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Storm Front
The Dresden Files, Book 1
by Jim Butcher
genre: urban fantasy, crime
Summary
Harry Dresden is a wizard. In the yellow pages, paranormal investigations, consulting, the whole nine-yards, publicly practicing wizard. “Normal” people mock him and the White Council has him on their watch list. He’s broke and technology likes to malfunction around him; the more modern an object, the more likely it is to jam. He’s not athletic, but he’s become well acquainted with stairs in order to avoid using the elevator.
When someone breaks the first rule of magic, “Thou Shall Not Kill Using Magic,” Dresden is blamed, the White Council is likely to vote a death sentence, and Dresden has less than 48 hours before he becomes the next victim.
Review
Why I Chose the Book
Thanks to Goodreads Stats, I realized I only read 2 fantasy novels last year. Inconceivable! That is not acceptable for a fantasy writer, so as soon as my Audible credits hit my account, I headed to the sci-fi and fantasy tab. Apparently I have a chronic allergy to continuing a series right now, so I sorted by customer rating and when seven of the top ten books were from The Dresden Files, I knew I had to start the series.
Initial Thoughts
There are some narrators who read the story and perform the voices when a character speaks. I’ve never had a problem with that, but James Marsters takes it a step further. The entire thing was a performance. His breathing became faster as Deresden admired the female form; he took measured pauses, audibly swallowed, took deep inhales, and let out sighs throughout the narration. Dresden’s frustration, annoyance, and sarcasm was palpable.
Final Thoughts
Loved it! The story was good and I actually had to pause at one point until I could stop laughing long enough to listen again. The talking skull with a fae trapped inside gave me Monkey Island flash backs. I was sucked into the Audible sale (on limited titles) so I haven’t bought the next one in the series, but this is one series I will not be quitting after book one. This year of reading has started out on a high note.
Recomendation
I stopped watching Castle because the will-they-won’t-they between Castle and Beckett got old. Take the romance out and put magic in, you have The Dresden Files. Even though the description of Harry doesn’t match Nathan Fillion, I could not help but picture him as the lead. Unless you hate fantasy, if you like one, you’ll like the other.
Storm Front also had some excellent fight scenes. If you’re a fantasy author who needs practice writing fight scenes, this is a good book to learn from. The pacing was good, description was just right, and battle strategy was creative. Even when the same monsters attacked at different points in the book, it wasn’t repetitive.
Rating
5 out of 5 stars
To see what other books we’ve reviewed, check out our book reviews page.
Ermilia 