Everybody loves the Dresden Files. It’s so popular that the 15th book in the series is coming out sometime this year. And I can see why. Jim Butcher certainly knows his craft: story, pacing, characters, all the elements are working together. It’s a fun book. It’s a quick read, never boring. It’s good. Really.
I just didn’t love it. You know what I mean? Harry Dresden is everything you could want in a hero, he’s perfectly imperfect. He’s a man with a solid philosophy of what it means to be a man, courage and life, but quips like an old fart (“Kids. You gotta love them. I adore children. A little salt, a squeeze of lemon – perfect.” Hahaha! still makes me laugh). He’s good looking, but not too handsome. He’s physically strong, but still gets the crap kicked out of him on a fairly regular basis. He’s obviously brave, but gets scared. He’s a powerful, bad ass wizard, but he can get his potions confused (never mix up love and disappearing).
In Storm Front, his first outing, Harry has to find out who magically blew out the hearts of a mobster and a call girl. Harry is getting pressure from all sides to solve and/or not solve the crime. He’s attacked by monsters and mobsters, fellow wizards, the cops, and vampires. The supporting characters all have a backstory too, a history with Harry or in his world, that make them, if not real, at least interesting. Even the monsters have their own personalities. They’re all gross and scary, but they’ve each got their own style of gross and scary.
Sounds good, right? It is. I’ve heard so much about it over the years, I wanted to love it. So I feel a little out of the loop, like I’m not sitting at the cool kids table. I’ve read that it’s in the second or third books when the whole serious congeals and becomes completely irresistible. But I don’t feel compelled to read the next book in the series. At least not yet. Although I really liked this book. Seriously.
A version of this review originally appeared on my tumblr.