Technically I guess this is a book series review. Jim Butcher has produced fifteen books in his Dresden Files series of urban fantasy novels. Starting in 2000 he published about one a year. The series follows the career of Harry Dresden, a Chicago wizard who consults with the Chicago PD whenever a vampire, werewolf or other evil magical being invades his territory. Butcher provides back story on Harry’s relation to the various hierarchies of supernatural beings starting in the first novel Storm Front but one of the very impressive aspects of the series is just how complex the interrelation between the various fantasy elements of Harry’s environment becomes. In addition to the wizards that he is nominally a member of, he has varied bad relations with the Three (Black, White and Red) Houses of vampires, the Summer and Winter Queen’s faerie realms, an assortment of demi-gods, several types of lycanthropes, zombies, ghosts, Christian Knights a Chicago Mafioso and any number of demons and devils.
And in addition to the growth of the fantasy landscape, Harry himself grows in the telling. He starts out as an almost ridiculous figure of fun who barely survives only because he heals very well. But across the series of stories he takes on the characteristics of a hero. He loses those he loves and sacrifices his own well being to protect his neighbors and innocents who are often thrust into the jaws of death by proximity to Harry’s homicidal enemies. And we see Harry’s relationship with Lieutenant Karrin Murphy of the Chicago PD evolve. They start out as uneasy allies. But owing to the impossibility of reconciling the requirements of human law enforcement with the reality of battling supernatural monsters they often found themselves as adversaries. Over time they become as close as family and Karrin ends up as probably Harry’s closest friend on earth.
We meet members of Harry’s bizarre extended family including a half brother who is part vampire and his god-mother who is a powerful faerie in the Winter Queen’s Court. And Harry even becomes a father although under very tragic circumstances.
This is all just a rambling miscellany of some of the elements of this series that come to mind. No new volume has come out since 2014 so my memory of it isn’t crystal clear. But what is certain is that this is a fantastic series of urban fantasy books that entertains on multiple levels. The story telling is compelling. The characters are memorable and interesting, the evil ones no less than the good, and Harry most of all. And Harry Dresden becomes a familiar and likable friend whose acquaintance you look forward to renewing in each book. The whole series is a first-person account in Harry’s voice. You laugh as his crappy Volkswagon Beetle gets smashed for the hundredth time by some monster and has to be repaired on the cheap again because Harry is always broke. You recoil in shock when Harry’s pathetic unheated basement apartment, so often attacked by supernatural forces, is finally burned to the ground.
I’ll cut this short here. I highly recommend the Dresden Files novels. I haven’t read any of the independent short stories that have been added to the corpus recently so I won’t vouch for those. I’m hoping someday Jim Butcher will give us more of the series. They are excellent.