Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1)

Some friends of mine turned me on to this book. I like it. I'll read more of them.

I found this series after reading everything Charlaine Harris, Laurell K. Hamilton, Kelley Armstrong, etc... had written. For some reason, I thought this series was more of a "guy" series, though why on earth I thought that, I can't say. I was drawn to it when I got sick of the Anita Blake series losing plot for porn, and wanted something more richly written with great characters, and a lot of books to get into, and this was perfect.
Great characters, interesting and imaginative plots, and excellent writing- best of all, it seems each successive novel seems to get better. So buy it, buy them all- you really won't be disappointed!

I have read all ten of the Harry Dresden books and I have to say that they pull you in from the very beginning. They have a wonderful mix of wizardry, romance, suspense, violence, you name it. It all blends together in a way that leaves you longing for the next book in the series.

I must caution you though on the audio versions of the first 4 books that have been released. When I first saw the audio book versions, I was very excited until I heard them. James Marsters is the narrator and he is horrible. I highly enjoy watching James Marsters act (Buffy, Angle, Torchwood, Smallville) but narrate...he cannot. He just sounds bored. Only on characters that are not Harry Dresden does he seem to try...

If I would have started the series with the audio books...I probably never would have given them a chance and truly missed out on a wonderful series.

My advice. Read the books...enjoy the short lived TV show...skip the audio books.

For A First Time Author, This Book Wasn't Half Bad. I Didn't Like How He Had Put It In A First Person View The Entire Book, And It Seemed All He Did Was Run Around With His Brian Turned Off. Would I Recommend, If Your Bored Then Yes, Otherwise Don't Bother.

Harry Dresden is a private investigator in Chicago. Not just any P.I. mind you but a practicing wizard who occasionally helps the Chicago Police when they have cases that aren't quite 'normal', and do they have a doozy for Harry now, a double murder involving the mob and a high price call girl ring.

So as a combination of fantasy and hard boiled detective stories how did I like it? Well it was good but not great. There was lots of good action with vampires, demons and even giant scorpions. Butcher's writing style is a little wooden (although I understand this was his first book so I can cut him a little slack). However there were problems integrating magic and the real world. Specifically of the `if a wizard can do X then why doesn't he just do Y instead of bothering with Z' variety. The magic is so powerful that you would expect wizards to dominate society instead of skulking in the shadows. Butcher tries to tackle this problem by laying out some guidelines in the use of magic in his world. He implies also that it is one of the functions of the White Council to police the use of magic, but if this is the case why is Harry Dresden P.I. investigating these murders and not the White Council? In fact I believe the novel would have been better served if Harry had been an agent of the White Council tracking down rogue wizards and other dangerous creatures encroaching on the non-magical world, while at the same time trying to keep his magical identity secret. But that would have worked against the hard boiled detective vibe Butcher is aiming for.