Author: SilentBen

Not often silent, but undoubtedly always Ben.

Small Favor

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In this book, the tenth in The Dresden Files series, Harry finds himself facing down some surprisingly powerful new foes as well as some incredibly powerful but familiar ones.  And as usual he has to get through the day using a blend of cunning planning, quick thinking, and deadly improvisation.  But this time around, not everyone comes out the other side unscathed (well … I guess it’s not like everyone does any of the other times either).

In Small Favor, it is about a year after the events of White Night and things are going well – Molly has been progressing well with her training, The Para-net has been very successful, and Harry has even learned some new tricks by virtue of his own tutelage.  But it seems neither court of the Sidhe are content to let him rest for long and it seems that Murphy brings him a case that has fallen angels written all over it.  Through the course of dealing with these issues, he manages to take down a handful of gruffs (large, strong fairy creatures that look like, well, bipedal goats), an obscene number of hobs (violent monkey-ish creatures that are adverse to light), and a half a dozen Denarians – all without using a lick of fire.  And while Harry rarely goes through these things alone, this time around he calls in almost the entire Scooby gang – Molly, Michael, Murphy, Thomas, Kincaid, the Archive, Luccio and the wardens, as well as several of Marcone’s associates (since it seems that it is Marcone playing the part of damsel in distress this time around … again) – he also ends up getting some unlikely and unique forms of help along the way.

In the end, Harry hands the bad guys their collective asses and gets the girl (for real – on multiple levels).  And while a certain Knight of the cross finds himself compromised, an unexpected candidate becomes apparent.  If you’ve read the series up to this book, this volume is a must-read.  If you’ve stopped some number of bookx back, catch up.  If you’ve read this already, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

I’d like to note that (in case you hadn’t noticed) I’d gotten into a pattern of doing book reviews on Wednesdays.  Unfortunately this one will likely be the last one for a while.  I have yet to even pick up book 11 (I’m cheap) nonetheless read any of it (btw, if you want to get it for me as a birthday present – it is called Turn Coat by Jim Butcher and my birthday is in mid July).  I also haven’t picked up anything else to read, so this column will be shelved for a while.  I’ll try to fill in the gap somehow, but likely by starting some other regular pattern (say on Tuesdays) so this slot can remain open.

Irony

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It is often said that this word is misused (which is often correct). We will use ‘ironic’ in speech all the time in reference to incidences of coincidence or oddity or as an incorrect substitute for sarcastic. I say we because I’m certainly guilty of it myself. I try to be conscious of it and avoid it when i can, but in speech it can pass as such with most simply due to the ubiquity of its misuse.

Merriam Webster lists the following as one of the definitions of irony: “incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result”. In other words, if you take action specifically to foster a certain result and the opposite result occurs, you have just been a victim of irony. This was a fairly common theme in much of Shakespearian tragedy and is often referred to as tragic irony.

Today I have come to realize that I have made myself a victim of tragic irony. You see, I had long been reluctant to conform to the masses by being drawn into social networking. I initially set up this blog because, well, I had the domain and figured it could serve as a digital journal. I hope that some enjoy reading it, but traffic has never really been a strong goal. But recently I’ve decided to try to make more efforts to grow an audience.

As some of you may know, I am now a Facebook member and in an effort to drive traffic to my blog, I’ve connected my blog feed into it. And oddly, as I’ve been getting more feedback on my writing there, I’ve watched my analytics plummet. As it turns out, the feed stream does not get tracked as a hit on my site, and having full access to the posts in Facebook, no one is coming to my site to read them.

So the very efforts I’ve enacted in order to increase traffic to my site, has resulting in a huge drop in said traffic. While I’m glad that my writing is being well received, I am already making steps alter things. From now on, I will post links to these posts manually on Facebook – thus only including a blurb and forcing people to read the full content here. I hope you forgive any inconvenience this may cause – such a move feels like I’m trying to assert control over my work as if it were some sort of intellectual property (well, I guess it kind of is, but it isn’t like I’m making money off of it regardless – I just like positive graphs). If this move seems to drive even more of you away from my writing, that would indeed be yet another twist of irony (I think).

