So more and more it’s hard to follow the plot of these things. We haven’t so much as had a rewrite break because there was never a point where it seemed to be clearly going in a particular direction, and now seems like the best we’re going to get.
Now, the vampire party has been around throughout the book, even though Harry managed to ignore it pretty impressively most of the time. As parties are generally frivolous, an important part of any book featuring a party is to thoroughly establish why this particular party is serious business. In the event such a party is obviously dangerous to go to, extra time should be spent on why you can’t just not go. It also should involve a lot of lore that needs to be carefully sprinkled around in setup – obviously we don’t get infodumps much, but only because we don’t get any information.
Vampires were first introduced in the first book, so going back to them helps with the whole series idea. “The Undead” is a better theme for a book than werewolf pileups, plus by using an existing element it means it’s fine to use them as a red herring. Fairy stuff is also in play – so talking about supernatural organizations, such as a vampire party, can get into how they’re similar and how they’re different. And I quite like the idea that wizards and fairies are actually pretty similar in nitpicky lawful obsessions, so Harry assumes all groups are basically the same about this but that vampires will have their own specific quirks, and he researches those, then when he gets there we get the twist that it turns out vampire law is a bit more like regular old human law where it comes down to if anyone’s going to actually care it’s being broken. This lets Harry do lots of prep while still ending up wrongfooted when he gets there, so he looks like a smart person doing his best.
The book’s new plot is “Harry fussing about preparing for vampire party”. The other stuff is a distraction, which is why he’s so consistently cranky about everything, he’s trying to finish it up in time to get back to vampire party issues.
He knows nothing about vampires, and wizards and vampires generally stay far away from each other. Vampires (he’s pretty sure) live longer than humans do, which means that there’s a good chance vampires know more about wizards than wizards know about vampires. In his particular case, the White Council also hates him and if something happens they may view it as his own fault. He hasn’t been invited because it’s mystery magic law to invite the nearest White Council member however that’s determined but because vampires tend to invite high profile magic guests (…he’s pretty sure, anyway. Almost pretty sure it’s not just her asking him to show up and get murdered.)
Now, having established Harry’s going there, let’s work backwards. Why is Harry going to the party? Let’s see…
1) Bianca extending the invitation is unprecedented. The WC wants Harry to go to find out whatever he can about vampires, and/or open negotiations if possible, and/or open negotiations with any other supernatural powers who are currently allied with vampires. It’s also possible outright snubbing the invitation might have consequences for other wizards due to hospitality law and other powers being weird. Fun bonus: Harry can’t just walk around being an asshole now!
2) Similar to the above, but it’s Harry who just wants to find out more. If this is an olive branch from a previously furious vampire, he’s not going to snub it. He didn’t mean to piss her off the first time, and definitely didn’t mean to mess her up to the point she killed somebody else by accident. Maybe he goes there, she demands he do something to make up for it, he does it and they can put this all behind them. (Remember, Book 1 is her being evil because of her sexy makeup, not because she likes to eat babies. What moral code we get out of her was that the dead people were her buddy and a rather nice dude and she’s very upset someone killed them, so you’d expect her to ask for something difficult in the skill/resource sense rather than some moral suffering thing where Harry has to torture ten people to death or else.) Trying to get along with others and caring about his own actions is OOC for Book 2 Harry, but maybe his relationship with Susan has gotten him some humanity back and he’s more like at least trying to be decent Book 1 Harry again.
3) Missing people. A big point is made in the first book that Bianca keeps a stable of people to feed on and isn’t just grabbing and murdering people. Maybe that’s part of whatever fragile peace there is between vampires and wizards. If Harry can prove she’s rounding up uninvolved people, and/or that they’re not going to survive the party, the WC will act. Back in the first book, it’s Bianca who’s afraid of them. The WC may be the most powerful individual group (certainly wizards seem crazy OP) or it may simply be the one with the fewest existing entanglements and so able to bring more of its power to bear on a single enemy. Harry doesn’t even have to be right that the WC will act on it. He just needs to view them as being powerful and moral, and his sole personal interactions involve a lot of power and a lot of concern he’s following the rules. And if we are doing the noir detective, him thinking they’re moral because they say they care only to find out they’re rather more realpolitik about bigger things like vampire war would be a good twist, preserve the status quo of Harry vs everyone, and let him go into the next book with a fresh reason to be bitter at WC – they really didn’t matter for all of the previous book since once they called off the hot sword he doesn’t care about anything, and you should never have superpowered organizations supposedly closely connected to events without some explanation for why they’re not going to be any help.
