I in no way hide that I am a massive fan of The Dresden Files series of books (and the sadly-canceled TV show as well). I’ve read the entire series numerous times and have triple dipped on many of the books (first hard copies, then e-books, then audio books) and have become intimately familiar with the OTHER wizard named Harry, Harry Dresden. At the end of the previous book, Changes, Harry’s world — the world we’ve come to know through twelve books — lay in ruin for a variety of reasons (I’m trying to avoid spoilers here). The thirteenth book in the series, Ghost Story, addresses what happened at the end of Changes, for better and for worse, and I just finished reading it a day or so ago, so I figured I’d give y’all my thoughts. Please know, this review will be spoilery as hell, so if you’ve not read Ghost Story, stop right now.

Still with me? Excellent. Now, if you recall, at the end of Changes, Harry was shot and killed off the side of his brother’s boat. We left him staring at the light in a tunnel…coming from a train. This is where the new book picks up. Harry is pulled out of the way by Carmichael, Murphy’s partner that was killed in book two, Fool Moon. After that surprising meetup, Carmichael takes Dresden to see the Captain…Captain Jack. No, not Harkness, I’ll get to that in a minute. We come to find out that Harry is neither in heaven nor hell, and because of an “irregularity” with his death, he has to go back and solve his own murder, but as a spirit, because his body is “unavailable”. We find out as Dresden is leaving for Chicago again that Captain Jack is actually Jack Murphy…Karrin Murphy’s DAD! OMG! That was a nifty thing.

Anyway, this sets off a chain of events that lead to some shocking revelations. Harry reunites with old friends — who are still reeling from his apparent death — and makes new ones. Of course, even though Harry’s been given one task, many others spring up that threaten both the spirit and mortal planes, so obviously Harry throws himself into the middle of it. An interesting notion is that spirits get their abilities and strength from memories, so in order for Harry to gain these, he has to go back into his own relevant memories, and we get to go back there with him. The book has a good deal of flashbacks, which I’ll discuss in a but, but they were mostly fun to read.

Along the way, Harry realizes the consequences of his actions in Changes, both big and small. From the power vacuum left by the demise of the red court to the brutal way his apprentice, Molly Carpenter — who was shot and bleeding at the end of Changes — has had to deal with her own power vacuum, the loss of her mentor and friend. Like most Dresden books, most of what needs attending too gets the attention it deserves, while leaving other avenues open for exploration later, so this book doesn’t give us everything we might have wanted, but that’s okay, as Butcher plans at least ten more books in the series.

In saving himself, his friends, Chicago, and the world, Harry realizes how many lines he’s crossed, and that he can likely never go back to the way things were, but that’s okay. Changes set up the ground work for an entirely new chapter, as it were, in the series as a whole, and Ghost Story is something of a breather, a transition I think, before getting on with the big show.

To keep this review simple and not overtly wordy and to not give EVERYTHING away, I’ll focus on what I did and didn’t like.

First, what I did like:

• How well Harry adapted to being a spirit/soul. His abilities were very limited, but he made the best of them.
• Sir Stuart. I loved this character. LOVED. He was awesome, and even though he’s gone off to work for Uriel (yay Uriel!) and we’ll likely not see him again, I really enjoyed the time we got to spend with him.
• The state of the world following the demise of the Red Court and Dresden’s death. I thought the power vacuums left behind in this case were well thought out and that they made sense.
• Butters. Oooohh Butters, you get better in every damned book. One of your lines made me laugh the loudest out of all of them in the entire book.
• Mort. At first I thought you were just a hukster Mort, like Harry did, but you totally came around in my book.
• Molly. Even though Molly was pretty much broken, she totally kicked ass in many ways. Her Star Trek moment was amazing.
• I liked how the addressed Harry’s deal as the Winter Knight, because I was quite curious about that, especially through the entire book since they dealt with it at the damned end.
• As crazy and evil as she is, I enjoyed Corpsetaker as a bad guy, and was happy to see her return.
• Flashbacks. I did and didn’t like this. I liked them because it gave us more insight into Harry’s background, such as his battle with He Who Walks Behind.
• Awesome Bob moments. I especially loved Bob’s apartment.
• The twist about who REALLY killed Harry. TOTALLY loved that and didn’t see it coming at all, but after it was revealed, it totally made sense.

Now, what I didn’t like:

• No Marcone. At all! Boo!!
• No Michael. With all the Carpenters running around, I was hoping to see our old friend.
• Murphy. I understand why Murphy was behaving the way she was, but I didn’t like it, as it seemed too harsh and too extreme.
• Thomas. I didn’t like this because it made me damned sad. I love Thomas, and it hurt to see him like that.
• Someone hurt Father Forthill. NO ONE should ever hurt Father Forthill!
• Flashbacks. While I did enjoy these, I kinda started to think that they went on a bit long, and that they were filling out the book more than anything else.

