Storm Front (Dresden Files, #1)

by Jim Butcher

In the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files series, Harry Dresden’s investigation of a grisly double murder pulls him into the darkest depths of magical Chicago…

As a professional wizard, Harry Dresden knows firsthand that the “everyday” world is actually full of strange and magical things—and most of them don’t play well with humans. And those that do enjoy playing with humans far too much. He also knows he’s the best at what he does. Technically, he’s the only at what he does. But even though Harry is the only game in town, business—to put it mildly—stinks.

So when the Chicago P.D. bring him in to consult on a double homicide committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name...

“A great series—fast-paced, vividly realized and with a hero/narrator who’s excellent company.”—Cinescape
 

• ISBN10: 1429583886
• ISBN13: 9781429583886
• Publish Date: 1 April 2000
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Roc
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[booksandcats]

I have heard a ton of good about the Dresden Files, and finally decided to give it a try myself. ANd honestly, I am disappointed. I really liked the idea, and the outlined story, generally I am a sucker for detectives with magic powers in an urban fantasy setting. But this book did absolutely nothing for me, for several reasons.

The plot was... uninteresting. As a reader who gets sucked into stories very easily, I wasn't that interested to find out what was going to happen next, I wasn't glued to the book (which, believe me, isn't that hard to do!), I wasn't speculating in my througths about who had done it and what would happen next. I felt like the action was drawn out, nothing much happened and what did happened was very much condensed. Which works, if it's a character driven story line, but then I expect some character development or relationship development, which did not happen at all.

And that brings me to the next point. Harry Dresden. Did not like him. At all. I can deal with immature, sexist characters (I think). I can even sometimes handle them when they are the main protagonist and the one telling the story. But for god's sake, this guy did not encounter one female character, who he didn't think about seeing naked or was sexualizing in his mind/description. Which, fine he is young, he is flawed and everything, flawed characters make for an interesting read, right? For me, that's only when it's acknowledged that he is flawed, which I am honestly not sure if the author intended him to be. If you have a character who is appears to be a 16 year old horny boy, who has his first encounters with the female gender, than acknowledge that. Show that it is a problem and how it causes him problems (you know, apart from him having difficulties thinking straight around every woman) and how it maybe possibly could be something that he could work on. Don't have him proudly procclaim that he is a gentlemen of the old world. Because as most woman would agree, Harry Dresden is many things, a gentleman is not one of them.

Harry Dresden aside, I simply do not like how Jim Butcher writes Characters. I have seen lots of comments about his mysogynistic writing, and it's a fair point that there was not one woman in this book that Dresden didn't sexualize or had to save and they all seem like cardboard cutouts of real people, but honestly, it's not just the woman. Every single character in this book is a very superficial picture of an archetype. Like Murphys Partner, Carmichael. An older, heavy-set cynical cop who does exactly what you think his stereotype would do in that situation. That's just boring.

Now if you enjoyed that book, good for you, I'm glad you did and I hope you enjoy the rest of the series as well. I think for now this is it for me with this series. Maybe I'll give other books in the series a try later on (like a lot later), as many people have said that it'll become better, but for now I'm going to read a bunch of books who don't get better but ARE good (for me ;))

Sorry for the long rant haha.

[Ben Pick]

Fun start to the series about a smart mouthed wizard who tends to fight well beyond his weight class.

[moraa]

3.5 stars

[dokie80]

Read till around 80% of the book.
Got bored.

Not really really bad though. I can understand why some people love the series, the character... And the way the story goes with first person view from start to end, but It's just not for me.

Actually this is my 2nd attempt to read this book, since it's quite a popular series.
For me, there're too many better stories out there. Wasted 2 days to try to like this series.... No more... Enough.

[Liz (Bent Bookworm)]

3.5 but not quite 4.

[teachergorman]

I heard about this series but didn't think I'd enjoy it. The premise seemed too clever by half. Then it was recommended to me by author Jason Brick. Jason knows good writing when he reads it (or writes it), so I decided to give this a whirl (pardon the pun). Butcher overcomes what could be an overly cutesy series of cliches with strong writing and unique, believable characters. It's quite an achievement and a helluva fun ride!

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

You know, there's a lot to Storm Front that I've seen before. There's a paranormal investigator. His personal case SHOCKINGLY runs into the case he's working on for the police. He's a grumpy wizard. There are so many naked people in this book.

