Stormfront by Jim Butcher
May. 3rd, 2007 11:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
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 - and not just because he's the only one who does it. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal capabilities, they come to him for answers. Because the everday world is not as 'everyday' as it seems. It's actually full of strange and supernatural things - and most of them don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a - well, whatever it is the police are having trouble with this time.
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.
I've read a lot of positive recommendations for the Harry Dresden series, which made me reluctant to read this (because the more positive the recommendation, the more disappointing I usually find the book). However, I have to say that Storm Front is a pretty entertaining read.
The big plus is that Butcher doesn't mess about with cutting straight to the action - we get the murder scene in the second chapter and he keeps the pace going right the way through, making sure that there's plenty of action around which he gives you details on the world he's created it. The fact that Harry's story is told in the first person is a big plus because it makes the expositional paragraphs less clunky (although I'll come back to this a bit later). However, whilst Harry is an engaging character, there is a danger that Butcher's too fond of him to make him truly believable - e.g. he takes care to make sure that it's Harry who has all the good lines and whilst there are some embarrassing set pieces (as when he ends up naked in the street fighting a toad demon), they're still structured in such a way that he seems cool and manly.
The mythology that Butcher's working with has clearly been thought through - we get good a good idea of how Harry's magical powers work, how magic is regulated within the 'real' world and there's an idea of a parallel world called the Nevernever, which clearly has a lot of potential. By making the White Council the traditional, authoritarian conservatives who, we learn, have placed Harry under a kind of surveillance-cum-instant death sentence if his watcher, an old wizard called Morgan, catches him breaking the rules, it sets up a nice conflict and reinforces Harry's isolation. There's a particularly effective scene where Butcher takes us through the process of how Harry makes potions aided by a talking skull called Bob who is clearly there as comic relief/exposition device (but whose schtick could get irritating in future books if it's not toned down slightly).
The mystery angle is so-so. Butcher sign-posts too clearly where he's going with the story, which means that there's none of the tension that would really make that element work and there's a big problem with his main villain who is pretty much a cardboard cut-out, power-hungry black mage and who frankly, would be too embarrassing to be put in a Scooby-Doo cartoon. Butcher's attempt to muddy the waters are weak and are clearly mainly there to introduce the shady gangster Johnny Marcone and whilst the idea of a couple trying to get back at him for the accidental death of their daughter during a gun fight featuring his men has poignancy, Butcher shows no inclination to draw this out beyond the most superficial.
Also supericial are the supporting cast, which is a shame because when you have a character with such a strong voice as Harry's, you really need to give him a strong chorus to stand out from. Murphy, the tough but short (and why are female characters in fantasy books always short?) cop is an inversion of the stereotypical cop cliche. Whilst you do believe in the friendship between the two of them at the beginning of the book, the explanation for why they fall out in the end is weak (particularly if they are supposed to be such good friends) and too obviously a set up for the next book in the series. Morgan, Harry's appointed guard from the White Council also lacks credibility in that whilst Butcher conveys his strength and power, he doesn't give him a personality beyond being a stickler for the rules. Susan Rodriguez, the paranormal reporter is a two-dimensional love interest and again, risks descending into the cliche of a story-hungry journalist.
Butcher falls into the classic 'first-in-the-series' trap of trying to give too much information and backstory in this book. Whilst I liked the hints given as to Harry's relationship with his former master and how it all went horribly wrong between him and the White Council, we also get shoe-horned information about his father and mother - the mother in particular having a strong smell of being significant to later stories. It also doesn't help that we get this information in clots of exposition, when personally, I'd have preferred the ocassional casual reference. There's also a certain tonal inconsistency to the narrative - at times, Butcher seems to be going for a pulp-fiction/noir style to the text (albeit with a humourous edge) but this isn't maintained. Whilst this doesn't detract from enjoying the pace of the story, when you compare Harry Dresden with his obvious competitor Something From The Nightside by Simon R. Green, it suggests a certain lack of skill at maintaining tone.
I would stress that the faults I've identified do not in any way detract from the fact that I did enjoy this book - it's fast and easy to follow and if this is kept up, I could well understand why it's a popular series. They are however things that you notice if you read a lot of the fantasy/urban fantasy genre and as such, whilst this is a good pulp read, as the writing currently stands, it isn't an instant classic.
The Verdict:
Entertaining and well paced, this is a good introduction to the world of Harry Dresden and it does its job in that I'm intrigued enough to want to read more. The supporting cast of characters really needs to be fleshed out more in order to counterbalance the strength of Dresden's own character and I usually prefer my mysteries to be less roadmapped but it's enjoyable enough for me to stick with it.