4) You just have to go to parties by magic custom. Could be kind of a superstition thing, could be that given everyone powerful is going to be at this party and Harry has a history of getting blamed for stuff happening in his vicinity, if Harry doesn’t go someone will blow something up and then the WC will be like GUESS WHO DOESN’T HAVE AN ALIBI!!! IT’S YOU!!!! at him. I think this one actually works best with the weakest vampire hospitality, where Harry knows he’s going to have to spend the night fending off fiends but the alternative is one wizard blows a thing up and the rest of the Harry-hating faction say that explosions are totally proof let’s go kill Harry. This also allows for a crankier, ruder Harry, where he’s a dick on the basis he assumes everyone is planning to chew his face off and all pleasantries are just conversational filler to let them hang out within biting range waiting for him to mess up.
In this version, the invitation comes first. (We can keep the dramatic speeding opening, since the book jumps back in time a little further in anyway. This time the jump is to him getting the invitation earlier.) That’s why Harry hasn’t done any research into the ghosts before this, they only kick off after he’s busy wondering how he’ll handle the invite and what are the rules and can he bring weapons or would that just get him killed or maybe if he doesn’t bring weapons that’s considered a suicide request who knows they’re vampires fuck his life. (I think maybe the previous ghosts might be meant to wear him down in advance of whatever plot, but, Harry doesn’t get worn down because he’s a sue and the ghosts are more than spaced out enough for Harry to realize this is a problem and start stocking up on fresh anti-ghost measures. He even made a super ghost charm before the start of the book, which seems like the last thing anyone trying to kill him with ghosts would want.) While it’s still kind of shitty to pawn off a sick starving kid in major danger to somebody else, if Harry didn’t make her beg first it’d be pretty reasonable to just say he figures the problem would be solved by the combination of protective charm and literal sanctuary. And in a universe Harry felt concern rather than lust, he could figure that a priest with experience with homeless prostitute children who actually knew how to cook was the best place to send her anyway.
If 3, then Harry’s suspicions are confirmed by finding her later and then getting attacked by vampires. If not 3, then that’s the point he starts to get concerned that something bad is going to be happening during the party and if there’s anything else he can do. (I do like the idea of the prophesy curse hitting wizards and specifically manifesting as them assuming they’re so smart of course they wouldn’t fall for the curse, therefore their assumption this case is fake is TOTALLY RATIONAL SHUT UP. Harry guesses that the vampires mistakenly think the girl can tell the future, to hammer in how much the curse warps your thinking.) In either case, this means the apparently unrelated ghost issues are, from Harry’s POV, the b-plot. He only bothers going to Mort at all because he was hoping to pawn the whole business off on him so he can get back to the important vampire-related stuff. Mort’s insistence this is serious fucking business is largely ignored, half because Mort’s always been a bit of a apocalypse nut with his theories about the whole thing coming down and half because Harry just doesn’t want to be dealing with two things at once. Instead, he continues to try to stamp out the ghost fires as they appear.
He knows a lot of it is weird, but ghosts are not Harry’s strong point, which is why they didn’t come up in the previous books. He knows your basic exorcism stuff and nothing more. Furthermore, as Mort himself illustrates, actual necromancy stuff is a rare talent, either literally something you have or don’t or at least something where you have to learn and practice at specialized skills. An older wizard would know the theory just so they could identify things if encountered, but Harry’s magical education is incomplete and his self-taught stuff has naturally been focused on things he can actually do.
So, what’s up with Susan? Harry agrees that she can come, but ends up taking Michael when he realizes the ghost is actually related to the vampires and things are significantly worse than he realized, not realizing that when he failed to pick her up Susan just went on her own. (In Harry’s defense, half the time phones don’t even work for him, so “call to make sure everyone’s on the same page” is likely something that never crosses his mind.) There are no physical invitations involved, removing that other idiot ball from play.
The venom turned out to be pointless, but we could establish how malevolent the whole atmosphere is when Harry is politely holding but not drinking wine and one of the vampires bumps him to make it spill on his skin and very slightly get him high. Alternatively, we could get into the guest rules by having them make a big deal of telling him which drinks he can have. Also, lots of conversations where it’s obvious people are trying to get him to say something protocol-violating so they can demand a duel.
The dragon was great and all, but also didn’t seem to have any point to being there. Are there any other powers involved? For that matter, are there other undead? Thomas being there as another court representative is okay, but why just the one? The vampires aren’t a monolith, so it makes sense that holds true for the courts as well. And one of the lore problems this series has is that we can’t tell what’s generally true for something and what’s an individual quirk. We don’t even know how the Red Court works and that’s the ones running the party! Are vampires just inherently evil? Bianca in the first book was scary but almost a mirror of Harry – afraid of him as he was of her, similarly concerned both by the power on display by the heartsploder and by the death of innocent people to him. This book our only vampire representatives have been sexy-childlike-nutcase vamp and her babysitter, who were both quite murder happy and whose only confirmed action was stealing some kid.