But, I don't know. I sort of feel like I need to apologize because despite the tropes and the predictability and story-I've-read-before feeling... I liked this book anyway? There's a lot of quirks to it, and Harry sort of reminds me of this guy I work with, and come on guys everyone is trash for some cliches, right? I get to like this book even though I don't feel like it's super original because the magic system is cool, and Bob is funny, and Harry killed a demon in a thunderstorm in his birthday suit, and surprisingly the main character had no sex (and come on, this is a paranormal investigator story - how often does that happen?!).

The fight scenes here are great - really well paced with a good balance of magic and physicality. The magic system itself is interesting and well-explained. The female characters are stupid flat, but that's pretty common in this subgenre (unless the main character is female... sometimes that works out). The narrator of the audiobook sounds like a dad being forced to read to someone before bed, forever sighing, so that wasn't my favorite but somehow it works with Harry's grumpy wit.

I liked it. I'm not saying it's for everybody, but it was fun and a quick read, so if you're on the fence, check it out.

[EBookObsessed]

I have to be honest and say if this was the only book in the series out so far, I would walk away without looking back. The story was okay. The main character was a wizard who really didn’t impress me with his powers and the world building and storyline had some series flaws.

Author Jim Butcher and his Dresden Files are well known in the Urban Fantasy genre with a large fan base. After reading Storm Front, I would have to question why that is. The reality is that if this was the first books in a newly released series, I would have walked away very unsatisfied with no interest in reading further. The thing is that most reviews are unfavorable with regard to this book and there is even a note from the author at the beginning of Book 3 where he admits that most fans believe the series finally finds its niche with Grave Peril so I am willing to give it a fair try.

We begin the series getting to know our main character. Harry Dresden can be found listed in the yellow pages under Wizard. He is, in fact, the only practicing wizard for hire. Problem is that not everyone believes in magic and even most of the people that Harry works with, as a consultant to the Supernatural Division of the police force, believe that Harry is a charlatan. It would have been boring if Harry had god-like powers and easily defeated all his enemies, but I wasn’t all that impressed with his performance. He seemed to quickly run out of juice in every fight and so far has only done simple magic, like throw fire and make wind.

I do like Harry and that is probably why I am willing to put in the commitment for the first three books. In the audiobook version, the story is performed by actor James Marsters, and through is portrayal, I can easily picture Harry in my head. The narration on this first book does have some issues since there are no chapter numbers and the quality of the recording is a bit sub-par but book 2 and 3 are much better quality.

In Storm Front, Harry is hired by a woman whose husband has disappeared. She believes that she needs more than just a private investigator because her husband has recently started dabbling in magic and she believes that might be the cause of his sudden disappearance.

Harry has also received a phone called from Detective Karen Murphy who heads the Supernatural Division. They have found two people with their hearts ripped out of their chests, literally exploded out of their chests simultaneously, and Murphy needs Harry’s help to determine if magic or something else supernatural is involved.

I have problems with Detective Murphy. She is in over her head with the supernatural world and has absolutely no idea of all the things that go bump in the night. At the very minimum, she could have paid Harry to start drafting a Guidebook to the Supernatural so she could have an idea of what kind of creatures exist. She is working the learn-as-you-go principle of this new job, and yes, I am sure that is mostly done for the audience so we can get the basics of what each story is about, but it makes her look like an idiot. Murphy constantly calls Harry in as a consultant but I’m not sure she really believes in what he can do. But she also keeps yelling at him that he needs to get her answers, now! She calls him into the scene. He tells her that he believes it is black magic and she is already demanding more answers. Harry tells her that he would have to try to figure out what spell was used, how common or readily available the ingredients are in order to determine if this is specific to the murder victims or just someone playing dark wizard, and again, she is already yelling at him that she needs to know now! Tomorrow isn’t good enough. And she’s really bitchy about it! She calls him in to consult, but isn’t sure she believes him,…and she is even hinting that she might be looking at him as the murderer since he is a practicing wizard (the only one she knows) so maybe it’s him. WTF? Several times I am asking myself why Harry is even bothering to help her out.

We also learn about the White Council who is a secret judicial body of magic users whose main task is to make sure that no one uses magic to do evil things like control others (humans or any other creature) or to kill. This sounds reasonable, except they SUCK at it. In the backstory, when Harry was a young man he was apprenticed to a wizard who turned out to be dabbling in the black arts. He tried to force Harry to do black magic under threat of death. Harry manages to defeat his mentor but used magic to kill him and the White Council wanted to put Harry to death for killing with magic. Apparently, self-defense is not an acceptable enough motive, even though the stupid council, whose job it is to stop the black magic users, missed all the black magic Harry’s mentor was doing. They give Harry a pass only because he was just a teenager.

