Right, so Cold Days seems to continue directly from where Ghost Story left us. For those who were out of the loop, we find out Dresden is alive and has been in the 'care' of Mab; Queen of Winter. The first chapter covers his rehabilitation and physical therapy after being in a coma for a few months, as well as Mab 'training' him by trying to kill him.
Then it starts to go into the plot of the book; the standard Dresden Files 'shit is going down, we've got this much time to save the world' schtick. Not going to go into too much detail about it but a shit load of things were revealed in ths book. In fact, this may have been one of the more pivotal books in the series; other than Changes, because Dresden finally learns the nature of the 'Black Council' and a lot of things start to tie in.
However, one of the major gripes I have about this book is that it basically still plays the horribly stale relationship dynamic between Dresden and Murphy. Seriously, this is the 14th book in the series. This relationship has been going on for more than a decade in real life and in book terms. There's a limit to how much you can drag romantic tension on for before people go 'fuck this shit' and pretty much give up on the romance. Dresden and Murphy have hit this wall because basically, their relationship doesn't really change. There's being coy and there's mind-numbing frustration. After all this time, Murphy still thinks 'hey we're not ready, let's hold it slow'. Seriously? 10+ years isn't slow enough for you Murphy? At this point, it really really feels like the author is beating a dead horse. Either break them apart or have them get together. Enough with this bullshit 'should I or shouldn't I?' plot.
And that's not even mentioning Murphy's attitude in this book. It feels like a throwback to the first few books; where I admit I'm not a fan of Murphy. She basically goes 'no no Dresden, you may be corrupted, Imma not letting you hold any of the super powerful artifacts that may help you in your quest to save the world'. Sure it sounds logical when she says it, then you realise 'Wait...did I just try and cockblock a guy who's trying to save the world and has a deadline of 24 hours to do it?'. I have nfi how this would play out for other people but if someone is trying to save the world, you don't purposely hold out on them. Especially since this is Dresden, you know he's done it before (13 times before to be exact -_-) and you've personally witnessed him doing it several times to boot. WTF is Murphy smoking?
And that's not even mentioning the fact that she thinks Harry may be corrupted already. Yeah, Murphy, any particular reason why people would refer to you as the Fallen Woman? I'm sure that you're not corrupted at all -_- And that's not even mentioning Thomas's spiel to Harry about the nature of monsters and the freedom to be able to resist their inner nature.
Overall, not a great book with regards to my impression of Murphy. The worst part is that the author does a good job of contrasting Murphy's apparently bitchy moments with those of another chick who's been in love with Dresden as well. It really makes Murphy seem more like a bitch when she's paranoid and refusing to trust Dresden while the other woman; Molly, not only trusts Dresden implicitly; despite knowing just how fucked up he's feeling inside due to her being an empath. Some may say that's just creepy and immature of Molly because she's not being realistic but maybe it's just me, but I find the best relationshpis tend to be the ones where both parties implicitly trust each other. God knows Dresden's earned some of that trust -_- Plus there is the fact that Molly seems to know what Dresden wants before he knows it; as evidence by her decorating his room to his liking and buying him a duster to replace the one he lost when he died.
Although I have nfi why Murphy thinks being Winter Knight is worse than being under the influence of one of the fallen angels. Yeah, remember that? Harry was under the influence of one of those beings and he managed to survive with his soul intact.
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