So, the party needs a bunch of vampires. Not Harry observing that they’re all wearing red and enjoying the buffet while the lone representative of another court snarks, actual conversation with a wide number of other vampires. Are the Red Court vamps local? Book 1 seemed to have Bianca by herself with human flunkies. Do they each have a particular domain, and do they run that domain differently? Is Bianca a kinder, gentler vampire than normal, about average, or an unusually bad one? If we need to have crazy child in the body of an adult woman, maybe the reason there’s been a 300% increase in local vamps is that Bianca has begun to sire and the female one is only a month or so old. In almost all modern lore it’s super easy for vampires to make more vampires and any population control is done by the vampires themselves. Bianca making new ones is a big deal, maybe just a sign of her own changing priorities, maybe a violation of some agreement.
Honestly, for all I talked about the dragon, it’s kind of too obvious a solution to the problem of a party where most people want you dead, and it’s not like Harry really needs help in just running away, so yeah, no dragon. I think it ends with him grabbing the sword while Bianca’s waving it around smug in the belief no one would be such a stupid asshole as to steal from the host of the party then fireballing a path through the hedges, which the rest of the supernatural community views as basically shitting directly on the laws of hospitality in front of their very eyes. He proves in the first book that he can make a faith shield and we just saw Michael and Susan do something similar, so they can flare their faith aura whatevers and then the vampires can’t just yank their spines out as they escape.
I love all of this!
3) Missing people. A big point is made in the first book that Bianca keeps a stable of people to feed on and isn’t just grabbing and murdering people.
I think out of all of them, 3 works the best, especially with your other suggestion that Harry meets a ton of vampires from all over at the party. Bianca’s pulled a Bella in that she basically doesn’t care who her guests feed from as long as they’re not the humans she personally knows (and therefore is already feeding from). Bianca being allowed to sire baby vampires due to her newly achieved status also works, but doesn’t explain why she throws a party – vampire baby shower?
Back in the first book, it’s Bianca who’s afraid of them. The WC may be the most powerful individual group
I think it actually does work best if Bianca invites Harry as a WC representative, or if, like Thomas, Harry gets ordered to go by the wizard executives that she officially invited. Then the fact that Bianca went through the proper channels makes it more reasonable when Harry assumes that this party will be a law-abiding event – until the sketchy stuff with food and drugged people make it increasingly clear that no, Bianca didn’t invite him in good faith and he should maybe leave now. Harry getting ordered to go by the brass also feeds his misconception that the WC will back him up if he finds evidence of wrongdoing because, again, he’s assuming that people following rules means they’re honorable.
Thomas being there as another court representative is okay, but why just the one? The vampires aren’t a monolith, so it makes sense that holds true for the courts as well.
I think the solution to this is have Thomas+Justine still alone, and let Mavra have an entourage. Also, a Red vampire to formally induct Bianca into the Court, with their own posse of obvious badasses. Maybe make it clear somehow that this other Red Court vampire won’t get involved with Harry because the feud is personal.
This would be another way to start insinuating that things are going wrong at the party – if Harry and Thomas are guests of honor, like Mavra and Big Red, how come those other vampires got a +10 on their invite while Harry and Thomas only got a +1? Did they forget to write the 0? Thomas kind of nervously says that no, Papa Raith told him to come alone, and kind of strongly hinted Justine should go as well.
Then Harry thinks, well, shit, the WC sent him here alone and didn’t give him much to go on, either. They’re fucked.
or if, like Thomas, Harry gets ordered to go by the wizard executives that she officially invited.
Oh my god that’s perfect! Harry wouldn’t think anything weird about that because what does he know about how either of those things works, and then Justine explains the reason their position is so precarious is that Thomas wasn’t the actual one invited which is super unusual, you’re not supposed to order someone else to go, and then Harry realizes he’s been set up.
Combine with the fact he thinks this is a sign she’s playing nice with the WC and the fact actually she’s breaking rules left and right, and it’d also be nicely ambiguous if the WC as a whole went along with this or if they just have corrupt members. (And it’s really hard for someone like Harry to tell the difference – if he tries tattling and isn’t believed, is that because they actually are all in on it, or because he’s a known wizard-killer so his credibility is nonexistent? Could he in fact get framed and executed if he dares say what happened?)
Yeah, the question of how much of the WC is actually compromised (insofar as hating Harry goes) would be a great one to leave the book on, if it has to be a series. Harry’s status as a quasi-outsider best known to them for killing a wizard in good standing with them has left him woefully unprepared for wizard politics. I’d say he has a strong reason not to go to the group with his accusations, especially if the wizard(s) that sent him is especially well-respected. In fact, I think a group of two to three middling wizards work better as antagonists than one super high-ranked one. It preserves Harry’s underdog status while emphasising that the real threat isn’t magic powers but the more relatably human social power.
