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Storm Front (The Dresden Files #1)

by Jim Butcher (Goodreads Author)

4.01 of 5 stars 4.01 · rating details · 85,408 ratings · 5,593 reviews

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he's the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the "everyday" world is actually full of strange and magical things—and most don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a—we...more

Mass Market Paperback, Alternate cover for 9780451457813, 352 pages

Published April 1st 2000 by Roc

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May 09, 2012 Nataliya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of humorous urban fantasy

Shelves: dresden-files, first-in-a-series

Let me tell you how a wisecracking Chicago wizard-for-hire with the most rotten luck imaginable won a permanent spot in my heart, making me a devout Dresdenite.

'Twas a week before USMLE Step 1, the most important test for any medical school student as it pretty much determines which medical specialty you are supposedly smart enough to pursue. Basically, the stakes were high and the stress reached the previously unknown heights. By then my poor average-sized brain has been fully stuffed with all...more Let me tell you how a wisecracking Chicago wizard-for-hire with the most rotten luck imaginable won a permanent spot in my heart, making me a devout Dresdenite.

'Twas a week before USMLE Step 1, the most important test for any medical school student as it pretty much determines which medical specialty you are supposedly smart enough to pursue. Basically, the stakes were high and the stress reached the previously unknown heights. By then my poor average-sized brain has been fully stuffed with all the medical trivia it was able to handle. Have you ever met an overcaffeinated, freaked out, sleep-deprived, shaky med student with bloodshot eyes and propensity to quote at you random basic medical science facts in a high-pitched shaky voice? If so, it was probably before Step 1, and this is an honest representation of what my friends and I looked like:

Lovely, no?
Anyway, physically unable to study any more, I stumbled upon this book on my Kindle app. And this is how Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, he of the magical staff and a black leather duster, entered my life. Suddenly the anxiety was gone, and instead of omg-it's-test-time-and-I-did-not-study-enough customary nightmares I dreamed about Chicago magical world that night. In the week that followed, I got through most of the series - 11 books at that point in time. The stress was gone with the help of Harry Dresden's adventures - and on the test day I beat my goal score by one whopping point! :D

“A man's magic demonstrates what sort of person he is, what is held most deeply inside of him. There is no truer gauge of a man's character than the way in which he employs his strength, his power. I was not a murderer [...] I was Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. I was a wizard. Wizards control their power. They don't let it control them. And wizards don't use magic to kill people. They use it to discover, to protect, to mend, to help. Not to destroy.”

I loved this book despite all its imperfections. Harry Dresden, a wisecracking, self-deprecating, Star Wars-references-dropping, never-knowing-when-to-shut-up, and unwaveringly good guy with a penchant for attracting trouble was someone I'd love to be friends with. I even forgave him the annoying and eyeroll-inducing case of old-fashioned chivalry towards women. Plus, his assistant is an erotica-obsessed formerly-evil spirit living in a skull - how can anyone not love that?

“Harry," Bob drawled, his eye lights flickering smugly, "what you know about women, I could juggle.”

This book is a quick and delightfully pulpy read, modeling Harry's personality and adventures on the hardboiled crime noir detective stories with a generous helping of humor set against the paranormal background. It does not aspire to be life-changing or profound, it does not try to be the capital-L literature (that was an excuse to use my favorite Pratchett quote: "Susan hated Literature. She'd much prefer to read a good book."). All it does is take you on a fun and exciting ride, and that's what I love about it. Yes, sometimes it falls flat, or tries too hard, or gets a bit full of itself, but the feeling of sheer fun that Jim Butcher must have had while writing this story is palpable on each page, and it's awesome!

“Paranoid? Probably. But just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face.”

This is a "freshman" book, and is not perfect, but it is nevertheless really good. Jim Butcher's narrative voice gets more confident and more polished as the series progresses, especially beginning with book 4. But it was enough to keep me completely engrossed in Harry Dresden's world and read eleven books of the series in a little over a week. I love the Chicago mystical world, I love the characters, I love the fast, even breakneck pace, I love the detective noir touch, I love Butcher's take on mythologies. I absolutely adore the wisecracking - to me, it never felt annoying, maybe because it's a big part of my own (I assume, completely charming) personality.

““You don't go walking into the proverbial lion's den lightly. You start with a good breakfast.”

