Friday, April 3, 2015

Side Jobs (a book review post)

This is Dresden book 12.5. At least, that's usually how it's listed. It falls in between Changes (book 12) and Ghost Story (book 13), but, as suggested by the ".5" designation, it is not a novel. It is, in fact, a collection of short stories that fall within the series as a whole with only the final story falling in between books 12 and 13.

This book is a good reason why I don't generally tend to care for short stories and why I don't generally care to like first person very much.

So let's have a writing lesson (yeah, I know it's a book review, but I can't talk about this issue without the writing lesson):

First person is seductive, especially to the beginning writer. It's easy and it feels natural. But, see, it's a trap. When you're writing in first person, the author isn't writing from his/her voice, s/he's writing from the character's voice. The problem, then, is that most authors can't differentiate between their own voice and their characters'. And, you know, that's fine as long as you only ever write the one character in first person. But that's not what usually happens, and it's not what happened here.

Butcher's been writing Dresden a long time. Dresden's voice is distinct. But, see, it's that seduction of the young writer to write in first person, and Dresden's voice is really Butcher's (which is why we get the occasional preachy episode in the Dresden books). It hadn't occurred to me nor would I have ever noticed if Butcher hadn't decided to write from some other characters' POVs in these short stories.

There's a story from the POV of Thomas and, other than that Thomas reminds us that it's him, the story reads just like it's from the POV of Harry. Sure, it's an interesting story with all of the Oblivion War stuff in it, but Butcher should have switched to third person so that it didn't feel like Harry talking.

And there's a story from the POV of Murphy which is only differentiated by the fact that she spends a lot of time talking about Harry and that there are sections describing her hand-to-hand fighting. However, those sections have the exact same feel as Harry describing how he uses magic, essentially making it the same voice. The only other thing is the reference to men speaking Martian, but it's not enough to set the piece apart from all of the Dresden pieces.

A first person character voice should be as distinctive as listening to someone speak in person. Butcher doesn't pull that off, which was more than a little disappointing.

Then, there is the issue that the stories are of vastly variable quality with only a few feeling like they actually added anything to the Dresden world. And when the heck did Georgia become Butcher's Lois Lane? Really, we had to have two different stories about her getting kidnapped? I get that Will and Georgia are the only characters that Butcher has allowed to have any kind of long term relationship and they have to be the default for that kind of story, but, sheesh, damsel in distress much?

All of that said, if you're a fan of The Dresden Files, you'll want to read the book. "Day Off" and "The Warrior" were both very good and, actually, so is "Something Borrowed" (despite the Georgia kidnapping). And, then, "Aftermath" is almost essential reading. Almost. You could get by without it, but it's worth the read to fill in some space between books 12 and 13. And, of course, you get rescue Georgia again.

16 comments:

  1. I never really thought about that - how easy it would be to make the character's voice your own but never grow past that. One more thing to watch out for when writing first person.
    Not sure why people think it's easy. I find first person very difficult to write.

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    1. Alex: It's just how most people start out. I suppose because that's how most people think.

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  2. Butcher's probably going to downgrade the reviews he posted of YOUR work now.

    The voice thing is well-taken. First person is really hard; I was trying to remember how many stories of any real size I've written in first-person. "Temporary Anne," I did, but I feel like I got the voice different than my own, in that I am not a centuries-old ghoul.

    Voice in general is hard. While I was reading this, I was thinking of John Irving and Tom Wolfe, two authors I've read recently. They both have a similar voice, overall; their characters are sort of hard to distinguish from book to book because the tone is so similar. Vonnegut is like that, too. So even writing from the third person can be hard if that person is essentially an extension of your own persona.

    I think my most successful creation as a character might have been Sarah in "Up So Down," in that as a lead character she is probably the furthest away from how I actually am. Saorise in "the After" is a close second. But it's tough, for any writer, I think, to distance the main character from him- or herself. First person just makes it exponentially harder, I suppose, to do that -- or exponentially easier to write.

    You did a good job, though, in differentiating among the various first-person perspectives in "House," and wasn't "Tea Kettle" first person? That felt different, too. You should talk about how you do that.

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    1. Briane: I did consider that but, then, I checked through all of my reviews, and it seems that Butcher has neglected to leave any, yet. I guess I'm pulling for the first time 1-star review just so that I can say Butcher reviewed my work.

      The thing about third person is that it's the narrator's voice. In that respect, it's perfectly acceptable for an author to write all of his/her (3rd person) books in the same voice. That's frequently why a reader will follow an author, even if it's subconscious, because he likes the voice.

      I'll think about the 1st person question. The short answer is that it's like acting.

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  3. I wonder if the more you write as the character, the harder it is to switch to another character.

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    1. Jeanne: I think that probably depends upon the person.

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  4. Not something I would ever think about and I don't suppose for one moment I will notice them in this book. I'm not much into short stories, but can't miss out on Dresden tales.

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    1. Jo: I didn't realize you read Dresden.

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    2. Oh definitely Andrew, one of my favourites. I think I've read them all but got a bit muddled towards the end. Think I missed the destruction of the red court.

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    3. Jo: That was book 12: Changes. I have a non-spoilery review up.

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  5. Hm, I haven't read this one. I'm behind on the whole series, though. I lost my place, got behind, and now I don't have the time or desire to go through my books to see where I left off and start again. Hmph. I avoid first person. It got way too popular there for awhile, and I don't especially enjoy reading it. Thomas would have been an interesting character change of Harry if it had been done right. He's very distinctive from Harry.

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    1. Shannon: I think 1st hasn't actually peaked, yet.
      I agree about Thomas, which is why I was upset by the story.

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  6. I'm not a big fan of short stories, either. They nearly always involve death, as if writers of short fiction can't imagine any other way to make a dramatic impact in the shorter format.

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    1. TAS: I think that's probably more true with flash fiction than a regular short story, but I do agree with the idea that short story writers try too hard to provide some kind of twist ending.

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  7. I don't know these books or the author but your explanation of first person writing has explained a few things to me about why I don't like/get on with some books, it all makes sense to me now. Thank you.

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    1. Sally: Sure, no problem.
      I just wish more authors would actually learn how to write rather than just use first person as the easy out.

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