Urban fantasy is all over the place these days. We’ve got shelf after shelf of books about witches, vampires, shapeshifters, and fairies who solve crimes and fight evil in a gritty modern setting. As much as the genre appeals to me, I’d tried a lot of urban fantasy series without finding one that really held my attention. For one thing, most of what I’d tried was paranormal romance and I don’t have a lot of patience for angsty longing or meaningful glances. Butcher leaves the romance out and draws inspiration from hard-boiled detective novels, which suited me fine.
Storm Front opens with Dresden in his office worrying about his rent payment. He’s interrupted by a phone call from a woman in distress and then another from a police detective who needs his help with a grisly magical murder. The plot quickly develops into a tangle of demons, mobsters, and thaumaturgy as Dresden chases down leads and leans on informants. It’s not unlike a Raymond Chandler story expect Dresden is more likely to pull a wand than a gun. Butcher doesn’t break a lot of new ground in either the mystery or fantasy genres but he gives each some new twists and combines them with a well-developed voice and highly readable style.
I’d been meaning to check out the Dresden Files ever since I heard their virtues extolled by Patrick Rothfuss, author of the Kingkiller Chronicles. I’m often in the market for some unpretentious plot-driven fantasy and am quite happy to have a well-established series to add to that reading list. The trick now will be to keep myself from plowing through five or six of them in quick succession like a foolish child with a sack of Halloween candy.
~Andrew
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