Book Review: Storm Front by Jim Butcher

I laid out pretty clearly in my Cold Days review that the Dresden Files will always have a place in my heart. That’s why I am going back and reading the previous thirteen books in the series and giving them all a second look. Some may say I am too kind to this series and, well, that may be true. Just a heads up.

Also, this series has been out going on nearly fifteen years, so from here on out I am putting a blanket spoilers tag on everything Dresden Files. I will attempt to rein myself in from time to time, but in general I am going to assume you have at least a passing knowledge of this series if you are reading this. You have been warned.

Summary

Professional wizard private eye Harry Dresden investigates the murder of two people killed by black magic that rips hearts from chests as well as keeping ahead of mobsters and other magic users that want him dead. The reader is introduced to magic and Harry Dresden as a character. Other main players in Harry’s life are also introduced, including:

• Karrin Murphy (police woman and Harry’s main employment as consultant)
• Susan Rodriguez (reporter and Harry’s love interest) 
• Johnny Marcone and enforcers (head of Chicago crime, all of it) 
• Morgan (Harry’s warden charged with killing Harry if it is deemed Harry is using black magic) 
• Bob the Skull (A spirit under Harry’s command and knowledge depositary)
• Bianca (Head of the local Red Court Vampire clan)
• Toot-Too (A fairy that “helps” Harry)
• Mister (Harry’s large cat)

What I liked 

Noirish

As an urban fantasy novel, this book is heavy on the urban and relatively light on the fantasy. Few out of left field magical rules are displayed beyond what is needed to get the story told. The foremost aspect of this book is the detective nature of the main character. Like an old school noir protagonist, he is beaten and bruised by the end but still gets his man.

Magic rules

The magic on display is less about mystery and more about moving forces. Sure, the inherent quality of “magic” in and of itself is mysterious, but the world of this novel is set with hard line physics. Fire burns and keeps burning, magically created or no, until something stops it.

The world

An extension of the noir-ishness and the magic rules, the world of this novel is populated with interesting and complex characters with a backdrop of real life. Everyone has an agenda in this book, whether that is to amass power, find justice, or simply stay alive. Even the supernatural creatures, as alien as they can be, are fleshed out and made real through well placed dialog and actions. Combining all that is a snarky sense of humor and clever nods that runs through the book, as if Mr. Butcher is tempting you to enjoy your time reading no matter what.

What I didn’t like

The Villain

The villain in this book is given almost no page time, beyond a slight confrontation near the middle and the climax. The reader is given many clues as to how bad the person can be, but the result is underwhelming. This could be that the point of the story is Harry Dresden’s fight rather than the villain, but when the climax finally comes the bad guy is just another obstacle rather than an opponent.

The narrative

My main complaint about this book is how it drifts from scene to loosely connected scene. This is an opening book to a much larger planned series and it shows. From the character list above, one can see how many players are introduced that are important yet get small and inconsequential scenes. This causes the book to lose a decent flow at the expense of fleshing out an already rich world. While understandable within the context of a series, the introduction of a character that does not pay off in this book is jarring. An example of this is the vampire Bianca, whom Harry visits for information. While she becomes important later and the scene sets up an animosity between Harry and the vampires, she never appears again in this book. This could cause a first time reader to think the scene was clumsily added for shock, exposition and to boost page count by a first time writer rather than the needed exposition that it is. The book could have benefited from a tighter narrative that held to its own plot rather than including scenes that only play into the larger series plot.

Who would like this

Is there a genre called “hard” urban fantasy? Urban fantasy that sets up rules to its magic and keeps them tightly reined in? Readers of that type of fiction would enjoy this book. Other types of “high fantasy” fans might enjoy the series, but I feel they would not enjoy the crime and noir feeling the book trades for mysticism and grand hero places. When recommending this book, I tend to use the phrase “Harry Potter by way of Die Hard.” Sure, there is magic and a magical world filled with creatures, but the good guy is a rough and tumble sort with a bunch of problems and a quick wit that barely escapes with his life.

Why was it banned?

As far as I could find, it has not been. However, it is an adult book that features drugs, violence, magic, demons, sex, and gratuitous pizza eating.

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Book Review: Cold Days by Jim Butcher

Cold Days, Book 14 of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

Why this series means so much to me, AKA Why I will always be slanted to liking it.


