Dresden Files help..

[Sarlon]

So I got into a discussion with my English teacher the other day, since our next topics are fairy tale and literary analysis. We were on the subject of "evil stepmothers" and I remembered a line from one of the Dresden books that Dresden, while describing Mab, mentioned something along the lines of "remember all those evil step mothers and witches from Disney? Mab gave them tips on being evil."

or something along those lines....does anyone remember the exact quote, or at least the book it came from?

[firecat88]

If memory serves, the exact line (which I can't think of what it is for some reason @_@) came from the book Summer Knight.

[Jammer]

Small Favors actually.

Think of every fairy-tale villainess you've ever heard of. Think of the wicked witches, the evil queens, the mad enchantresses. Think of the alluring sirens, the hungry ogresses, the savage she-beasts. Think of them and remember that somewhere, sometime, they've all been real. Mab gave them lessons. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if she'd set up some sort of certification process, just to make sure they were all up to snuff.

[Sarlon]

thank you sooooo much, I'm trying to convince him to let me take that spin on fairy tales for my next paper in his class, and needed the exact quote to try and sink him in.

[firecat88]

Small Favors actually.

Oh yeah. @_@ I'd forgotten how largely the Fae were involved in Small Favors.

[Kittish]

If your teacher won't let you use Dresden, you might look at the Iron Druid chronicals by Kevin Hearne.

[KhirasHY]

You get extra credit (from us, that is) if you can include this quote, which IS from Summer Knight:

“Here's where I ask why don't you spend your time doing something safer and more boring. Like maybe administering suppositories to rabid gorillas.”

And since I'm quoting the book anyway...

“As I pulled into the parking lot, I reflected that odds were that not a lot of clandestine meetings involving mystical assassination, theft of arcane power, and the balance of power in the realms of the supernatural had taken place in a Wal-Mart Super Center. But then again, maybe they had. Hell, for all I knew, the Mole Men used the changing rooms as a place to discuss plans for world domination with the Psychic Jellyfish from Planet X and the Disembodied Brains-in-a-Jar from the Klaatuu Nebula. I know I wouldn't have looked for them there.”

[Dentarthurdent]

“As I pulled into the parking lot, I reflected that odds were that not a lot of clandestine meetings involving mystical assassination, theft of arcane power, and the balance of power in the realms of the supernatural had taken place in a Wal-Mart Super Center. But then again, maybe they had. Hell, for all I knew, the Mole Men used the changing rooms as a place to discuss plans for world domination with the Psychic Jellyfish from Planet X and the Disembodied Brains-in-a-Jar from the Klaatuu Nebula. I know I wouldn't have looked for them there.”

*Sigh* All y'all are making my inner nerd feel all tingly.

Which is good because I'm at what so far is a really lame con.

[KhirasHY]

I try to get every single person I know to read the Dresden novels...and all of Jim Butcher's work, actually. I have a singular love for that series, and will probably be very sad when it finally reaches the final book.

[Dentarthurdent]

I try to get every single person I know to read the Dresden novels...and all of Jim Butcher's work, actually. I have a singular love for that series, and will probably be very sad when it finally reaches the final book.

If I find out someone is even the slightest bit likely to enjoy the subject matter (and who wouldn't enjoy the scenes with the T-Rex?), I drag them into the vortex. So far (after a bout with homelessness in which I lost all my books) I only have copies of the first two novels and one of the later ones, but I will get the complete collection.

I will be sad when it ends, too. But since we're on book 15 out of roughly 24, that means we have 9-12 years (at Jim's current writing rate) before it's over. I worry obsessively that something bad will happen and Jim Butcher will stop writing them.

[Kittish]

It is a good series, with one small caveat on my part. Dresden is such a whiny bitch. Admittedly, given the life he leads, he's got reason, bit it does get old.

[Jay 2K Winger]

It is a good series, with one small caveat on my part. Dresden is such a whiny bitch. Admittedly, given the life he leads, he's got reason, bit it does get old.

Fortunately, he also has friends who call him out on it.

[MistressOfTangents]

What are these Dresden books you speak of?

[Jay 2K Winger]

What are these Dresden books you speak of?

The Dresden Files is a series of novels by Jim Butcher, primarily set in modern-day Chicago. Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a private eye, who also happens to be a wizard-- an honest-to-god magic-slinging wizard-- and freely advertises himself as such in the phone book. The series basically follows his various cases as he finds himself clashing with vampires, werewolves, demons and fallen angels, Faerie Queens, forgotten gods, eldritch abominations, and mob boss John Marcone.

Dresden himself freely admits to being a bit of a nerd, dropping pop culture references frequently, and is well-known in-series for his tendency to snark off at the drop of a hat. He also typically gets his ass kicked for most of the novel until he takes down the threat du jour. He frequently turns to help from Bob the Skull (a spirit of knowledge that lives in a skull), Chicago PD Special Investigations Lieutenant Karrin Murphy, and various other allies throughout the books.

In order, the books are:

1. Storm Front
2. Fool Moon
3. Grave Peril
4. Summer Knight
5. Death Masks
6. Blood Rites
7. Dead Beat
8. Proven Guilty
9. White Night
10. Small Favor
11. Turn Coat
12. Changes
13. Ghost Story
14. Cold Days
15. Skin Game (forthcoming)

The series gets a little darker as it progresses, and Butcher himself says the series hits its stride with book 3 (Grave Peril).

There was a short-lived TV series based on the books, but we don't talk about it.

[Sarlon]

There was a short-lived TV series based on the books, but we don't talk about it.

I don't know what your talking about....there were RUMORS there was going to be a TV show >.> never came to frutition