This past month I blazed through the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. There are currently 14 books out, ranging from 250ish to 450ish pages each. It's set in Chicago, and the main character is Harry Dresden, Wizard, as his Yellowpages ad declares. He's a smart-alec who gets the crap kicked out of him every book, and between books as well. He occasionally helps out Chicago PD when they have something they can't explain. Despite their constant exposure to the magical world most of them remain woefully ignorant of it.
I haven't been exposed to much urban fantasy, and I think he's done a (mostly) good job of it. My problems come from the randomly interjected sex (on one occasion it turns into BDSM ). It stands out because it feels like I'm reading a book that's somewhere between young-adult and adult fantasy with the occasional swearing. The other problem I have is there is little to no character development until book 12 of the series. Maybe Butcher is going for an extremely stubborn character who refuses to change even his basic habits, but I don't like it. There are a lot of cool ideas in the series as well, such as the Knights of the Cross and the Denarians.
Is it worth reading? Pick up the first few books, it'll take a day or two to get through them and see if you enjoy it. I didn't mind them and I got through the series in about 3 weeks. Next up will be the Dark Tower series by Stephen King.
I haven't been exposed to much urban fantasy, and I think he's done a (mostly) good job of it. My problems come from the randomly interjected sex (on one occasion it turns into BDSM ). It stands out because it feels like I'm reading a book that's somewhere between young-adult and adult fantasy with the occasional swearing. The other problem I have is there is little to no character development until book 12 of the series. Maybe Butcher is going for an extremely stubborn character who refuses to change even his basic habits, but I don't like it. There are a lot of cool ideas in the series as well, such as the Knights of the Cross and the Denarians.
Is it worth reading? Pick up the first few books, it'll take a day or two to get through them and see if you enjoy it. I didn't mind them and I got through the series in about 3 weeks. Next up will be the Dark Tower series by Stephen King.
No comments:
Post a Comment