Ghost Story: Cage Match (Part 4)

2011
08.18

I’m about 1/2 way through Ghost story…

…And I gotta say that I would put Ghost Story in an enjoyment Cage Match with about any book out there…including Jim Butcher’s previous offerings.

How do you make a dead character edge of your seat exciting? Read Ghost Story to find out!

I sort of got the feeling going through “Changes” … “Ummm ok, how is Jim going to top this? Or is Changes going to Jump the Shark?”

Well in this case Jim Butcher has done it…and he’s broken well past the board.

Listen, I can’t promise that you’re going to love Ghost Story.

But I can say that you’ve got nothing to lose by ordering a copy and digging in:

Best,

Mike

Ghost Story (Part 3…Harry you devil)

2011
08.11

Hey hey…

“Harry Dresden – I take responsibility for more impossible situations in the first twenty-four hours of being dead than most people do all day.”

-Ghost Story, Page 144.

Ahhh Jim Butcher at his finest. I’m savoring every page of Ghost Story. So far so great.

I got to that quote and I haaad to blog it.

I hope you’re enjoying too!

Best,

Mike

Ghost Story (Part 2) Walking Dead…

2011
07.31

Ok ok…

…I’ve started digging in to Jim Butcher’s new Dresden Files novel, Ghost Story…

…And Harry Dresden is definitely back.

While he can’t spend $50 bills in the after life, this book is Jim Butcher at his finest. (At least so far!)

I was pretty disappointed in Jim’s last offering – a Harry Dresden short stories compilation because…

…Well when you finish with a cliff hanger, like Butcher did with Changes, then who wants to read a bunch of meaningless skits?

(Meaningless in the sense that they don’t address the fate of our hero, Harry.)

But this book it’s back to work pushing the plot and sense of urgency forward.

Now I’m only a few chapters in so I’ll have to reserve judgement but I gotta say that thus far I’m impressed and having fun.

I’ll keep you posted!

Best,

Mike

P.S. If you’re ready to dig in too, Amazon will ship Ghost Story to your doorstep with a huge discount:

Ghost Story…

2011
07.26

Hey hey,

Ok, by now you probably realize that Changes ended with Harry Dresden…ending. Now comes Jim Butchers latest real offering, Ghost Story. Will Harry Dresden come back to life or wander the world as the first crime solving wizard/ghost?

Unlike the Codex Alera novels that I just didn’t like all that much because of the lack of a warm and sharp sense of humor…and because of the disjointed multi-character nature…

…Harry Dresden has earned my respect and benefit of the doubt.

So…today I dutifully scampered over to Barnes and Noble and snatched up my fresh copy of Ghost Story:

I’m excited to find out what happened to Harry and whether he’s dispelled the ghouls of the past…

…And especially interested to discover the sweep of his increasingly epic battle with the sinister vampire conspiracy and other nastys that go bump in the night!

I’ll report back soon!

Best,

Mike

P.S. While I can’t 100% guarantee that Ghost Story will be the best read in the world…

…I can tell you that you have nothing to lose by giving Harry Dresden a chance to excite you, scare you and make you laugh out loud!

Jim Butcher – Changes Part 1

2010
04.29

Hey guys,

Ok, I’ve held my silence on Changes, the Jim Butcher novel long enough.

Awesome.

Before I get to the novel, which I’m 137 pages into so far, let me make this statement:

Jim Butcher should skip everything else and JUST write the Dresden Files.

I make this statement as a fellow writer because I know what it’s like to try to write what I feel like I “should” be writing at the cost of what I’m great at writing…

Let me explain…

Jim pointed out again and again that he was inspired by JRR Tolken’s Lord of the Rings novels from a young age.

And we should all be grateful, because that’s what led to Jim penning his extraordinary Dresden Files novels with the adventures of Harry Dresden, Chicago detective wizard for hire, battling the forces of evil including vampires, faerie and all sorts of baddies that go bump in the night emerged from!

But his Codex Alera novels, though Tavi was (semi) dope and all, really fall flat on their faces compared to the extraordinary immersion, excitement and realism of the Dresden Files.

And Changes is no different.

In fact, so far Changes is the awesomist (is that a word? well it should be!) of the Dresden Files…and unless it totally falls on its face in the next 200 pages…and you know I will tell you if it does…then it will be well amongst, if not first amongst the Dresden Files in its value!