For all of that, I easily give it four stars. (I'd be tempted to call Harry Dresden my literary boyfriend, but as I learned from the sequels, nothing good can possibly come out of that).

“I don't want to live in a world where the strong rule and the weak cower. I'd rather make a place where things are a little quieter. Where trolls stay the hell under their bridges and where elves don't come swooping out to snatch children from their cradles. Where vampires respect the limits, and where the faeries mind their p's and q's. My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk. When things get strange, when what goes bump in the night flicks on the lights, when no one else can help you, give me a call. I'm in the book.”

(less)

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Jan 26, 2013 Jesse rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: lovers of bad writing and raping of the noir genre

Shelves: modern-fantasy, utter-tripe

You know, the premise of this book actually sounded good. A wizard P.I., sure why not. I like wizards and I like P.I.s, so what could be the problem. The problem was I over estimated this author's abilities.

The main character is like some kind of emotionally retarded uber-geek's idealized life. He lives in a basement and subbasement. He ALWAYS wears a black duster and cowboy boots (even when he's wearing sweats and a t-shirt). He has an abnormally large alley cat that likes to drink coke and doe...more You know, the premise of this book actually sounded good. A wizard P.I., sure why not. I like wizards and I like P.I.s, so what could be the problem. The problem was I over estimated this author's abilities.

The main character is like some kind of emotionally retarded uber-geek's idealized life. He lives in a basement and subbasement. He ALWAYS wears a black duster and cowboy boots (even when he's wearing sweats and a t-shirt). He has an abnormally large alley cat that likes to drink coke and doesn't get violently ill from the caffeine. He can't get anywhere with women, for no real reason at all. The first woman that broke his heart, he actually killed (but for good reasons, I mean she was evil). I could go on and on. The protagonist of this story is an immature weiner. He is a walking dorky cliche, that feels like he is some kind of Peter Parker wizard. Constantly bemoaning the weight of the world on his shoulders, even when its actually not on his shoulders. Add to this the characters inability to have basic levels of trust for his friends/allies, lack of common sense, and a very low level of intelligence for someone that relies on brains and willpower for their strengths. And you end up with a guy that is very annoying to read in most any situation.

Now throw that character into a Noir Detective style situation. This is not a confident man, nor is he a physically tough man, and he lacks much in the way of street or even book smarts. I find it highly unlikely that this guy should have survived past the first 100 pages, let alone through all the other blunders he makes through the entire book. Take a gander back to the beginnings of the Noir Detective genre, and you'd be ashamed that this man besmirches the genre's good traditions. Sam Spade has no magic what so ever, but he could quite easily have out smarted and out fought this guy with his bare fists.

Don't even get me started on how annoying magic is in this book. Not since the magic of Terry Brooks' Shanara books have I felt magic meant little to nothing. This guy is constantly like, oh shit I don't have my wand or staff or special ring, so if I do my magic now I'll kill everyone. What the fricking good is magic that can't be used unless you've got your stick of power. If magic is going to be used the way it is in this book, as basically a crutch to hold the rest of the weak aspects of the book up (as it is in most non-awesome fantasy); then at least have it around to do its job and make cool things happen.

So to close, this book is immature and not fun to read. There was a time in my life when I would have found this book awesome, when I was going through that phase of life where you're 13, emotionally retarded, and just discovered AD&D 2nd edition. Which there is nothing wrong with, that's a phase that me and most other nerds went through. Then we grew out of it, because we matured in to adults. But this book isn't be lauded to me as "great writing" by 13 year old nerds and geeks, its being held up as a "Great Book" by adults, and that's who its marketed to. Look if you like this book and you're in Junior high then fine (though I could recommend better things for you to read that are aimed at your age group), but not adults. If your an adult and you think this is even just "good" writing (and again I'll state that most tell me its "great" writing) then I think you need to try reading some other stuff by much better authors. Go find and read Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Joe R. Lansdale, Walter Mosley, Warren Ellis, or Charles Stross. These are all writers that have written either modern fantasy/Horror or Noir and/or Crime fiction, so they are working on some similar concepts. Then if you don't find those to be far better book written by actual good writers, well then I'm just going to have to say that you and I may be from different planets or something.

