Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1) in Crazy Challenge Connection

May 20, 2009 Mary X rated it it was amazing

This was my first full length Jim Butcher book. After reading a Dresden Files short in a paranormal mystery anthology I decided to give the series a try. Especially after I found books 3 and 4 at a thrift store for .25 each. I was also going through Sookie Stackhouse withdrawels and thought I'd try another Urban Fiction series.

I really enjoyed this book. Harry is sexy, goofy and nerdy all at once. I loved Bob and the comedic aspect of the book. Butcher is really good at setting up a scene witho ...more

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Mar 22, 2009 Barbara ★ rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy, humor-funny, read-2009, paranormal-witches-wizards, urban-fantasy, x-set-in-usa-illinois

I found this book to be incredibly boring. The hero, Harry Dresden, is a piddling wizard who needs a faery spirit to help create all potions. He is more like a bungling idiot than a wizard. In every chapter of the book, someone or something is out to kill him. Harry didn't have a prayer of investigating the magical homicides for always trying to protect himself mentally and/or physically from all the attacks. It was beyond annoying to try to read this book and figure out the mystery with all the ...more

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Jul 07, 2011 Book Concierge rated it really liked it

Shelves: series, library, concierge, chicago

Harry Dresden shares a first name and a profession (wizard) with Harry Potter, but the resemblance ends there. Dresden lives and works in Chicago, where he is a special consultant to the police force when they are faced with an “unusual” crime. Can’t get more unusual than two people killed “in the act” when their hearts exploded out of their chests. He also has problems with the White Council. He’s on “probation” for violations of the laws of magic and his “warden” suspects that Harry’s the one ...more

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Sep 19, 2011 Chris rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: united-states, fiction, scifi-fantasy-paranormal

I've wanted to read this for a long time, so it's doubly disappointing that I didn't like the story as much as I thought I would. The problem is that Butcher writes himself into corners that he hasn't got the magic to get out of.
The basic idea is a good one. Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a practicing wizard in the city of Chicago. Along with helping people find lost possessions, he's frequently called in to help the Chicago police department when anything supernatural occurs. Turns ou I've wanted to read this for a long time, so it's doubly disappointing that I didn't like the story as much as I thought I would. The problem is that Butcher writes himself into corners that he hasn't got the magic to get out of.
The basic idea is a good one. Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a practicing wizard in the city of Chicago. Along with helping people find lost possessions, he's frequently called in to help the Chicago police department when anything supernatural occurs. Turns out there are lots of supernatural baddies in Chicago (who knew?), vampires and demons and pain-in-the-butt faeries who accept pizza as payment.
The current case is particularly gruesome. Two people have been killed in a way that could only have involved magic. Lt. Karrin Murphy (petite but feisty) calls in Harry (tall but skinny) for a consult. The dead man worked for the city's main crime boss. The dead woman was a high-paid call girl working for a vampiress madam. Harry begins to look into the case just as he's also asked to help find a missing husband who has become interested in magic. No surprise that these two stories are going to get tangled up in each other. Soon human and supernatural beings are out to kill Harry, and that all makes for an interesting who/what done it. Harry's work in his laboratory, assisted by Bob, a spirit who inhabits an old skull, is a nice touch and offers some comic relief.
Where I found fault is in the framework Butcher builds for this world and then ignores when he needs to. Dresden and Murphy have apparently worked together before, so you'd think they would have some understanding of each other. But she doesn't seem to have a clue how Harry performs his wizardry, and she doesn't much care. She simply wants him to pull the answers out of thin air, a la magic. And Harry won't share info with Murphy, even when it's obvious to everyone that it would help them both out. Instead Harry is a super-loner who keeps so totally to himself that he sounds more like a super-nerd who can't handle being around other people. He tells us repeatedly how bad he is with women, despite the fact they keep coming on to him.
But the biggest problem is that Harry repeatedly tells us how wizards and electronics don't mix. They send out some sort of force field that causes electronic devices to go haywire. Cars, phones, televisions, stun guns. So Harry lives in the basement of a house lit by kerosene lamps and candles, heated by a fireplace, and with only cold water because he feels having a water heater would just be too dangerous. Except Harry also keeps an office in a regular office building, lit by regular lights, heated by regular heat, with a lamp on his desk, an electric fan overhead, and a working phone. His car does not run well, but that seems to be more from ill usage than wizardry, and he doesn't seem to have any problem taking cabs. For some reason these constant inconsistencies really bothered me, enough to take an entire point off my rating.
I like Harry and his gallows sense of humor. It just might be enough for me to try one more in the series; but next time, Butcher needs to keep his hocus-pocus in focus. ...more

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Feb 13, 2010 Charlotte (Buried in Books) rated it really liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy

Really enjoyed this - I think I'm in love with Harry Dresden. I love a man with a wicked sense of humour and Harry's definately got that. A man of mystery and magic. I found myself cheering Harry on (especially when he was buck naked fighting a demon *sighs*).

Harry Dresden - wizard, is called in by the police to consult on a double murder - where the couple's hearts have literally been torn out - magic is suspected and Lt Murphy wants to know how it was done. Unknown to her Harry isn't supposed ...more

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