Which... I mean, we were all WoT fans, so I have very little sympathy, here. I would totally read an 800-page Dresden book, no questions asked.
Yep.
Also, yep. "Here's the Knights...and that's it for the rest of the book. Here's Gray...for the last time in the book. Here's some werewolves, but the two you care the least about, not doing werewolf things, or any indication they are anything but Butters' conquests. Here's Ferrovax & Vaterung, staring at each other. Here's Marcone in one 'scene' near the end. Here's Harry & Molly, finally with more than just catch-up talks since they both became Knight & Lady...and she's more of a plot-convenience genie for Harry."
Wasn't that the exact plot of Summer Knight? Dresden does a favor for the Council to "prove" that he's a wizard, since some people are saying he should be thrown out due to how he joined.
The only thing to say in its defense is that maybe now there is no quick fix, of complete the quest to maintain the status quo, that Harry might really have to be outside the Council to drive him to more Winter-knight-esque deals with a devil to get the political security that came with the membership.
Another thing is I have long felt that Harry's kind of been a bit of a dick in his relations with the Council, and maybe he's finally getting some grown-up type blowback. For the most part the consequences of his smart-assery has been physical threats from bad guys who deserve worse and who are going to get comeuppance by the end of the book. But he's been unnecessarily combative and rather uncooperative over a bad teenage experience. And, yeah, I am 100% on the Council's side on the warlock issue. Harry's basically demanding that someone else undertake a reformation of their dealings & policies. Is he going to secure and care for and rehabilitate them? Not really his skillset. So he's pouting at the Council that no one wants to completely reverse course on their vocation or chosen field of study to explore a field that centuries of experience suggest is fruitless. The conflict with Ebenezer was kind of startling because for once he & his ilk on the Council aren't blowing praise up Harry's ass.
So maybe if he has to start being more political as he threatened to grow with at the end of "Proven Guilty".
Except it doesn't really explain his actions WRT attacking the svartelves.
Yep. Although, devil's advocate, it seems comparable in size to the rest of the DF books... (have not yet acquired a hard copy).
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Inde muagdhe Aes Sedai misain ye!
Deus Vult!
*MySmiley*