Dresden Files Reread - Fool Moon Chapter 19

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I'm still not sure what Harry's nagging sense that he's missing something was about, but suddenly there's screaming and gunfire out in the hallway. We get a really vivid, poetic description of how he calls up his magic to blast through the wall. He feeds his fear and frustration and grief into the spell, and after doing it he actually feels better, clearer headed and in some ways less exhausted. It's an effective illustration of how, in this setting, emotion is literally a fuel source, something that can be burned to power a spell, and then isn't there any more. See also: all writing about magic is writing about writing. This is a lot of time time how the creative process works, at least in writing and music, which are the only two media in which I have any experience to speak of. You put your emotions into the art, which is one of only a few ways to get the art to happen at all, and then in important ways it's in there and not in you anymore. 

MacFinn is just shredding through to cops, and Harry's gearing up to fuego him when Murphy reappears and shoots MacFinn a few more times, causing him to run. She chases after, and he turns to attack her. Harry and Carmichael both run to her aid, which is especially impressive on Carmichael's part since his entire abdomen has been torn open. He essentially feeds himself to the loup garou in order to buy Murphy the time she needs to defend herself. She has a good shot lined up and everything. Unfortunately, she's out of ammo, and her gun just does the sad empty click. Harry, on the other hand, is still bursting with energy, fueled further by his desire to protect Murphy, and he blasts the everloving shit out of MacFinn, launching him through the wall of the police station, across the street, and clear through the building on the other side. 

Everyone is terribly impressed, except Murphy, who is mostly crying over Carmichael's body, which feels...weird. This is a normal enough response to feel out of character for books 1-3 Murphy, who doesn't react normally to anything. I'd expect her to immediately blame Harry, accuse him of murder, yell at him, try to arrest him, maybe attack him again. It would also be out of character for Murphy in the later books - she would have waited until the crisis was actually over, until she'd done everything she could to make sure the people for whom she's responsible were okay. So this is just weird. 

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Now that he's got some breathing room, Harry is able to make use of the Snoopy doll and paper cup, which Rudolf had just kind of been holding onto for him. It's weird seeing Rudolf being helpful here, but still not as weird as Murphy's emotional breakdown, because this is part of his actual character arc. Rudy latches on to the biggest power that he thinks can protect him from the supernatural. At the moment, that's Harry, and because it's Harry, after this horrible night Harry and Murphy come to kind of embody the threat of all the things he doesn't understand. He's not gonna feel like it's over until they're both out of the picture. So it makes sense, even tough it feels a little strange on a reread. 

We get a little bit of description of how thaumaturgy works, since Harry is explaining it to Rudolf as he gather loup garou blood for the ritual that will slow MacFinn down impair his senses until sunrise, at which point he'll turn back into a human. Having accomplished this, he just kind of walks out (using the stairs, not the gaping hole in the wall, since they're five floors up). Susan and Tera meet him partway to the car and help him get the rest of the way there. Between the blood loss and the serious magic he's completely exhausted, and passes out as soon as he's sitting down. 

I apologize for the severe lateness of this post. The second installment of the Wheel of Time reread series should still be on Wednesday, and the post for Chapter 20 in this series will be this coming Saturday. Until then, be gay, do crimes, and read all the things!