Friday 5: Pigs with Rhythm

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I like doing these lists of songs – music says a lot about people sometimes.  But of course, today’s list of songs are five songs that I have greatly enjoyed over the years dispite their fairly blatant chauvenism.  I’d like to say that most of them I just enjoyed for the music, but many had catchy lyrics as well.  So, in chronological order:

  1. What Girls Want by Material Issue:  Okay, I’m already embarrassed about this one.  Mostly because it is a very dated style that I can’t remember why I liked, but I did (in high school, though – I was young and stupid then).  And generally the lyrics portray women to be pretty flaky and senseless … but to a peppy beat.
  2. Heterosexual Man by The Odds:  This one I’m actually not at all embarrassed about.  This is not really negative towards women so much as pointing out how sex-driven man can be.  The characterization is sadly not far from the truth.  I first saw the video on 120 Minutes on MTV (back when they still showed music videos) and was hooked on the song and the band.
  3. Closer by Nine Inch Nails:  Again, this one doesn’t really demean women, but it portrays men as essentially a a few social conformities away from screwing anything that moves.  The video was f-ed up, but in a kind of awesome/train-wreck kind of way.
  4. She Hates Me by Puddle of Mudd:  As with others, I had gotten hooked on this song due to the video – I loved the build up with the fry cook and the kid in the classroom.  And whenever the song comes on the radio in my car (when I’m alone) I can’t help but belt out every word at the top of my lungs (the unedited lyrics of course).  And for those who are unaware, the theme of this song is of a guy pissed off about being blue-balled.
  5. Darling Nikki by Foo Fighters:  I know this is a cover of a Prince song, but I heard this version first and enjoy it a lot better.  Unfortunately, Dave Grohl wasn’t proud enough of this performance to include it in any U.S. releases and the only videos I could find were concert footage.  I suppose this song doesn’t really depict women badly so much as depict a questionable member of the gender (though that is even debatable depending on your stance on acceptable behaviors).

I’m sure there are plenty of raunchier songs out there, but these are my picks.  If you’ve got some, feel free to add your thoughts.

Blurbsday: Sleep

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I remember a time before I had kids when I would sleep in on the weekends until 10 or 11 – sometimes later.  I recall days when I could stay up until 3 in the morning and still be able to function semi-normally the next day.  It seems that those times are in the past.  No matter when the kids go to bed, they are inevitably up by 8am a the latest (including the weekends).  And if I’m up past 1am, I’m usually groggy for half the next day.  And yet I put my kids to bed at 8pm and stay up until midnight almost every day.  I know I should go to bed sooner so I can get a full night’s sleep.  But after getting up with the kids, going to work, coming home to the family and putting the kids to bed, I need some time just for me.  So I take it … sleep will be there when I need it.

White Night

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Now nine books into The Dresden Files series, the plot thickens.  It appears that someone is targeting witches and the perpetrator is trying to frame Harry for it.  Fortunately very few believe him the likely suspect, but as Harry investigates the case a lot of the evidence seems to start pointing towards his brother.  Not able to believe that possible, Dresden must go to some great lengths to find the real culprits and keep his brother off of the radar (at least until he can confront him on the issue himself).

In this volume, Jim Butcher brings back a lot of past support team including Murphy (as usual), Thomas (as previously noted), Elaine (still maintaining a low profile), Molly (still working on getting her mojo in order), and … Marcone (hey – the devil you know, right?).  The cast of bad guys also includes a number of repeat players, but the angle is far from old hat and Dresden will need to play his cards carefully.  As matters unfold, it becomes apparent that this mission is about more than just saving burgeoning magic-wielders from being whisked away in the night.  It seems that if Harry doesn’t rein things in soon, the result could be a White Court power play that could lead to the extinction of wizard-kind (and as a result, mankind would not be far behind).

Luckily Harry has a number of cards up his sleeve (including but not limited to his status as a Warden, connections within the White Court, a powerful team of loyal wingmen, oh, and there is the shadow of a fallen angel in his head).  As usual, Harry gets a slew of hard knocks and finds himself against several adversaries more powerful than himself.  But that has rarely kept him from Forrest Gumping his way into a victory (or from getting knocked out a half-dozen times on the way there).  I’ve already got book ten queued up and I’m looking forward to what adventures might come next (and after that, and after that, …).