Turns out Jim Butcher fans can expect not just one but two new Dresden Files books this year. io9 has shared the trailer for book 16, Peace Talks, and buried in the middle was the surprise announcement for book 17, Battle Ground.
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Peace Talks
Here’s the official synopsis, from Butcher’s website:
Harry has faced terrible odds before. He has a long history of fighting enemies above his weight class. The Red Court of vampires. The fallen angels of the Order of the Blackened Denarius. The Outsiders.
But this time it’s different. A being more powerful and dangerous on an order of magnitude beyond what the world has seen in a millennium is coming. And she’s bringing an army. The Last Titan has declared war on the city of Chicago, and has come to subjugate humanity, obliterating any who stand in her way.
Harry’s mission is simple but impossible: Save the city by killing a Titan. And the attempt will change Harry’s life, Chicago, and the mortal world forever.
You can find a sneak peek at Chapter One of Peace Talks on io9, as well as a synopsis of book 16 here. Peace Talks comes out July 14, and Battle Ground will be released September 29.
Update: Jim Butcher and filmmaker Priscilla Spencer provided some additional details on the short film and the new book in a livestream later on Tuesday. Check out a summary here.
What the what.
A surprise 2nd book? Who does he think he is, Brandon Sanderson? Love it!
Oh, and the acting in that video, especially from the guy who was playing Harry, was pretty bad.
Huzzah! Clearly all the free time mandated by this quarantine has already started to pay off!
@@.-@ Tradiitonal publishing doesn’t have that fast a turnaround.
I’m sure that Butcher and his publisher are sweating bullets after such a long hiatus. I imagine lots of readers have forgotten the series. I’m struggling to remember the last book and I loved the series.
Thanks for the good news, a ray of sunshine!
@5 Time for a reread, then. You have time, if you start now.
@7 This may make it quicker too https://www.tor.com/features/series/the-dresden-files-reread/
Probably one of those “manuscript too long for a single book” situations.
He wrote 2/3 of a book, then finished the last 2/3, and realized that 4/3 of a book was too much, so he wrote some more and made it 6/3 of a book. At least he didn’t pull a Robert Jordan, and have a 3 books left, write 1/3 of each of them, and then pass away on us.
I’ll admit that it’s been long enough since the previous installment that I’d almost forgotten about this series.
Between that, and Kim Harrison coming out with a new installment of the Hollows, 2020 is shaping up to look like 2014 with regards to urban fantasy. What’s next, a new installment of Anita Blake?
@11: Your wish might actually come true. Seems like Anita Blake 27 is scheduled for an august release.
@5.MByerly: Why let a little thing like reality get in the way of a perfectly good gag? (-;
I was expecting something like this plot to come up eventually. I was browsing a reddit where fans were discussing how awesomely overpowered Harry Dresden is and I was thinking isn’t that the whole point of Dresden? He is as powerful/ wily/ knowledgeable as the author wants him to be so that the story ends with him winning. In Skin Game, Harry is scared of Hades, but couple of books later he’ll probably end up fighting against Hades and winning because Butcher put in some lame compunction that it has to happen like that. And lo and behold in Book 17 Harry is fighting a titan (probably also looking Hades in the eye and thinking I will destroy him if he dares to go against me). The amount of ‘New Powers as the Plot Demands’ in this series is ridiculous.
@14 Or perhaps it’s character growth. Butcher started these characters off using DnD character sheets. Maybe Dresden just keeps leveling up and obtaining new abilities. Seems pretty reasonable for a fantasy series.
@5 Parkour!
@15 Brick Yes, thank you! The series has a strong element of character growth and power creep, in a good way – wizards almost inevitably grow in strength as they age, acquiring new spells and crafting new items. Given the world Harry inhabits, it would be weirder if he didn’t “level up” after 16 books. Frankly, I enjoy the idea of him facing down former villains older and (sometimes) a little wiser.
Looking forward to the new book(s)!
@14 and @15 The problem with a main character becoming more and more powerful is that then everything becomes too easy. Losing his staff +/ blasting rod is a convenient way to give him a leveling setback. Also a crisped left hand, or a hostage situation with Murphy’s life on the line, etc. CHANGES certainly changed things up. Giving Mouse to his daughter. Jim does seem to find ways of taking Harry down a peg as needed.
It’s about time. I missed my favorite Detective. Please don’t wait so long to add to series.
@18 Things never get easy for Harry. If he werr the sort to settle back and stay home, sure. Any of his old foes who rang the doorbell wouldn’t last long enough for a second ring.
But, he isn’t the sort who sits back. He keeps finding trouble and trying to stop it. By now, trouble comes with a capital T. And, all the troubles we see now have been in development since book one. There have always, always been signs that there is bigger and badder out there, just waiting.
Plus, there is the price Harry has paid for his life and his daughter’s: He works for Man now and she won’t let him sit back and relax, even if he wants to. In fact, he’s paid a high price for every bit of power he’s gained as the series moves on.
Guardian of Demonreach is a double-edged sword, too. He can hole up there if he needs to, but be also has to take care of it and keep its prisoners locked up. That is going to be a problem.