Rating: 
Summary: Urban magic at it's best
Review: This was a great and fun to read book. The main character Harry Dresden while being a wizard is totally realistic and quite amusing as well. Butcher's views on music are quite kewl as well. A definite buy. I'm waiting impatiently for the sequel!
Rating: 
Summary: Plucked from Obscurity and Thoroughly Surprised
Review: I saw this book advertised in the souvenir program given out at a sci-fi/fantasy/horror conference. It's not often that I make a "dart board selection" and come out a winner. Harry Dresden is a wizard and investigator who is sometimes called on by the Chicago PD in cases not quite explainable. Harry immediately knows black magic has been used. He has amusing friends such as Toot-Toot the faerie and especially Bob "the skull" who is a spirit that lives in a human skull in Harry's basement. This is thoroughly entertaining and superbly written. Harry has the humor of Nelson DeMille's John Corey, the action scenes of Jay Bonansinga, and the hair curling spells of M.R. Sellars' Rowan Gant (Harm None by Sellars has a practicing witch who is called upon to help solve unusual crimes.) Being a wizard, Harry has problems with anything electronic: lights go off, cars stop running, phones get staticky. The killer/wizard pacticing black magic has conjured up scorpions the size of bulldogs and large toad demons. Harry is not having a good day. If there is any part of this book I regret, it's that it ended.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fun, Light Weight Book
Review: I bought this book on a whim and it turned out to be a good choice. I thought it was fairly witty (I even laughed out loud a few times). The sarcasm and wit seemed a little forced sometimes though. It was also semi-suspenseful. It had a few twists and turns but wasn't L.A. Confidential or Chinatown by any means. It did remind me a little of the Fletch series (books, not Chevy Chase movies) although not as funny or clever.I found Harry Dresdan a likable hero. Overall the supporting characters were boardering on stale sterotypes but with just enough of a twist to keep them interesting. The premise is pretty clever, it's kind of a cross between the X-Files and the comic book Dr Strange. I like the way Harry's exsistence and the role of magic are taken for granted (for the most part) by the police. Some are skeptical but grudgingly admit that there may be something to it. I thought the villain was pretty balanced. I like the fact that he was inexperienced but powerful. It let Harry have the upper hand but didn't detract from the threat the bad guy presented. All in all this was one of the better summer books I read. It went in fast but stayed with me for a few days.
Rating:
Summary: It's like a Harry Potter for adults
Review: If you liked Harry Potter but it seemed a little juvenile, this is the book for you. All the magic and adventure you could ask for, with a little Philip Marlowe thrown in for a good brooding mystery feel.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK!
Review: This book was amazing. I loved it. It has all the elements for a perfect book. Mystery, humor, sarcasm, a small amount of romance, and some fantasy mixed in. READ THIS BOOK!
Rating:
Summary: My favorite kind of page-turner.
Review: This one had me checking under my bed for talking skulls, considering leaving a pizza in the woods for the faeries, and wondering whether I really wanted to look someone else in the eyes. Butcher has a way of making magic seem like it might really be just a step away from our humdrum lives... and not a pleasant step. Good plotting, setting, and drama kept me turning the pages and now I can't wait for the next installment.
Rating:
Summary: New and Absorbing
Review: A problem with the fantasy genre, and one many have acknowledged quite freely, is a general sense of redundancy in just about any book you see these days. "Storm Front," the first book from new author Jim Butcher, addresses those concerns head-on and introduces a new setup that pulled me in at the start and kept me from getting sleep until I had finished. The premise is simple enough: Harry Dresden is a wizard who acts about like a gumshoe. He uses his magic for harmless things, mostly, and finds things for people. But when he sets out to find a missing husband, and to solve a double homicide involving black magic, you can bet there's going to be some amazing action. Amazing action is what makes this book so absorbing, as it turns out. There are several scenes that will stay with me for a long time. Not since Dean Koontz's "Darkfall" has a single scene brought me so close to the edge of my seat as some of the scenes near the end of "Storm Front." None of that would matter, though, were it not for the incredible cast of characters. They all come to life in a way you wouldn't expect from so short a novel (well, considering the genre). Each character is different, not just someone that feels like he or she was cut from a cardboard box. I loved Bob, the talking skull with an appetite for sex. And Murphy came across as a real person. So did everyone else. The human motivations motivated me to keep going. I really couldn't set this book down until I finished it, at some point just after midnight. If Jim Butcher continues to deliver fiction like this-and I truly hope he does-then the genre has just found another master. I recommend "Storm Front" to anyone who wants to lose themselves to a humorous, action-packed variation of the modern world for a few hours. Better than a good movie.
Rating:
Summary: Arcane Noir
Review: Reminiscent of 'Cast a Deadly Spell', Butcher has combined the incisive, descriptive writing style of greats like Hammet and Chandler with the wildness and fantasy of the best speculative fiction writers of today. I highly approve, and chewed through this volume in a matter of hours. The magic system is firmly grounded, intricate, interesting, and still... magical. Dresden is charmingly blemished and there are enough unexplored angles (Like He Who Walks Behind) that I'm already looking forward to the next book in the Dresden Files. So get writing, Jim. (:
Rating:
Summary: Lightweight but well executed murder/magic
Review: Harry Dresden is a new entry in what seems to be an emerging murder/{insert supernatural feature here} genre. Murder/vampire, murder/magic, etc. Storm Front plays out as a more or less straightforward detective murder mystery, except that the protagonist doesn't go to some buddy in the back of a bar for help--he goes to the talking skull in the basement! He needs informants, he summons faeries. And so on. Restrained and well written. A fine effort for a first novel. Could have been far cornier than it turns out to be. I'd expect Butcher's books to evolve into more complex works in the future. If you enjoy this novel, you might want to get your hands on the "H Philip Lovecraft" movies that ran on HBO. A non magic using detective in a magic-using quasi art deco 30s-40s world. "Cast a Deadly Spell" and "Witch Hunt."
Rating:
Summary: Finally a detective with a magical fantasy spin.
Review: If you've been looking for a detective who taps into the realms of magic to do his sleuthing, then you've found him in Harry Dresden. Hopefully this is just the start of a long series. Not only does it have a sympathetic hero but an ensemble of helpers to rival Joss Whedon's Buffy/Angel TV series creations. From demons to faeries to cops you will truly enjoy this gang of enemies and helpers. The book also combines the hardboiled and the whimisical much as does Buffy which often switches from the comic to the horrible within seconds. The characters are wonderful and the plot well constructed with seemingly unrelated plot lines coming together at just the right moments. Like the other reviewers I also want to know when the next one is coming out. I'll be looking forward to them from now on.
| 
