Thursday, July 23, 2015

Death Masks - Jim Butcher

The wizards and the vampires are still at war, but Count Ortega has an offer for Harry: a duel between them, to settle things. Harry isn’t keen on the idea, but Ortega mentions he has assassins set to kill anyone even loosely connected with Dresden, so if that and the war can be staved off, it’s worth a shot. At roughly the same time, he’s approached by a Father Vincent, who asks him to find the stolen Shroud of Turin. It was stolen by a renown group of thieves, but one has already been brutally slain, and all indications point to the others having come to Chicago. Perhaps surprisingly, the vampires are not involved in this, but a group of Fallen angels are (as well as Johnny Marcone, for reasons that don’t become apparent until the very end), which might be worse since they seem to be thoroughly out of Harry’s league, and possibly even that of his friend Michael and his associates, holy swords or no.

Oh, and his quasi-vampire, possibly still girlfriend Susan Rodriguez is back in town with a new associate and some interesting tattoos. Once again, I found myself wondering, with 100 pages to go, how Butcher was going to make this work. In this case, he does because the Fallen subplot isn’t neatly wrapped up. Really, it’s only just gearing up, and Marcone is mostly on the periphery. For most of the book, it seems clear he’s mixed up in this, but the how and why are unknown, and he doesn’t play much of an active role. It’s interesting that the human gangster is kept as this lurking factor just off-stage, but the former angels are front and center. Feels like you’d do that in reverse most times, but Marcone’s in that nebulous zone where he can be an ally if it suits his interests. Kind of like Dr. Doom. Holding him back so we can wait to see how he steps in.

A lot of the book is taken up with this question of why people do what they do. Harry has conversations with the other two Fists of God, Shiro and Sanya, about their faith and reasons, and they, in turn, question him about his motives. Harry consults an oracle for help, she asks why he does what he does, and Nicodemus (the lead Fallen) has his own theory about Harry. It seemed plausible enough based on how Butcher’s written Harry, with the guilt complex, and the sometimes barely controlled desire to just cut loose with everything he has. At the same time, it’s a demon trying to sell Harry on joining up. Not the most trustworthy source.

When it was mentioned that one of the forms his duel with Ortega could take was a contest of wills, and after the oracle telling him he really ought to think about his reasons, I expected Harry would finally suss it out during the duel. He’d realize his true motives, draw strength from it, overcome Ortega. I guess I should give Butcher credit for not going so cliché with it, though I wouldn’t have objected to Harry getting a clean win over the guy and being done with him. Butcher has mostly played the vampire/wizard conflict as something going on all the time, and Harry occasionally gets attacked, but it’s kind of routine now. The problem is, that makes the war seem kind of irrelevant, less of an annoyance than keeping his rent paid. I suppose even that makes a certain amount of sense, as we learn the vampires had been planning the war for awhile, but when Dresden gave them an excuse, they jumped the gun on it. It never really was about him, and he is basically the youngest, least experienced wizard, so I guess he wouldn’t be that high priority of a target, even if his track record says it would be better to kill him quickly.

‘Sanya’s expression became surprised. “You are not a religious man, then.”

“I wouldn’t burden any decent system of faith by participating in it.”

The tall Russian regarded me for a moment and then nodded slowly. “I feel the same way.”

I felt my eyebrow arch, Spock-like. “That’s a joke, right?”

He shook his head. “It is not. I have been an atheist since childhood.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. You’re a Knight of the Cross.”

“Da,” he said.

“So if you’re not religious, you risk your life to help other people because. . .?”

“Because it must be done,” he answered without hesitation. “For the good of the people, some must place themselves in harm’s way. Some must pledge their courage and their lives to protect the community.”

“Just a minute,” I said. “You became a Knight of the Cross because you were a communist?”
Sanya’s face twisted with revulsion. “Certainly not. Trotsky. Very different.”’

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