Here’s the scoop:

In Changes, Harry Dresden, like Harry Potter all grown up and working as a private eye in Chicago, the grungiest dirtiest city in America (by the way, Jim Butcher is dope because he’s, by everything he writes, clearly an Obama hating Libertarian who’s sick to death of “business as usual politics in Washington where the little guy gets burned at the expense of the party machine) is back at it, this time plunging the depths of his soul to try to save a loved one very very very close to his heart that he didn’t even know that existed!

Much like Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi, Harry must decide whether and how to employ the “dark side” in favor of the light.

Unlike the lame Luke, Harry isn’t afraid of using purple lightning (as in: in Start Wars, why didn’t Luke just use the power of the dark side to blast evil in their faces? Harry Dresden has no such problems.  Props from us!) in his favor as he battles the forces of evil.

Harry is a real character if ever there was one.

This is the reason JimButcherdotOrg is a strong proponent of Jim Butcher dropping everything else in favor of scribing more Harry Dresden files!

Ok, ok, I’ve already written a strong message for somebody who’s only 1/3 done with the latest book.

More to come soon!

It’s all happening,

Mike Long

Welcome to the Jungle: Dresden Files (Graphic Novel)

2010
03.18

Hey there!

It’s just 19 days until the release of Changes, Jim Butcher’s latest book in the Dresden Files, so I’m taking a break both from First Lord’s Fury and all of the controversy surrounding the j-b message boards.

(Changes comes out April 6, 2010. Jim Butcher fans don’t have to wait too long after that for the next installment of the Dresden Files after Changes, called Side Jobs, slated for November.)

In honor of the release of Changes, anticipated eagerly by thousands of Jim Butcher fans, I decided to review some of my favorite Harry Dresden stories.

We’ll take a look at some of Jim Butcher’s lesser known Dresden Files works like today’s post about Welcome to the Jungle, and like the novella Backup, and the books leading up to Changes, like Stormfront and Turn Coat.

I decided to start my review of the Dresden Files with a look at Harry Dresden’s first and only Graphic Novel (so far) Welcome to the Jungle

Jim Butcher has gone on the record with the fact that one of the ideas in his head when it came to creating Harry Dresden was his love for comic books, and his appreciation for Spiderman.

In fact, according to Butcher, Spiderman was one of the influences when it came to designing Harry Dresden.  Welcome to the Jungle definitely reminded me of a Todd McFarlane style Spiderman comic, with wild action and big exaggerated splash pages, which for me is a big plus when it comes to immersion. (In the great outtakes concept sketch extras section in the back of the Graphic Novel, Butcher describes Harry Dresden as a lot like Spiderman, but instead of being a “tech geek” like Peter Parker, Harry is a “magic geek.”)

Now all of the Dresden Files are mysteries, so I’m not going to spill the beans on too much of the plot or the outcome of this freshman effort into translating the Dresden Files into Graphic Novel form…

My first introduction to the Dresden Files was on the Sci-Fi network show of the same name, and quite frankly I quit after the second episode. It wasn’t that I thought it was terrible, but it just didn’t live up to the electricity my friends, David and Jason, who introduced me to Harry Dresden clearly had for the story. (Though they read the books so it was probably a lot easier for them to give the Sci Fi series the benefit of the doubt than it was for me.)

In my very limited opinion Welcome to the Jungle ended up translating better than the Sci-Fi series, or at least the two episodes that I watched of it. Of course most shows get better as they go so the series may well have improved, and when I get around to watching the rest of the episodes I’ll be sure to check back in with a new post.

That’s not to say that Welcome to the Jungle packed the intrigue or intensity of one of the Dresden Files novels, or the imagery when I read it.  But comics are a different world and while it’s certainly possible for comics and graphic novels to explode to life on a page, Jim Butcher doesn’t have all that much experience at writing comics.

Jim Butcher penned the story for Welcome to the Jungle as a prequel to the first Dresden Files novel, Stormfront.  Perhaps he felt understandably limited by the comic book format, but I’ve got to admit that it didn’t have the same feeling of importance as the events of Stormfront.

That’s not to say that Welcome to the Jungle doesn’t involve a diabolical baddie.  It does.  It just doesn’t necessarily add much to the sweep of the current very exciting storyline that’s developed over the 11 Dresden Files novels leading up to Changes.

There were some nice pluses, including getting to see more of what Jim Butcher envisions Harry Dresden looks like, at least through the eyes of a of clearly talented comic book artist, Ardian Syaf.

Butcher is an avid martial artist and in a lot of ways I felt the action flow better in comic form than it does in my head when I’m reading the Dresden Files.  But maybe that’s because I’m a comic fan from way back and sometimes when I’m reading written action scenes it’s just not the same for me as seeing it through the eyes of a skilled comic artist.

