Review Storm Front (Dresden Files book 1) Author Jim Butcher Publisher Roc Books, April 2000 As several

ral of my friends are already aware, one of my favorite series of books is The Dresden Files. Ive read through the entire series (14 books, with a 15th due later this year) twice, and will probably marathon it a third time before the new book is released. Everyone entertains fantasies of being a witch or wizard at some point in their lives (or still does, depending on how bland their daily lives are) but I dont think Id want to be a character in these novels. With my luck, Id probably wind up as one of the tertiary characters whose main role in the story is being the horrifically murdered corpse in a case that the hero, Harry Dresden, has to solve. Harry Dresden is a wizard living in Chicago, where he makes a living as a consultant for the local police force, and also finding lost children and wedding rings (no love potions or parties though). One day his friend Karrin Murphy, Lieutenant of Special Investigations, calls him in to the scene of a rather brutal, seemingly unsolvable case. The case is that 2 peoples hearts exploded out of their chests mid-coitus. The consensus is that it was either fantastic sex, a well planned murder, or the work of a dark wizard, which seems plausible considering that the doors were locked and there is no other DNA except the dead bodies. As can be gleaned from the above paragraphs, the plot is a pretty standard murder mystery. So what made this one stand out for me? Well, for one, the cast. Rather than craft a stereotypical, old wizard like Dumbledore or Gandalf, the author decided to make his wizard a Sci-Fi/Fantasy nerd in his early thirties who spouts lame one-liners with the same frequency as Spider-Man. Harry frequently references pop-culture works in his interactions with the other characters in the novel, such as verbally flipping off the mailman who asks if wizards are subtle and quick to anger by responding not so subtle before angrily ripping his mail away from the guy. He also often laments his seeming inability to get a girl, but hey, Id be sour on love after accidentally burning my first girlfriend and my secretly evil adoptive father alive when I was sixteen. The other characters in the novel, given that this is a murder mystery, are somewhat standard. Karrin Murphy is a badass, somewhat jaded cop who handles gruesome murders with a straight face, while secretly being very caring and somewhat emotional about

her job. While open to the concept of magic (Its mentioned that she and Harry teamed up to fight a troll under a bridge), she still is reluctant to hire Harry, because she would rather file things away under normal. Hindering Harrys efforts to solve the murder is Donald Morgan, a Warden of the White Council (think of them as the UN of Wizardry, except a lot more willing to chop off heads if necessary) who was assigned to be Harrys probation officer since he burned his girlfriend and mentor alive, and who believes Harry responsible for the mid-coitus heart explosions. Rounding out the main characters is the crime lord John Marcone. He stays out of the plot for the most part, and basically gives Harry a warning to stay away from the crime hes being paid to solve, as one of the dead corpses was a hitter of his, and he wants to take care of business on his own. He also scares the ever-loving shit out of Harry when he is tricked into performing a Soulgaze on him. Whats a Soulgaze you ask? Give me a bit, and Ill explain, as I use this to poorly segue into what else I loved about the book (and series beyond) the Magic System. What sets the magic in this series apart from other fantasy is that it is firmly grounded in the laws of reality, having to obey things such as basic physics, and therefore becomes more believable. First and foremost is that all spells require energy, which has to come from somewhere. There are no free lunches in this world, which sets up some rather tense moments when Harry needs to use a spell, but is worried that summoning a gout of flame or wind will leave him on the brink of utter exhaustion. Second, elemental spells behave like their respective elements. Fire, the preferred weapon of Harry, still gives off thermal bloom in proportion to how intense and large the blast is, and you can still cook yourself by accident by say, setting a building on fire. Third (there are more, but I wont explain it all, thats what the books are for) is that when using Thaumaturgy (think Voodoo) a link between the tracker and the trackee must be provided, and it must be either relatively fresh (hair and fingernails, blood) or emotionally significant (wedding ring, favorite book). The spell can also be interrupted if the trackee knows whats happening, and doesnt want to be tracked. Now, to get back on track with what I said I would do, a Soulgaze is what happens when a wizard looks into the eyes of another person (or anything with a soul, hence the name) and sees the essence of a persons being. Tragic backstories, personal hangups, embarrassing secrets, all are revealed through a soulgaze, with two caveats. One, the person you look at sees you in the same way, and two, what is seen can never be forgotten. Like, ever.

So, with all that being said, can I recommend it? Yes. The main characters are somewhat interesting despite the writing of the novel being somewhat generic, and a bit on the stale side. As a detective story, it does a decent job, but anyone whos read more than one detective novel can probably spot the twists early. Still, the writing is fast paced, somewhat funny, and the action scenes (there are plenty) are painted quite well. The book clocks in at about 250 pages, so it can easily be read in a day or two, and, despite being the introduction to a very long-running series, is self-contained, so if you dont like it, you dont need to read through the rest of them to get a more complete picture.