#James J. Butcher

[darthmatthewtwihard]

“You don’t find the right path. You make it. Whichever one you choose, walk it, and walk it hard, and you’ll do all right for yourself.” ― James J. Butcher, Dead Man's Hand

[the-last-teabender]

On the blog now: my review of DEAD MAN’S HAND, James J. Butcher’s debut novel.

[kernelscorner]

Cover Reveal News Round-Up, Including Books By Agatha Christie, Philip Reeve, Ed McDonald, Lev Grossman, Naomi Novik, Kerri Maniscalco, And James J. Butcher

[thereadingcafe]

[belghast]

Thirteen Books

Thirteen Books - The adventure of acquiring another library card and spoiler free discussion of Heroic Hearts, Axiom's End, and Dead Man's Hand.

Good Morning Friends! I am on my fourth day this weekend and as a result, it has made me terribly late to sit down and write a blog post. When last I shared my progress in this year’s bookish journey, I had finished my tenth book. As of about 11 pm last night, I have now finished my thirteenth. I find myself in a position currently where none of my holds are available and I have nothing currently…

[kaijucantdie]

“No Streaming Giants for VHS 🚫🎧”

To all my true supporters and hip-hop heads: VHS (Violent Hostile Situation) isn’t available on Apple Music, Amazon, TIDAL, Qobuz, or even Tencent. Why? Because this album isn’t about mass consumption—it’s about value and the energy I’ve poured into every gritty bar and every beat switch.

This isn’t a casual listen; this is art you own. I’m following a path inspired by artists who know their worth, selling the album directly to those who genuinely want to support.

If you’re riding with me, you’ll know where to find it. Stay tuned for the details. Thank you for helping me keep the culture alive.

[padfootastic]

truly one of the worst ways james and sirius’ characters were butchered (both by canon and fanon) is the implication that they thought remus was the traitor or spy because he’s a werewolf.

those boys did not spend 3 YEARS becoming ANIMAGI and risking their body, mind, and soul, as well as courting azkaban just to turn around and give in to prejudice against creatures???? like yes, i realise war makes enemies of everyone and it heightens paranoia, suspicion etc etc but this is just the laziest of all reasons??? if they weren’t scared of remus in school, after watching him transform, and they still used the damn nicknames, then why would they suddenly think his furry little problem made him unreliable??

and at that!!!! what tf kind of sense does it make for them to believe that remus was the traitor and then…do absolutely nothing about it???? the whole bullshit only checks out if they all firmly believed each other. if they thought one of them was a spy for the DARK LORD, then why would they shut up about it??? both james and sirius clearly realised the war was about more than just them; they would not be hiding a potential spy if they knew about it.

this is honestly why the whole thing, and r/s reconciliation rubs me the wrong way. if they thought remus was untrustworthy, then give me a reliable reason other than him being a were. (i’ve got a few but none of them are ever used in fics). and even if they had some doubts about remus, it would still never make up for his belief that sirius betrayed the potters and joined the DEs. ever. that’s entirely a false equivalence.

[mbrainspaz]

Dead Man's Hand by James J. Butcher My rating: 3 of 5 stars Okay... who else mistook this for a Jim Butcher book? At least once I realized my mistake I wasn't too disappointed. Love me some silly yet spooky urban fantasy. The writing felt like it could've gone through 3 or 4 more rounds of edits but it was never dull, I'll give it that. The characters were pretty good. Their motivations, not so much. Part of the fun of reading it actually turned out to be critiquing the writing techniques and plot structure to highlight all the flaws. But hey, I can't do that with just any bad novel without going mad. This one managed to be bad but fun. I genuinely liked the main character, even if I thought he sounded a bit too much like a bearded reddit bro pretending to be a hipster. He definitely thought he sounded smarter and funnier than he ever did. He was too stupid to live but I could relate to his struggles. The biggest sore point I had with the writing was the proliferation of distracting similes. Once you get the twentieth 'it was round like a bowling ball is also round' it just starts to be exhausting. That, and the part where the narrator explained the magic time travel on one page and on the next page a character explained it again. That was a 'oof.' Needed a few more editing passes but it has heart. What I loved most were actually the 'vfx'—or the visual concepts of magic in the world building. Really had some big budget ideas cooking there. As a comic or flashy CGI movie it could've been 10/10. In novel form the word choice and sentence structure had me cringing pretty hard. View all my reviews

[rheadionne]

Check out my review of Long Past Dues by James J. Butcher

[sandythereadingcafe]

REVIEW:

LONG PAST DUES (The Unorthodox Chronicles 2) by James J. Butcher at The Reading Cafe:

'urban fantasy adventure'

[ozskob]

