Ace Books has announced that the next installment in Jim Butcher’s #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files series, Peace Talks, will publish on July 14, 2020 from Ace Books in the US and Orbit in the UK. The book will be the first new Dresden Files novel since 2014’s Skin Game.
A contemporary urban noir series that has been described as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer starring Philip Marlowe” (Entertainment Weekly), the Dresden Files follows Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard, as he takes on supernatural cases throughout the city and an alternate magical realm. Peace Talks follows wisecracking private investigator Harry Dresden as he joins the White Council’s security team to ensure negotiations between the Supernatural nations of the world remain civil. Harry’s task is challenging, because dark political manipulations threaten the very existence of Chicago—and everything he holds dear.
Ace Executive Editor Anne Sowards says, “I’m thrilled to share the next Dresden Files book with readers! Jim is at the top of his game in Peace Talks; it’s a real page-turner. Plus, the timing couldn’t be better.”
Next year, Ace Books will also celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Dresden Files series with a yearlong campaign. Fans can expect the first few chapters of Peace Talks to be released leading up to publication of the book, a series read-a-long, and special giveaways and contests every month in 2020. Ace Books will also reissue Storm Front, the first book in the series, in a new hardcover edition that will be sold exclusively at select comic cons.
Jim Butcher says, “I’m looking forward to a big year in 2020, and I’m very excited to be releasing more of Dresden’s hectic life! Stop by Jim-Butcher.com as 2020 goes on for free fiction, interviews, character discussions and maybe a surprise or two as the year proceeds!”
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Peace Talks
Nice! It’s been way too long since Skin Game, and I’m glad to see this series starting up again.
July?!?!?
I mean, huzzah! A release date at last! *confetti*
I remember my Grandfather reading me the last book when I was a little kid……
Hallelujah!
Funny, You guys! As a fan of the series this is good news but to those out there said hallelujah or my granddaddy read me this or stuff like that, I got a question:
Is Jim Butcher any of y’alls girlfriend?
If your not and I know your not, then why are all you so called fans acting like he didnt make you dinner on time?
Glad to see the next book finally. I hope his life is in order and he can go back to cranking these bad boys out every 1-2 years like before.
titanicladyitsbeen84years.gif
Man, 6 years since the last book? I wonder if there will also be a 6 year in-universe timeskip…
FYI that penguinrandomhouse.com link is broken (404)… but it looks like their problem, not yours: Google has indexed the same page that causes a 404.
Hooray! Now we can all switch to asking when the next volume of Cinder Spires comes out!
Woohoo, looking forward to it!
July 14th gives us decent time for our rereads of the series- a couple of books a month should be doable!
@5: what on earth makes you think I was complaining? I said “hallelujah”. That’s generally considered an expression of joy on my planet.
@5, that’s … a pretty sexist comment. Channeling Harry by chance?
While Jim Butcher doesn’t owe me or any other reader anything, I also have to say that with over 10 books left in the series and me at a point where I’m genuinely asking myself what series I can expect to finish before my time is up, a gap like that doesn’t bode well for me seeing all of the remaining books. So I’m much less inclined to invest more in the series.
Yaaaaaaay! It’s been a long wait, but I am confident it will be worth it. Looking forward to it.
Is Jim going to attend Emerald City Comic-Con and Denver Pop Culture Con?
Don’t even have to take a day off : July 14th is a holyday in France !
@9 Previous books haven’t had so long a delay between completion and publication, which is why I’m sad about July. It’s not Butcher whom I’m mildly cross with but his publisher.
Y’all do know WHY it’s taken so long, yeah? Life happens: he got a divorce, moved, got remarried, waited on a contractor who took longer than anticipated building a house, and Lord only knows what else. The man has been a machine in turning out books before that. One instance of it taking longer than usual and suddenly he’s terrible? Deal people.
Yay!
Woot! I am glad we have a release date!
I would rather wait >5 years for a good book than get a crappy book faster.
Thanks Jim!
Unlike other series, these books are stand alone stories. So I don’t mind the wait. I know there is an ongoing storyline, but each book is a complete story in and of itself. This isn’t like Game of Thrones or The Stormlight Archive, or the Wheel of Time. Its more like the Vorkosigan Saga. Lighten up, people.
Will James Marsters also be narrating an audiobook version?
I am so excited! I am listening to Skin Games right now so I will be all ready for when this new one comes out!! Love this series!
Can’t wait! So excited!
(I read a lot of other books in the meantime, and I’ll keep reading ‘em until this comes out! :) )
@23 – I disagree
@24 https://www.tor.com/2019/10/24/james-marsters-will-be-narrating-the-audiobook-for-the-next-dresden-files-book-peace-talks/
Man, I really hope they eventually do a general reissue if the first bunch of books in HC. It’s a pain to find, say, Grave Peril in HC for less than $100 :P
Christmas Eve gave us a tantalising clue about Peace Talks, really looking forward to it’s release next year.
I’m happy with whatever Mr. Butcher manages to give us, considering the obstacles he’s faced. It’s been quite a delay, but not an unreasonable one, and it takes however long it takes.
I heard Jim has been going through some issues these past years. Can someone fill mein?
So great we are getting a new Dresden Files book next year!
@32 not so much “issues” as “busy with life stuff.” His Facebook feed tells the tale. Got married, built a house, etc. Plus side projects. I expect that maintaining continuity in a series this long adds greatly to the time it takes for each installment. More details to tweak, etc…
There are roughly 7 books left in the series before we are done, not over 10. The time gap between Skin Game and Peace Talks is only around a month or so I believe, not six years. Also people this book is most likely going to top 700 pages given the fact that Jim wrote over 60 chapters before he announced “The End”.
Time enough to read all the books over again! Did the last five and the short stories this summer, now I know I have time to start at the beginning of the bunch.
