Side Jobs

[icepixie]

As I've said before, though I feel vaguely guilty because it seems like something I should love, I'm not really a fan of the Dresden Files. However, I do like Murphy, and the promise of a novella from her POV was enough to entice me into borrowing Side Jobs from the library.

I...think I would've gotten more out of it had I ever read anything besides Storm Front and "Love Hurts" (the story preceding "Aftermath" in this volume). I knew that Harry had been shot and was presumed dead at the end of Changes, knew that Murphy was about to be fired and was considering taking up some kind of angelic sword, and I had a vague idea who most of the other characters were from fanfic, but that was kind of it. I thought Murphy's voice would be pretty different from Harry's, but...she was kind of a human Harry. Maybe less sarcastic. My favorite bit was her translations of the "Martian" language of grunts policemen and thugs used. I was rather confused by the assertion that "almost any woman" constantly thinks about the height/mass/strength advantage most males have over them; I suppose to someone who spends a lot of her time fighting and is trained in various martial arts, that might be the first thing that comes to mind, but I can't say as it does for me. If I see someone taller than me--and since I'm 5'5", the national average for women, statistically that happens, what, 60-70% of the time I see another adult human?--if I think about his/her height at all, it's going to be along the lines of, "I bet they could reach all KINDS of shelves I can't." (My parents' house has really stupidly high cabinets and shelves, okay? I constantly have to drag out the stepladder to get anything in the kitchen or laundry room/pantry.)

As a card-carrying Harry/Murphy shipper, I liked "Love Hurts" a lot more. It was so cute! It...kind of read like fanfic, almost, in that romance via mind control is such a pervasive cliche. AND AN AWESOME ONE. Oh, they were so adorable when they didn't want to give it up. And I loved how Harry figured out they'd been whammied because it was too easy and they were too happy. Ouch. Cute and funny, but ouch.

Given this and the near-date at the end of Changes, I wonder if Butcher is actually setting them up to be together some day. Perhaps Harry's death/near-death/whatever it turns out to be at the end of that novel will suck away some of his lifespan so that he won't outlive her by such a huge margin? I get the impression that's the biggest sticking point to them getting together, along with working together, which with Murphy's impending sacking would appear to be rapidly evaporating as an objection as well...

Comments

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I feel vaguely guilty because it seems like something I should love, I'm not really a fan of the Dresden Files.

Hahahahah. So, a good half of my in-person friends (the folks I went to college with, lived with, etc) absolutely love those books, and... I read the first one and was so underwhelmed that I pretty much pawned it off my best friend, who agreed it was dull, and then never looked back. Except occasionally to argue "it's just another dull urban fantasy, with the added 'oo, exciting' that it's a guy protagonist instead of a girl" whenever people bring it up to me. Because, at least as far as the first book was concerned, that's exactly what it is. Someone please tell me when casting men as the main characters in pulp detective stories became "edgy," because, last time I checked, it was the freaking norm.

Not like I'm bitter or anything about how every few years someone tries to tell me about how really they're genius if I'd just give them more of a chance.

Although I do hear that James Marsters reads the audios. Which might be interesting... but, no, not quite enough.

[icepixie]

I think about half of it for me is that I don't really like urban fantasy. I've read one or two that I liked (Perdido Street Station was good, and...does something like Tam Lin or Briar Rose count?), but by and large I prefer sci-fi to fantasy. And when I read fantasy I want it to be either straight-up sword and/or sorcery like LOTR, magical realism like Helprin's Winter's Tale, or somewhere in between, like Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

In theory, the Dresden Files has enough magical politics, humor (Bob the Skull, etc.) and other interesting things to keep my attention despite it not being my preferred genre, but here we get into my other issue with it: Harry himself. This is weird, but Harry is a character I think I would love if someone else were writing him (especially since I like Dresden fanfic), because he's...actually a hell of a lot like Marcus Cole, with the sarcasm and the questing and the general acting like he's a refugee from the year 1350. He's a fun guy! But it seems so very, very obvious to me that he's also Butcher's self-insert, and Butcher is constantly saying, "If I were both a wizard and much cooler/funnier than I am, I'd be this guy! Don't you just LOVE HIM? I do!" to the point that Harry kind of drives me up the wall. I think if the books were written in third person, even, that they might work so much better for me, but right now they just don't.

