I'm not one to knock a book or a series (or a writer, for that matter) before I've tried it. A lot of people had been talking about the Dresden Files and while I very rarely go for popular series fantasy, I decided to give it a shot.
I'm not a big fan of Mr. Butcher's writing style. Misuse of commas, overuse of parentheses, etc. His characters, even Harry Dresden, seemed flat somehow. At the beginning Dresden comes across as a bit of a bumbler, almost like Colombo plus Monk with a magic staff thrown in. In the end, however, he has become the Superman of the magical community. That's okay if there's a visible transformation, but I didn't see it.
Mr. Butcher writes this novel, the first in the series, as though the reader already knows what's going on. There's a fine line between overdoing back story and not giving enough, and this book tends to be on the south side of said line. Other than a few vague references to a vague wizard that trained Dresden, there's no back story whatsoever. However, I realize that this is the first book of a series, so maybe there's more to come.
Apparently Mr. Butcher doesn't own a thesaurus. Several times I counted the same verb being used again and again...and just for good measure, a few more times (i.e., "stalking," "snarled," etc.). I think he actually used the latter twice in the same sentence.
I read somewhere that Mr. Butcher sold the first books of the Dresden Files after meeting Laurell K. Hamilton's agent at a convention. Makes one wonder if a copy editor ever laid eyes on the manuscript or if they just saw a quick blurb once word got out that Butcher and Hamilton shared an agent.
It's a decent premise. A practicing magician, kind of a supernatural private investigator...sounds interesting, right? I admit that Mr. Butcher has potential, which is why I will read the second book in the series to see if he has grown and matured as a writer. Here's hoping he gets it better the second time around.Get more detail about Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1).
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