Customer Reviews

Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1)

5 star:		(178)
4 star:		(151)
3 star:		(55)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Take traditional hardboiled fiction, give it a mind bending preternatural twist and you have Storm Front, the first book in a new series with the potential to send author Jim Butcher to the top of the gumshoe sub-genre of horror/fantasy fiction.

Harry Dresden, the series' protagonist, is everything that's great about the hardboiled anti-hero, with a twist: He's a wizard trying to make a living working practical magic in a modern world that's foolishly rejected the supernatural in favor of science and technology. Part average guy, part renaissance man, Harry's got a dark side, a wicked sense of humor and a deeply rooted, personal code of honor that drives him to risk everything to fight the supernatural forces preying on his clients, an attitude that puts him at constant, dangerous odds with both the bad guys and the authorities alike.

In Storm Front, when a routine murder investigation turns out to be anything but routine, the police reluctantly turn to Harry for help. But a case that started as a way to pay the rent soon gets complicated for Harry when he's forced to cross paths with the Chicago mob and a mysterious figure known as the Shadowman, drawing Harry into a web of black magic and danger.

Already under the Doom of Damocles (a form of probation placed on him by the White Council who oversee the ethical use of magic in the world of the mundane) Harry himself falls under suspicion and is forced to risk execution to solve the mystery and stop the Shadowman, before the killer takes another victim.

Storm Front is a riveting, action packed roller coaster of a novel, a damn good mystery with compelling characters set in a rich alternate reality universe where anything can happen. There's a little something for just about everyone here from black magic and the Chicago mob to vampire madams, demons and the fey.

I enjoyed this novel immensely and am looking forward to the next in the series.

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."

"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!

Always a willing participant in the mystery with a paranormal twist, I picked up "Storm Front" on the advice of a friend with similar obsessive paranormal compulsions, and dug right in.

Jim Butcher's wizard sleuth, Harry Dresden, is a refreshing change from the usual oversombre, dark and deadly sort one finds in most paranormal mysteries. For one, Harry has a rather self-defeating chivalrous attitude about women, and a seriously horrible track record with dating. His relationship with the typical "behind the scenes wizard council" is very strained: in fact, he's on a sort of deadly probation for some very questionable acts in his past. He's the only "out" wizard in Chicago, and usually, he's broke.

"Storm Front" puts Harry in the middle of a series of truly grotesque sorcerous murders. The police want his help (but the wizard's council refuses to allow an "open information" policy with nonwizards), the mafia want him to walk away (and they're willing to push the issue), there's a demon after him, the wizard's council have someone making sure he doesn't do anything wrong - and that someone has a very big sword, and someone is trafficking a drug that is incredibly addictive, and opens up the "third eye" in those taking it.

The secondary characters are a bit light on depth, but likely this can only improve with the rest of the series, and this is often the case in first books.

Harry is an ejoyable hero to read, tends to have a very forward approach to the mysteries and complications, and has a sharp wit that tends to leave a smirk on your face. His terrible luck with machines (a side effect of being a magical person), his awful luck with women, and his rather unique approach to magical information storage and retrieval (an oversexed talking air spirit trapped in the form of a skull) are sure to keep you reading.

If you're a fan of Anita Blake, then there's a chance you'll enjoy Harry Dresden. Harry is funnier, much more tame, and though the crimes strike a similar chord, the novel in its entirety is much more light-hearted than any of the Blake bloodbaths. As far as mysteries with a twist go, I'd grab "Storm Front" in a heartbeat. You'll be glad you did.

I, for one, picked up "Fool Moon," the next in the series, the very next day.

'Nathan

A problem with the fantasy genre, and one many have acknowledged quite freely, is a general sense of redundancy in just about any book you see these days. "Storm Front," the first book from new author Jim Butcher, addresses those concerns head-on and introduces a new setup that pulled me in at the start and kept me from getting sleep until I had finished.

The premise is simple enough: Harry Dresden is a wizard who acts about like a gumshoe. He uses his magic for harmless things, mostly, and finds things for people. But when he sets out to find a missing husband, and to solve a double homicide involving black magic, you can bet there's going to be some amazing action.

Amazing action is what makes this book so absorbing, as it turns out. There are several scenes that will stay with me for a long time. Not since Dean Koontz's "Darkfall" has a single scene brought me so close to the edge of my seat as some of the scenes near the end of "Storm Front."

None of that would matter, though, were it not for the incredible cast of characters. They all come to life in a way you wouldn't expect from so short a novel (well, considering the genre). Each character is different, not just someone that feels like he or she was cut from a cardboard box. I loved Bob, the talking skull with an appetite for sex. And Murphy came across as a real person. So did everyone else. The human motivations motivated me to keep going. I really couldn't set this book down until I finished it, at some point just after midnight.

If Jim Butcher continues to deliver fiction like this-and I truly hope he does-then the genre has just found another master. I recommend "Storm Front" to anyone who wants to lose themselves to a humorous, action-packed variation of the modern world for a few hours. Better than a good movie.

First, A THREE-STAR REVIEW IS A GOOD REVIEW. Some think that if a product doesn't have a four- or a five-star review, it's no good. Four is Very Good, and Five is "Superlative". Three is Good. Good. Good.

This book is Good.

Interestingly, the Publisher's Weekly review for the CD of this appears incorrect. It notes that James Marsters does the voices, but also notes the incidence of werewolves. There are no werewolves in Storm Front. I haven't read beyond this book of the Harry Dresden series, so I can't say when the werewolves come in, but I can tell you that they don't make an appearance in this, the first book. And, based on PW's review - I was waiting.

If I were patient enough to listen to Audio Books, I would love to hear Marsters handle this material. As I lack the necessary patience, and am 75% deaf, I really can't comment further. Others have noted that he handled the material well, and I hope they're right.