@33: I understand that Mr. Butcher was somewhat embarrassed by the continuity mistakes in Skin Jobs, even though they didn’t actually impact the story at all and many people didn’t even notice. I suspect he’s getting people to double-check continuity this time.
@29 – I hope for a re-release of the whole series too. I am a library assistant who loves Jim’s books so much that I have been plugging all his books since the first one came out. I have had the pleasure of many people thanking me for introducing them to such a wonderful writer, and I would love to continue to do so. Unfortunately, library copies that are taken out so much don’t wear well, and funding cuts/lack of availabilty of brand new copies for libraries to purchase to replace damaged ones seriously impacts on this. I want to keep plugging Jim Butcher books, and I need there to be fresh copies in order to continue.
So excited! July will give me time to re-read then entire series. Better start now!!
Bastille Day? Jim, are you telling us something?
Fantastic! I’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time. It sounds like it should draw together a lot of different character and plot threads.
Hurray!
Excellent, I am all giddy! Going to start my reread in January.
People must vent their frustrations. We all followed the link to the announcement si we are all fans here and I am sure Mr. Butcher understands, he’s a fan boy himself. The only way I could be disappointed is if James Marsters is not doing the audiobook. But that said, I will still spend an Audible credit on it.
@36 what continuity mistakes? Because I heard with my own ears him explain those are not mistakes, those are ripples from a future book when Harry changes things in the past.
I cannot wait….
That’s my birthday! Happy Birthday to me!
YEEEEE-HAW!
– Insert feu de joi –
Can’t wait to see how dear old Mr Dresden makes a mess of the Black Hats, the scenery and quite a few other things THIS time! (-;
@43: Maybe they started as continuity mistakes and were retconned into Harry’s future time travel shenanigans? (Kind of like how Discworld was eventually able to blame everything on the History Monks…)
Ps. I don’t know what the continuity problems were and I’m not sure whether I want to know.
@11, apparently the next Dresden book might be trumping that:
http://ismirrormirroroutyet.com/
Man why not Christmas 2019, i thought it was completed months ago.
@43: Laura, you know that is just saying “a wizard did it”, right? ;-)
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AWizardDidIt
…which gets around to The Dresden Files, but not with the explanation you gave, so you could add it in!
I note no Kindle link. Is the book not available for Kindle?
@52 – Added, thanks!
I was a little frustrated at seeing I have to wait another seven months for Peace Talks, but then I realized that it gives me plenty of time to go back and re-read the series. I should be all caught up and ready to continue the adventure! I certainly hope that Mr. Butcher has a calm and happy life that allows time and energy for his creative expression.
Does the publisher feel the need to grow the trees to make the paper to print the book? If it’s done and edited…….sell it as an ebook. I can understand 5 years for a book to be written(life happens) but why so long to release a finished manuscript? If I have to wait 6 months what’s another couple to get it at the library for free?
@54 I think they couldn’t resist the “20th anniversary” date.
A Peace Talks release date? Such good news! Happy Holidays to all Butcher/Dresden fans!
While I am pleased there is a release date, I do understand fans (including myself) being at least a bit upset that it took so long. It will be over five years between installments. That is the by far the longest time between novels. When you have a series like this and release how you do, you set expectations for your fans and five years isn’t what I personally consider within margin for error. Many people buy the newest book and support the author at conventions, events, and online because they enjoy the series and want to see more. I also know fans who passed in the past five years that missed out. Please don’t discredit people’s feelings. I understand that Jim “owes us nothing” but remember that his success is based on us. People are allowed to be upset.
In addition, there are people upset in this situation because, let’s be honest, Jim handled the hiatus pretty badly. There were several times he got rude or snarky towards fans genuinely wanting the next book, even helping to create a website meant to make people feel bad for asking him, which shouldn’t be acceptable. He was the retail worker that blows up at customers for asking when milk will next be stocked. On top of this, Jim scarcely updated the community, keeping many of these updates in places only the most avid fans will see.
I personally don’t mind a whole lot that there was a hiatus. I will still read Peace Talks, but that doesn’t mean that Jim is perfect or God. He screwed up a lot here, imo.
This post just made my day! I was turned onto the Dresden files within the last year and finished the entire series faster than I usually read ONE BOOK. I couldn’t wait for the next book to get my Dresden fix, so I restarted the series Audio Book Style and James Marsters is simply amazing at bringing the books to life. I recommend everyone listen to them and prep themselves for PEACE TALKS! THANK YOU JIM BUTCHER for creating the world of Dresden that I immerse myself in every day – I simply can’t get enough!
@57: Stockers merely stock products. Butcher is the one that creates them. And unlike cows producing milk, writing a book isn’t a trivial and routine event. If he made you feel bad for pestering him, perhaps you OUGHT TO feel bad.
I’m sure his ex will be happy that he’s stopped focusing on other projects and is finally cranking out another novel that she half owns. I doubt he will finish this series in my lifetime or his. Jim Butcher is dead to me. I won’t buy another one of his books unless he finishes this series before I die.
Jim is only human. He makes mistakes and cannot be perfect all the time. He went through stuff in his life. Most of which we may never know and some of that is really none of our business.Just because we are fans of his writing, doesn’t mean his entire life should be our business. He has a right to his privacy. I was unhappy that I had to wait this long for the next book. I’ve already reordered it.I wish him nothing but happiness and a calm in the future.
I didnt realize six years passed until I read it in a comment. Here’s to hoping that they get another Dresden Files show made, but its not Seth Rogan ( and his production company) who adapts it. The Christmas story gave us nice little clues about how this story ends already. Cant wait to see the adventures of the star child again.
Looks like this blew up into two books, with the second one coming out in October.
Doesnt matter…he could’ve taken another couple years and it would still be faster than Martin…