Reasons I disliked Turn Coat:
1) The guy pulling the strings was absurdly easy to spot.
2) The events from the prior novel, which involved one of the main characters getting nearly shot to death, are mentioned in passing. Once. In a "Hmm, that was unfortunate" kind of way. What's the point of grievously injuring a main character if there are no tangible effects on the main characters.
3) Harry's ability to always "throw every last bit of emotion" into his magic to overcome the baddie.
4) Being that this was the half-way mark in the series, I felt it was cheap to undo several books worth of development with a casual wave of the hand. Now we have to go through that development all over again over the course of several novels instead of having all new conflicts. This is mainly noticed with Luccio and Thomas (this is where the magic reset button comes into play). In addition, all the attention given to Morgan was wasted (we are going to take an under-developed character, give him some life, but not enough to actually make any difference, then get ride of the character), and as expected, was thrown out the window in Changes.
5) Murphy still pointlessly not taking up the Sword. She wants to save everything, but won't take the one thing she knows will help her cope with the supernatural aspects that have nearly destroyed her over the past. At this point, it's just used to have a filler-conflict that they can discuss at dramatic points in time.
There is more of course, but I feel like it isn't worth mentioning since Changes helped alleviate some of my fury over the direction of the series. Turn Coat wasn't even close to books 7 and 8 in terms of quality and plot progression. But hey, every series has a stinker or two. And of course, many people felt Turn Coat was great, and who am I to judge.
Okay, having the specifics helps me make a bit more sense with that review. That's one of the downsides, I think, to spoiler-free reviews - I didn't know, going in, what the "magic reset" was, and was expecting to have been done to everything in the series. Harry back under the Doom of Damocles, Murphy not trusting him, etc. This might be why I loved it as much as I did - I was expecting something far worse, and was blown away when it didn't happen.
***Some
possible spoilers below. You have been warned.***
I'll give you the first three points, but I think I have to contest the fourth and fifth. The character regression of Luccio and Thomas actually felt natural to me. What Thomas went through forced him to abandon what he'd been trying to do and give in to what he'd been repressing, and his reactions to it make a lot of sense. For Luccio, I could say the same. Not quite as traumatic (arguably) as Thomas, but it felt like a natural response to what she'd gone through. As for Morgan... seeing more of him definitely gave his final scene some incredible impact. It wouldn't have worked if we hadn't gotten to know him better, and while it would have been interesting to see what happened to him had he lived, I think it would have made the story poorer.
As for Murphy, I think it's just at this time she's not ready to give up on her career. Taking up the sword would mean, essentially, becoming a vigilante ( as I doubt they'd let her carry it around on the job), which is against the law. And Murphy has shown time and time again that she's a stickler for following the law. That's just the way I see it, and the point above, and I'm definitely not saying you were wrong or that I'm right. We just reacted to it differently (which I think is pretty cool).
I agree, though, that it doesn't match
Proven Guilty or
White Night, which were beyond amazing.
Small Favor was good, but definitely not in the caliber of those two, or even, in my opinion,
Turn Coat.
Anyway, to keep on topic... I'm slightly further in
Gardens of the Moon now. It's not as complex or difficult to read as some make it seem, but it's still not as interesting either. But, since I had to get a copy of
Changes from a different library, and it might be a few days before it arrives, I'm gonna make a big push to finish it.