As first books go, this was darned good. I doubt that the author, Jim Butcher, would try to pass himself off as a keen turner of phrases. And much that is here has been seen before (and presented better) - just one example is that part of the magic in the book is predicated on knowing another entities true name. While it's true that Ursula K. LeGuin wasn't the first to use that idea, she was the writer of contemporary fantasy that used it so uniquely that anyone following her example should tiptoe, and do their best to avoid any semblance of comparison. (Christopher Paolini could use a bit of that advice, but he will not. He does not tiptoe. He TRODS.) Why tiptoe around another author? Let's say that, as an author, you decide to resurrect Tolkien's Ringwraiths into your "Jakundi". The Ringwraiths have been on horseback, and they have been on foul steeds who prefer the exosphere. You put your Jakundi on the back of zebras. I certainly hope that's enough said. If it's not - pity. Savvy?

All this aside, I honestly expected to dislike this book, and am not sure that I could put together a reason for buying it that would satisfy anyone that was even a quasi-intellectual. You could say I bought it on a whim. And - surprise! - I enjoyed it.

Sure, there were characters I'd seen before. "Magics" I'd seen before. But Butcher did something innovative with all of this. He made Henry Dresden, a wizard who lived in Chicago and advertised himself in the yellow pages, REAL.

OK - sure, Henry was a gumshoe, and much of the book read like a nod to a noir detective story. But remember that we have a detective story merged with the sci-fi/fantasy genre. And while the cliché's flew as frequently as burps after a beer bong, I really didn't mind.

What does it mean, that I didn't mind, and why should you care what I think? Nothing, I suppose, but I promise you this: I am no easy reviewer of fantasy. Teethed on Tolkien, and fouled on his imitators, I hold the bar high. Fantasy needs to make sense, on every level, before I will give it a pass. This, for the most part, works.

Finally, I've found myself another series to covet that contains some of my favorite things: magic, fairies, vampires, a likeable hero and just the right mix of humor, action and gore!

Harry Dresden's like a lot of us. He struggles to pay his rent, his love life bites, he lives with a cat and his wisecracking attitude often lands him trouble. Oh, and he just happens to be a wizard and shares his basement with a talking and meddlesome skull named Bob.

Harry makes his living doing things like helping the general public find their keys and/or lost spouses and also works with the local police department on their "weird" cases. Just when things are looking really bleak money-wise Harry's business starts to pick up in a big way. He's asked to investigate a gruesome double homicide on the same day that he receives a call from a woman willing to him pay big bucks to locate her husband.

During Harry's investigation he calls in help from a cool little fairy named Toot-toot and draws the attention of the White Council - a group who exist to ensure that magic is not misused. Years earlier Harry disobeyed one of their laws and had the "Doom of Damocles" placed upon him and if he is caught using black magic again, no matter how dire the situation, he will be put to death. And, as if all that weren't nerve-wracking enough, Harry has also ticked off a mob boss and a vampiress!

This is a fast-paced, action packed read that I didn't just couldn't put down because Harry is such a likable guy. He's a true good guy who you really want to see win. His terrific sense of humor remains intact whether he's facing down a bloodsucking demon or going through one of life's most humiliating (and extremely humorous) dates. Harry's next adventure can't come too soon for me!

I know there are a lot of fans of this series, and I desperately wanted to be after I'd first heard of it. But after reading Storm Front, I just couldn't completely buy in. Part of it is that I didn't jibe with Butcher's writing style.

For starters, his female characters seem a bit two dimensional, as their only available reactions seem to be fear, anger, and horniness for Harry Dresden. Seriously, this guy is broke, wears a cowboy duster around present-day Chicago, advertises himself as a wizard detective, (and in one scene, reveals he doesn't even trim his nails), and these women are throwing themselves at him? What, were all the winos taken?

Then there's the setting - Chicago. I didn't feel like this was a "Chicago" story, nor a very noir story for that matter. There were noirish elements, but I felt like the story could have taken place in any city. I love the city of Chicago, and it feels like there's a much grittier, darker, gothic side to this setting that could have been injected into the story.

There are flashes of brilliance - his "hard drive" Bob, some of the action scenes, Harry's intriguing history, McAnally's Pub. But I found myself wishing for more as the story went on. It just felt too simple or too easy for a premise this awesome.

I don't know - I wanted to like this, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I was hoping for a grown-up Harry Potter (`cept with, you know, sex and stuff) that takes place in a rich, textured world full of whimsy and magic, but also populated with dark spirits and ancient evils. For me, Storm Front kind of fell short in all those departments. This wasn't a world I couldn't wait to slip back into.

I don't know whether or not the series would improve for me in the later books, but right now I just can't motivate myself to find out.

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.

Storm Front is the first novel in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series.

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a wizard, named after the famous magicians. Harry is the only Wizard listed in the Chicago phonebook. With his trusty staff and unique characters such as Bob the Skull, Harry tackles tough cases involving paranormal crimes.

In Storm Front, Harry is asked by the Chicago PD's Special Investigations division to look into some mysterious murders that couldn't have been done by a normal human. When Harry deduces that the crime could have only been done by another wizard, he soon finds himself on the list of suspects. Deadly forces are at work to stop Harry from continuing his investigations. And to top it off, he's being followed by a wizard to make sure he doesn't break any of the seven laws of magic. With any slip-up, his watcher would be glad to turn him in to the White Council for judgment. The punishment for breaking any of the laws is death.

With colorful characters and a suspenseful plot, Storm Front was a tremendously fun and exciting read. Action, suspense, mystery, magic, romance, comedy, and other-worldly characters - this book has it all.

It's no wonder The Dresden Files has been made into a TV series for the SciFi Channel.