Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1)
by Jim Butcher
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Book Reviews of Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1)
Book Review: A Darn Good Time
Summary: 4 Stars
Storm Front is the first in Jim Butcher's ongoing Dresden Files series, which follows the travails of Chicago's only professional (and public) wizard, Harry Dresden, who offers his services as a private investigator. In particular, Storm Front involves Dresden trying to uncover the culprit behind a series of gruesome murders, performed by using the power from thunderstorms to explode the victim's heart via magic. His investigation also brings him in conflict with the Chicago police department, the most powerful crime boss in the city, a dangerous drug ring, and the leaders of the magic community, who suspect that Dresden is the culprit engineering the killings.
Storm Front is a remarkably engaging and entertaining novel. Dresden himself is immediately likeable - he's basically a modern, wizarding version of the classic film noir detectives: tough, gruff, sarcastic, witty, but generally looking to do the right thing. Butcher is rather creative, making use of a number of classic fantasy tropes in interesting, unique ways. The book is written as a first person narrative from Dresden's perspective and he's no poet, so the writing is rarely lush, but this actually works to Butcher's advantage as it fits so perfectly with the tone of the novel. The first person perspective works particularly well in the action scenes, some of which can really have you on the edge of your seat (in particular, Butcher brilliantly builds up the climactic final confrontation and manages to pull it off with aplomb). Finally, although Dresden is by far the most important character, he has a fairly solid surrounding cast of characters. None of them are fleshed out well enough to really stand on their own, but they add an awful lot to the novel nonetheless.
In fact, there really isn't a whole lot to criticize about Storm Front. It's a bit predictable, but the execution is so good that it doesn't really matter. Further, it seems to be a bit of a derivative of Glen Cook's Garrett, P.I. series from the 1980s, which also followed the adventures of a film noir-like wizard detective, but the similarities are generally pretty superficial. The bad guys tend to be pretty evil in Storm Front (and become even more so as the series progresses), which may put off those readers looking for a wide array of grays, rather than blacks and whites, but fortunately Dresden himself is a somewhat gray character - while he generally tries to do the right thing, he's definitely no saint.
All in all, Storm Front is a very good debut novel, and pretty darn entertaining to boot. The series, at the time of this review, is awaiting the release of its 13th volume, so there's a lot of material to enjoy. Storm Front and the other novels are generally pretty quick reads, and while the plot can get intricate and complex at times, it's never a tough slog. Storm Front, and the Dresden Files overall, is definitely worth your time, whether you are simply looking for a quick, entertaining read to kill some time or if you are looking to invest yourself in a darn good series. Highly recommended.
Book Review: Sam Spade, Plus Sorcery
Summary: 4 Stars
Harry Dresden figures he's "the only openly practicing professional wizard" in the USA. Home is present-day Chicago, where he lives in a basement apartment with an enormous cat named Mister and an air spirit named Bob. The latter spends most of its time bound into an otherwise untenanted human skull in Harry's lab, serving as sidekick and wizardly alternative to a computer, what with magic and electronics being pretty much mutually exclusive concepts.His caseload isn't exactly overwhelming, but Harry ekes out a living in paranormal investigations, finding lost things, and occasional police consulting jobs. As Storm Front opens, he actually gets two cases at once: tracing a misplaced husband, and checking out a pair of grisly homicides. As the plot unfolds to a fiery climax, it encompasses a third murder, a new designer drug, a vampire madam, a mob boss and henchmen, a toad-demon, several golem scorpions, and a renegade wizard. Not necessarily in that order. Then there's the whole business about the White Council-sort of a wizardly regulatory board-coming after Harry for violating his probation from a prior offense. And this is only the first book of a proposed series.
Harry has been compared to Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake. Both operate in a contemporary Midwestern setting that would be completely unremarkable except for magic and paranormal beings coexisting with the rest of society. Both use magic professionally. Both are police consultants. In Harry's universe, though, the paranormal stuff is much more closeted; few folks are even aware of wizards and such. Fewer still are willing to openly acknowledge their legitimacy, which puts quite a crimp in Harry's career ambitions. Butcher's writing is also less dark and gruesome than Hamilton's, and-so far at least-Harry has managed to avoid any sexual entanglement with dead things or animals.