This book is not fun to read. Its poorly constructed. The plot is about as complex as 6th grade math, and less original than that. The characters are 2 dimensional at best. Magic is used a focal point of the story rather than something to enhanced the flavor of original and real feeling plots and characters. At one point the author describes someone by saying he looks like Sean Connery's character from the Highlander, instead of I don't know just describing the dude as having a pony tale (since that was where those two character's physical similarities ended). Most of his other descriptions of characters are like police descriptions of people being given to me by the narrator which completely takes you out of the narrative. The author at one point even wrote "I was a wizard" when his point of view character is lamenting about going into a house or building to solve a problem and I was thinking "wait did you stop being a wizard at some point?". If you're going to write in the first person perspective then learn to write in the present. Of course one would expect a decent editor could have fixed this, but I'm going to assume that decent editors get assigned to decent writers. Look, its not a good book. I didn't make it a bad book, it just is. I'm told that the book get much better after or on book three (so some day I hope to get a copy of his second book for free and see, though I have my doubts since I've read enough bad authors in my day to know they don't usually start becoming good authors, just more experienced bad authors) but that's a really spurious argument since I need ALL book I read to be good if not great right away. I'm not going to recommend an author to someone because his first work was really awful but if you just read two more books by him he gets good. Well then perhaps he should have just started with book three and spared us the bad books. Its bad and I don't recommend it to anyone who's not reading it as a goof to lampoon it in there own head. End of statement.(less)

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Jesse The fact that latter books are better is valid to a point, but it relies on me wanting to trudge through at least two (possibly three, as I don't know...more
Apr 04, 2013 07:53am

Ryan Fool Moon and Storm Front are universally considered by even the author himself to be rather mediocre at best. Grave Peril is a step up storywise, but...more
Apr 04, 2013 09:10am

Feb 14, 2011 Kat Kennedy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Dresden Files is one of those books that's intimidating to approach. It has a hard-core fan group that will scream its praises from the top of the roof. Usually, I would approach with extreme caution. I rarely read a series when I've been assured that it gets good after six books. When people tell me that, I simply quietly encourage them to read the Fever Series and avert eye contact.

However, after a discussion regarding male readers and writers of the Urban Fantasy genre, I felt I should gi...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Sath rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: urban-fantasy, paranormal, 2011-must-read, mystery, magic, wizards, vampires, reviewed

Decided to try this series, as I keep hearing 'Dresden files' everywhere for some reason, and apparently it's even a tv series? I couldn't let an urban fantasy get so popular without knowing what its about!

There are many mixed reviews about this, some love it and some hate it. But I am suprised at the negative reviews, as many complaints could be raised against the genre as a whole, but if you pick up an urban fantasy book - don't you know what you're getting into? I've seen complaints about th...more

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Oct 22, 2012 Brad rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, speculative, mystery, urban-fantasy

I imagine that some people will complain that Butcher's Storm Front is misogynist, and I can see where they're coming from -- to a point. There is a bad Vampiress who runs a brothel, there are a couple of prostitutes, a sexually abused woman, a sexy journalist, and a tough, rough-cut female cop. I can see these characters striking a nerve with some women, thereby stripping any enjoyment of the book for them.

And fair enough.

But these characters are classic archetypes in the fictions Jim Butcher...more

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Jan 25, 2009 Siria rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Not a single person.

Shelves: 21st-century, fantasy, american-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'm not going to pull any punches. This book is a misogynistic piece of shit.

All I knew about it before I picked it up was the very basic premise—a wizard in modern-day Chicago, who works as a sort of detective—and that it had picked up quite a cult following. I was expecting to really like it, but before I got to the end of the first chapter, my eyebrows had risen to meet my hairline. I kept reading out of some misguided expectation that things would get better, that there couldn't possibly be...more

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Siria The point: you've missed it.
Feb 21, 2013 04:37am

Johan Bentzen Thank you so much for an emotional review. I so much prefer those to the coldly rational ones that focus on whether subplot 7a conflicted with charact...more
May 18, 2013 10:42am

Apr 14, 2013 StoryTellerShannon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-scifi, owned, books-reviewed, my-very-best-reads, action

This is a revised review as of 4/14/2013. Several of the images were off Google Image detailing the graphic novel for visual impact but this is an actual review of the novel.

Tale focuses on a man, well, not just a man, but, a wizard in current day Chicago who uses his magical powers to solve mysteries. Most of them focus on the supernatural and there's a whole underbelly of mythical creatures which mortals are mostly unaware of . .. vampires, werewolves, enemy wizards, faeries, ghosts, etc.

