Recent Reads: Storm Front (Dresden Files)

I'm like the last person on the planet to read the Dresden Files, and within a few pages it's obvious why. There are very few books that make me actively irritated if I get interrupted. I started this one on an airplane, planning to read it while I was out of town... but I finished it before I managed to get out of town.

I may have a particular soft spot for the roguish, lonely, haunted-past, tall skinny male leads. The Doctor. Sherlock. Constantine. I definitely have a type, and Harry Dresden fits it. With his messy history of magical-rulebreaking for self-defense, he's got all sorts of problems following him around, not the least of which is a wizard council that's just itching to find the slightest provocation to have him executed. Add this to the fact that the character is a total powerhouse of bad-ass magic, restrained by his sense of ethics and, well, being a gentleman. I think Harry Desden might have been tailor-made to melt my heart.

Plot-wise, I haven't read a lot of detective novels or crime fiction in general. The fact that he's a wizard definitely makes it more accessible for me, heh. The supporting characters are fantastic--all memorable, and not just a little funny. While I have to scratch my head a bit to remember the details of what all happened, it's easy to tell you about the whole cast. And that, I think, is the secret ingredient in why this series is so long an successful. Events come and go, but the driving character is so strong, and so fun, it really doesn't matter what he's up to, I just want to be along for the ride.

Comments

  1. BotanistNovember 26, 2017 at 4:26 PM

    Literally in the last hour, I grabbed another Dresden novel off the shelf at my local library. I can't say Harry Dresden is "my type" in a melt-your-heart way, but I do enjoy the characters, the Machiavellian plotting, the ingenious predicaments and even more ingenious escapes. The key word for me in this series is "fun".

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