Turncoat Preview chapters up

[Ender]

Finally, I was getting a bit worried that it was going to get pushed back to July like Dead Beat was. First 2 are up, more in the coming weeks. I plan on going to the book signing he has opening night, it is about 45 minutes from me.

He seems to jump right into this one. I mean he generally opens with a bang (eg Gruff attack in Small Favor) but pretty much zero exposition or scenario setting in the first chapter. I am curious about the headache bit. Spoiler

Personal guess - Anastasia will be the traitor. She was impressed by necromancy in Dead Beat and is one of th e few in position to reveal what the traitor has, like the location of the training camps. Plus it continues the "nothing good happens to Harry" Dashiell Hammett type thing Butcher loves.

[xammer99]

Spoiler

Given Butcher's record, I think calling it as Anastasia is too easy. My money is on LaFortier having faked it.

Either way, you are my freakin hero for having posted that. THANK YOU!

[Gaidin]

I am curious about the headache bit.

My bet is fallout from the denarii demon and that screwup with his head in White Night. The only thing I can't figure out is why it didn't happen sooner. Big point is...that's the only thing in previous books that have anything to do with his head, and I'm not really willing to bet money on it being a Totally New Feature(TM).

[Stormbringer]

Like Ender, I'm going to be doing my damnedest to get to the release book signing. Too good an oppurtunity to pass up.

Spoiler

Given Butcher's record, I think calling it as Anastasia is too easy. My money is on LaFortier having faked it.

Spoiler

I too doubt that Luccio is the traitor. If she was, she had plenty of opportunities in Dead Beat to see that Cowl's plan succeeded and the Circle gets their win. Unless the Circle is a lot more backstabbing than they seem to be so far, that rules her out pretty definitively.

Personally, I think the grand unified traitor theories all ignore the fact that the Circle aka the Black Council seems to have penetrated and circumvented the White Council rather effectively. No one person has to account for all the activities and if you consider a whole spy network, it becomes a lot easier to place the traitor. I'd wager it's far more likely that the Circle has highly placed White Council and ex-White Council people and that's why they've blindsided them.

As for the titular Turn Coat, I have a real feeling that it's Morgan's ex-lover. I'm personally a fan of the Cowl = Pietrovich theory and her being an accomplice would explain how and why Morgan is targeted. If he started digging into what happened, courtesy of the White Court-Council truce, and found reason to doubt she was dead that's a heck of a reason to set Morgan up.

[Gaidin]

HOLY SHIT!
Spoiler

MORGAN

[Broomstick]

Squee!

When does the book actually come out?

[Gaidin]

Squee!

When does the book actually come out?

Two days ago...for hardcover anyway. Was up til 2am reading it.

[Broomstick]

Must go check the library --!

[SylasGaunt]

Spoiler

Skinwalker! TV series shoutout?

Spoiler

Fuck that sucks for Thomas!

Spoiler

Fuck that sucks for Morgan!

Spoiler

Butters at game night!

Spoiler

Harry honestly has no fucking luck with romance does he?

Spoiler

A good way to handle the traitor honestly. The guy who handles the paperwork can cause a lot of damage if he starts monkeying about.. magic just makes this more so.

Spoiler

The Black Council had better have some major mojo going for them because near as I can figure if their existence ever comes out they'll have the Whites Council, the White Court, Mab, and possibly the Denarians gunning for them.

Spoiler

Injun Joe is fucking awesome.

I'll have to comment more when more people have read and my squee factor has dropped a bit.

[Gaidin]

Spoiler

Injun Joe is fucking awesome.

Spoiler

"Don't intend to banish you. Just gonna kick your ass up between your ears."

Dude I read that fight five times it was so awesome. And the way he told Ancient Mai to shove off when she tried to pile Harry and Molly in on the conspiracy was cool.

[The Grim Squeaker]

Spoiler

Harry honestly has no fucking luck with romance does he?

.

Yeah, that was just unfortunate. Poor guy.

Spoiler

A good way to handle the traitor honestly. The guy who handles the paperwork can cause a lot of damage if he starts monkeying about.. magic just makes this more so.

Spoiler

Yeah, the damage he did that was mentioned was just..yikes.
half the senior wardens with a "sleep"/off switch, "berserker/kill" "subroutines", most of the elder council manipulated and changed...
Pretty fucking nasty mind altering magic. Also, did the "deathstone" appear before? Everyone seemed familiar with it.

Spoiler

The Black Council had better have some major mojo going for them because near as I can figure if their existence ever comes out they'll have the Whites Council, the White Court, Mab, and possibly the Denarians gunning for them.