ST...more

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Jun 12, 2007 Brooke rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Buffy fans

Shelves: 2007, own, fantasy

Earlier this year, I greatly enjoyed the first season of the Sci Fi Channel's The Dresden Files. It certainly wasn't Buffy or X-Files caliber, as far as paranormal television goes, but it was great escapism fun with some interesting characters. As I'm likely to do after discovering that something I watched and enjoyed was based on a book, I went out and got the first book in the series.

I read the 300-pages of Storm Front in less than 24 hours, and it was such a relief to read something light aft...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Becky by: Urban Fantasy Aficionados

Shelves: 2012, fantasy, humorous, mystery-and-thrillers, nook, reviewed, vampires, jim-butcher, challenge-1010

I enjoyed this book immensely. If this is the "weak" start to the series, then I am really really excited for the rest of it. I was drawn into this book from the very start, and I just couldn't put it down.

I loved Harry, the wit, the humor, the magic system, the concept, Bob, Mister, all of it. I loved the frustration and the annoyance at every wrench thrown in the works.

I figured things out before Harry did, but that's OK. The details were unpredictable enough for me that even though I knew t...more

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Sep 25, 2008 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2000-2005, fantasy, good-guys, bewitches-and-bewarlocks, popcorn, detectives, supernatural-spies-and-slayers

3.5 stars. I really enjoyed this book. It is not real deep, but it does not try to be. I does try to be extremely entertaining without being campy and I think it succeeds brilliantly. Excellent and highly recommended.

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Aug 23, 2012 Lisa Kay rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Lisa Kay by: Lady Jaye, Lady Danielle

Shelves: its-magic, genre-urban-fantasy, genre-mystery, m-library-sj-audio-oda, animal-cat-in-story, setting-usa-illinois, m-pb-paperback, setting-usa-michigan, character-fae-fairies, 2012-in-2012-group-challenge, vocation-private-investigator, character-witch-warlock-wizard, authors-b, authors-j, male-pov, all-time-favorites

*Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, with his trademark long black leather duster jacket, blasting rod and staff, and pentacle necklace. Those, along with his general disheveled appearance.
description

★★★★½ I’m in love with a wizard. One cynical, irascible Harry Dresden, resident ‘anti-hero’ of Chicago, Illinois. People tried to tell me how wonderful he was, but I didn’t listen. He story is like reading a fantasy for the new millennium set in 1940’s film noir – but with brilliant moments of lush Technicol...more

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Jun 12, 2008 Elizabeth rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, vamps-and-other-mythical-beasts, reviewed, fantasy-sci-fi

When I was in college I had a boyfriend who wore a long black duster, was wire thin, had played too much dungeons and dragons in high school, wanted to be Cary Elwes from The Princess Bride, believed in magic and physics, and did not know anything about women (unfortunately). He would have loved this book. It's written for a nineteen year old boy who doesn't see a lot of sun and wishes he could be a chivalrous knight, acting alone, to save the day. And while being completely misunderstood, he ma...more When I was in college I had a boyfriend who wore a long black duster, was wire thin, had played too much dungeons and dragons in high school, wanted to be Cary Elwes from The Princess Bride, believed in magic and physics, and did not know anything about women (unfortunately). He would have loved this book. It's written for a nineteen year old boy who doesn't see a lot of sun and wishes he could be a chivalrous knight, acting alone, to save the day. And while being completely misunderstood, he manages to overcome temptation, great emotional suffering and physical pain, to prove to everyone that he's a hero. If he had climbed onto a white charger at the end, I wouldn't have been surprised.

It is obvious that this is what the author wants to be, too. I read a couple of the later books in the series before I got to this one and Jim Butcher was clearly much more secure in himself by then. Or maybe he was just a better writer by then. I swear there's a school somewhere that teaches aspiring writers to think of the worst thing that can happen to a character and then write how he gets out of it. Over and over again. Butcher doesn't just put the character in the worst situation he can think of, he then summarizes the situation and makes a dumb joke about it, at the end of every chapter. I didn't really notice it the first couple of times, but I'm not as dumb as some of the characters that our hero "outwits." I picked up that formula early on. From there there was nothing to do but pick up the others.

