The novels of the Dresden Files have become synonymous with action-packed urban fantasy and non-stop fun. Storm Front is Jim Butcher's first novel and introduces his most famous and popular character-Harry Dresden, wizard for hire.For his first case, Harry is called in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with the blackest of magic. At first, the less-than-solvent Harry's eyes light up with dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage. Now, that black mage knows Harry's name. And things are about to get very...interesting.
Oh man... this one was pretty bad. The writing in this book is really terrible, full of phrases like "A roomful of deadly drug." or "You know, sometimes I think Someone up there really hates me." Wah waaaah. Ranging from the cheesy to the grammatically incorrect, reading Jim Butcher was like being forced to sit with a socially awkward middle schooler and listen as he recites an intricate fantasy involving magical wizards and *blush* girls. Sadly, the concept for this novel is pretty good: wed a tale of gritty noir with urban fantasy. Unfortunately Jim Butcher gives little evidence that he has ever in fact read anything truly hardboiled and the result is a kinda sorta intimation of what someone might imagine noir to be. Oh yeah, and once you throw out any interest in the philosophical underpinnings of that genre what you're left with is artificial, amateurish nonsense, which …
Oh man... this one was pretty bad. The writing in this book is really terrible, full of phrases like "A roomful of deadly drug." or "You know, sometimes I think Someone up there really hates me." Wah waaaah. Ranging from the cheesy to the grammatically incorrect, reading Jim Butcher was like being forced to sit with a socially awkward middle schooler and listen as he recites an intricate fantasy involving magical wizards and *blush* girls. Sadly, the concept for this novel is pretty good: wed a tale of gritty noir with urban fantasy. Unfortunately Jim Butcher gives little evidence that he has ever in fact read anything truly hardboiled and the result is a kinda sorta intimation of what someone might imagine noir to be. Oh yeah, and once you throw out any interest in the philosophical underpinnings of that genre what you're left with is artificial, amateurish nonsense, which is exactly how I would characterize this novel.<br/><br/> Then again, the pages flew by and this is his debut... no, nope. There are so many incredible and well written books in the world. There is absolutely no reason to read this guy again (or even the first time). Moving on...
The book was a novel concept for me: A wizard for hire, in the spirit of the old Marlowe detective books. Though I enjoyed the book, it just did not strike me enough to want to read the sequels.
Harry Dresden is a badass, simply put. A wizard in the modern world, working as a PI. Think Gandalf crossed with Sherlock Holmes, and then throw in a temper. It's really truly epic. And the plot was just rich, intrigue, murder, magic, it's all there.
Perfect book to read during a work week that offered no uninterrupted time to read. The quick pace made it easy to pick up and put down often when I could catch a few moments.
Was recommended by a friend who is big fan of Dresden Files and had likened it to hardboiled detective novels. Although it did shared some traits with the genre - namely the fact that Harry Dresden kind of stumbles his way into the solution by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, getting beat up a lot and pissing off his friends along the way, much like a Philip Marlowe novel - it did not have the cool tight stylistic prose that one associates with the novels of Chandler and Hammett. The first person narrative was a little simplistic at times.
With that said, it was pretty fun read and I will definitely …
Perfect book to read during a work week that offered no uninterrupted time to read. The quick pace made it easy to pick up and put down often when I could catch a few moments.
Was recommended by a friend who is big fan of Dresden Files and had likened it to hardboiled detective novels. Although it did shared some traits with the genre - namely the fact that Harry Dresden kind of stumbles his way into the solution by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, getting beat up a lot and pissing off his friends along the way, much like a Philip Marlowe novel - it did not have the cool tight stylistic prose that one associates with the novels of Chandler and Hammett. The first person narrative was a little simplistic at times.
With that said, it was pretty fun read and I will definitely be picking up more Harry Dresden in the future.
Review of 'Storm front (The Dresden Files #1)' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I wish I was more of an "urban fantasy" reader, I really do. But while I appreciated the writing and the character of Harry Dresden, the whole magic thing just didn't work for this skeptic. I wanted it to, but in the end it just didn't.
Harry Dresden is a wizard - the only one who advertises in the Chicago phonebook. Not surprisingly, given his moral scruples against fraud, he can't get the work other, less scrupled, charlatans can get away with. And yes, he's a real wizard. But business is bad, until a damsel in distress comes to ask him to find her husband, who may be dabbling in some magic himself. Some easy money, Harry figures. But of course things get complicated.
It gets especially sticky when he is called in by an ally in the Chicago police department, who uses him as a consultant, when there are …
I wish I was more of an "urban fantasy" reader, I really do. But while I appreciated the writing and the character of Harry Dresden, the whole magic thing just didn't work for this skeptic. I wanted it to, but in the end it just didn't.
Harry Dresden is a wizard - the only one who advertises in the Chicago phonebook. Not surprisingly, given his moral scruples against fraud, he can't get the work other, less scrupled, charlatans can get away with. And yes, he's a real wizard. But business is bad, until a damsel in distress comes to ask him to find her husband, who may be dabbling in some magic himself. Some easy money, Harry figures. But of course things get complicated.
It gets especially sticky when he is called in by an ally in the Chicago police department, who uses him as a consultant, when there are a pair of particularly gruesome murders, probably done with witchcraft. This brings Harry perilously close to the line drawn by the White Council, a high council of wizards that have put him on double secret probation, where one mistep could cause the Doom of Damocles (sic) to be brought down on him.
So, not surprisingly, the stories begin to intersect and Harry is force to confront some mighty powerful wizards, requiring all his magic skills. These include frog-like demons, scorpions and fire. But he does get is sorted out in the end, although he is left scarred and quite the worse for wear.
I was hoping the magic wouldn't turn into some maguffian, a crutch Dresden could turn to when things got tough. While he did show some imagination in how he used some pretty powerful spells, it still felt like a silver bullet that could rescue him whenever necessary. And I also got the "Alien The Movie Syndrome", where technology (or magic in this case), just appeared when necessary and disappeared when inconvenient. The magic of Dresden world was done pretty consistently, but it was hard to imagine him in trouble when he could just fly away when necessary.
The writing was good and the character dark, cynical and honorable, just like I like my private eyes. And told from the first person, again a feature I almost require. But I just couldn't swallow the magic. Oh well. But if you like urban fantasy, wizards, and good solid private eye writing, be sure to try this series out.
This is a great modern or urban fantasy. I've read the first nine books in the series and don't intend to review all of them, so this is a review of the series. There is a formula to the series, and it becomes a bit too apparent about mid-way through the books I've read, but the writing is good enough to overlook it.
The characters are interesting and the action is well paced. Highly recommended to anyone interested in magic set in the modern world.
Okay, so, this book's big problem for me was that I didn't like Harry Dresdon. Seeing as how he's not only the protagonist, but the book's narrator, this pretty much destroyed any chance of me liking the book. His style of explaining all his decisions rubbed me the wrong way. Perhaps worst, though, Harry is the kind of man who will say things like "The thing about women, is--" at which point it hardly matters how he finishes the statement, I'm going to be annoyed.
So, I can't recommend it, but the reasons it didn't work for me were mostly personal. I would have given it two stars to reflect my enjoyment of it, but bumped it up another star, in an attempt to be fair.
