I needed a book series for my time in lockdown quarantine. I am a teacher and will spend the final 2 1/2 months teaching from home, followed by summer vacation.
I am using the audio for this series, read by James Marsters. I began Book #1 today on my morning bike ride(another thing I am trying to do during quarantine/lockdown). Like my ongoing Discworld discussion(I have now read 20+ of those), I thought I’d just open a thread to share thoughts.
Anyone else reading these should feel pretty free to share thoughts. I have no clear spoiler policy other than “I hope I don’t get spoiled on major developments”, but I honestly have no clue about the series other than “he’s a wizard in modern times”.
If am not a fan, I’ll quit, but feel free to discuss if you came or come to Dresden Files “late” like me.
Or not. Just a free place to share my thoughts and I’d happily read others. I am on:
One thing that I’ll say is that the first book is a bit more mature, sexually, than the rest of the series. Basically, magic is built from emotion, and some kinds of magic are easier to build from some kinds of emotions than others. In this book, some evil wizards are hosting orgies to use the lust to fuel their spells.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend any of the other books to a student, but the first one, I would, for that reason. There’s no graphic detail, but it might be a bit much for a kid who hasn’t yet figured out what sex is and isn’t for. While sex shows up in later books as well (again, not very explicitly), it’s much more clear that, while lust-monsters are generally evil, that’s not all that sex is.
Oh, also, about the series as a whole: If you’re a fan of other fantasy, you might find yourself asking “Can wizards in this setting do X?”. The answer is usually “Yes, but”. Some things, wizards are known to do, but Harry doesn’t, because it’s illegal and would bring down a death sentence on his head. Some things are doable and legal, but generally regarded as dangerous or otherwise unwise. Some things, Harry could do, but has his own very personal reasons for preferring not to do. Some things, other wizards can do with ease, but Harry can’t, because he’s just not skilled enough (at least, not yet: His power level grows as the series progresses). Some things are theoretically possible, but no known wizard in history has ever been capable of (but some powerful supernatural beings, like the Queens of Faerie, might do casually… but they’re bound by their own inhuman constraints).
See that’s one of the things I’ve liked about this series. When you are young and powerless people tell you all kinds of rules that you “must” follow. As you get older and more powerful you start being able to ignore those rules. The truly powerful have very few rules they must follow and while you may know that a a regular peon you don’t know much about their world just glimpses.
In other words I think the shifting rule set makes a lot of sense based on how our world operates.
I think it’s interesting to see Hary get to explore the boundaries of the world each time he reached a new level. The main difference is he seems to do it on a book by book level and I’ve been seeing my current boundaries for about 5 years.
I probably should’ve worded that as: …the sense that the “rules” were just being made up for maximum plot drama as the stories unfolded.
It just kept pulling me out of the story, in an “Oh, here’s another arbitrary roadblock - how is this going to shift things?” way. Which, sure, that’s how stories are created in general, but having them be so … I dunno, blatantly … whimsical? in their plot-mechanic implementation just rubbed me the wrong way, I guess. (I’m not sure I’m expressing that correctly.)
I did find the (first couple of) books to be well-done. Just my own weird hang-up kept me from continuing. Didn’t mean to threadshit, slinking away now…
That’s a valid criticism for the first couple of books (it took a while to get it figured out), but after that, he did a pretty good job of keeping the rules consistent. It’s not inconsistent to say “I used to be too unskilled to do that, but it’s routine for me now”.
I am just over half-way with the first book. I only listen to the audio and honestly, I have been in the car less. I often listen to books on my bike rides, but my son has been coming with me and I have hardly listened.
Does Dresden physically describe himself? I am picturing him looking like James Marsters since he is the narrator.
Dresden’s most noticeable physical trait is that he’s 6’9". He’s reasonably good looking but has kind of the “it’s not the years, it’s the mileage” look to him.
And his age is never stated explicitly, beyond being “young” (but then, for a wizard, that means “less than a century”). And the cultural touchstones that he’s used to characterize his childhood all have a span of a decade or two. It’s one of the tricks (along with technology failing around him) that Butcher uses to keep the books from being dated.
Absolutely. Indeed that’s one of the series’ greatest strengths. However as warned in the other thread that only starts kicking in in a serious way by books 3 or 4.
Yes, that was my experience. It took me three tries to get through book 1, and I finally had to do it with an audiobook. Book 2 was meh. But once you get to 3, they really start getting good. It’s definitely worth going through 1 and 2 to get to the rest, since they have important background material.
And while Harry’s age is never explicit, the ages of some other characters are, enough so that it’s possible to say that the series spans at least a dozen years.
In the graphic novel versions of the Dresden Files, he is invariably shown as having longish, disheveled, very dark if not black, hair. And a face with lots of angles.
I also seem to recall him in his thoughts, describing his hair as black, in contrast to Murphy’s blonde hair.
The series is a cross between noir detective and urban fantasy. I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit, although at times the noir gets a little bit too heavy.
Somewhere (his website?) I saw a story about how he had written the first few books before he found his publisher. I think that also explains the difference in quality as the series progresses.
I have never paid attention to this before. It’s a neat little tidbit.
That is true, although my understanding is that Butcher is very involved in the production of the graphic novels, so he presumably approves of the hat.
The hat is kind of a joke, from what I understand. The early covers showed a hat (authors don’t always get full approval over their covers, especially when starting out). The books say Harry hates hats, but the artist keeps painting him with a hat anyway. That’s what people expect these days.
I don’t think it’s even that he hates hats-- Several times, he’s said that he really ought to get one (if nothing else, it would let him add some head protection to the bulletproof spell he puts on his coat). He just never gets around to it.