Monday, August 08, 2005

Storm Front -- Jim Butcher

Storm Front is billed as "The First Book in the Dresden Files," which must be quite a successful series. The copy I have of this book is a 10th printing, and I think there are six or seven others in the series by now.

This is one of those "cross genre" books. A p.i. named Harry Dresden operates in a city called Chicago, and it's a lot like the real Chicago except that magic works there. And Dresden is not just a p.i. He's also a wizard, a pretty powerful one at that, so the Chicago cops call on him when they get cases involving the supernatural. Naturally some of those cases get a little strange. In this one, a couple of people are killed by the use of black magic, and before it's over Harry's involved with fairies, other wizards, and even some gangsters who seem like almost normal human beings.

I thought the book was too long, but I often think that about books these days. One reason for the length is that some of the magical confrontations go on and on. They're a lot like some of the action scenes I see in recent movies. Overall I enjoyed the book, but I'm not sure I'll read any further in the series. I have another of the books, though, so you never can tell.

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