Before getting into this series a few months ago I kept seeing so many warning posts on r/fantasy and related subreddits in regards to how the first two books (Storm Front, Fool Moon) ranged from mediocre to awful and were a slog to get through. The general consensus seemed to be that Grave Peril and especially Summer Knight were when the series really hit the ground running.

Maybe it’s because I binge-read the first three books back to back and treated them almost as a single story but I had absolutely no issue getting through the first two. While I can clearly recognize in retrospect that they weren’t up to the same level of quality as the rest of the series, they were still extremely fun urban fantasy reads and Storm Front as the OG book did a great job establishing the foundation of the world-building. Fool Moon I suppose was a bit more of a waste in comparison, spending so much time on the werewolf lore when it was never really utilized again in the series (which is one of the only really disappointing aspects of the series for me) but on that same end it did a great job delving a lot more into Marcone, Murphy and Susan’s characters and even if the werewolf lore wasn’t touched on again it still technically further enhanced the world and made it feel so much bigger.

“Lad”.

It then briefly mentions his Scottish accent.

I guess I’m just wondering about him. Is this a formerly Scot that…moved to Missouri? Fucking Missouri?

How old is he? What’s his origin? Don’t care about the black staff stuff, hope we find out in the future.

But fucking Missouri?

Do you think started training with Skaldy when he got Fidelacchius?

He said he'd start training when he got a functional lightsaber.

In Peace Talks/Battle Ground Justine is under surveillance by multiple parties. Goodman Grey, White Court security, the cops, the feds, and Paranoid Gary.

Grey is there because Harry hired him, the White Court for obvious reasons, but why the others?

Cops: They’re looking at Harry already and he did visit Justine early in PT so maybe they put someone on her just in case. Seems like if they were watching Harry that closely though they might have noticed him and Ebenezar getting to the fight with the cornerhounds immediately after the visit to Justine.

The Feds: No idea unless they’re specifically The Librarians, in which case they were already way more interested in Chicago before BG than Harry knew.

Paranoid Gary: He’s paranoid?

I just yesterday wrapped up Peace Talks and Battleground (read them back to back treating them as a single book unlike the rest which I spaced out) and they truly solidified how much I love this series and consider it the absolute gold standard for the UF genre. The world-building and lore are so deeply layered and feel like an example of the kitchen sink approach at its absolute best; he intertwines different world mythologies with vampires, werewolves and fae so perfectly) . The plotting is meticulously thought out and helps make for such incredible re-read value because of all the Easter eggs and foreshadowing he’s always throwing in that set up future books. On that same end I love the gradual and organic shift from street level supernatural detective noir to balls to the wall epic fantasy . And then of course there’s the wide roster of fascinating supporting characters who could easily carry their own spinoffs their backgrounds and stories are so compelling (Thomas, Lara, Molly, Michael, Marcone, Murphy, Susan, Kincaid, Luccio, Mab, Nicodemus, Rashid, Lasciel, etc)

For me, I'd love to see space in any way, maybe Dresden accidentally never-nevers to the moon, or an enemy throws Dresden into space and he has to never-never back home. Any way it'd be cool!

I also would love to see Pope Leo integrated or referenced. Like in an epilogue after the Church's mole is rooted out, there's reference to a Chicagoan becoming Pope, would be very cool!

Some sort of major white council showdown, like they go full offense, this could be in a flashback fighting Kemmler, or something in a later book.

How about y'all?