(Which is one of the reasons I’m glad Jim Butcher ended up doing this Graphic Novel because I’m sure it helped him better clarify and understand the “action” in his novels, especially since he’s also an avid comic fan and in many ways envisioned Harry Dresden as a comic style character.)

Thank you to the Nazi moderators at Jim-Butcher.com!

2010
03.07

Hey there!

I just wanted to get this instant post up to THANK the fine (Nazi) moderators at Jim-Butcher.com for martyring my account while providing PROOF POSITIVE that they want no part of honest and RAW feedback!

Thank you so very much!

I’ve got the screen captures to prove your sickening corruption!

=)

Toodles!

Elric

P.S. Too bad I’m eyeing that #1 Google ranking!  Check back frequently too watch me climb towards the top position…and raw feedback for our intrepid hero, the Author Jim Butcher…and the total humiliation that lame Jim-Butcher.com moderators will face;

Fun fun fun!

First Lord’s Fury

2010
03.07

Hey there,

Bring the Fresh continues it’s investigation into First Lord’s Fury, and the writings of Jim Butcher…

I’m a little less than half way through First Lord’s Fury and I’m… well torn.

On the plus side, Jim has mostly left out what I consider to be the incredibly lame Tavi subpot with Kitai turning into Carrie Bradshaw of Sex in the City fame…

When it did pop up I used my famous Robert Jordan technique of skipping to the end of the chapter, but not before witnessing Tavi trying to buy his woman like a whore with jewelry…hey I never said this was going to be a soft-serve cotton candy Blog!

But there are many pluses, so I don’t want to be the guy unfairly treaing Jim Butcher.

I’ve actually got tens of thousands of subscribers who want help with high value relationships and it’s totally understandable to me that Jim, despite his true dopeness in creating Harry Dresden and the Codex Alera situation, doesn’t have it all figured out when it comes to women.

He certainly has most of the aspects of dopeness down, but let me suggest he sit down for a spell with legendary authro David Gemmel (Druss the Legend would NEVER put up with the garbage that Kitai pulled on Tavi) or with recently passed and also super dope Rober Parker, of the Spencer and Vernon Cole novels.

That said, Jim Butcher has a big leg up on Gemmel and Parker when it comes to publishing new books in that he’s alive and could make even doper novels than he does now!

Listen, if I were around critiquing the great Gemmel or the awesome Parker when they were in the middle of getting their stuff straight, I might have been similarly harsh on them!

And let me underscore again that the only reason that the ultra dope Tavi and his friends like Maximus, Kitai and the rest of the crew are drawing my scrutiny is because of the very dopeness of the Dresden files and the enormous promise of the up to this point totally dope Tavi character!

Anyways, I wanted to include this post to say that I have NOT lost faith in Jim, even if he does decide to totally wussify Harry Dreseden in Changes with perhaps a nightmarish return of Susan or some Murphy romance plot or perhaps with him pining after Luccio…

But it’s my hope that he’ll take a page from Gemmel, Parker and James Bond and keep Harry Dresden safe in the DOPE ZONE where guys don’t pander to the lamer traits of women…

One final thing.  Its been suggested on the butcher forums that my line of thinking is misogynistic.  I think it was Carrie Bradshaw possessing moderators who did so.  I’ll address this sadly lame line of thinking in the future, but I suggest readers who are deeply offended put down their Jim Butcher novels and go back and re-watch season 2 of Sex in the City.

(I just picked season 2.  I don’t really care which season. After all, you might as well watch Curb Your Enthusiasm and root for Larry David’s demonic now ex wife or whatever she is, or Jeff’s satanic wife if you’re on that subject.)

It’s all happening,

Mike Long

P.S. I’m going to continue on with reading First Lord’s Fury, and report back soon.  Whether you like it or not;)

Ulterior mortive for this Blog established: Get Jim Butcher’s Attention.

2010
02.11

I decided to put down First Lord’s Fury for a bit because, quite frankly, it strikes me like the 2nd season of 24, which I also just stopped watching because it was a mess.

I want to start looking at Turncoat in this post, a book that I did finish reading, and then I might go back to Codex Alera a bit.

Now why should anybody listen to me?

I could say I’m a writer.  I could say I’ve read all of Jim’s books but turncoat, but until now I haven’t been stymied in my attempts to read on…if I were going to be dipolomatic and writerly…

…This ain’t a fluff blog.

So I’ll tell it to you straight, it was unreadable for me because out of nowhere seemingly Tavi turned into a wuss.

