Rating: 
Summary: Buy the Harry Dresden series by Jim Butcher!
Review: I've been a science fiction/fantasy fan for over 25 years, so I hope you take me seriously when I say that the entire Harry Dresden series is fabulous. High fantasy like LOTR this is not, but Butcher writes books in which the dialogue is laugh-out-loud-witty and the plot is can't-put-it-down action-packed and tension filled. The Dresden series is based in the "real world" (modern day Chicago). Storm Front sets the stage for the rest of the series by explaining magic and magicians like Harry (our self-deprecating, disheveled, tongue-in-cheek, can't pay the rent private investigator and hero). Each book in the series is a fantasy mystery (Storm Front is a magical "who-dun-it" murder mystery) with great action and character development. Storm Front is a wonderful book, and the rest of the series is even better. If you like Charlaine Harris' "Dead.." series, Laurell Hamilton's Obsidian Butterfly, or the Simon R. Green "Deathstalker" series, you will enjoy this book and the rest of the Dresden Files.
Rating:
Summary: A Winner!
Review: Okay I fell in love with this book. I am a usual fan of vampires and werewolves and that sort of thing, but while hunting in the sci-fi section of my store, I came across this book. All I can say is I just fell in love with Harry Dresdon, wizard extraordinare! He made me smile, he made me laugh, and he kept his cool in all kinds of situations. After finishing the first novel, I immediately went out and bought the remaining series. The story revolves around Harry Dresdon, a wizard. He's a very good wizard, but since the main stream public is not really interested in a real wizard, business is pretty much up and down with Harry struggling to pay the rent. On a good note, Harry also works with the local police dept when crimes involving his expertise are needed. Harry is pulled in by the police to check out a double murder that was done by black magic, and at that point the fun begins. Throw in the local mob; a nosy reporter; faery snitches; and a skull named Bob, and you have the best wizard story of them all!
Rating: 
Summary: A good start to an entertaining series
Review: Harry, wizard/investigator, occupies a universe supposedly our own (as opposed to popular wizard/investigator Thraxas in another series, who's firmly plunked in fantasyland). Just noir and hard-boiled enough, with only occasional touches of lightness (to compare to tv, this is more like the darker "Angel" episodes than their romp in Pylea). Definitely for grown ups (unlike that other popular Harry, a younger wizard who investigates mysteries in his spare time), and a fitting start to the series.
Rating:
Summary: Great start!
Review: This is a great start to a series that only get's better with each book. The stories are centered on a Private Invenstigator who is also a Wizard. He battles Vampires, Werewolves, Mob bosses, Faeries, etc. and also has friends who happen to be all of the above as well. I like the fast pace of the books and I also like how Butcher has made all of the supernatural things happen in a modern, real world and we see the things happen but we choose not to believe them. Just a couple of things kept this series as a whole from five stars. The character Murphy kind of gets on my nerves a bit. She is a cop friend of Harry, who is always in a bad mood and really doesn't act like a friend should. I think Harry takes way to much crap from her.
Also, it seems like in each book Harry takes ALOT of punishment from various foe's in which the author describes how banged up Harry is and then the next page he is fighting a new foe. Not a big gripe or anything, I just wish it would be consistant. Overall, a great series and you should read it if you like books like Simon Green's "Nightside" stories or Neal Gaimens "Neverwhere"
Rating: 
Summary: Strong start, but falls apart near the end
Review: This is a mixed genre story, combining supernatural elements with a murder mystery. The protagonist, Harry Dresden, is a wizard/private investigator who also consults for the police. As the story begins, he's called in to help the police on a particularly grisly murder. The general tone and content of the book is very similar to the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell Hamilton. Unlike Hamilton, however, Butcher has a very lean and fast-paced writing style. The action begins right away and something significant happens in every chapter, moving the story briskly along. You won't find Hamilton's multi-page repetitive descriptions of clothing or supernatural power in this book. So I was somewhat disappointed as the story began to approach the climax, that all the plot elements didn't fit together in the end. There were a lot of places in the story where the actions of the characters just didn't make complete sense once you knew the entire story. For example, near the beginning of the story a crime lord warns Harry to stay away from the investigation, which adds an additional level of danger and suspense, but in the end it didn't make any sense at all when Harry getting involved was exactly what the crime lord should have wanted. Then there were a number of convenient occurrences necessary for the plot to advance, but also didn't make much sense. For example, Murphy, Harry's police contact, gets a warrant to search his office. Now I don't know much about police procedures, so I could be completely wrong, but it struck me as contrived that Murphy was the only officer present for the search (it was necessary for the plot that she be there alone). Finally, Harry's magical abilities seemed to be primarily defined by what was necessary for the plot. For a wizard of his caliber, he seemed unusually weak in a number of circumstances.