Overall, Ghost Story is an excellent book that had me hooked from cover to cover. It totally answers most of our questions as to “WTF?!?!” from the end of Changes, yet leaves us totally wanting more. I just hope the next book doesn’t get pushed back to July like this one did, but it’ll be a long wait regardless.

Other new exemptions apply to DVD’s and ebooks. Now you can legally use portions of a film on DVD if it’s being used for documentary or non-commercial purposes, so maybe we’ll see all those “Downfall” parodies come back to YouTube. Ebooks can now also be hacked to be allowed to be read with a voice synthesizer, where before many complained this would eat into their ebook sales (which is very doubtful).

There are other little tidbits, but those above are the most notable. How long will these exemptions last? That’s something we don’t know, but for now, people should enjoy their new exemptions as much as possible.

Here are some pics for comparison…

Original:

Mine:

However, I’m by far not the only one who’s decided to permanently ink their bodies with geek-inspired tattoos, as this article and its images will illustrate…

The idea for this article came in researching my next (third) tattoo. It’ll be partially inspired by Serenity, the ship in my second favorite show, Firefly. The tattoo will be the Kanji symbol for Serenity surrounded/orbited by symbols for peace, love and clarity. So in a way, it’s a geeky tattoo, but with my own spin on it.

For centuries, people in virtually every culture have taken to tattoos for a variety of reasons, whether they be of tribal significance or just to look cool. In our modern society, we don’t really need tattoos to signify anything in terms of power or status (though I’ve never been in prison so I could be wrong there), but many of us get them for a variety of reasons. These could be to prove that we can handle the pain, because they look cool, because they become addicted…because we’re drunk…or whatever else.

As geek culture has become more and more mainstream, so have the tattoos that signify various parts of that culture, whether they be from video games, movies, tv shows, or books. These things are full of symbols, quotes, creatures and events that just beg for tattoos. Whether it by a house symbol from the Harry Potter series, a picture of Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a symbol from the video game Gears of War or whatever else, geeky tattoos have been increasing in popularity as not only the culture expands, but the books, movies and other art forms that make up that culture increases exponentially.

Now why, one might wonder, would one choose to permanently mark themselves with something from a book, or a video game or a movie? Surely there are more significant things in people’s lives in which to tattoo themselves with? This is the thing I notice a lot of non-geeks don’t get. The mere definition of geek, according to Wikipedia, is “one who is perceived to be overly obsessed with one or more things”.

Therefore, given that us geeks are obsessed with things — which in my opinion is a totally fair definition — it makes sense that, if we’re inclined to get a tattoo, that we get something that we’re passionate about, that we love, or that has a lot of meaning to us. If a book or a movie give us comfort, give us joy, or help us connect with other people, why not show your passion with a tattoo?

Overall, the appeal of geeky ink will just grow along with the mainstreaming of geek culture, which honestly can only be seen as a good thing. Where once we were poked at and made fun of, now we become more and more accepted.

Now, here are some great examples of geeky tattoos to give you a taste of what people are passionate enough about to pay lots of money in order to permanently put upon their skin. You can click on the picture to be taken to the original source. You can also head over to Geeky Tattoos for even more examples.

Favorite TV Show:

That would have to be Supernatural. For many years, Firefly was my favorite show, and with good reason. In my opinion, it’s the pinnacle of Joss Whedon’s writing, and since it has spaceships, that makes me love it all the more (I’ll check out anything with spaceships in it).

However, the more I watched Supernatural, the more it’s infected my very soul. No show has grabbed me emotionally and intellectually like Supernatural has.  I’m not even that much of a horror fan, honestly. However, the combination of drama, humor, amazing acting and tight storytelling (most of the time) has totally won me over.

Favorite Book or Book Series:

It’s funny, as much as I love sci-fi, my favorite book series — like my favorite TV series — also skirts the fantasy realm. The Dresden Files are a book series by Jim Butcher, and chronicles the life of a wizard living in present-day Chicago. Harry Dresden, the protagonist, is a sarcastic, funny, no-nonsense kind of guy that tries his best to help people and get the job done, usually getting his ass whollopped in the process.

The twelth book in the series, “Changes,” is going to be released this April, and the series has a planned run of twenty-three books. It’s hard to describe in a short space how awesome these books are, at least to me, but I just absolutely adore them.

Favorite Movies:

I love movies, so these were hard to choose. In the realm of geekiness, my favorite movies are probably Serenity, the Alien series, Blade Runner, Time Bandits, the original Star Wars trilogy and probably more I can’t think of. When it comes to sci-fi and fantasy, I am all over the damned map.

Favorite Video Games:

As primarily a PC gamer, my favorite games are on that platform, and there are three of them. Starflight, Freespace 2 and Tie Fighter. If you’re unaware, these are all games involving spaceships. Surprised? You shouldn’t be.

So yeah, those are some of my geektastic favorites. What about you? I look forward to discussing your favorite this and that in our comments section, and thank you for visiting.