The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher: Book Review

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

These books officially take their place as my most favorite fantasy series of all time. And that’s comparing it to a hell of a lot of others. Like the Dark Tower, The Wheel of Time books, and the awesome Malazan, Book of the Fallen collections. Despite having a massive 15 novels in the series, it never falls prey to middle lag that the others have. Each book is better than the rest. The action, gripping. And an overall story arc with fantastic character development that frankly, puts everything else I’ve read into the background.

Indeed if any charge at all can be levied against this series, it’s that it’s too exciting. The action never stops. I can guarantee you that the only time you can put the book down is maybe between chapters. There’s never a dull moment, never too much detailing of the damn landscape, and no long pointless boring conversations. The number of characters introduced in this book are superbly well done and you can see their characters evolve as the series progresses.

Like other first person narratives I’ve read in the past, this style of writing appeals to me. Through the eyes of a narrator, the book author is forced to keep the storyline tight. No shifting around between characters and mucking up the plot. The Dresden Files never strays from its winning formula. And it delivers. On each and every book.

The centerpiece of the books is of course, Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Chicago’s only professional wizard. You can find him in the Yellow Pages under “Wizard”! I have honestly never met a funnier guy. Harry’s mouth is always running off – especially when he’s in trouble. And you come to admire his guts as he takes on forces much much larger than himself that can crush him into the dust and laughs in their face. Why? Merely because he doesn’t like bullies and due to the fact that his “tongue shoves his brain out of the way”.

But Dresden isn’t your godlike hero rampaging around the town striking fear into the bad guys (well, actually he does strike fear into them, it’s just that he doesn’t really know it). He’s no Rand Al’Thor with a sense of destiny written upon his forehead. His most pressing concerns are usually about how to pay next month’s rent, and wondering why the hell everyone is trying to kill him.

And he has a brilliant supporting cast of characters. The petite badass cop Murphy, the White Court vampire Thomas, the group of Alpha werewolves, Butters, Molly, the Carpenter Family, Bob…I could go on and on. Wonderfully constructed with deep personalities, all of them. I don’t think it’s possible for me to do justice to the awesomeness of the entire set of books. And just when I thought that I’d read all the good ones already. Serves me right!

If you haven’t read the Dresden files, you must. Just the first book. Try it and see if you can put it down. I dare you.

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2 thoughts on “The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher: Book Review”

  1. thanks for the recommendation…i’m halfway through the first book and it’s really good… dresden is like philip marlowe or a lighter version of rust cohle from true detective…

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