Harry could equally well be compared with Glen Cook's Garrett or Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos, though both operate in a decidedly non-earth universe, and Garrett's no wizard while Vlad's no detective. All live as much by their wits as their training. All exhibit a world-weary, wise-cracking style. All are singularly unimpressed by bullies and other abusers of power, on either side of the law. And all have sidekicks who sometimes seem like more trouble than they're worth.
Butcher's prose is clean and direct, his plotting tight, his characters believable, and his magic well-thought-out. Storm Front is equal parts gumshoe and fantasy: Sam Spade, plus sorcery. On occasion, the situations are just a bit too pat, too contrived to sustain the willing suspension of disbelief, but those are easily forgiven as events move along. Some readers may be put off by a sense that, with all his purported wizardly power and skill, Harry really ought to be in better control of his day-to-day life. Still, Butcher gives plenty of hints that there's more to discover about Harry and his universe, and the quality of storytelling in this debut novel should leave most readers looking forward to the next installment.
Book Review: Wonderful! A Magical Mystery!
Summary: 4 Stars
"Storm Front" by Jim Butcher is the first book in a promising new series that already has me hooked. Butcher has come up with a fun and entertaining idea, and has crafted likable characters that readers can root for. Harry Dresden is a wonderful creation and I look forward to many more adventures with him."Storm Front" introduces Harry Dresden, the only wizard in the Chicago phone book, who is currently having trouble making ends meet. You'd think that being the only "out" wizard in the country would mean Harry was in demand, but unfortunately, people in the 21st century would rather pretend those unsettling things that science can't explain aren't really there. Then Harry gets what he believes to be a stroke of luck - a woman whose husband has disappeared wants to hire Harry to find him AND his friend Lieutenant Karrin Murphy with Special Investigations in the Chicago PD calls Harry in to consult on a murder case. Two paying jobs in one day has Harry thinking that things are looking up, but in truth, Harry's trouble is only just beginning.
The murder scene Murphy shows to Harry has him feeling distinctly nervous. Someone very powerful has used Black Magic to murder two people in a violent and horrifying way, and the only way Harry can help Murphy is to figure out the spell the killer used. Not a good idea when Harry is already under the Doom of Damocles, a kind of magic probation, from the all-powerful White Council, whose job it is to ensure that those who abuse magic are dealt with swiftly and permanently. Morgan, the White Council representative monitoring Harry, would just love to nail him for messing with Black Magic.
And Morgan and the White Council aren't Harry's only problem. Gentleman Johnny Marcone, Chicago's top mob boss, warns Harry to keep his nose out of this case, which of course Harry can't do. Especially when he somehow becomes the top suspect in these Black Magic murders. Now Harry has to get to work fast and find the real wizard who is committing these atrocities, otherwise, Harry's not going to live to see another week!
Butcher crafts an original and compelling mystery, and readers will become utterly wrapped up in Harry's dilemma. In the course of his investigation, Harry runs into all kinds of supernatural beasties, including faeries, demons, vampires, and giant scorpions! Add in Harry's hilarious assistant, Bob, an air spirit with an overactive libido who lives in a human skull and just a dash of romance and you have the recipe for a wonderful and exciting read.
"Storm Front" is an amazingly good book considering that it is Jim Butcher's first. I became an instant fan of Butcher while reading this book, and intend to read the rest of the series very soon. "Storm Front" contains a suspenseful and well-written mystery, but at the same time, Harry Dresden has a wonderful self-depreciating sense of humour that got quite a few chuckles out of me. If you enjoy mysteries or fantasy writing of any kind, give "Storm Front" a try, you'll like it a lot!
Book Review: A flighty and inconsequential paranormal fiction...
Summary: 3 Stars
I had read a lot of Harrison to this point and was eagerly looking for something along similar lines. To my surprise I started reading Storm Front and found that they were so similar in many ways. What surprised me even more was that he began his series 4 years before Harrison, which threw me for a loop. Where Harrison succeeded in many ways, Butcher fell short.
Butcher used the myths and folklore behind the paranormal quite well, incorporating many facets as well as hinting at other facets to be used in later books, such as Trolls and Elves. We see, quite obviously, a lot of wizardry, demons, faeries and so on. Dresden uses a lot of magic throughout his unbelievably packed weekend. The faerie isn't too impressive, as well the demon who seems tough and dangerous, but only because Butcher tells the reader, not because the demon itself does it.