There were several to choose from. First, every woman was described by her make-up (and I mean the cosmetics on her face) and then her shape and then her clothes and then, some little value to prove the author doesn't think women are just sex objects. Except that there were a lot of prostitutes in this story and women who were made to cry and women who needed to be rescued and women who wanted to have sex with our hero [insert dumb blonde stereotype voice here]. Second, after having lost all of the weapons he carried, he still managed to summon up the will to fight on and defeat the baddy (gangster, vampire, demon, dark wizard, cop, whatever) using only his wits and inner strength.

So, you ask, what happened to that college boyfriend? We broke up. I think I'm going to break it off with Butcher, too.

(less)

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Apr 21, 2007 phyllis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who likes a tiny bit of fantasy in their fiction

Shelves: bookcase

Isn't it great when you find a series of books that you really enjoy, and then can't wait for a new one to come out? The Harry Dresden series burst onto my bookcase last year, when I picked up book 7 at the library, on a whim, just before a business trip. 2 days into the trip, I'd finished the book (Dead Beat) and had found the local book store and bought the first in the series: Storm Front.

Ironically, in the first few pages, the book didn't really resonate for me, it took a bit to get into the...more

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Jan 25, 2012 Laurel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hot damn, that was a fun read! I know full well the reason I've been avoiding the series was that I would get hooked, and have even more books on my to-read shelf, but I just can't help it! Dresden is a sarcastic, bitter, tongue in cheek rogue that would make Han Solo proud. The plot moves quickly, the action is imaginative, and the humor puts the perfect cherry on top. What a great character!

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Oct 12, 2011 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, fantasy, urban-fantasy

Okay, some who have looked at my other reviews will immediately note I gave this book 5 stars which I noted earlier I save for very special books. I plan to give the Dresden books (so far anyway) 5 stars. Why? Well while they are not Dumas or Dickens (but then again...I'm not sure I'd regularly be giving Dickens 5 stars, how much Dickens can we all really take anyway???) these are wonderful absorbing reads. Special Books.

I won't be giving a long synopsis of each book... I will say they are an or...more

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Apr 16, 2009 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, paranormal-urban

It was a fun read, but I'm a bit turned off by the angst that the hero, Harry, carries around. He has his reasons, but I prefer a more upbeat character. He seems a bit too resigned to a crappy world. This might be relieved in the next book, so I plan to read it shortly. There is a LOT of potential here for a great series & so many others have told me they like it. I've seen bits of the TV series, which was good.

The setting & plot were good. It's our world with a slight twist - magic exis...more It was a fun read, but I'm a bit turned off by the angst that the hero, Harry, carries around. He has his reasons, but I prefer a more upbeat character. He seems a bit too resigned to a crappy world. This might be relieved in the next book, so I plan to read it shortly. There is a LOT of potential here for a great series & so many others have told me they like it. I've seen bits of the TV series, which was good.

The setting & plot were good. It's our world with a slight twist - magic exists, but not generally believed in by most. I could almost feel it is possible. I read that Butcher got his start trying to write something similar to Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, a series that we both seem to like. His take has a lot less sex & romance (at least in this book) & more of a tough detective aspect. He is a tough, down-at-the-heels detective, much like Sam Spade. He doesn't have the way with the women or the ego to go with it, though. Maybe that's my turn-off (a slight one). I think he should feel better about himself.

I thought Butcher did a masterful job of painting the world & Harry, especially our glimpses into Harry's past life. He doesn't dwell on it too much, but teases with glimpses. I can see this as part of the series plot line since Harry doesn't know much about his parents. His mother died at his birth & while his father told him a lot, there is probably a lot he doesn't know plus, he died when Harry was fairly young, so there is a lot he wouldn't have said.

The paranormal critters include a neat take on a vampire, fairies & a very tough demon. In this first book, we're given a look at how a good education can come in handy as well as some of the supernatural politics. We also get a glimpse of a world other than ours that intersects at odd times.

