seitora said:
So I finally opened the box set of books 4-6 that I had laying around since last year (Summer Knight, Death Masks, Blood Rite). Book 6 was a pretty big wham episode at parts, but I notice around Books 5 and 6 it feels like it's moving away from loosely connected individual cases into a more overarching series plot proper.
Aurora I think might have been a far more interesting character if she had been fleshed out a bit more and not given just a couple of short appearances prior to the denouement of Summer Knight when she's outed as a well-intentioned extremist.
Also interesting to note the head baddies of Books 5 and 6 aren't killed. Nicodemus gets away though he does permanently lose one coin and Harry buries another (though it seems ineffective given the end of Book 6) while the Raith head is merely taken advantage of.
Does the whole Red Court subplot wrap up soon or is it drawn out for some time? Book 4 seems to take place 'a few years' before the end of Book 6 and yet there seems to be so little occurring aside from a couple of big incidents.
You might want to re-read the old books as you go on. It was never loosely connected cases. Everything, even tiny one line mentions, relate to something of importance.
Every time a new book comes out, scenes from previous books gain much more significance than before.
I am not talking about the stuff that is highlighted and expanded on deliberately, there is lots of stuff from early books that are sneaky. You gain a new appreciation of the older books even the "weaker" ones of the series.
For example, Proven Guilty and Grave Peril suddenly are more than quirky "breather" books before the big stuff hits.
Fool Moon was an early example. Remember scene when Harry sees Murphy with the Sight? Yeah, that comes up years and years later, it was a hint of things to come.
Blood Rites too, despite the obvious Reveal, the soulgaze is very important for reasons that haven't been revealed yet. EVERY Soulgaze has hinted at things to come, every single one of them.
Turn Coat is much more significant (not that it wasn't before) because of the glances we get at the Senior Council. If I was a betting man I would say that some of those characterizations and small events mean more that it appears to despite being insignificant up to now.
There are lots more little stuff too. Like a small mention in the first book has finally payed off... 13 books later. Lots more of this kind of stuff. Loads.
The payoff for some of the stuff embedded in early books hasn't payed off yet either. I am still waiting for the Black Court to reappear because of Dead Beat. Not to mention the Nicodemus to come back explaining the fractured loyalties of the Denarians (have high hopes for this to be expanded on in the next book). Honestly, I am thinking BOTH these things will come to fore in the next book based on the 3-book Vampire trend and 5 Book Denarian/Knight/Archive trend. Not to mention some of the other stuff that I previously brought up in older posts.