Book Review: Storm Front, Book One of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

I’m not a big reader of science fiction (or any type of fiction, for that matter) but I took the time to read this and now I’m taking the time to write about it. If you hadn’t heard of it (I hadn’t either before my brother had tossed aside the half-read paperback on a road trip we had), apparently it has been made into a show on the Sci Fi channel. It is about a Chicagoan wizard-for-hire, a sort of paranormal private investigator. There has been a murder that cannot be explained by natural causes, so he is hired by the police to investigate it. From there on he goes his adventure, encountering various magic people and creatures, fighting various magic people and creatures with magic, and so on. It had some entertaining moments. However, I cannot recommend it due to Butcher’s style of writing and the personalities of his characters. It is written in the first-person through the wizard, Harry Dresden, and by the end of the book he seems to be a person with whom one would prefer not to spend extended periods of time. One annoying part of his personality (and other characters as well) was the childish habit of using sarcasm in hardly appropriate situations. For example, when he answers his door to greet his date, she asks, “Is this your apartment?” He replies, “No, this is my summer villa in Zurich.” There are usually two reasons one uses sarcasm, either to be insulting or humorous. This was neither. This happens numerous times throughout the book (it makes me wonder if the author behaves this way). Another thing, though this seemed quite funny, was how Dresden seemed like a small child teaching others how to play a version of Dungeons and Dragons that he made up himself, with him making up various rules along the way. This was because, in explaining magic to the reader, he would say things like, “I should have mentioned it before, but I can see into people’s souls by looking into their eyes,” or “Why didn’t I think of this before? I can use telekinesis to save myself!” Along with this was how Butcher tried to play up Dresden as this hot shot who wears all black with a duster jacket, but without demonstration. At one point, Dresden gets ambushed and nearly soils his pants, but claims that he could have just lit his attacker on fire on a whim but decided to not do so (reminding me of the cliché tough guy who, when confronted, says someone isn’t worth his time). Though I admire the author’s decision to create a character who expresses fear and isn’t alpha male, Dresden does seem like a teenager who would pretend he has magical powers, but then actually has them. All in all, I have to disagree with a contention on the cover of the book which says, “Try it. You’ll like it.”