2008ish was dark times for me.  Without going into details, I had some personal issues that now seem kinda laughable and easily fixed, yet at the time were painful as hell.  Some aspects I guess still are, but hey, what's drama without a little lasting pain, right?   

As I always have at times of stress, I withdrew into worlds of fiction.  Call it a coping mechanism, a distraction, whatever, I have always found solace in make believe.  At other times, I have found authors like Stephen King, J K Rowling, Rick Riordan, Mark Twain, Neil Gaiman and William Blake to talk me through my pain.  In 2008, I found Jim Butcher.

He had been around way before then.  He was already nine books into the Dresden Files (or so, right around the time of White Night) and halfway done with the Codex Alera series.  Never being a huge fan of high fantasy, I dove into the Dresden Files rather than Alera, but eventually read them all within a single month.  

Why am I telling you this?  To give a little context to my review and my devotion to this series.  Is the Dresden Files perfect?  Sometimes.  Do I have problems with it?  Sometimes.  Will I have every book that Jim Butcher puts to paper waiting in my pre-order box until either he or I dies?  Yes.  In every way, yes.  Mr. Butcher helped me get through a dark time and for that I will always be grateful and very fanboyish.  

After stating the above, I hope that you see that what I am about to say is a less than objective opinion, but it is as close as I can come.  Reading what Mr. Butcher has written always fills me with joy, even when the English major in me is catching every little bit of purple prose and "said bookism" (he said, fanboyishly).  

Also, this is the thank you I wish I had told to Mr. Butcher when I met him at DragonCon a few years back.  He is a very nice and talented man, adept at dealing with fanboys like myself in a gracious manner.  At least I did not make a fool out of myself like I did with Eric Powell.

***Warning! spoilers ahead, for this book and the series as a whole.  It's the 14th book in the series, folks, there's just things I am going to need to talk about.***

Summary

Harry Dresden, professional wizard, is back (from the dead) in this 14th installment of the Dresden Files.  As the Winter Knight, Harry is tasked to do the bidding of fairy queen Mab.  Her first order: assassinate an immortal.

What I liked

All things Dresden

If you are a fan of the Dresden Files, you know what I mean by that.  The pop culture references, the pithy dialog, the hell yeah fist pumping moments, the clever turns of tropes, the clear descriptions and noir feel that make up the Dresden Files.  Wrap that up in a supernatural taco topped with familiar creatures behaving in wild and unpredictable ways and you have a fun read.

Character interaction

Some major stuff has happened in the last two books of the series, and this is partially our pay off.  With Harry dying at the end of Changes, every reader wondered how this would affect everyone in Dresden’s life.  We got to see the spiritual side of that in Ghost Story, but here we see the physical reactions as Harry walks up to people and says “hi.”  Most act in heartwarming and entertaining ways, from Mouse’s tackle and slobber to random paramedics “Huh, though I heard you died.”  Plus, we finally get at least a moment of Karrin and Harry being happy with one another, if only for a moment.

Pacing

This book moves like a frieght train, each word connecting to each other forming a chain that just. Does. Not. Stop.  Then it does because otherwise it would require a kid named Bastion and a little girl named “Moon Child” to round out the cast.  Harry bounces around from one person to the next, taking his moments before being attacked by new and exciting monsters that pose more of a threat than ever before.

I still care

Long running things suffer.  That’s par for the course in any medium.  Television shows do the “it was all a dream” episode, video games become rehashes or failures of the same old formula, and George Lucas decides to have a comeback tour in cinema.  Mr. Butcher somehow still makes his characters and situations interesting and his plots engaging, though.  I still want to see how these characters go about their lives, and Mr. Butcher seems to, too.  That’s saying something.

What I didn't like

Mired in backstory

If you have never read a Dresden Files novel, then I have two things to say to you: 1) why are you reading this review? and 2) Why would you ever think about reading this book first?  I can not answer the first question, but the second answer is “because you do not know any better.”  The reason you do not know any better?  Because the book makes every effort to tell you that.  After we get through Harry’s recovery, nearly every chapter has an introduction to someone we have seen before and an explanation or mention of a past event from the previous 13 novels.  As much as I praise Mr. Butcher for staying consistent, this also leads to a heavy case of continuity lock-out of new readers.  A new reader would both have tons of information spoiled for them that could have been written more vague and at the same time lose the emotional weight that goes along with gaining that information the long way.  I get that this series is heavy in continuity, but that’s why we have the internet now.  Author’s do not have to do all the heavy lifting, they just have to make it engaging.  In the next book, I suggest a fuckton of footnotes or employing the services of a Marvel comics editor to interject with “Check out Novel X for that story, true believers” instead of telling us the story.