The White Council also has Harry being watched by a guy named Morgan. Since they gave Harry a pass on the self-defense, they are just waiting for Harry to do anything, and I mean anything, questionable so they can jump on that death sentencing they wanted. Harry killed to keep from being forced to practice black magic, but they still judge him as a bad guy. In this story, someone is once again practicing black magic and Harry is trying to help the police find this guys, and the White Council is once again not catching on that a wizard is practicing black magic (did I mention that was their MAIN JOB!). So, Harry keeps fighting attacks by this black wizard and as soon as Harry defeats his minion, Morgan pops in and declares that he is watching Harry and knows that Harry is the one practicing black magic and Morgan is going to prove it and make sure Harry pays. The only thing we hear out of Morgan is “I’m watching you” except when Harry is being attacked, then he’s nowhere to be found — what? He had to go to the bathroom? Where the hell is the powerful jerkoff when he help Harry?

In setting up a new series, the author has to set up the world building and this one has included some ideas, while creative, they might cause problems with the series as the stories progress.

One of those problems is that wizards and technology don’t mix, and I mean any technology: electricity (Harry keeps popping light bulbs, computers fry and elevators stop); phone lines (cell phones are out and land lines get staticky); even cars stop working around Harry, so Harry’s drives an old VW Beetle with no electronics in the dashboard. He calls it the Blue Beetle but it has replacement doors and a replacement hood and should be renamed the Rainbow Beetle. Harry uses candles and a fireplace and takes cold showers since he can’t be trusted around a modern heating system.

If you stare into a wizard’s eye, it becomes a soul gaze and the wizard sees your soul and you see his. Anyone who knows this doesn’t meet Harry’s eyes and Harry avoids this as well since he really doesn’t want to have that intimate a view of most people. It’s just a little weird that no one looks Harry in the face.

There is also the matter of giving your name. Clients come in and no one wants to give Harry their actual name (which hinders investigating) because any being who can say your full name, and especially if they repeat it in the same cadance you do, can have power of you; whether it is a wizard or a demon or a vampire. So most people know Harry as Harry Dresden, not Harry Blackstone Cooperfield Dresden.

Besides Harry, I like his friends, including Mister his very large, cat familiar who allows Harry to live in Mister’s apartment, and Bob. Since Harry can’t use computers and can’t google information he might need, he has a spirit that lives in a human skull named Bob. Bob is very funny. He has also existed for centuries and has retained everything he has learned. Harry consults with Bob on supernatural elements that he is not wholly familiar with and Bob helps Harry cook up potions and he pays Bob with dirty romance novels. You will probably find that all my favorite scenes will involve Bob.

I am giving this series a fair chance and am currently in the middle of Books 3. I have a few issues with it and there is an introduction of an important new character who is sort of a partner to Harry in this book. I will need to see if he is part of the turning point in the series or if he is just important for this storyline. As we go on, we get more information about what happened between Harry and his mentor and I am certain that will be a focal point of a future story where we will learn everything that happened.

See more at EBookObsessed.com

[kimbacaffeinate]

I feel like the last urban fantasy fan standing to have finally begun this series, but I am also delighted to have so many books lined up and waiting for me.

Five Reasons to Grab Storm Front

• Harry Dresden is a cat-loving wizard for hire. He isn't overly confident, is vulnerable like a human and tends to risk helping people even to his own detriment. He takes odd cases but most of his bills are paid assisting the Chicago Police Department as a consultant.


• While Storm Front is far from perfect, Butcher sets the world up, introducing the White Council (they oversee Wizards)  and Harry himself. I love the potential I see here and understand why this character and world are fan favorites.


• Harry has two cases. The first is for a missing husband, a job he normally doesn't take but he's persuaded. The second case involves a double murder that is dark and sadistic. The Police have called him in to assist and things get intense when it looks like the deeds were performed by a wizard.


• The supernatural realm, magic, and creatures are very cool! Giant creepy crawlers, circles, golems and more can be found within.


• The book is laced with humor and I found myself laughing aloud. It offset the gore, suspense, and struggles our hero faced.


• Harry is complex, flawed, quick to anger and talks to himself and his cat named Mister. I adored the man. He isn't polished, doesn't date often and has an authenticity about him. The fact that he acts like an old dime store novel PI was delightful.


• James Marsters is the perfect voice for the gruff wizard

This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Reviewer

[charlton]

I knew for a long time I wanted to start this series.My nephew loaned me this book and I really enjoyed it.
Jim Butcher is very good with his character creation of Harry Dresden,P.I.and Wizard.
Dresden is really casual and seems to stand up to most anybody,but he is fallible.
He does have a sense of humor,although it is a dry one.
I know I'm going to keep reading the series.