Everybody loves the Dresden Files. It’s so popular that the 15th book in the series is coming out sometime this year. And I can see why. Jim Butcher certainly knows his craft: story, pacing, characters, all the elements are working together. It’s a fun book. It’s a quick read, never boring. It’s good. Really.
I just didn’t love it. You know what I mean? Harry Dresden is everything you could want in a hero, he’s perfectly imperfect. He’s a man with a solid philosophy of what it means to be a man, courage and life, but quips like an old fart (“Kids. You gotta love them. I adore children. A little salt, a squeeze of lemon – perfect.” Hahaha! still makes me laugh). He’s good looking, but not too handsome. He’s physically strong, but still gets the crap kicked out of him on a fairly regular basis. He’s obviously brave, but gets scared. He’s a powerful, bad ass wizard, but he can get his potions confused (never mix up love and disappearing).
In Storm Front, his first outing, Harry has to find out who magically blew out the hearts of a mobster and a call girl. Harry is getting pressure from all sides to solve and/or not solve the crime. He’s attacked by monsters and mobsters, fellow wizards, the cops, and vampires. The supporting characters all have a backstory too, a history with Harry or in his world, that make them, if not real, at least interesting. Even the monsters have their own personalities. They’re all gross and scary, but they’ve each got their own style of gross and scary.
Sounds good, right? It is. I’ve heard so much about it over the years, I wanted to love it. So I feel a little out of the loop, like I’m not sitting at the cool kids table. I’ve read that it’s in the second or third books when the whole serious congeals and becomes completely irresistible. But I don’t feel compelled to read the next book in the series. At least not yet. Although I really liked this book. Seriously.
A version of this review originally appeared on my tumblr.
You may never love the Dresden Files, and that’s ok. But the books get progressively better. Keep reading and you may find the love.
I pretty much had to force myself through the first three, and started really liking them by about book 4. I can recommend the audio books, narrated by James Marsters. It massively increased my enjoyment of the books, and now I listen to all of them in audio.
Actually, if I were you, I’d possibly jump to book 4 or 5, see if you like it more, and then go back and read the earlier ones later, once you’ve made up your mind if you really like the series and characters enough.
Malin – I may take your advice because like Julia, I’ve been one of those un-cool kids table Dresden readers who never saw what elevated it beyond “ok if it’s available at the library.” Will jump ahead and see how that goes!
I read several of Ashley/Narfna’s reviews of the series, and she’s the one who first recommended the audios. I can’t separate James Marsters’ narration from my idea of the books in my head now, and he makes the character of Harry much more likable with the way he reads him, I think. So now, I have all the books (except Ghost Story, which he sadly doesn’t narrate for some reason) in Audible audios.
He wasn’t available to record it due to some pre-existing schedule conflict. I refuse to listen to John Glover’s version. Marster IS Harry for me at this point.
Malin, I hadn’t thought of the audio books. I might give that a try.
I read Storm Front because 1) it was available at the library (I agree with Alexis; I didn’t want to spend $10), and 2) I got Hounded by Kevin Hearne when it was a daily deal a couple of weeks back ($1.99!!). I’d read that it owed a great debt to the Dresden books so I wanted to read it first.
As you might be able to tell, I’m kind of OCD when it comes to starting at the beginning. Someone please stop me. :)
Julia: I felt the exact same way. But I kept going and I’m soooo glad I did. (In fact, I literally gave up on the series after 3, thinking it just wasn’t for me, but on impulse I gave the audio a try anyway because of James Marsters <3.) Like Malin said, with book 4 I started listening on audio and it instantly made it better, but I think it was somewhere around book 8 that I fell in love. That probably sounds insane to some people, like why should I have to wait that long for the good stuff? But it was worth it, and I think I would retroactively like the first three books more now if I re-read them in my current mindset.
Just want to agree with everyone else; the first two or three are rough, but it gets so good. At the time when I finally decided to give them a go, I only had access to a bookstore with a very limited selection (or Amazon), and they had the first three as a boxed set, so I basically felt like I had to read at least that far.
I know I’m chiming in late, but I wanted to add my voice to the very small chorus of people who read the first one and never bothered to get any further. However, if you’re a fantasy fan, I thought Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series was amaaaaazing. Forget Dresden – give me Tavi and Amara any day.
I love The Codex Alera! I think one of the reasons I liked The Name of the Wind so much, besides it being a good book, is that the school stuff reminded me of Academ’s Fury.
Hey, Jen K. I’m don’t think I realized Butcher had another series. Must check out.