Dull tropes

This almost feels nit picky, so I am not going to go very far with it, but... Does every woman that tries to have sex with Harry early on in a book turn evil or at least morally gray?  Does he have to believe them every time?  Did we need the damsel in distress quips (poor Andi)?  There are somethings that need to be left behind with the private investigator title, Mr. Butcher.

Overtly sexual and adult

This series has never shied away from strong language or sexual behavior.  There have been “f-bombs” and naked people writhing in every way possible, but they never felt... This book almost made me blush, and I am a single man with a high speed internet connection, loose morals and a lot of time on my hands.  The indulgence may have been the intention, to show Harry’s new place in the world, but if it was at times it went a little overboard.  The same with use of the word “fuck.”  I do not have a problem with it, but in earlier books it was a true “f-bomb,” meant to prove that someone was really serious about their feelings on a situation.  Now it seems casually thrown around, either because everyone is really serious all the time which lessens the impact, or because Mr. Butcher said, “to hell with it, grown people cuss.”  I’m fine with either, but it seems rather ambiguous given the language in the previous books.

Who would like this?

Urban fantasy readers.  Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman readers.  If you read through the last 13, then this is on your reading list.  If you have not, go back to Storm Front, get through that (It is not bad by any stretch, but the series does not get really fun until the prisoner says “Daaaaammmn” in Fool Moon), then make your way through the series.  My advice?  Do the world a favor, find that sixteen year old that sneers at everything but secretly reads Harry Potter and slip it in his or her backpack.  

Was it banned?

I could not find a case where this series has been banned, but the use of magic, challenges and direct references to religious views, and adult nature of these books make them a shoein to be a teenager’s favorite and a stick-up-their-ass principal’s nightmare.

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Book Review: Ghost Story by Jim Butcher

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Caution: I may spoil major events of the book and the book series as a whole. This is book 13 of the series, I strongly advise reading the rest of the series before you read this book. Okay... here we go.

Summary:
Harry Dresden is back from the dead after being shot through the chest at the end of Book 12: Changes. He, along with the ectomancer Mortimer and various other friends, must solve his murder and stop a dark power that is rising in Chicago.

What I Liked:
It's a Dresden Files book. That means it includes the action, charm and snark (BOO!) that comes with every Harry Dresden adventure. Reading this series is a delight as each book returns the reader to a world that has evolved from page one. Each character, faction and landscape has been altered by the adventures in organic and wholly real ways. As each book pounded our heroes, some grew stronger and some broke.
My favorite part about Mr. Butcher's writing is the characters (and the cultural references, but can I claim that as his?) Each person in these books is laid out in great detail and it has been fun watching them change from book to book. Special reservation goes to Molly, Murphy and Mortimer for the dramatic shifts each has made from their first appearances.

What I Didn't Like:
The villians. The Corpsetaker from "Dead Beat" (one of my favorite of the series) has returned in ghostly form to once again grow in power and become a real Corpsetaker again. Or something. On the other side of things is some douche sorcerer with a gang. Both felt really tacked on in this one, almost slowing down the story. The Corpsetaker serves as a good enough ghostly villian while the doucherer is low level for our mighty group of dudes who have toppled whole vampire courts. I know this is suppposed to be a more personal story, but the absence of a real good villian hurt the story.

What I Eh?
The end. In a story where the main premise is the guy coming back from the dead to solve his own murder, I feel kinda cheated that it was him all along with a little brain wipe. This kind of twist is a little beneath the Dresden Files, especially with the unreliable narrator being pulled just two books back in "Turn Coat" when Harry did something else without letting the reader know. I could buy it if we were given a bookend as a reason for the narration (and therefore why some stuff is left out,) but the reader is just supposed to accept these books as his case file notes? How incomplete to not mention that, oh yeah, you were the person who put a hit out on you? The ending also included a "look at your past life" montage of chapters that while engaging (especially the bit with Mouse and his daughter) also felt a little tacked on.
The new character. Fixt (who we will see again about two books from now, I bet, if not sooner) is a bland, young copy of Dresden who will probably become either one of the Alphas or Morty's apprentice.

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