History Literature / PeaceTalks

** Odin's employees view all of the Forest People as monsters because Grendel was one of the Forest People who took to war against them.

* BestHerToBedHer: Murph, who was partially crippled by a beating she received from Nicodemus in ''Literature/SkinGame''. Freydis the Valkyrie questions her usefulness on their mission to [[spoiler:rescue Thomas]], and Murph shows she's still got it, physically attacking her and getting a gun under her chin. In response, [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer Freydis propositions her]] (and later even suggests {{a threesome|IsHot}} involving Harry).

* ContrivedCoincidence: Wouldn't you know it? Hours before a major gathering of Accord members, Sanya's plane is delayed in Chicago ... '''seven times'''. Surely he won't be needed.

[[https://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/peace-talks-16/peace-talks-chapter-1 The]] [[https://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/peace-talks-16/peace-talks-chapter-2 first]] [[https://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/peace-talks-16/peace-talks-chapter-3 six]] [[https://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/peace-talks-16/peace-talks-chapter-4 chapters]] [[https://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/peace-talks-16/peace-talks-chapter-5 have]] [[https://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/peace-talks-16/peace-talks-chapter-6 been]] made available to read on jim-butcher.com, which also has an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F17zuaRJG0U official trailer]] for the book. You can also read an excerpt from a later chapter [[https://www.jim-butcher.com/posts/2020/peace-talks-cover-revealed here]]. It released on July 14, 2020.

** The svartalves are very insistent on enforcing guest-right, even castigating Ebenezar [=McCoy=] and Harry when they get into a public argument about whether Maggie should be fostered (Ebenezar's position, thinking to protect her from threats) or stay with Harry (who notes [[CallBack it never seems to have helped anyone before). [[spoiler:Later Thomas ''very'' severely breaks guest-right by attempting to assassinate the svartalf king, killing one of his bodyguards in the process.]]

* SacredHospitality:

* NoodleIncident: [=McCoy=] and Etri already know each other somehow. Given that they've both been around for centuries (possibly even longer in Etri's case), this isn't surprising.

* AchievementsInIgnorance: Harry manages to accomplish a BatmanGambit on Lara Raith entirely by accident. [[spoiler: By putting Thomas Raith in stasis, Harry is the only person who can pull him out. As such, Lara Raith now must keep Harry alive in order to see Thomas ever released again. She believes it was a master stroke of manipulation when it was just dumb luck.]]

* CallingTheOldManOut: Ebenezar and Harry’s reunion ends with a ''very'' hostile comparison of their parenting styles. Specifically, Harry is still extremely pissed at Ebenezar's completely hands-off style that led to him leaving Harry in foster care after Harry's father died and then didn't even tell Harry they were related when they finally did meet (when Ebenezar stepped in to serve as Harry's jailor after he killed the warlock who became his mentor in self-defense). Ebenezar claims to have done it in order to protect Harry due to all the enemies who'd try to hurt Ebenezar by attacking Harry, and justifies his distant relationship to Harry's mother the same way. Harry angrily throws back that his actions ''didn't'' end up protecting his mother.

* NoJustNoReaction: Ramirez's reaction when Harry asks if the Council is requesting he serve as their representative at the talks.

* TheDeterminator: While naturally a part of Harry's character from the beginning, this book actually takes a long time to both {{Deconstruct}} as well as {{Reconstruct}} what it means to be one for Harry. Both his allies and enemies both are stunned that Harry is perfectly willing to die for someone that they think is a FriendlyEnemy at best. [[spoiler: Not realizing that Thomas is Harry's brother.]]

** The peace talks themselves include numerous characters who haven’t appeared in some time. Many amount only to cameos, but [[LongList the list]] includes, in addition to the above, Marcone, Hendricks, Gard, Childs, Vadderung, Ferrovax, Ivy, Sarissa, Fix, Cristos, Martha Liberty, Listens-to-Wind, Wild Bill, Chandler, Yoshimo, the Redcap, and Gary the paranoid Paranetter. Even Mavra gets name-checked for the first time in a while when it’s mentioned she’s been seen recently, although she doesn’t make an appearance.

* EldritchAbomination: Cornerhounds are a type of Outsider, so they automatically qualify. Specifically, they're dog-sized quadrupeds covered in tentacles (including a mass of them in place of a head) and with small mouths covering their bodies' lengths, each pack is actually a [[HiveMind single being in multiple bodies]], and they can emerge from any right angle.