[llovelymoonn]

favourite poems of july

knar gavin strindberg grey

dahlia ravikovitch the love of an orange (tr. chana bloch)

danez smith summer, somewhere

hannah gamble your invitation to a modest breakfast: “your invitation to a modest breakfast”

claire schwartz lecture on the history of the house

joseph brodsky collected poems in english, 1972-1999: “a part of speech”

ralph angel twice removed: “alpine wedding”

bob hicok insomnia diary: “spirit ditty of no fax-line dial tone”

caleb klaces language is her caravan

philip good & bernadette mayer alternating lunes

hester knibbe light-years (tr. jacquelyn pope)

tracy k. smith life on mars: “the universe as primal scream”

rigoberto gonzález other fugitives and other strangers: “the strangers who find me in the woods”

stephen edgar murray dreaming

james schuyler other flowers: uncollected poems: “light night”

amy beeder because our waiters are hopeless romantics

diane seuss backyard song

tomás q. morín love train

safiya sinclair the art of unselfing

carol muske-dukes skylight: “the invention of cuisine”

peter gizzi the outernationale: “vincent, homesick for the land of pictures”

william matthews selected poems and translations, 1969-1991: “onions”

c.k. williams butcher

mark mccloskey the smell of the woods

jennifer chang the age of unreason

richard blanco city of a hundred fires: “contemplations at the virgin de la caridad cafeteria, inc.”

bob hicock the pregnancy of words

j. allyn rosser impromptu 

carl phillips then the war

stephanie young ursula or university: “essay”

gloria e. anzaldúa the new speakers

kofi

[feli026]

Assigning every Graveborn a song or two (Part 1):

1) Igor

Necromancin Dancin is just full of undead chaos and evil whimsical energy, just like our tombstone jumping mosquito man :3c, while Vibrant Eyes can be seen as Igor struggling to repress the Graveborn energy during his early Graveborn life (failed to calm Cedartown residents' fear, accidentally scared his child friend by killing her bullies)

Typical Me by kroh can be a good replacement for Vibrant Eyes but I think Vibrant Eyes fits more (even though I don't listen to CG5 as much anymore aha... Anyways)

2) Viperian

Viperian gives off heavy Alastor vibes for me, he mass murder people with a permanent, sadistic smile, and also would act all nice to manipulate his victims (citation: the girl from Rat Infestation side quest). He is also the type of person who is so obsessed with human anatomy to the point he CRAVES to take a bite of it, therefore Butcher Vanity.

If it's not obvious enough I headcanon him as a cannibal. I don't know IT JUST MAKES SENSE IN MY HEAD

(Bonus song: I'm Sane by Axie. Literally this song is basically Viperian creating the Kraken /j)

3) Cecia

Cecia. A beautiful opera singer. An absolute queen that is egotistical, yet has a soft side of her that she doesn't show quite often. She often expresses her being above everyone else's, a noble to be respected (and maybe worship????) so yeah Pomegranate Lips comes to mind. Her design also reminds me of Alice Angel from Bendy, and since both of them are talented singers and are harsh and egotistical, I kinda see any Alice Angel songs as Ceciacore

4) Niru

Now Niru only has one song simply because THIS SONG PERFECTLY ENCAPSULATES HIS INSANE MIND and him slowly lost it when he touched the art of necromancy. "Now I must finish what I started" can be referred to him being executed when he got accused of failing his duty as a doctor. IT'S SO SO SO GOOD Y'ALL SHOULD LISTEN TO IT SHAYFER IS SO UNDERRATED

5) Thoran

Shoutout to an oomf of mine who recommended these two songs for me when I was dumping Thoran lore to them, Thoran building his Graveborn Empire and dealing with the devil Quaedam can be expressed by both these songs respectively

Andddd the list ends here for now! I'm sleepy and I have English as my last test tomorrow so I'm gonna eep++ find more songs to fit Ludovic and the others hehehehhe

[ratlordsarah]

absolute ton of wg music HCs because I am obsessed with music

dr two brains/ steven

-obsessed with the 80s

-favorite song is between careless whisper, and out of touch by Daryl hall & John Oates

-most certainly goes on summer night drives with the window rolled down listening to songs like everybody rules the world and other various 80s songs

-favorite band is between queen and abba

Amazo guy

-obsessed with the 90s

-secretly loves Britany spears, but won’t tell anyone

-favorite songs are starman by David Bowie, everybody by the Backstreet Boys, and his secret third favorite is baby one more time by Britany spears

-favorite bands/artists are David Bowie and the backstreet boys

becky

-doesn’t listen to music much, but really likes come on Eileen by dexys midnight runners, and livin la vida loca by Ricky Martin

-will listen to about everything except rap (out of spite towards Toby)

toby

-Eminem fan

-absolutely loves counting stars by one republic, the ceiling can’t hold us by Macklemore, and nearly any imagine dragons song