[rensong.livejournal.com]

I feel much the same about the series. On the one hand, I made it through Storm Front and part of whatever the second one was a few years after they came out, and while I thought they were okay, I didn't love them, and as mentioned before, all the lying drove me freaking *crazy*. That resulted in me pretty much giving up on the series for several years until this past spring, when I was so starved for new books to read that I decided to give them another chance.

Since somewhere along the way (probably through reading Dresden fic. ;) ) I had discovered Mouse and realized how awesome he was, I decided to pick up the series where he first shows up - several books in, and well *after* Dresden's "secret" as far as the horrors of the Wizarding World were well known to Murphy and all the other Important Characters. So, bonus I get an awesome dog familier (familiar?) *AND* most of the lying and secret keeping that drove me nuts in the first two books is now moot. However, I still didn't love the series - despite Mouse - and only managed to work my way through another three books before I gave up on it once again, especially since the majority of the plot in book 8 ("Proven Guilty") takes place at a Horror movie convention. A *fan convention*! For a geek like me, that should be like The Most Awesome Setting Ever! (only cooler setting would be a Sci Fi convention) And yet it still took me forever to get through the book and I actually found it kind of dull, which is what convinced me to give up on the series - again.

After reading your review, though, I am kind of curious about Love Hurts. Maybe I'll look into it.

Also, if you happen to have the links to some of your favorite Harry/Murphy fic stories, or just Dresden in general, I'd happily take advantage of them. ;) Especially since I've got at least four more Dresden books under my belt than you do, and I didn't know anything about Harry getting shot or Murphy thinking about doing the God's Warrior Thing

[icepixie]

"Love Hurts" was worth it. Though if your library is like mine, you'll probably be quite a ways down on the hold line if you try to request Side Jobs now... ;)

All the stuff I mentioned came in Changes apparently; I haven't read it, but I saw it referenced in fic, and read the Wikipedia summary of it.

I made some Harry/Murphy recs in the comments here. There's some good stuff!

[rensong.livejournal.com]

Yay recs!

I might have to mooch it off the internet somewhere, though, or hit B&N long enough to Sneak Read "Love Hurts", because I don't know if they would give me a library card without a permanent address. I asked when I first arrived out here, and they said as long as I could prove to them I lived there by getting regular credit card bills or the like, I could get a card. Since I manage all my banking online, though, I don't actually have any statements that would fit that. ::sigh:: Maybe they'll take my monthly Student Loan statement.

[icepixie]

Are any of the utility bills in your name? That was how I got mine in Knoxville. As long as you had any kind of bill in your name to your local address, they would give you a card.

You could also steal!read at B&N; it's only about twenty pages.

[rensong.livejournal.com]

Alas, I do not. Sneak reading sounds like a doable option, though, as B&N kind of encourages people to sit down and read all over their stores.

[chickwithmonkey.livejournal.com]

I was rather confused by the assertion that "almost any woman" constantly thinks about the height/mass/strength advantage most males have over them

Confused? Really? I don't know about almost any, but I do know that I feel a sense of physical intimidation when I'm in physical proximity with men who are near my height or taller than me, and I have a mass advantage over the vast majority of the folks I meet. I've never been assaulted, but a lot of women have, and I wouldn't at all be surprised if women who have been assaulted or know others who have are more actively considering men's physical abilities compared to their own.

[icepixie]

Well, like I said in the post, I can see it for Karrin, who's been trained to think in those terms. I could see it for assault victims/people who know them as well. But I've never felt that sense of intimidation even when I've been near really huge guys, and I can't remember reading any other assertion that "almost any woman" did either. (It was those three words that made me go "???" more than anything else.)