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  • Battle Ground

  • The Dresden Files, Book 17
  • By: Jim Butcher
  • Narrated by: James Marsters
  • Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (1,636 ratings)
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Battle Ground

By: Jim Butcher
Narrated by: James Marsters
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Summary

Things are about to get serious for Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, in the next entry in the number one New York Times and number one Sunday Times best-selling Dresden Files.

Harry has faced terrible odds before. He has a long history of fighting enemies above his weight class. The Red Court of vampires. The fallen angels of the Order of the Blackened Denarius. The Outsiders.

But this time it's different. A being more powerful and dangerous on an order of magnitude beyond what the world has seen in a millennium is coming. And she's bringing an army. The Last Titan has declared war on the city of Chicago and has come to subjugate humanity, obliterating any who stand in her way.

Harry's mission is simple but impossible: save the city by killing a Titan. And the attempt will change Harry's life, Chicago and the mortal world forever.

©2020 Jim Butcher (P)2020 Hachette Audio UK

What listeners say about Battle Ground

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Audiobook Gold

This review isn't about the book Battle Ground itself. This review is about the audio part of the audiobook. In my opinion so many people skip over the audio part of their reviews and focus 95% of the review on the book alone, I wanted to balance the scales a bit. This is more so an appreciation post for the unbelievably awe inspiring work of the narration done by James Marsters.

Once again James Marsters shows just how talented he is. In the world of audiobooks their are not many narrators who can consistently deliver superb unique voices for both genders, accents and raw emotion. James Marsters can. James has the ability to REALLY sell the emotion of the text, the pain and horror, the joy and laughter of Jim's writing. He has the ability to make a listener smile in one sentence and make you feel like you've received a gut punch in the next. James has an uncanny ability when it comes to voicing the emotion a character is going through, he is in my opinion one of the best in the business at this.

Narrators can make or kill an audiobook. These people have the ability to make a book awful and unlistenable, forcing you to instead buy a physical or kindle copy of said book. A mediocre narration will not really help or harm a book, at that point it will come down to the book itself as to if people enjoy it. But the few, the real good ones, the professional narrators who have the desire and talent to bring a book to life. Those are the people I have so much respect and gratitude for, they who have given me such enjoyment that I wouldn't have been able to receive without their help. James Marsters is now one of those few people. He now sits along side some of my favourites such as Steven Pacey, Peter Kenny, Kate Reading and Michael Kramer. James is among his peers, surrounded by the greats of the narration world.

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36 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Awful, no story to speak of

Never ever have I been anticipating a book SO much - only to be sadly disappointed :-( James Marsters, as always, was magnificent and the book's only redeeming feature. Jim Butcher just copied the basic story of each of his Furies of Calderon books (which was already becoming rather tedious by the 2nd repetition ) and transferred it to the Dresden Files. I get it, the battle is big, it's SO big, it's the biggest of all yet. Rolling my eyes, no doubt the next one will be bigger still, yawn. The opponents show up in ever more ludicrously overwhelming numbers, defying all logic as to any halfway realistic sustainability (they've got to come from somewhere & sustain themselves after all). Just a string of battles with one uninteresting & miraculously powerful foe after another and many unnecessary, silly deaths that remove the very soul from the Dresden Files. The first time I stopped in the middle of the book & decided to listen to something else instead because I couldn't bring myself to care anymore about how it was going to end. After maybe 2 weeks I did anyway. It didn't improve, though. Utterly foreseeable. And those greatly praised "twists" were just disappointing sellouts, cheapening previously great characters. Not sure I'll bother with the next installment unless it's ignoring Peace Talks & Battle Ground like Star Wars ignored the penultimate movie... ;-) Sorry, folks, this one was BAD :-(

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7 people found this helpful

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Disappointed

Boring. Easy to figure out and simply too much power and not enough story.
Have always been a big fan of the Dresden Files. Last couple of books have been hard to follow and this was the worst. Marsden was great as always and the only reason I simply didn't skip to the last chapters...

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Just so good

I laughed, I cried. Literally. Moments had me bawling my eyes out others had me laughing with excitement. Marsters has built this role and doesn’t disappoint

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5 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Dresden is dead two boring books in a row

the last Dresden book was padding this book is pointless if I said the previous book reminded me of The Hobbit trilogy where there was no storyline so they just invented battles this book is so boring it does not move the storyline at all all it's just boring I cannot recommend this book at all it has to go down as the worst Dresden book I have ever read to say it was boring would be an understatement it strictly just one battle no story no interest no characters were talking about no new ideas nothing just boring boring boring I can't say how badly I hate this book in fact is going to be the first Dresden book I ever return

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Book I had to endure

Imagine a hack&slash game. Somebody, passionately narrating it. For hours. Small bits of a story here and there. Mostly not here. That's the book. I had to force myself to finish it. It had its moments, but not many. I really appreciate James Marsters narration, that helped me endure the book, it is excellent. But the story is subpar, especially for what Jim Butcher can do.

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4 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Why?

Everything happens in a vacuum !?
No scene setting, you reach half way through and the characters are floating somewhere, either Jim decided to go with this new type of character floating thing or the book was rushed and not finished.
For all the audiobooks,books, comics and short stories of Dresden files I have read I have never felt like : where are all these things happening?!!!!
The first thing I loved since book 1 was how descriptive and amazing work was put in for characters and environment/scenes alike.
Disappointed much!

James Marsters saved this for me! Exceptional as always!
Thanks

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    5 out of 5 stars
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No Spoilers - An Epic Story!

11 stars each for story and narration. Be ready for laughter, tears, dread, suspense, fun and the usual mix of emotions and involvement from this wonderful addition to The Dresden Files. Jim Butcher - you have created something magical in this series and with Battle Ground, you have a excelled yourself. Thank You!
And just in case there is as any possibility of missing some nuance, the “Marsterful” (sorry) James Marsters brings Harry to life as thoroughly and impeccably as always. He is, I think, the most complete narrator I’ve ever listened to and reads everything the way I would myself. Humour, asides, the “sad bits”; he makes the most unreal of situations believable and brings each character identifiably to life. Such a talent; he should be a megastar - as I’m sure he is to the millions of fans of this series. Fantastic work and thank you too, James Marsters. What can I possibly read next?!*?

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What a ride!

Exciting, heartbreaking, scary, funny, and all in all very emotionally investing story! If Peace Talks were a bit disappointing, BG more than makes it up for it!

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    3 out of 5 stars

Great Action Scenes, but some wasted potential

James Marsters as usual knocks the narration out of the park. Sadly, despite being far better then Peace Talks, Jim Butcher continues to undervalue his female characters. On the plus side, this book was far lower on needless disturbingly oversexualised descriptions of teenagers, so that's a major plus

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