The Jim Butcher Files: Dresden . Codex Alera . Cinder Spires & More

[Synamon]

568 posts in this thread convinced me that I should try this series. I just bought an audiobook of the first of the series on Audible, they had it on sale for $4.95. Score!

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Synamon

568 posts in this thread convinced me that I should try this series. I just bought an audiobook of the first of the series on Audible, they had it on sale for $4.95. Score!

WOW!! Cheaper than the eBook.

Welcome!

[Pookeysgirl]

One thing I find odd in Dead Beat is that it takes place at the end of October and yet people are wearing shorts and summer dresses with sandals

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl

One thing I find odd in Dead Beat is that it takes place at the end of October and yet people are wearing shorts and summer dresses with sandals

Warm temperatures in the Fall are called 'Indian Summer'.

From Wikipedia

Indian summer
Meaning

An unseasonably warm, dry and calm weather, usually following a period of colder weather or frost in the late Autumn (or in the Southern hemisphere, where the term is less common, the late Spring).
Origin

The origin of other 'Indian' phrases, like Indian giver, Indian sign, are well-known as referring to North American Indians - who prefer to be called Native Americans or, in Canada, First Nations. The term Indian summer reached England in the 19th century, during the heyday of the British Raj in India. This lead to the mistaken belief that the term referred to the Indian subcontinent. In fact, the Indians in question were the Native Americans, and the term began use there in the late 18th century.

Indian summer is first recorded in Letters From an American Farmer, a 1778 work by the French-American soldier turned farmer J. H. St. John de Crèvecoeur (a.k.a. Michel-Guillaume-Jean de Crèvecoeur):

"Then a severe frost succeeds which prepares it to receive the voluminous coat of snow which is soon to follow; though it is often preceded by a short interval of smoke and mildness, called the Indian Summer."

There are many references to the term in American literature in the following hundred years or so. In the 1830s Indian summer began to be used figuratively, to refer to any late flowering following a period of decline. It was well enough established as a phrase by 1834 for John Greenleaf Whittier to use the term that way, when in his poem Memories he wrote of "The Indian Summer of the heart!". Thomas De Quincey, republished in Bentley's Works of Thomas De Quincey, 1855, wrote:

"An Indian summer crept stealthily over his closing days."

In his story The Guardian Angel, 1867, Oliver Wendell Holmes mentions "an Indian summer of serene widowhood".

The English already had names for the phenomenon - St. Luke’s Summer, St. Martin’s Summer or All-Hallown Summer, but these have now all but disappeared and, like the rest of the world, the term Indian summer has been used in the UK for at least a century.

As a climatic event it is known throughout the world and is technically called a weather singularity, i.e. a climatic event that recurs around the same time of year. The frequency, depth and longevity of the weather pattern is clearly dependent of geography. It is most frequently associated with the eastern and central states of the USA, which have a suitable climate to generate the weather pattern, i.e. a wide variation of temperature and wind strength from summer to winter. Many of those states are also famous for their areas of hardwood forest, which show up well during Indian summers when the leaves have already begun to turn and the sun is shining.

Why Indian? Well, no one knows but, as is commonplace when no one knows, many people have guessed. Here are a few of the more commonly repeated guesses:

When European settlers first came across the phenomenon in America it became known as the Indian's Summer.
The haziness of the Indian Summer weather was caused by prairie fires deliberately set by Native American tribes.
It was the period when First Nations/Native American peoples harvested their crops.
The phenomenon was more common in what were then North American Indian territories.
It relates to the marine shipping trade in the Indian Ocean (this is highly dubious as it is entirely remote from the early US citations).
It originated from raids on European settlements by Indian war parties, which usually ended in autumn.
In a parallel with other 'Indian' terms it implied a belief in Indian falsity and untrustworthiness and that an Indian summer was an ersatz copy of the real thing.

The incidence of Indian summers has increased significantly over the past decade or so (in the UK at least - I can't speak for other countries) as one symptom of the unstable weather caused by global warming. The Native Americans espoused, and lived, a life of harmony with nature that is now being put forward by supporters of Deep Green philosophy and the Gaia Theory as a solution to the world's climate problems. It is ironic and sad that they should have given their name to something that has now become associated with global warming.

[Pookeysgirl]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Warm temperatures in the Fall are called 'Indian Summer'.

Yes I know that . There was just no mention of it being an Indian Summer and Harry said there was a cold wind a few times (while jogging I think it was). I just found it odd, that's all....not putting the book down or anything .

