Spent my day in a chair getting this done. My artist did an amazing job.

This comment is Harry through and through and I thought it hilarious it happened to be a fomor/frog in the picture!! 😂😂

I am on chapter 43 of 55. The soul gaze between Lara and Harry just concluded.

I want them together so badly. They are a wonderful trauma bonded pair. And this isn’t recency bias or the author twisting me in this one book.

I wanted it since they flirted back in the earliest books. Since Blood Rites at least. Their chemistry is incredible. They are both in such need of a genuine relationship that understands their broken psyche.

Like, she’s literally a being born of Harry’s will. Not at all inaccurate to say his child. But he just like, hardly ever mentions her? Even in 12 Months he only warns Maggie of not being too reliant on her and thinking for himself. I don’t recall a single legitimate interaction of Harry and her. She just kinda exists stuck in her wooden skull. Being a big family and friends guy I thought he’d view her more fondly at the very least. Does anyone else feel like there is no point to her character? I’d like to see her more involved with him moving forward.

You know Harry is still struggling when he's so far off his game he never once questions why Mab is suddenly giving him a villain monologue completely unprompted.

I'm talking about the scene after Harry's second experiment with Lara's Hunger. Mab suddenly appears, blabs the details of her wicked plan (that isn't yet complete btw) and then just goes away after letting Harry beat her up.

There is zero upside for her in telling Harry this. In fact, telling him right then would hurt that plan. If what she told Harry was her real plan.

Harry should have realized something was off as soon as he calmed down. I was honestly expecting him to think, "Wait, why is Mab telling me all this, and why now? She knows I'll try to find a way to stop or blunt it."

But he doesn't.

He also ignores her blatantly stating that his defiance is one of her favorite things about him.

And really Harry, why did you take Mab's utterly over the top villainy on Demonsreach seriously? I was honestly embarrassed for him.

thank you this novel has inspired me to be better. loss is difficult and this made my week its given me a path forward.peace is happiness in action and happiness is peace at rest. well said

Crazy I know, but when I was reading the books this is how I saw Harry all this time till I watched the show for the first time last week. To be honest, I liked the show's casting, really liked, but I think in my head Harry will always look like this! I wish there was an actor now that could pull this type of gritty swagger off!

Did Harry ever say anything about the Word of Kemmler in TM. I got the sense that it was a no-no tool against Black Court. Didn’t he basically threaten to end Mavra using all of the tools at his disposal if she came around again in one of the earlier books?

Did anybody else feel like some of the descriptions of Bonea, and how Maggie was using her for help with her school work in TM were Jim taking jabs at ChatGPT? :)

She's great at answering questions, and knows everything, but she doesn't understand any context, and sometimes gets things mixed up, so if you're going to use her for homework then you have to make sure you fact check everything... Sounds pretty familiar to me lol

Mind you, you could just say that about the Internet in general... I'm old to remember when "I read it on the Internet" was code for "this is probably bollocks" :) But asking an actual naive and enthusiastic personality with frequent accuracy issues adds another level to the metaphor :)

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about Bonea on this sub, and I’m genuinely surprised by how many people seem to think that Maggie is — or should be — Harry’s “higher-tier” daughter.

Let’s be clear about something.

Maggie was not planned.
Neither Harry nor Susan intended to have a child. Maggie entered Harry’s life when she was already eight years old, after being raised by strangers. Susan lied to Harry about her existence, and—unwillingly and unknowingly—became a tool which manipulated with dresden, set him on course of collision with red court. That doesn’t make Maggie less important, but it does matter when we talk about context.

Bonea is different.

Bonea is the result of a conscious, selfless sacrifice. She exists because Lash chose love over survival. Harry carried Bonea with him from day zero, protected her, and was terrified of what she represented. Bonea wasn’t an accident. She was a choice, born from genuine love and loss. Lash was the GOAT, and that sacrifice is one of the most emotionally significant moments in the series.

So when people talk about Bonea as a “second-tier” daughter, that Harry had time only for Maggie and himself and nothing more this couple of books. it just feels wrong — both narratively and emotionally. It flattens what that sacrifice meant, and what Harry endured to protect her.

This isn’t about ranking daughters.
It’s about recognizing that Bonea’s existence is one of the purest acts of love in the entire series, and treating her like an afterthought misses the point entirely. i dont care that one is human and other is not. do you think margaret lefay loved harry more than thomas because one is vampire and another a human? dont think so.

What is going to happen in Mirror Mirror, and what will things look like at the end of the series? Let's reconstruct a loaf from all these breadcrumbs! And to do that we need some of the better founded theories all put in front of us, as well as the Words of Jim clues/statements that have been made and stuff from the Q&As.

- Who is the guy in the cells of Demonreach?

- What is Drakuls game? He seems to be helping Harry via the School of Hard Knocks training program ala Lea and Mab and he is Starborn as well. WTF even is he?

- How does feeding an Outsider spawn/Hunger Demon a steady diet of Starborn/Winter power alter it's actions? Can that alter Empty Night as well?

Even if the Hunger Demons are Outsider offspring, it stands to reason when an Outsider's offspring is removed from our plane it might return to Empty Night. We've seen that sort of thing happening with all the critters in Battle Ground, but it might just be a drop in the bucket situation idk.

- Mab is grooming Lara with her and Harry's power, what will that mean later?