All in all, an enjoyable read. I'm looking forward to the next one, but I don't HAVE to read it immediately. While it's obvious the story can continue, there are a few dangling threads I want to learn more about, there wasn't any horrible cliff hanger. I appreciate that.(less)

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Apr 21, 2013 Jon added it · review of another edition

Recommended to Jon by: Science Fiction & Fantasy book club September theme book

Shelves: fantasy, fiction, urban-fantasy, read-in-my-40s, liked-it

3 stars

Due to the acquisition of GoodReads by Amazon on March 28, 2013 and my existing and continuing boycott of all things Amazon, the review I wrote after reading this book now resides, safe and secure, at my blog. You can read it by following this link: http://bit.ly/11t7QT2

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Feb 16, 2012 Jonathan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-challenge, action-challenge, fantasy, mystery

Before writing my own review I browsed a few other reviews about this novel. I found it most interesting how some reviews were full of such venom (not in a humorous ranting way but a pure hate-filled way) and wondered why they felt this way. In some cases the reviewer had simply taken one single little flaw (because to be honest this is a flawed novel) and turned it into a major issue. I seriously don't get why some people do that personally. However I get where they come from and it always inte...more

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Jul 05, 2011 Summer rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: did-not-finish, fairies, magic, paranormal, urban-fantasy, vampires, witches-wizards-warlocks

I actually heard of this series by catching the short-lived tv series loosely based on these books. I thought the show was kind of fun and wanted to someday read the books. I got to close to halfway through this book and had to give up. I thought the main character was pretty interesting and the set up for his world was pretty interesting too though.

You don't get many hints about Harry Dresden's past, other than he's not on the good side of a magical authority called The White Council. He's a w...more

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Aug 08, 2008 Sandi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Sandi by: SciFi and Fantasy Book Club September Theme Book

Shelves: fantasy, cross-genre, 2008

I have seen an episode or two of “The Dresden Files” on the SciFi Channel, so I thought I knew what to expect from “Storm Front.” I was completely wrong. The TV series didn’t even come close capturing the essence of at least the first book. It wasn’t gritty enough or dark enough or exciting enough. What’s the best way to describe Harry Dresden and “Storm Front”? Combine Ellery Queen, Clint Eastwood, Jason Bourne and Buffy Summers. Throw in an evil wizard, a vampire madam, a talking skull, the Ma...more

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Jun 15, 2012 Karla rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

Wow was that fun!! So much to love about this book, but the narrator just blew me away!!! He is Harry Dresden!! Review to follow...

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Dec 20, 2011 Sercan Vatansever rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: urban-fantast, witches-magic, vampires, shapeshifters, paranormal, mystery, ghosts, faeries, adult

iyi ki almışım şu kitabı iyi ki :D geçekten çok sevdim harry coperfield blackstone dresden adamımsın. esprileriyle, diyaloglarıyla, konusuyla, kurgusuyla vs. çok iyiydi. açıkçası okumaya başlamadan önce çok birşey beklemiyordum aralara az az fantastiklik katılmış bir dedktif romanı bekliyordum ama kitap beni şaşırttı. kesinlikle tavsiye ederim. :)

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Jun 21, 2012 J4n3 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who likes strange but lovable characters

Recommended to J4n3 by: no one, I stumbled on it all by myself, yah!

Shelves: awesomeness, urban-fantasy, re-reads-2012, re-reads-2013

This was a reread. and finally I have time to review it. I consider myself a huge Dresden Files fan so I am probably (most likely) heavily biased. Storm Front is Jim Butcher's first novel and compared to the later books in the series I think that it shows. On the other hand, Jim Butcher himself said that he only wrote it to prove that he can't write. Funny enough the writing itself isn't bad at all. Not as good as it is in the later books but not bad either. The story though hit all my right spo...more This was a reread. and finally I have time to review it. I consider myself a huge Dresden Files fan so I am probably (most likely) heavily biased. Storm Front is Jim Butcher's first novel and compared to the later books in the series I think that it shows. On the other hand, Jim Butcher himself said that he only wrote it to prove that he can't write. Funny enough the writing itself isn't bad at all. Not as good as it is in the later books but not bad either. The story though hit all my right spots.

We meet Harry Dresden for the first time, wizard and PI in modern day Chicago. He occasionally works as a consultant for the Chicago PD in all things supernatural. That's where we meet Karrin Murphy, a 5 foot and some change blond cop, who does Aikido and has worked hard to move up in a still mostly by men dominated work environment. I must admit that I often chuckled to myself rereading this book. Knowing the characters so well and their relationship to each other as well as their roles in the later books, it is kinda funny to be reminded how it all started.

Anyway, I don't want to spoil too much. Harry has to find a missing husband, help Murphy solve a black magic double murder and avoid Gentleman Johnny Marcone, the local mob boss all the while trying to fit in a date with Susan Rodriguez, a reporter for the Arcane magazine. And in his free time he is brewing potions with Bob the skull or bribes the little folk of Faerie with daily pizza deliveries.