Spoiler

True, though A) Half those groups would never work with the others (Denarians for example), and so far the Black council has been handing the white council it's ass on a platter pretty damn effectively. And in terms of raw power they melted their way through Arctus Tor pretty easily.
Still, so far most of their strength that we've seen is in their having very powerful agents in an amazing variety of supernatural groups (the White council council/wizards the worst, but also the Denarians, almost certainly some Fey and undoubtably others). Their goals would be interesting, especially now that there's some real hard evidence and action taken against them, doubtless we'll see them expanded on in the next books leading up to the trilogy finale.

Also, Spoiler

Harry realizing that the white council were wary of his rep, "taking down the adepts of Kremmler while riding a Zombie T-rex" was pretty damn funny .

[SylasGaunt]

Spoiler

Also, did the "deathstone" appear before? Everyone seemed familiar with it.

Yes, it was used in Harry's duel with Count Ortega and Ivy used it later to do some major ass stomping on the reds in the same book. Spoiler

though it wasn't plugged into a mist fiend then.

[Stormbringer]

Spoiler

Skinwalker! TV series shoutout?

No, and Jim Butcher has already confirmed that no it wasn't. For one thing, the book portrayal is pretty close to accurate. The TV show, almost painfully generic. Simply a case of borrowing from the same source material.

Spoiler

Fuck that sucks for Thomas!

Spoiler

Yeah, Thomas really got the short end of the stick. On the other hand, I've been thinking ever since Backup that something like that was only a matter of time. There's really no way Thomas could have kept that up forever. What was done to him, and the positively horrific method, was bad for him. But I just don't think he could have held out.

I'm more worried that now Lara has her claws in him.

Spoiler

Fuck that sucks for Morgan!

Spoiler

About the only way it could end really. Even if Morgan was cleared, he would have been tainted forever. Being as how he pretty much sacrificed everything else in his life to that, I don't think it could have played out any other way.

Spoiler

Harry honestly has no fucking luck with romance does he?

Nope. But Jim has clearly figured out ways of torturing Harry and making us fans worry if he's precluded from actually killing Harry.

Spoiler

A good way to handle the traitor honestly. The guy who handles the paperwork can cause a lot of damage if he starts monkeying about.. magic just makes this more so.

Spoiler

My guess came some what close to the mark. The Circle clearly has the White Council penetrated and they're going about it an efficient and professional manner. This isn't some bizarre, outlandish, and Palpatine-esque scheme but a well thought out war of espionage, subversion and political maneuvering. I know some people are a bit disappointed that it didn't turn out to be a "big name" but this makes a lot of sense with out necessarily closing the door to additional traitors.

Spoiler

The Black Council had better have some major mojo going for them because near as I can figure if their existence ever comes out they'll have the Whites Council, the White Court, Mab, and possibly the Denarians gunning for them.

Spoiler

If Cowl and Kumori (and probably the late Justin DuMorne) are any yardstick, they're got a frighting amount of mojo on their side. They've pulled down a lot of impressive feats and their attempts like the Darkhollow are downright terrifying in their implications. They've got at least two members who consider apothesis an attainable life goal. Scary indeed.

PS: I did make it to the book signing. It was a fun event with a good Q & A and a costume contest. A suprisingly strong turn out for the middle of the night in the work week. Still, hung around and got Turn Coat and a couple of other books signed. I was impressed that Jim Butcher was still being a great guy even at the end of a long line rather than just going through on autopilot.

[xammer99]

Spoiler

Something that occurs to me...

We've seen that the Black Staff keep's journals from the ones Ebeneezer was working on and the others on the shelf. Perhaps that is what the series is to date, Harry's Journal's about his experiences on his road to becoming Black Staff? Ebeneezer seems to make mention that Harry would be the one to take over the position.

[Gaidin]

Spoiler

Something that occurs to me...

We've seen that the Black Staff keep's journals from the ones Ebeneezer was working on and the others on the shelf. Perhaps that is what the series is to date, Harry's Journal's about his experiences on his road to becoming Black Staff? Ebeneezer seems to make mention that Harry would be the one to take over the position.

Why didn't I think of that...nice catch.

[Molyneux]

Spoiler

Something that occurs to me...

We've seen that the Black Staff keep's journals from the ones Ebeneezer was working on and the others on the shelf. Perhaps that is what the series is to date, Harry's Journal's about his experiences on his road to becoming Black Staff? Ebeneezer seems to make mention that Harry would be the one to take over the position.

That is...quite brilliant, actually.
Spoiler

I have to say, I both completely saw Peabody's betrayal and was completely blindsided by it. The secretary would easily have access to all sorts of "top-secret" information, since he's the one filing the papers and sending the letters - while being "below suspicion" under normal circumstances - but mind-controlling ink? Fuck, I did not see that coming at all.