* AdultFear: [[spoiler: An EMP wiping out everything electrical in and around a major city. Numerous people were killed in the resulting car crashes ''in the first few seconds alone.'' Then begin to factor in all the hospitals and emergency wards, public transport, any planes that might have been overhead at the time, and both the horror and the body count build...]]

* BerserkButton: As if flagrantly mocking the Unseelie Accords and SacredHospitality wasn’t enough, Corb ''really'' pisses off Mab [[spoiler:when he mocks how Merlin kicked her out and asks how the man would think of her now.]]

* HeroicWannabe: This is how Harry portrays Senior Council Cristos to Lara, noting the man as a statesman variant looking for peace to broker between different sides. [[spoiler:Harry further suggests using this aspect when Cristos is seen speaking with Etri on the first night of the Peace Talks. While neither man likes Lara or the White Court, she can use Cristos' desire to make peace as a chance to make an opening to either save Thomas or some other opportunity that isn't open to Lara right now]].

* InternalReveal: Harry reveals [[spoiler: that Thomas is Ebenezar’s grandson to Ebenezar himself]]. That bit of news goes down like a lead balloon.

* SacredHospitality: All the guests and attendants to the Peace Conference are expected to abide by these rules. Those who don't will suffer Mab's displeasure. Harry realizes that as Mab's Knight, he will be her man in dolling out that displeasure unless the person is out of his league. So, when [[spoiler:a sidhe noble uses a charm whammy on Warden Yoshimo with his fiddling as another tries to claim no actual harm had been done, Harry kicks the charmer into a stone wall, breaking many bones, and then flash freezes him. If he survives being an ice sculpture that night, Lady Molly will have his title stripped and he will be banished from Winter's domain for his actions]].

** A sidhe noble tries this in defense of one of her comrades' actions in [[spoiler:putting a whammy on Warden Yoshimo, tries to argue SacredHospitality wasn't violated as no one was hurt. Harry, having already kicked the offender into a stone wall and broke some ribs, flash freezes him. Molly then backs Harry's actions by having the offender set as an ice sculpture on the buffet table and will have him stripped of his title and holdings]].

* DecapitationPresentation: Corb enters the meeting chamber and the first thing he does is fling [[spoiler:Gwynn ap Nudd]]‘s head into the middle of everyone.
* DestructiveSavior: Ferrovax. [[spoiler: When he joins the alliance, he notes that he’ll need to contain his own power or he’ll wipe out more of the city than Ethniu and the Fomor will simply by showing up.]]

* ExactWords: Harry uses this to explain what he's doing with Thomas. [[spoiler: Lara assumes it was a devious Winter trick. It's just Harry not explaining it properly.]]

* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: The ending of the book [[spoiler: results in the Unseelie Accord Nations all forced to engage in open warfare against the Fomori with TheMasquerade almost irretrievably shot]].
* TheOathbreaker: The Fomor [[spoiler: all become this as they break their oaths to abide by the Unseelie Accords after Ethniu humiliates Mab with a single blow]].

* ThePowerOfLove: Harry learns that [[spoiler:his sex with Karrin early in the book has cloaked him in Love's protection, which Lara finds out when she is burned by him when breaking Thomas out of Marcone's cells]].

* AdultFear: [[spoiler: An EMP wiping out everything electrical in and around a major city. Numerous people were killed in the resulting car crashes ''in the first few seconds alone.'' Then begin to factor in all the hospitals and emergency wards, public transport, any planes that might have been overhead at the time, and the horror builds.]]

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: How [[spoiler: Ethniu]] comes across to the Unseelie Accord nations. [[spoiler: An Elder God more powerful than Mab that they've been sitting on the entire time.]]

* GodzillaThreshold: [[spoiler: Harry gets Demonreach prepared to trap an Elder God while he gets an athame heavily implied to be made from the head of Longinus' spear and the placard of the Crucifixion in preparation to battle Ethniu. Using both these artifacts is considered the equivalent of arming yourself with ''two'' nuclear weapons.]]

* NeverTrustATrailer: ''Peace Talks'' was billed as the bloodiest entry in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' to date. [[spoiler: No one dies "on screen," and the only named character who dies is introduced in this book and has only a single, relatively unimportant scene.]] This is probably because the book grew too long and was split into two, with the latter half being the one the trailer refers to.

* AdultFear: [[spoiler: An EMP wiping out everything electrical in and around a major city. Numerous people were killed in the resulting car crashes ''in the first few seconds alone.'']]

* CallingTheOldManOut: Ebenezar and Harry’s reunion ends with a ''very'' hostile comparison of their parenting styles.