Storm Front

The Dresden Files, Book 1

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

Just a Hoot

Imagine a cross of Phillip Marlowe and Harry Potter. Not quite, but close. Harry operates in Chicago, not England, and the use of msgic is not in the conciousness of John Q. Otherwise, Harry could be Phillip's brother, right down to the sardonic humor.

James Marsters is excellent as the reader, capturing Harry Dresden's wit and personality. He does a decent job with "Bob" too.

All in all, a fun "read." Not War and Peace, but a fine way to clear the mental palette.

The world vs. Harry Dresden...

Harry Dresden gets beaten up more than any PI character I can recall. Still, he gets up and keeps throwing his magic at the baddies, without any superhuman feeling to it. Enjoyable world building. Will follow this series for a while at least.

James Marsters does'nt read the book, as much as he acts it. Not always a good thing, but he pulls it off admirably. It takes a while to get used to his "reading voice" (breathing, sighing and all), but once you do, it fits the character perfectly.

Pretty Good Book, Great Narration

And i don't even like Sci Fi books, to the point that if i do buy one by accident, i will send it back. Sometimes it is not easy to tell. But this book was very entertaining & the Narrator was great. He had a talent to make himself fall naturally into the main character. It was also quite humorous. And i learned a lot about wizards too.

smorgasbord of complex fun

I've heard about the Dresden Files through listeners I follow and never paid much attention, which was a mistake. I turned to it when there wasn't anything else of interest and now I am hooked. It has a bit of all the genres I enjoy - paranormal, suspense, romance, mystery, and a little police procedural. The best part is that it is witty without being trivial, but you have to be a quick wit. Not to mention that the variety of characters promises enjoyment for several more sequels. I ignored books I had cued in my library to buy Book 2, that's how much I liked it.

I was between books, I needed something fun

It was more fun than I expected, a good read. It did not challenge my literary side too much but the story moved along quite well. I was pleasantly surprised how affectively Jim butcher wrote in first person. It was a really good solid story. I look forward to the other books in this series