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl

Yes I know that . There was just no mention of it being an Indian Summer and Harry said there was a cold wind a few times (while jogging I think it was). I just found it odd, that's all....not putting the book down or anything .

Whoops!

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Yes, but Hogwarts is different, it has centuries of concentrated magic in every brick, and the only effect is making the Muggle devices go haywire. The Deluminator interacts with electric lights just fine.

Harry Dresden on the other hand

Spoiler:

makes electrical things blow up. Do you remember the TV interview?

Oh, in my previous response, I forgot to mention that whenever I see or read about (As well as reading the books, I watch the Potter movies and The Dresden Files TV series often at home) the deluminator I think 'flickus bickus'.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Oh, in my previous response, I forgot to mention that whenever I see or read about (As well as reading the books, I watch the Potter movies and The Dresden Files TV series often at home) the deluminator I think 'flickus bickus'.

Ever since that was first mentioned in the books, I thought of it every time I lit a cigarette.

(I'm trying to quit again, but I'm only on my second smoke-free day so I'm not confident in declaring success at this time.)

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

'flickus bickus'.

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

Ever since that was first mentioned in the books, I thought of it every time I lit a cigarette.

(I'm trying to quit again, but I'm only on my second smoke-free day so I'm not confident in declaring success at this time.)

You can do it!

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by alansplace

You can do it!

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by alansplace

I didn't mean to imply that the electronic problems are the same in both 'verses, but that both 'verses have problems with electronics. In his James Potter series, G. Norman Lippert adds a new twist to the Potterverse electronics being affected by magic phenomenon when a journalist is able to ...

Spoiler:

locate the 'unplottable' Hogwarts castle with a smuggled in GPS in an electronic handheld game.

I didn't know about the James Potter series, thanks for that.

Originally Posted by alansplace

Oh, in my previous response, I forgot to mention that whenever I see or read about (As well as reading the books, I watch the Potter movies and The Dresden Files TV series often at home) the deluminator I think 'flickus bickus'.

I like that Dresden doesn't have to use correct Latin for spells.

Spoiler:

But he should learn some more for when he is on trial.

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Whilst stating here and now that I am thoroughly enjoying the Dresden Files, I would have to say that the wizards intefering with electronics is one of the more annoying themes in the books. Mainly, its the fact that, when it is required to move the plot along, Harry manages to use phones / drive cars just fine. It just grates on me!

He has a problem with new technology. This is why he has an old car. The old type of phones are based on really simple technology so he wouldn't have such a big problem with them.

Spoiler:

Didn't he put the doctor in a protective circle so that he could use an electronic device?

[alansplace]

The cast of The River is an ensemble including Paul Blackthorne and is aired Tuesday evenings on ABC (in the USA). Paul, like in the other productions he's appeared in on American TV (excluding Sci Fi Channel's The Dresden Files) speaks like the Englishman that he actually is. Give it a look-see!

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by alansplace

The cast of The River is an ensemble including Paul Blackthorne and is aired Tuesday evenings on ABC (in the USA). Paul, like in the other productions he's appeared in on American TV (excluding Sci Fi Channel's The Dresden Files) speaks like the Englishman that he actually is. Give it a look-see!

I've got The Dresden Files on DVD and after the final episode I watched the extras and I couldn't get my mind around the fact that Blackthorn spoke in Queen's English and Terrence Mann, who played Bob (with an English accent) had a southern US accent.

Currently reading the first of the James Potter books and thoroughly enjoying it. Thanks for the tip Alan

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

I've got The Dresden Files on DVD and after the final episode I watched the extras and I couldn't get my mind around the fact that Blackthorn spoke in Queen's English and Terrence Mann, who played Bob (with an English accent) had a southern US accent.

Currently reading the first of the James Potter books and thoroughly enjoying it. Thanks for the tip Alan

You're welcome!

Yeah, Terrence Mann's from Kentucky.

I really liked all three of the James Potter books and Lippert's in the process of writing a fourth one called James Potter and the Morrigan Web.

He's released the novel, Ruins of Camelot, and says that the sales of it will, in part, determine how quickly he can finish writing Morrigan Web. Ruins of Camelot kinda' ties into the creation of Hogwarts 1000 years ago.

Lippert also has released a unrelated ghost story novel titled The Riverhouse.

[Pookeysgirl]

Just finished Dead Beat and wow, it was great. As usual it's left me wanting to buy the next one NOW. But I have to control myself, at $12 a book I can only have one a month .

Is it just me or does he seem to get stronger with every book? He seems to last much longer during a fight, able to call up his will without feeling so exhausted that he can't go on