Having Justine be the one to explain all this and lead Harry to the realization that he’s been set up is also a much more natural way to have the two groups cooperate (though she never should have had to wiggle and cuddle him in the first place, goddamn Harry is a blight). It could also foretell the way Harry overcomes the greater conflict – getting allies of his own and not being such an idiot lone wolf.
You know, it actually makes sense for Bianca to start creating new vampires now. Her previous appearance was punctuated by fear and demonstration of how easily wizards can fuck up her power base, so she could basically go, :Fuck it, vampire army now.”
Politically, I feel it works best with decentralized Red Court. Let’s say that an average unit of organization in it is a coven, which size is limited by resource consideration and personal charisma of the master vampire: if there isn’t anything supernatural forcing vampires to obey their sires, you can comfortably control only so many without risking them turning on you or just leaving. Lone vampires are common, though they tend to stand away from the supernatural politics, and Bianca was one before the events of Storm Front.
Now that she’s building up a power base, other vampires come check on her. Officially, they’re here for meet and greet, unofficially they’re here to forge alliances and determine Bianca’s goals, and in truth they’re here to determine whether this new coven is going to implode and bleed out freshly turned vampires all over the place.
Bianca thinks she has it all under control as she selects candidates from her human followers, but she’s probably mistaken. As a bonus twist, it’s possible that people are disappearing without her knowledge due to her underlings initiative.
Decentralized could also be good because it’d imply that vampires implode all the damn time and no one else is going to clean up the mess, so any vampire setting up a new coven is even more dangerous than the obvious part where a vampire is setting up a power base in your city, plus it would raise questions like if maybe it’d be wiser to aid Bianca because a bunch of baby vampires all running around not answering to anybody and fighting each other for territory is even worse.
You know what could’ve been interesting? If the sexy godcougar was there as some sort of “plot” that Harry must “resolve” instead of just kinda popping up and Harry going “oh yeah guys about my backstory I have this now also damn her titties are nice”. You could make a pretty good story out of Harry having to match wits with a fairy intent on tricking him out of his soul.
It’s a shame that Butcher couldn’t.
This novel, even more than the last two, really feels like it’s something he just wrote down as it came into his head. It’s like he started writing Harry vs. Hospital Ghost but realized there wasn’t enough of a story there, so he did Harry vs. Faemilf but then got bored of it once he’d finished jerking off; so he started Harry vs. Vampwhore, but then got bored of it once he’d finished jerking off; so he started writing Harry vs. Nightmare Ghost, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the Faemilf when it got hard trying to worldbuild up how ghosts work again. Good worldbuilding is hard, glistening faetits are easy.
What would be amusing in regards to godmom is if she and Harry went full hyper-literal rules-lawyering against each other on the party and then Bianca was, like, you know we’re just going to kill you, right? So long as nobody objects you broke the rules of hospitality, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t.
Oh, and that would explain why Godmom is so cranky! She’s got this three hundred page plan for how she’s going to trick Harry, and Bianca’s just, “Kyle’s got a shiny gun, we’ll just shoot him.”
The sad part is, she doesn’t even realize that you don’t need a three-hundred page plan to trick Harry. She just made one because That’s What Fair Folk Do.
Fairies and vampires were the two big things the first book introduced. Were I Butcher, and a competent writer, I would’ve written the second and third book about vampires, and maybe have a “oh hey werewolves and ghosts exist” and lay the worldbuilding groundwork for volumes 4 and 5 being about werewolves and ghosts there.
He’s also been using Lea as a deus ex machina for every other problem Harry faces.
It does feel a bit like the initial ghost part is more like a short story idea he had that ended up getting spun into a longer storyline while still being partly unconnected. That might have to do with how Michael’s characterization is questionable, the initial character sketch was for someone who was only supposed to be there a short time and who wouldn’t interact with anything else.
In almost all modern lore it’s super easy for vampires to make more vampires and any population control is done by the vampires themselves.
Typemoonverse actually handles this pretty sensibly. Namely that becoming a vampire is super hard, as most turns into a mindless ghoul for a while and is more or less a zombie servant and then after a while they regain their mind and eventually begin to transition to being a real vampire. Unless their body isn’t up to the task and they just die.
And only some people just immediately transition to zombie because they’re compatible. And then even few immediately transform into a Dead Apostle.
It’s amazing just how many posts about this series on this site start with “The Nasuverse actually did this pretty well”.
All hail the mushroom-eggplant man.
You have no idea. The whole reason there’s separate discussion posts is because nasuverse kept taking over everything.