But again why should somebody listen to me?

I could say I’m a relationship advice expert.

I have a site and everything, Area51Lifestyle.com.  Our site centers around high value relationships, and Tavi and Kitai aint got one.

Now before somebody accuses me of shamelessly plugging myself, let me do it agian.

You see, nobody who comes to this site is really going to click over to my relationship business and learn about businesses, at least not in the droves.  This blog is about Jim Butcher, not me.

That being said, so far Google thinks it’s news enough to put me up to #6 today, all in less than the two weeks since I got kicked out of JimButcher.com’s forums for 2-weeks because of the thread of posts I’ll be revealing that got me banned.

You’ll get to judge for yourself, and that comment section down there is UNMODERATED because I want all of you haters to have your say.

I’m not the kind of person who thinks sht slides down hill.

I”m always willing to have the chance I didn’t have.

So have at it, if you want.  If you don’t that’s cool too.

Here’s a screen capture of my ban and here’s the screen cap of the sites ranking today:

(Right behind Jim’s personal blog for Jim Butcher, a keyword globally searched 90,000 times a month, again according to Google, out of 763,000 searches or so?)

You could say we have an axe to grind, but that wouldn’t be fair because I’m actually a huge fan of Butcher’s body of works even though I got banned:

It’s just this last one kind of stuck in my craw, and I have a bad feeling about Changes.

As far as how I got this site ranked, well I’ve got another business called BringThe Fresh.com where you can find all the instructions you want to do exactly what I did to get ranked from Kelly.

By the way, feel free to launch your own blog if you think I’m wrong, because #1 a rising tide floats all boats, #2 I think I can win with my arguments and I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t. #3 I think I can outrank a lot of people because in my experience the whiners and complainers won’t do it, because it takes real passion to make anything work.

Ok, so there it is Jim, the gauntlet is tossed.  Prepare yourself as you will.

I am not a hater. I”m not here to humiliate you or even the people in your forum who banned me.

I just want to promote frank and logical discussion with those who are interested in that sort of thing.  For those who aren’t see ya another time!

It’s all happening,

Mike Long

P.S. Somebody might point out that all this controversy will only lead to more reading of Jim Butcher’s books.

Jim Butcher’s new book, First Lord’s Fury investigated

2010
02.03

Hey everyone,

Ok, so I decided to keep reading Jim Butcher’s new book, First Lord’s Fury, the seventh and the last (?) book of the Codex Alera books which I suppose is supposed to be a cross between Harry Dresden and the Dresden Files and Tolken’s classic Lord of the Rings with the character Tavi playing Harry Dresden/Frodo Baggins.

I say “decided to” with a chuckle, because I’ve loved Jim Butchers books in turn without reservation…

…Up until now that is.

I wish I could profess that I created this site as a superfan tribute to a world class author.

While I don’t necessarily dispute how great Jim Butcher is, the simple fact is that I created this Blog because I have a couple of axes to grind with Jim Butcher and I don’t mind mentioning it.

So things don’t get taken out of context I’ll spell out my reasons:

1) I think that First Lord’s Fury started and has continued to be a book poc marked with lameness like swiss cheese so full of holes that a whale might slip by unoticed.

2) Jim’s current favored forum stinks because it’s a lame situation where feedback is based on popularity and not on logic and merit.

So we decided to change things beginning with this investigation into First Lord’s Fury.

This isn’t one of those type of investigations where we play patticakes with the author, stumbling to fawn all over his greatness.

And I gotta say that of all of the fantasy/sci fi authors out there I personally prefer Jim Butcher to anybody save David Gemmell, may he rest in peace.

But Jim’s latest book, what aught to have been the Return of the King of Codex Alera sadly is turning out to be beset with a retarded subplot that totally hijacks the plot of the book, and robs the book of much of it’s dopeness.

Dopeness isn’t really a term I would venture to explain in a few words, so I’ll save it for my next post, but for now think of it as the very best possible situation when it comes to kicking ass.

Rambo is dope.  Hulk Hogan is dope.  Optimus Prime is dope. Harry Dresden is (thus far, no disrespect) dope.

Tavi is all of the sudden Anakin Skywalker with a sweet tooth for dramatic relationships.  My stomach wretches even thinking about how lame of a plot twist this book has been thus far.

Dopeness and specifics next.

(Plus the good stuff!)

It’s all happening…

Mike Long

P.S. This Blog isn’t a rant, but more of an attempt to right the ship, plus to appreciate the abundant dopeness of Jim Butcher’s novels thus far.