In the end I found Butcher's writing style very flighty and inconsequential. He seemed to use magic as a crutch, for when the story is backed into a corner, why not use magic, right? Jumps in logic for the characters sometimes didn't seem believable because the logic was meant to further the storyline rather than to make the characters believable.
A very noticeable example of something being used to further the storyline is at the end Dresden latches handcuffs to a rail, handcuffs that were already shut and locked up, but it helped the story if the handcuff was unlocked. He failed to show how Dresden unlocked it. In fact Dresden spoke about using magic to pick locks a couple of times throughout the book, so why didn't he do this originally instead of leaving himself handcuffed? None of it made sense, but it was used because it furthered the story.
I liked the notion of Morgan as a Warden and a governing body of wizards called The White Council, but the flighty style of writing made Morgan a bumbling idiot on autopilot. Morgan and The White Council have beliefs and opinions of Dresden that are completely unfounded. Not that Dresden couldn't be a practitioner of the black arts as they suppose, but that the way Butcher writes it you in no way can take their reasoning or line of logic and at the least see where they are coming from. Instead we are told, and you never once believe or begin to doubt Dresden, or even ever feel that Dresden is in real danger from The White Council. And if Morgan is supposed to arrest Dresden and prevent him from using magic to harm someone, why would he stand outside a burning building and watch Dresden stake on the Shadowman and not try to "prevent" Dresden from harming another being? It is stuff that had to be written in in order to back himself out of a corner.
In the end I think I will still read the next in the series, if only to see Butcher progress as a writer and see if his writing improves and his characters are more believable. A decent freshman book and first of the series. A tentative recommend.
3.5 stars.
Book Review: The Thaumaturgic Gumshoe
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the first volume in a recent series that has a bit of an unusual premise. Harry Dresden, the 'anti-hero' of the book is a detective who is also a licensed wizard. Unlike Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy, however, Harry is more of a gumshoe than an aesthete. He's like a combination of Phillip Marlowe and Glen Cook's Garrett, P.I. Think of him as a magic wand with an attitude. A thirty pound cat with half a tail and an oversexed skull in his basement don't help his image either. He makes a thin living finding the lost and helping the police, despite being the only wizard listed in the Chicago Yellow Pages.Dresden, broke as usual, answers a police call for assistance, and discovers a gruesome double murder. The two victims, caught in flagrante delicto, have had their hearts blown out through their rib cages. Detective Karrin Murphy wants answers fast, but Crime boss Johnny Marcone wants Dresden out of the case. Dresden's other case is searching for a missing husband who seems to have had an unhealthy interest in magic. And the last complication is the White Council, who think that Harry Dresden just might be dipping a little to far into the black magic side, and intend to flatten him if there is any further hint of magic abuse.
Harry is a bit of a luckless sort. In attempting to question the vampire hostess of an upscale house of ill repute he makes a serious enemy of what could best be described as an old bat. One of his information sources then turns up dead the same way as the first couple. A demon nearly turns him and his date into pudding and a giant scorpion attempts to take out Detective Murphy and Dresden with one swipe of a very deadly tail. And, without fail, Harry is pestered at every step by an obnoxious representative of the White Council.
Unfortunately, as either wizard of gumshoe, Harry is a bit hapless. He knows his stuff, but he is forever forgetting his gun, dropping his staff and getting ambushed by bad guys. As a result he is always coming from behind, which is a bad place to be when you are chasing the black wizard who is saturating the city in a dangerous new drug that not only gets you high, but opens your third eye as well. Harry is more of the rush right in where angels fear to tread type than he is the careful planner. It doesn't help that he has a bit of a hero complex as well.
Ok, the magic is a bit hokey and the language is slightly overblown. Other than Harry the characters are right out of a cheat book. Even Harry is a bit hackneyed. But the plot is original and well laid out. Narrative skills come with maturity, and Jim Butcher is still a novice storyteller. In a wave of tedious, repetitive genre tales, "Storm Front" stands out as something worth a second look. It will be a while though before I forgive him for the following tidbit. "...he picked me up to hurl me toward the demon. I objected with fragile tenacity."