Storm Front by Jim Butcher

by Chriss Cornish published: December 28, 2007 No Comments

This Book Is About

“Harry Dresden – Wizard. Lost items found. Paranormal investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties or Other Entertainment.” 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 of them don’t play well with humans. That’s where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a-well, whatever.

There’s just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry’s seeing dollar signs. But where there’s black magic, there’s a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry’s name. And that’s when things start to get…interesting. Magic, it can get a guy killed.

My Thoughts On This Book

Storm Front is a fun, action packed, urban adventure. This is the first in the series and my favorite, which is unusual for me since I usually prefer the later books of a series.

If you’re an urban fantasy fan, or tired of the regular fare the genre repeatedly serves up, this is a great book for you. The story has a hardboiled-detective flavor and the author has an interesting spin on vampires, werewolves, faeries and so forth. The main character, Harry Dresden (full name: Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden), is an enjoyable main character. He faces his many travails and misadventures with a wry humor that’s very Spiderman-y. My favorite scene is when Dresden summons some faeries by using pizza as bait.

I love that Dresden has an ad in the Yellow Pages. His ad reads, “Harry Dresden – Wizard. Lost items found. Paranormal investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties or Other Entertainment.”

In case you were thinking something like, “oh, what a copycat; look, it’s another wizard named Harry”, I would very much like to point out it’s mere coincidence that Butcher’s urban wizard and Rowlings’ young magician share first names. Dresden is actually named after three famous stage magicians; Harry Houdini, Harry Blackstone and David Copperfield. His father, who was a stage magician himself, named Harry after his heroes. So there.

I enjoyed Storm Front so much that I immediately read the next two books in the series. I had to stop after, though, because in every novel Harry Dresden gets into such serious trouble throughout the story that I had to take a break. I’m not sure if it’s a good sign or a bad one that you share the same, “whew, so glad all that’s over” feeling with the characters when the plot concludes.

As an aside, the Sci-fi Channel picked up the rights to this series and recently aired a TV show based on it called The Dresden Files. It’s a decent intertextual version of the series.

Rating & Levels For This Book

I Give This Book
four Vikings out of five

Violence Level
three Burning Huts out of five

Romance Level
one Hearts out of five

# of actual vikings in book: 0

What do these levels mean? ”

Humor Level
two Smiles out of five

Lust Level
three Kisses out of five

Author and Publishing Information For This Book

Author & Book Details

Title: Storm Front
Author(s): Jim Butcher
ISBN#: 0451457811
Genre(s): Urban supernatural detective fantasy
Edition Reviewed: Signed, first mass market paperback printing
Illustrations: N/A
Page Count: 322
Part of a Series: Yes, book 1 of The Dresden Files series(a TV series based on the novels aired in 2007 on the Sci-fi Channel)

Publishing & Copyright Details

Publisher(s): ROC (an imprint of New American Library [a Penguin Group division])
In Print: Yes
Original Language: English
Published in Other Languages: No
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