I enjoyed the TV series, and have acquired the books. Storm front was quite good, but I’'m into number three, and they seem to become sillier and more improbable.
Improbable? How so? Being that it’s a world where magic, faeries, vampires, and werewolves exist, improbable is not a word that’s easy to apply IMO. I’ve read all the way to the current book, and it’s quite an excellent urban arcana series.
I like them quite a bit, with the exception of the way Harry tends to isolate himself.
For me, the humor (silliness) is what makes them fun! Too many books of this genre take themselves waaaaaay to seriously!
The Knight in Grave Peril seems a little over the top, and I wonder how the cops explained things in Fool Moon.
Michael Carpenter? Actually, he’s one of the more sensible characters in the series. I suppose it helps if you’ve played D&D and are familiar with the Paladin class and the typical characterization. Carpenter is a prime example of how a Paladin ought to be, a warrior of God who’s not blinded by zealotry and is merely powerfully faithful. Morgan, now, there’s an over the top zealot.
One of the premises of the series is that it’s not too difficult to explain away the supernatural to folks as long as they’re not confronted with direct evidence. There wasn’t much to show what had happened at the climax of Fool Moon except for a poor quality videotape, so any BS explanation that fit the facts at hand would have sufficed. As long as humans have some type of non-supernatural explanation, they’re willing to believe it.
PerditaX is right, though. I find the series holds itself together pretty well, but it’s also not hyper-serious. I’ll grant I’m willing to overlook inconsistencies and oddballitry as long as I’m enjoying what I’m reading, but I can’t recall anything that was unacceptably out of whack.
I was thinking in particular of the loup grau taking out a police station and being blown through several walls by Dresden. Dead bodies and holes in brick walls are rather direct. 
Another case of to each his own. I thought the books got much better from the third book on. Seemed to me Butcher got a feel for the characters and hit his stride. Don’t be put off by the TV show. I thought it worked as a low budget Dresden but the real Harry is much more powerful than they could afford to show on the TV show.
I’ll keep on reading.
I’ve read that on the dope, and noticed it right away.
Yeah, when the show was announced I primed my husband for a special effects extravaganza, with fireballs and explosions and lots of drooling monsters, and it turned out to be rather tame.
This is a trope known as the Weirdness Censor or Invisible to Normals. a/k/a “Sunnydale Syndrome.”
FWIW, I got too annoyed to continue once I got partway into book 3. Maybe given the reviews here, I need to slog on and give at least 4&5 a chance. But sloppy writing and Harry being way too dumb got on my nerves.
Weirdly, one of the things that I can remember specifically bugging me is (maybe this is book 2, can’t remember) when Harry and Michael are defending the newborns in the hospital, and the babies are described as all lying on their stomachs, which pulled me right out of the story since it’s a ludicrous description of a mundane story aspect. IMHO if you’re going to write fantastic fiction, you’d better get your real-world grounding right, or the whole thing unravels.
Still, I do love Bob. They may be worth trying again one of these days.
But if you want something similar that’s better written, try The Devil You Know by Mike Carey- it knocked my socks off!
My friend gave me the first one to read and I liked it enough to go out and buy a bunch of them. Good books. I guess the only thing I don’t like is the constant ‘omg Harry’s in more trouble than any mortal has evar been in, but wait!’ things happening over and over, and it’s more of an annoyance than anything.
I’ll bet this would make an interesting rpg world…