And July ended with a surprise read for me. Dresden Files wasn’t in my tbr July any near time but a discount for Storm Front, the first book of Dresden Files series popped in my email box and I said why not. I’m not big on urban fantasy, I often go for classic fantasy but this series, especially lately, was recommended a lot, I mean A LOT by the booktubers I follow and I got curious.
In Storm Front, author Jim Butcher introduces Harry Dresden, who is a private investigator and a wizard living in a Chicago where vampires, demons, warlocks, magic, and all the birds and the bees live among people.
I had fun reading the book. Harry is an interesting, sometimes funny, relatable guy who seems trustworthy (for now anyway). There is a lot of character building for Harry throughout the novel. It is not an origin story, you feel like you are stepping into his very messy life at a very random point. There is no info dump, you just follow Harry and get familiar with his life and job while wishing he could find a chance to sleep or eat for a second.
On the other hand, the characters who accompany him could be more fleshed out. There are certainly a lot of supporting characters in the book and they all add to the story some more than the others. But except for Harry, everybody else is basically two dimensional. And there lies my major complaint about the book. Jim Butcher’s female characters. Oh boy. He is terrible at writing women. They are of course all gorgeous and sexy women, all attracted to Harry for some reason. Here and there I saw that as a defense people say he writes them like that as a purpose to show that Harry is flawed but I think that is bullshit and the worst excuse. I don’t wanna hate it just yet, it is a 15 book series after all and storm Front was published 20 years ago (2000 was 20 years ago, can you believe this!) I hope it will get much better but for now, I really didn’t like how he characterizes women in this story. I think even Harry Dresden would judge his take on women.
Aside from that, the book is enjoyable, it is a quick read and a very nice palette cleanser. One thing Jim Butcher does well is treating us as adults and letting us form our own opinions about everybody. He doesn’t force his opinions, he doesn’t hold your hand. You are allowed to make judgments however you want.
The common opinion is that the series get better in time and my intention is definitely to read more of Dresden’s adventures, mostly between my wheel of time books as a cleanser. I suppose I will continue reading The Dresden Files as an e-book. More and more I find myself not being able to drop my phone and do actual stuff, so why not use it for something useful. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads, I would have given it 3,5 if that was an option.
So, see you later Harry. And also Harry, yer a wizard. (I’m sorry I had to)
Peek-A-Book 