have to say that Harry is my imaginary boyfriend so I suppose he treats women well or I'd not like him.

Have we given up on this discussion?

I just didn't really have a response to that question. It's not something that stuck out to me.

If I may chime in on the discussion I have to agree with Chris, the females characters are very strong and Harry is sort of nerdy and geeky (totally adorable). I could imagine him as a boyfriend. However he keeps many secrets and some of them have to do with his past experiences and female relatives in........realm (not sure if this is a spoiler, but you can never trust a .........).

 But having listened to a lot of the series, it is hard for a wizard to have a romantic relationship, because one; his love interest becomes a target for the bad people, (hurting him by hurting his girl), and two: somehow strong physical contact and longing interferes with his magical power or at least becomes a distraction.  Also unless he is with someone from the supernatural side, he would outlive a human girlfriend (that is if he does not get himself killed on his crazy rescue missions).    

Good points, Jerry.

Sorry, Chris, the Thanksgiving holiday took up a lot of free time.

It's ok it had just been a while without any action on this. Anywhoodles here's another question:

Do you have a favourite part of Storm Front? Is there a passage that stood out to you or a certain description? What was it that made it so appealing?

I can't think of anything in particular but I remember Bob keeping me in stitches. He's hilarious.

Yeah, Bob was good. I couldn't believe he showed back up. It was pretty evenly written, I don't recall anything especially sticking out. I would rather have a book be consistantly entertaining than have the entertaining parts stick out. The little fairy was cute, such a tough talker for a fairy. It's funny how much they like pizza, and they're kinda dumb.

I listened to Storm Front and the narrator did a fabulous job with Bob (real snotty british accent - no offense to the British, I prefer British English to American English).

But I would say that the interaction between Harry and Bob are the highlights of Stormfront and all the other Harry Dresden books.

At one point the female characters are using their ‘feminine wiles’ on Harry to try to manipulate him. Do you feel this is an appropriate or bias portrayal? How does this affect the story and does it play an important role in the plot or is this all to show how Harry sees women and his relationship with them?

I do not recall Murph using her wiles on Harry. Susan probably did at first but it seems like it would be more of a click against Harry because he fell for it.

Being a female I totally understand that women use their charms on him, he is a total hottie!

After all they are only human.

Murphy is an exception, totally professional and would never consider doing this.

And why wouldn't Harry fall for Susan, he has been 'without' for a quite a while and she is a good-looking single woman.  No click against Harry, a lot of men would react the same way.

Sorry to join this so late, I meant to be in from the begining.  I will weigh in on the first question a bit.  I can think of two reasons why Harry keeps secrets, one He really believes he is protecting people by keeping them in the dark.  I do believe it is a flaw ( arrogance perhaps ) that he learns from over time and gets better at.  The second point is some of the secrets he keeps are not necesarly his to reveal, like the existance of the White Council, they do not want everyone to know about them and as a member he kind of has to do what they want him to.

Mike

The reporter seemed to be a pretty stereotypical investigative reporter, using whatever she had to to get her story. She did seem to really be into him though, she went through a lot for that date. I wasn't a big fan of Murphy, she's kind of stupid and unperceptive for a police chief. She seems to have no ability to 'read between the lines'. I didn't think she used any woman moves on him though.

I will have to go back and read this again at some point, as I do not remember Bob at all.  I do remember the fairy Toot, that part was pretty funny, with the solemn logic of Harry against the ranting and raving of the little fairy.  The scorpions were a little scary, especially the imagery at the end battle. 

OH, YEAH, now I remember.  Thanks, Chris!

Has anyone else read the rest of the series?  and if so did you read Cold Days yet?

Mike