So clearly not your every-day PI but definitely fun to read.

PS: Yes, Harry is a chauvinist. He admits that he loves to treat women nicely, that he holds open the door for them, that he feels the need to protect them...I honestly don't see what's wrong with this. He isn't saying that they cannot do the tough stuff. But if you take offense in such things I recommend you move on to other books. If you like characters that have flaws, are so stubborn that you sometimes just want to slap them, or that don't change just to be politically correct, then you'll probably like the characters in this book.

And if you at least liked this book a little, try to read the others too because there's a huge group of characters that you haven't even met yet.

And since I have a tendency to lose my train of thought, I'll stop rambling now. :D (less)

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Jun 05, 2010 Richard rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those seeking a very quick pulp fantasy read with pretty low expectations.

Recommended to Richard by: SciFi & Fantasy Group 2008-09 Fantasy Selection

Shelves: fantasy, fantasy-magic, bookclub, fantasy-vampires, series, fantasy-urban

Second update: Finally got around to looking at Butcher's website, and discovered his short story, Restoration of Faith. It's set before Storm Front, when Dresden is still an apprentice to another private detective. He meets Murphy for the first time. That he names the wealthy folks the "Astors" reminded me that he used to do cheesy obvious stuff like that. He gets better further in the series.

Update, months later: I discovered that I liked the first book enough to read the second, and have si...more

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Sep 12, 2008 Shannon (Giraffe Days) rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: urban-fantasy, 2008, crime, mystery-suspense, not-worth-it

This book was recommended to me by several friends on Goodreads, though an equal number weren't impressed by it. I would have to put myself in the latter group, if I had to.

Harry Dresden is a wizard. He has a small office in Chicago and helps people find lost things and investigates ghosts, that sort of thing. He also helps the police in investigations when a crime can't rationally be explained.

It is one such case that draws him into a race against time to save his own neck: someone in the city...more This book was recommended to me by several friends on Goodreads, though an equal number weren't impressed by it. I would have to put myself in the latter group, if I had to.

Harry Dresden is a wizard. He has a small office in Chicago and helps people find lost things and investigates ghosts, that sort of thing. He also helps the police in investigations when a crime can't rationally be explained.

It is one such case that draws him into a race against time to save his own neck: someone in the city is powerful enough to make hearts explode from chests, killing a mobster's right-hand-man and an expensive prostitute. A separate missing person's case has him looking for a man dabbling in the arts. Dresden is already on a kind of probation with the White Council, and one wrong move will see him executed - but with demons after him, giant scorpions to kill, damsels to protect and a powerful wizard to bring down, he's certainly starting to wonder if he'll come out of this alive.

Of course, first person narrators never die, so that never feels as dire as it was meant to.

Harry's a tall, lanky fella, a bit of a dag really - often dishevelled, he ends up wearing sweat pants and cowboy boots. He has training and is quite strong in the arts, but isn't too quick, spending most of his time rehashing the situation and thinking over his options. The mystery and its outcome are fairly predictable, there are a few plot holes, and the tense use drove me up the wall. Debut authors have some excuse; proof-readers, none.

It took me forever to read this book, considering how short it is and that it's no great piece of literature. Could also be because mystery/crime books bore me when the characters aren't strong enough to add any kind of depth. Harry's an interesting enough character, with a few interesting quirks, but the others are all very two-dimensional and rather stereotypical. It tries to add humour to the mix, with mixed results: mostly it's just lame.

There's a noir atmosphere to the book which gives it some grit and supports the dark subject-matter, but can't save the prose. This being Butcher's first book, I don't expect an awful lot, but I often found myself replacing words with better ones, or rewriting sentences so that they were either grammatically correct or flowed better. The small plot holes were annoying, of course, but they wouldn't have mattered if I'd been more into the story. For as much extrapolation and introspection - and pondering - as Harry did, it was never very clear why he was doing this or that, and at the end of the day the book just wasn't as clever as it had set out to be - and set expectations for.(less)

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Feb 09, 2008 Michele Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: mystery and fantasy fans

Recommended to Michele by: I liked the tv show

Shelves: fantasy, urban-fantasy

The first book in the Dresden Files series (ten books and counting so far) is a refreshing wind for the urban fantasy genre and this reader. One of the cannon examples of urban fantasy, a blending of mystery and paranormal in a modern setting often with a touch of romance, Storm Front is slanted more toward suspense than romance.