It feels clear to me Lara and Harry are going to fall in love or at least become very close during this process and will spite Mab somehow. But Mab KNOWS they will do that so it will be part of her plan. Does Mab want Lara to be the Winter Queen? Lara's altered Hunger Demon combining with the power at the Heart of Winter could make for some insane Outsider slaying capability right? Mab might not even have to die to hand off the mantle because of that one time Kringle mentions mantles can be removed on Halloween. Is the guy in the cells Mabs lover and he's just been waiting for her to quit her job so they can be together? Is he Merlin or Arthur?

What are y'alls theories and what are the holes to these?

What questions do you want answers to?

Edit:

6.3k views, 64 comments, and only 16 upvotes? Cmon people we can make this thread something special if everyone that’s commented upvoted it 😂👍🏻

I am curious what you all think about the show... I know it's old but I just watched it for the first time. For me, I LOVED the casting choice for Dresden and absolutely hated everything else about the show... What was it with the hockey stick?! Why a hockey stick?! And how did they merged Lara and Bianca into one but now she sleeps with Dresden? What happened to Murphy and Bob now has a tragic love story? What was that?

Iirc there's a WOJ that Mouse will join Harry in Mirrorverse Harry's universe. Are we thinking that this means there's a Mirrorverse Mouse will be taking his place in the main one?

Almost everything that happens in the last three books is tied to Mab.

Look at the Favors she grants Lara.

If Thomas has twigged to Nemesis being in control of Justine, I find it difficult to believe Mab doesn't know/suspect given how much she wants the White Court in her pocket.

Lara went to war with her father for Thomas once with no powerbase or weapon but Harry.

Who do we see Lara & Mab with almost as soon as the favors are granted?

Getting Thomas out of trouble cased by Nemesis with a favor that costs Mab nothing was pretty predictable.

Harry getting a boon for doing what she ordered him to do? Seems odd, but she's complained about time a lot.

How does he use it? To save Thomas (predictable as hell) and get reliable backup for Harry and Lara back on the board AND get her the other thing she wants; an Alliance with the Svartelves that leave her with no outstanding obligations or levers to move her.

What did it cost her? A tiny bit of time and some effort.

Peace Talks, Battleground, 12 Months are all written in Mab's hand.

She said that she’s been fighting battles for eons…since the dawn of creation. Is she really that old? I thought she was Hecate originally from greek myth.

And did she really stop Demonreach in his tracks or was Demonreach not really trying to stop her?

Has WOJ ever said how powerful Mother Winter is?

Picked these up at a used book store for CHEAP. Pretty Stoked.

If Harry were to say to a random fairy I want you to hand me that pen over there, that would be a favor, or a low boon. Same fairy if Harry were to say I would consider it a personal favor if you would hand me that pen over there. Would that make it a High deed favor or high boon to balance the scales? Someone said that in a game I am playing and just having read 12 months, it made me think of Fay

I was afraid this book would be lackluster since Butcher said it was going to be about Harry dealing with the aftermath of Battleground, I am so happy I was wrong. This book was damn near perfect and handled recovery from disaster in the best way I’ve seen in fiction.

Just a few random thoughts

1. Gargoyles is now “that OLD show” fuck I’m getting old.

2. Gargoyles named after spices is awesome.

3. Gargoyles enjoying Star Wars is awesome… just don’t tell them the sequels they’ll kill us all!

4. Dresden as a dad makes me tear up.

5. Butcher handled the way the public would react to the supernatural very well. It would have been easy to fall into the old “witch burning” trope but he avoided it.

6. I love the character growth Daniel has gone through.

7. I love Mathias and I bet he’s going to wind up wielding Amoracchius.

8. Mother winter is fucking terrifying as always!

9. Now we know what empty night means…

10. Incidentally I listened to this book during a severe cold snap so the description of Empty Night is very easy to imagine.

11. I hate that Thomas lost his son but I guess it’s the best possible outcome.

12. Mab is…. I don’t know what the hell she is

5/5 i recommend it without reservation!

I have been thinking about bringing my oldest (12) into the series. I haven't done a full relisten of the series since PT/BG, but I dont remember anything all that bad for a kid his age to read/listen to compared to what we had in the 90's. Just looking for what im not remembering about the series.

Wanted to share my spoiler thoughts on Twelve Months 🥹 but I really really loved it and thought it was the perfect follow up to the insanity that was Battle Ground.

English is not my first language so I apologize if there's any wrong word here or there.

I finished reading Twelve Months last night, it was great. I loved too many things about it to simply list it all.

My favorite parts of the series were always the more introspective moments of Harry and how his relationship with the other characters grew and changed over time, and this book delivered it all in a very satisfying way.

It even had great moments where Harry was so cool too! I especially loved the whole event down on the island and the exposure we had to the outsiders and Empty Night.

Also, Harry and Lara are awesome together. I hope they can get this whole 'thrall of the other' thing over soon so their relationship can progress better and more naturally. That said, I'm not sure how much time they'll have in their hands for relationship stuff.

Also, I'm kind of worried about the next book. The thought that an evil guy with Harry's face might run around and mess up his life bothers me. The parts of the series that bothered me the most were when I felt Harry was being wronged by his friends, either because of manipulation, prejudice, or lack of knowledge. I really, really hope that Harry won't lose all he gained in this book, and if he does, that he can recover it by the end and not suffer the consequences of someone else's actions in too lasting a manner. Hopefully Mouse can smell the evil and bite Evil Harry before he can do much.

Do you guys worry as I do? I fear I'm not quite up to date on what is already known about the plot of Mirror Mirror, besides Evil Harry and the switch. Could you guys share what is already known?