I just read this recently. I didn't like the Dresden files at first, but it was a fun, popular enough series that I continued. I only decided I liked it in the later books. It depends on how much you can ignore that basically every character is a trope. I can actually enjoy that a lot of the time, but it does hurt the writing of the female characters. There are not a lot of feminist friendly tropes for females. Or at least, they aren't used in this series often. A lot of the problems do stick around even though the writing improves as a whole. But I think Butcher must have seen people complain about Harry's attitude and gaze because later books have a lot of bits thrown in that try to combat any blatant sexism on Harry's part. For this book, the worst part was that stupid exposition self. It didn't feel like magic, it felt like the author didn't know how to get Harry to where he had to be. I agree with your rating and review.
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I didn't like the Dresden files at first, but it was a fun, popular enough series that I continued. I only decided I liked it in the later books. It depends on how much you can ignore that basically every character is a trope. I can actually enjoy that a lot of the time, but it does hurt the writing of the female characters. There are not a lot of feminist friendly tropes for females. Or at least, they aren't used in this series often.
A lot of the problems do stick around even though the writing improves as a whole. But I think Butcher must have seen people complain about Harry's attitude and gaze because later books have a lot of bits thrown in that try to combat any blatant sexism on Harry's part.
For this book, the worst part was that stupid exposition self. It didn't feel like magic, it felt like the author didn't know how to get Harry to where he had to be.
I agree with your rating and review.