Rating:
Summary: worth the read
Review: I picked up this book on a recommendation. I live in Chicago and I'm always interested in books set there. This is a not-quite-typical paranormal mystery set in downtown Chicago, Illinois and surrounding area. It's painfully obvious that this is the author's first book. There are places when it takes a bit to get into it and he stumbles around. However, the story is good and the lines are quick and funny. It's worth picking up and the rest of the series gets better.
Rating:
Summary: Fun start to a fun series
Review: If JK Rowling and Dashiell Hammett had collaborated on a novel--this would be it. Butcher has imagined a rich, entertaining, original melding of genres. Like his younger wizard namesake, Harry Dresden is an outsider in both the wizarding and the mudane worlds, and his struggle to elude the dangers on both sides of this line lead him through a highly entertaining mystery. This detective/thriller/fantasy novel marks a wonderful debut--fun, engaging and surprising, yet well-conceived. Definitely worth checking out.
Rating:
Summary: Try It! "Storm Front" Is a Delightful Page-Turner
Review: Harry Dresden, wizard and detective, is a hard-boiled detective in the tradition of stories by people like Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Robert B. Parker. Dresden is a working class detective struggling to pay his rent. The twist is that this Chicago detective is also the only openly practicing wizard in the country. Like the hard-boiled heroes of Chandler and Hammett, Harry Dresden is a smart guy with an attitude. "Storm Front" opens with a hilarious scene in which Harry meets his new, annoyingly cheerful mailman. Then he gets a couple of phone calls, and we're off to unravel a divertingly complicated plot. In the dedication, Jim Butcher thanks a group of people ("the original Harry Dresden fans"), "Without the perverse desire to make you guys scream at me to write the next chapter, Harry would never have gotten into so much trouble." I'd have screamed, too. Waiting for the author to write the next chapter must have been delightful agony. I read "Storm Front" in one day and even then was frustrated when there were interruptions. Try it! You'll love it!
Rating:
Summary: Good fun, remeniscent of Laurell K Hamilton
Review: I don't know why, the story is not the same, but Jim Butcher's writing reminds me very strongly of Laurell K Hamilton at her best. I really enjoyed the idea of a wizard trying to make a living (almost unsuccessfully) in our modern world. It tickled me that someone so powerful was beset by the same problems the rest of us are faced with -- namely, paying the bills! Harry Dresden is a good guy with problems of his own when a gangster pulls up in his car wanting to hire him. Now Harry is in need of money right enough, but he's also basically an honest kind of guy. He turns the gangster down flat and basically makes an enemy he could do without. Things progress with Harry stumbling into one sticky situation after another often with laughable consequences. I particularly like the skull-with-an-attitude on his shelf. Great book. Buy it and all the others in this series. You'll love them! Mark E. Cooper
Author of The Warrior Within (ISBN: 0954512200)
Rating:
Summary: Urban wizardry
Review: Harry Dresden is the only professional wizard you'll find in the Chicago phonebook. Actually, he's the only professional wizard you'll find operating in the open anywhere. Despite that, business is rare for him- until a pair of seemingly impossible and grisly murders happen and Harry's help is desperately wanted by his friend Karrin Murphy of the Chicago Special Investigations forces. Soon, Harry is on the trail of a mysterious black mage, getting entangled with vampires, gangsters, demons, and who knows what else. But time is running short, because if Harry can't find the mage, he'll be the next victim.
Quite honestly, I liked Harry Dresden loads better than that other Harry-the-wizard. His use of magic was actually believable (Harry Potter's seems to be just pseudo-Latin associated with wand movements- where's the magic in that?) and creative. The plot and writing are mature, with excellent depth and unpredictable twists and turns. Most of all, Harry is an absolutely lovable protagonist, smart, quick, and heroic- but with his own dark past.
These were really fun reads and impossible to put down (I started the first one at 11 PM and read straight through until 5 AM), but they were a little too intense to handle as regular reading for me, with constant suspense, graphic violence, and gore. Also, one of the only other weak points is that since it's all in first person, Harry is the only fully-developed character, as great as a character he might be. Nonetheless, I think I'm going to insane before I get my hands on the rest of the series.
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