Storm Front

The Dresden Files, Book 1

By: Jim Butcher

Narrated by: James Marsters

Length: 8 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk. I'm a wizard. I work out of an office in midtown Chicago. As far as I know, I'm the only openly practicing professional wizard in the country. You can find me in the yellow pages, under Wizards. Believe it or not, I'm the only one there.

With rent past due and a decent meal becoming an issue of some importance, Harry needs work, and soon. A call from a distraught wife, and another from Lt. Murphy of the Chicago PD Special Investigation Unit makes Harry believe things are looking up, but they are about to get worse, much worse. Someone is harnessing immense supernatural forces to commit a series of grisly murders. Someone has violated the first law of magic: Thou Shalt Not Kill. Tracking that someone takes Harry into the dangerous underbelly of Chicago, from mobsters to vampires, while he himself is under suspicion of the crimes.

©2000 Jim Butcher (P)2002 Buzzy Multimedia

Good book, easy 'read'.

The narrator has a good cadence and makes it easy to listen to and follow.

good

i wish it had a little more wizardry but all in all a good book.

Great Fun of a book! Great reading!

Great fun!

Jim Butcher's _Storm Front_ receives four stars from me due to it be great fun, a good mystery, and great characters.

This was a recorded book so first the reader. The reader was James Marsters (you'll remember him as Spike in the Buffy series.). Marsters doesn't do exaggerated voices, and he doesn't over dramatize the reading. This is just fine. I found his reading very good and engaging with enough variation in character voices for me to keep up. I'll get more books read by him read in the future.

The book. Such fun. While the magic is central to the novel, and this subworld important to the story, it doesn't bog it down. The mystery is the driving force behind the plot. But the world of the wizard is lightly introduced with enough for us to understand the world, yet still have some questions so we come back for more. As a recorded book, it is great. The plot drives the novel, so you can easily listen and do some house work etc. But there is still bits of character development in Dresden. He does tell us bits about his life, so we see him as a much more rounded character than a normal plot driven text would give.

Recommended? Absolutely, if you like a bit of magic, you'll enjoy this. If you are a mystery, crime novel fan, you'll enjoy this as well. Dresden does investigate the crime, just with the perspective of the wizard.

The recorded version is also highly recommended.

Magic P.I. Murder Mystery.

This is the first book in the Dresden Files. It introduces a cast of fantastic characters in a world of magic and mayhem.

Jim Butcher uses a pretty standard story—a P.I. working on a murder case—as a background to introduce his protagonist: Harry Dresden, professional wizard-for-hire in a world that doesn't believe in magic. He's the unpolished gem that most Private Dicks tend to be: the sort of guy who wants to help people out, but who really hates working with people. A tough guy with a heart of gold and a penchant to be about one step ahead of the debt collectors. And stumbling.

If the story was written in third-person, it would be pretty good. Instead, it's written from Dresden's point-of-view and you get to see the world through the jaded lenses he wears. To listen to the wit and banter that runs forever through his mind. This both enriches the story and allows him to divulge information about the world in a much more off-hand manner, making it so much better.

James Marsters is the perfect voice for Harry Dresden and, thus, for this series.

Badass Wizard on the loose

gotta say Harry Dressden is by far the best wizards by the name Harry...sorry-not-sorry HP fans. I cant recommend these books enough and James Marsters is a world class narrator. great stuff!

what a way to start a masterful series!

I Iove this series! Jim combines humor with mystery and flash and gets the best noir

good read.

love the story love the book. dont love the guy reading it. hes good but swallows or something a lot and it was fairly distracting but he still did good and I enjoyed this book.

Great Writing

The author does a great job adding detail and depth to the characters, Thank you for writing it Jim Butcher.

Witty and magical

I really enjoyed this book, and I look forward to listening to the rest of the series. Storm Front was written very well; the author’s humor really made me crack up out loud often. I wasn’t super thrilled with the narrator’s style at some points in the book, but it was an overall good performance. I’ll definitely be listening to the next book right away!

Like trying to see if a girl is hot by her voice

this is a long series and the first book is like dipping a toe in. a lot of promises are made and almost none of them are resolved until later installments.

I don't like the narration. it's passable if you don't have time to read. the narration is too flat. wrong toned situations. too much smacking. i recommend to read it over listening.