Book Review: Storm Front

 

BOOK TITLE: Storm Front

AUTHOR: Jim Butcher

DESCRIPTION OF BOOK COVER: Man in all dark clothing with a long coat and a hat carrying a staff with the Chicago skyline behind him. Title and author’s name in red.

GENRE: Urban fantasy

PAGES: 322

BLURB:

HARRY DRESDEN — WIZARD

Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he's the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the "everyday" world is actually full of strange and magical things—and most don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a—well, whatever. There's just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks.

So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name. And that's when things start to get interesting.

Magic - it can get a guy killed.

# OF STARS: 3.75 (is that a thing?)

***

I’ve read this book a lot and I love the whole series (up to this point which is like 17 books out of I think 23-25 planned?) This one is not Butcher’s strongest, but it’s his debut novel, so duh, of course it isn’t.

I’m going to quickly address something that has been cropping up of late in the reviews. People have been accusing Dresden (and by extension Butcher) of being sexist, chauvinist and that all of his female characters are one dimensional characters who only use their sexuality to get what they want and Dresden only comments on how pretty or feminine the female characters are. This really got under my skin because there are a few things wrong with it:

-First, this is an urban fantasy book that pulls its influence (early) from the pulp noirs. You know, the gritty detective, the sultry leading ladies, etc. (No one is going to accuse Karrin Murphy of being sultry, but you could say Susan is). In that light, it makes sense to follow those tropes, though Butcher breaks with them starting at about Book 3 and 4.

-Harry is a chauvinist. He admits it, he gets his butt handed to him about it regularly by Karrin, and it gets him into a lot of trouble. It’s probably one of his biggest faults, along with being somewhat rash and wanting to protect children. He’s also in his mid-twenties and has come out of an extremely traumatic background. I swear, he grows out of a lot of what he does in the early books (it’s character development).

And lastly, people were accusing Karrin of crying in the first book, but I just finished reading it and she never cried. Murphy crying is a Note Worthy Event. (It almost never happens). It certainly didn’t happen here.

All right, with that out of the way.

Storm Front is Jim Butcher’s debut novel and as such, it has some rough patches. There are a few things which are, at the moment, one dimensional, though remember that we are getting everything from Dresden’s point of view, so he colors his perspective of people (such as his ‘probation’ officer Morgan) with that. The villain is somewhat cheesy (though very evil!) and there is a bit of rough in how magic is dealt with. But the stuff that happens later can be tied all the way back to this book which makes it pretty cool. Things happen in book 9 or 11 that can be traced back to this one! You don’t often see that in these long, long running series.

The descriptions and setting are very much inspired by noir detective books (this fades as Butcher gets his feet under him with later books and becomes very urban fantasy) and there’s enough mystery going on to be interesting. You can probably see the whodunnit fairly early on, but it’s a fun ride nonetheless. And who doesn’t love a 30lb grey cat named Mister and a spirit who lives in a skull and is a wise cracking pervert? (Bob the Skull. To be fair, he’s  - it’s? – not remotely human and doesn’t think in those terms at all). I also appreciate that the vampire we meet is a vampire, not pretty (her true face is very grotesque), not angsty, but a conniving, cunning vampiress who really does use everything she can to get ahead.

There is a lot that is introduced in this book and so while some critics would say to skip it in favor of the later ones, I’d say don’t do it because you’ll miss stuff that comes back later.

But yes, you can tell it’s a debut novel written almost twenty-one years ago. It’s somewhat one dimensional in how it approaches some things, the characters aren’t fleshed out yet, and it follows a lot of the trope of the PI urban fantasy thing.

I adore Dresden Files and I don’t find him to be sexist. Old-school in how he treats women to be sure, but that fades out too over time (and Murphy pounding his head in regularly, not to mention getting taken in a few too many times by a pretty face).

I’d keep reading the rest, but the TBR pile waits for no one!

***

It's been a rough week. My cat (my 15 year old, got her when I was in second year university!, my writing buddy who has seen both my boys born) was sick and is only just starting to come back. My toddler was sick. The weather has been foul. (though not as bad as Texas) and it took a lot longer than it should have to read a book I've read about a dozen and a half times. Just no energy.

 Hopefully I bounce back because I have  Book 2 to finish and I have to go teach from March 1-12. This pandemic is burning out the last dregs of everything, sigh.