-probably would be a lemon demon fan

lady redundant woman

-favorite songs are definitely 9 to 5 by dolly pardon, bad romance by lady gaga, and dancing queen

-favorite song by frank Sinatra is definitely strangers in the night

-favorite band is abba

-probably cries to dancing queen each time that song plays

the butcher

-favorite songs are sweet home Alabama, fortunate son, and stayin alive by the bee gees

-favorite bands/artists are lynyrd skynyrd, Elton John, Bon Jovi, and Billy Joel

-goes nuts over you may be right by Billy Joel and will talk about it for hours

-old time rock n roll by bob seger is actually his ultimate favorite

invisi-bill

-favorite songs are counting stars by one republic, and centerfold by the j. Geils band

-half his playlists are energetic songs from movie soundtracks

-quite literally floats of the ground listening to free bird

-if the song’s not energetic, he doesn’t like it

miss question

-favorite song is without a doubt killing me softly with his song by fugees and ms. Lauryn hill (based)

-Whitney Huston is her hero

-other favorites are funky town, super freak by Rick James, cake by the ocean by dnce, and just about any Michael Jackson song

-her and two brains probably have the best music taste for a long late night car ride

chuck the evil sandwich making guy

-listens to mostly video game soundtracks

-favorite songs are nearly every remix made of megalovania and buddy holly by weezer

-loves 80s music but doesn’t know it

-will listen to nearly anything

-listens to emo music when people don’t find the “deeper meaning” behind him nearly crushing a school under a sandwich press over a hair net (same bro, same 😔)

Miss power

-favorite song is holding out for a hero by Bonnie tyler

-enjoys just about any song with the word ‘power’ in the title

-secret that handsome devil, and Katy Perry fan

Leslie

-likes anything abba

-favorite song is lay all your love on me by abba

whammer

-literally any loud and energetic song

-likes 2econd 2ight 2eer by will wood, but hates the lyrics for no reason

mr. Big

-Huey Lewis and the news fan

-really likes the 60s

-really likes loud music

Am I a little too hyper obsessed with music? Absolutely 👍

[copper-9spurgatory]

whats a random fact about each of the squad?

MANA(mod): Jane was afraid of James, not because of his authority but because he leans weird. N thinks every snow clump is his twin brother (he gendered snow).

Back in the manor, Viv used to have a ponytail, she cut it off with a butcher knife.

(BETA) Viv used to refer to Jane as “Boss”

(BETA) Jane used to closely resemble canon J.

(BETA) N used to be a Great Pyrenees

[acourtofladydeath]

"Take These Broken Wings" Playlist

Alright folks, I've been working on this baby since I outlined the fic last winter. It's not a direct accompaniment like my "All Things End" playlist where it's timed to reading speed, but the songs in this playlist do follow the overall storyline. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!

Each chapter has certain songs associated with it, which I'll outline below if you're curious! They are in order on the playlist, so the experience is better if you do NOT shuffle.

Chapter 1: Blackbird, Fly

Blackbird - Remastered 2009 - The Beatles

The Village - Wrabel

Let's Go! - Poor Man's Poison

Feed the Machine - Poor Man's Poison

B.Y.O.B - System of a Down

Lonely Day - System of a Down

Hold Them Down - Jorge Rivera-Herrans, Ayron Alexander, Cast of EPIC: The Musical

Blood Upon the Snow - Hozier, Bear McCreary

Chapter 2: Into the Light

Paralyzed - NF

Yesterday - Remastered 2009 - The Beatles

The Foundations of Decay - My Chemical Romance

Chapter 3: A Dark Black Night

Rule # 27 - Drunk on Pride - Fish in a Birdcage, Philip Bowen

Butchered Tongue - Hozier

Stay, I Pray You - Anastasia (Original Broadway Cast)

Train Wreck - James Arthur

broken - Jonah Kagen

Chapter 4: All Your Life

Paralysed -Jamie Bower

Mr. Forgettable - David Kushner

Dear Icarus - Anna Miraim, Isaac J. Brown, Antonio Cipriano

I Can't Carry This Anymore - Anson Seabra

Hold On - Chord Overstreet

Rider's Lullaby - Jessie Mueller

The Sound of Silence - Cody Fry, Sleeping At Last

Letting Go - Bear McCreary

Chapter 5: You Were Only Waiting

Make It - Cody Fry

The Walker - with Space - SYML

Heal - Tom Odell

Landslide - Fleetwood Mac

Chapter 6: Moment To Arise

Francesca - Hozier

Sleep Deprivation - Chance Pena

Things Will Get Better - Vian Izak

i am not who i was - Chance Pena

Chapter 7: And Learn to Fly

In the Shadow - Vian Izak, Hoyt Carter, I The Ai

Fight Song - Rachel Platten

Do You Hear The People Sing? - Les Miserables: The Motion Picture Cast

The View Between Villages - Noah Kahan