Harry isn't another supernaturally endowed, kick-ass female heroine, taking on the world of evil and the world of men at the same time. Harry is a somewhat-awkward, tech...more

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May 11, 2007 Aaron rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of Glen Cook

The television adaptation of the novels is certainly not faithful. I'm curious as to why they changed so many inconsequential details (Murphy's first name for example) as well as some rather large ones (the nature of Bob the Skull). That being said, Jim Butcher's books are the literary equivalent of beer and pizza. They're fast, easy to get a hold of, satisfying over the short term, but really, not something that you'd want to build your entire diet around. Also, both have the potential for a ce...more The television adaptation of the novels is certainly not faithful. I'm curious as to why they changed so many inconsequential details (Murphy's first name for example) as well as some rather large ones (the nature of Bob the Skull). That being said, Jim Butcher's books are the literary equivalent of beer and pizza. They're fast, easy to get a hold of, satisfying over the short term, but really, not something that you'd want to build your entire diet around. Also, both have the potential for a certain amount of cheese. Perhaps I've stretched the metaphor too far.

This is the first of the Dresden Files, and it's probably the second worst of them. The good news, then, is that Butcher's writing is improving, and the latest of these, White Night, was really quite good. Storm Front is one of the books that was vaguely adapted for one of the television episodes. The basic idea is that Harry Dresden has to find out who's killing people using black magic. Someone in Chicago is causing people's hearts to explode out of their chests, killing them in a messy and painful way. Because of Harry's history of having killed his master, Justin, with magic when Justin tried to mentally enslave Harry, the local White Council Warden, Morgan, thinks that Harry might have done it. This, along with the fact that he's being paid to look into this by the police, give Harry enough reasons to be very motivated to find the killer.

Butcher has a habit of piling more and more onto his protagonist as things go on that can be tiring. It's not enough for Harry to be getting paid to do this, but he has to look into it to keep from loosing his head. Then, in case we though that Harry lacked motivation, later on in the book, the black sorcerer behind it tried, and fails to kill Harry to give him more motivation. But that's not quite enough, so Butcher also makes it clear that Harry is the next target of the "exploding heart" spell. If you can get past the fact that Harry Dresden is, apparently, the most unfortunate of all people on the planet, and some minor factual errors that are included, on presumes, because they're noir detective staples, then this book shows some real potential.(less)

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Jan 03, 2013 Traci Loudin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed

When I was a kid, I devoured Hardy Boys books. I used to love detective stories, but now (maybe because there are so many detective TV shows) I just find them kind of boring. So the detective aspects of this book were dull for me, but the rest of it was a fun read. I was kind of put off by the references to the Never-Never and others that seemed childish. But the fight scenes were all great, and overall this book was a quick read. Unfortunately, I don't think it'll be that memorable, but from wh...more

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Apr 08, 2010 Qt rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, horror-supernatural, humor, mystery-intrigue

4 1/2 stars. I really, really liked this one and I'm looking forward to the others of the series :-) I liked the interesting mix of magic and murder mystery, and I was always wondering just what was going to happen next. Plus, there is quite a bit of humor, which is always a plus with me :-)
I also loved how the hero was NOT the typical "hard-boiled detective." He really seemed like a decent guy and a good person--someone I could root for (and did).

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Dec 04, 2008 Ryan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There was nothing especially wrong with this book. It had an interesting premise (P.I. wizard helps cops track magical ne'er-do-wells in present-day Chicago) and a fun protagonist, but ... how do I put this? It just felt like a bunch of words about a plot. The words all accomplished their goal of relating a story, and that's about it. Still, I picked up the second book in the Dresden Files series to see if the writing gets any less utilitarian.

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About Jim Butcher

A martial arts enthusiast whose resume includes a long list of skills rendered obsolete at least two hundred years ago, Jim Butcher turned to writing as a career because anything else probably would have driven him insane. He lives in Independence, Missouri, with his wife, his son, and a ferocious guard dog.

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“Paranoid? Probably. But just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face.” — 924 people liked it

“Have you ever felt despair? Absolute hopelessness? Have you ever stood in the darkness and known, deep in your heart, in your spirit, that it was never, ever going to get better? That something had been lost, forever, and that it wasn't coming back?” — 220 people liked it

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