Harry Dresden is the best at what he does - and not just because he's the only one who does it. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal capabilities, they come to him for answers. Because the everday world is not as 'everyday' as it seems. It's actually full of strange and supernatural things - and most of them don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a - well, whatever it is the police are having trouble with this time.
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.
I've read a lot of positive recommendations for the Harry Dresden series, which made me reluctant to read this (because the more positive the recommendation, the more disappointing I usually find the book). However, I have to say that Storm Front is a pretty entertaining read.
The big plus is that Butcher doesn't mess about with cutting straight to the action - we get the murder scene in the second chapter and he keeps the pace going right the way through, making sure that there's plenty of action around which he gives you details on the world he's created it. The fact that Harry's story is told in the first person is a big plus because it makes the expositional paragraphs less clunky (although I'll come back to this a bit later). However, whilst Harry is an engaging character, there is a danger that Butcher's too fond of him to make him truly believable - e.g. he takes care to make sure that it's Harry who has all the good lines and whilst there are some embarrassing set pieces (as when he ends up naked in the street fighting a toad demon), they're still structured in such a way that he seems cool and manly.
The mythology that Butcher's working with has clearly been thought through - we get good a good idea of how Harry's magical powers work, how magic is regulated within the 'real' world and there's an idea of a parallel world called the Nevernever, which clearly has a lot of potential. By making the White Council the traditional, authoritarian conservatives who, we learn, have placed Harry under a kind of surveillance-cum-instant death sentence if his watcher, an old wizard called Morgan, catches him breaking the rules, it sets up a nice conflict and reinforces Harry's isolation. There's a particularly effective scene where Butcher takes us through the process of how Harry makes potions aided by a talking skull called Bob who is clearly there as comic relief/exposition device (but whose schtick could get irritating in future books if it's not toned down slightly).
The mystery angle is so-so. Butcher sign-posts too clearly where he's going with the story, which means that there's none of the tension that would really make that element work and there's a big problem with his main villain who is pretty much a cardboard cut-out, power-hungry black mage and who frankly, would be too embarrassing to be put in a Scooby-Doo cartoon. Butcher's attempt to muddy the waters are weak and are clearly mainly there to introduce the shady gangster Johnny Marcone and whilst the idea of a couple trying to get back at him for the accidental death of their daughter during a gun fight featuring his men has poignancy, Butcher shows no inclination to draw this out beyond the most superficial.
Also supericial are the supporting cast, which is a shame because when you have a character with such a strong voice as Harry's, you really need to give him a strong chorus to stand out from. Murphy, the tough but short (and why are female characters in fantasy books always short?) cop is an inversion of the stereotypical cop cliche. Whilst you do believe in the friendship between the two of them at the beginning of the book, the explanation for why they fall out in the end is weak (particularly if they are supposed to be such good friends) and too obviously a set up for the next book in the series. Morgan, Harry's appointed guard from the White Council also lacks credibility in that whilst Butcher conveys his strength and power, he doesn't give him a personality beyond being a stickler for the rules. Susan Rodriguez, the paranormal reporter is a two-dimensional love interest and again, risks descending into the cliche of a story-hungry journalist.
Butcher falls into the classic 'first-in-the-series' trap of trying to give too much information and backstory in this book. Whilst I liked the hints given as to Harry's relationship with his former master and how it all went horribly wrong between him and the White Council, we also get shoe-horned information about his father and mother - the mother in particular having a strong smell of being significant to later stories. It also doesn't help that we get this information in clots of exposition, when personally, I'd have preferred the ocassional casual reference. There's also a certain tonal inconsistency to the narrative - at times, Butcher seems to be going for a pulp-fiction/noir style to the text (albeit with a humourous edge) but this isn't maintained. Whilst this doesn't detract from enjoying the pace of the story, when you compare Harry Dresden with his obvious competitor Something From The Nightside by Simon R. Green, it suggests a certain lack of skill at maintaining tone.
I would stress that the faults I've identified do not in any way detract from the fact that I did enjoy this book - it's fast and easy to follow and if this is kept up, I could well understand why it's a popular series. They are however things that you notice if you read a lot of the fantasy/urban fantasy genre and as such, whilst this is a good pulp read, as the writing currently stands, it isn't an instant classic.
The Verdict:
Entertaining and well paced, this is a good introduction to the world of Harry Dresden and it does its job in that I'm intrigued enough to want to read more. The supporting cast of characters really needs to be fleshed out more in order to counterbalance the strength of Dresden's own character and I usually prefer my mysteries to be less roadmapped but it's enjoyable enough for me to stick with it.
