Fiction Review: Storm Front


With the Dresden Files Accelerated RPG in preview release, I decided to take a break from the rather lengthy Alexander Hamilton audiobook to re-listen to Storm Front, the first novel of Jim Butcher's urban fantasy Dresden Files.

I've heard people suggest that the series really picks up in the third and fourth novel, with some people outright disliking Storm Front. I'll agree that the series greatly improves with time but to be honest, I really enjoyed the first book. In audiobook form the entire series is narrated by James Marsters, best known as Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He does a splendid job as the first person narrator. 

I'm not a major urban fantasy reader - I enjoy the genre but most of my reading is in other genres. In the 1990s I was a big fan of Charles de Lint's Newford series and I tend to enjoy most of Tim Powers' works (such as Declare, Last Call).

So with all that out of the way, what can you expect from Storm Front? It introduces us to Harry Dresden, a wizard operating openly in Chicago (the only wizard in the yellow pages). It's not that people believe in magic in this universe - almost nobody does. However, Chicago does have its share of problems with evil sorcerers, vampires, etc. Police Lieutenant Karin Murphy is head of Chicago's Special Investigations (SI) Unit, dedicated to dealing with various weirdness that no one really believes in. She was exiled there due to making some enemy or enemies in the police force but making the best of it she makes use of Dresden as a consultant.

The novel has Dresden juggling a private missing person case and working with Murphy on a murder. In the course of the novel the two cases are slowly pulled together. We are introduced to faeries, vampires, and various laws of magic, both physical and legal. The legal ones are established by the White Council, a wizard organization. Dresden is in trouble for violating the first law - using magic to kill. The punishment is supposed to be death, but his sentence was reduced due to it being a case of self defense - a justification not all on the council agree with. If he violates the laws again, he faces death under the Doom of Damocles. 

Physically, magic has issues with advanced technology. Computers tend to crash in Dresden's presence. It's almost impossible for him to own a modern car, forcing him to make do with an old VW Beetle. We learn there are different kinds of magic - evocation, for quick and dirty stuff (like blasting things) and traumatically (ritualistic magic). Harry has an skull with a spirit of air linked to it - Bob - who serves as a sort of assistant/encyclopedia for him. Though an incorporeal spirit, Bob has a rather strong libido. 

The novel has a fair amount of exposition it needs to get across to the reader. It does a good job of this, giving the needed information in pieces and for the most part keeping thing linked to the plot. Perhaps the most annoying part of the novel is an undercurrent of mistrust between Murphy and Dresden, something present in the first few novels which tends to get annoying after a while. Dresden keeps things about magic from her and she tends to mistrust him, believing him involved with various crimes. Butcher takes us past this fairly quickly, but it is a definite annoyance for a while. 

That caveat aside, I found I still enjoyed the novel on a reread (or re-listen). Some elements of the mystery plot were more obvious the second time around (so maybe a more clever reader than I would have caught more on his or her first read) but I enjoyed being introduced to Harry Dresden's world. A strength of the series is an interesting array of heroes and villains and supporting cast and Storm Front begins building this strong stable of characters. 

I'd definitely recommend Storm Front, but I do agree with those who say the series greatly improves in the third and fourth novels. That may make it sound bad which I don't think is the case at all. On a 5-star rating, Storm Front would probably be a 3.5 or 4-star novel for me. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jules Verne Translations That Don't Stink

Image
Shortly after I graduated from college R. Talsorian published their fantasy steampunk RPG,  Castle Falkenstein. Having missed out on Space: 1889  when it first came out this was my first steampunk RPG, though I had been exposed to the genre by Gibson and Sterling's novel The Difference Engine (a novel which, though I though I found the setting compelling, I did not particularly care for - must reread some day). Jules Verne was one of the authors in the inspirational reading section of Castle Falkenstein.  Heck, the game also made him into France's scientific advisor, having him responsible for their massive Verne Cannons  which formed a sort of nuclear deterrent.  With that in mind, one Sunday afternoon I was at a Barnes & Noble bookstore my new girlfriend (now my wife of nearly 16 years!).  On a whim I decided to pick up a Jules Verne novel. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . That night I started reading it, never having read any of his works b...
Keep reading

Stepping Away and a New Beginning

Image
After maintaining this blog for nearly seven years (an eternity in internet time), I've decided to step away from it. When I first began I wasn't 100% certain what it would be about. For a while I thought it would be a blog related to OSR type RPGs but I found my own tastes not firmly rooted there. Looking at the history of the blog, I see a lot of Call of Cthulhu which is hardly surprising. However, some lack of consistency definitely made it tough for me find a defined niche and over the past few months I've been giving some thought to starting a new, more narrowly focused blog. The imminent end of Google+ played a part in these thoughts, with much of my traffic coming from that site. I write because I enjoy writing, but I do enjoy growing an audience. My plan to start a narrowly-focused blog took a turn when I had the opportunity to join the  Rolling Boxcars  blog. Talking with the contributors (one of whom I game with on Discord already) and going through thei...
Keep reading

Using the Force in D6 Star Wars

Image
Defending yourself with just 1D in Sense is not easy, as Luke discovers when training with a remote. My previous post discussed the proto-D6 System as found in the Ghostbusters RPG. For those unfamiliar with the D6 System and the way it does the Force (or for a brief review) the essentials are: You roll a bunch of six sided dice against a target number, typically ranging from 5-ish (easy) to 20 or even higher. Your rating is listed as something like 2D+2 which means roll 2d6+2. By default, most normal/non-heroic people have 2D in most stats.  Starting heroes will might have their best skill be at 5D or a touch higher. You can take as many actions as you want in a round. However, taking two actions in a round reduces all dice codes by 1D, taking three reduces all by 2D, etc. Starting with Force skills will lower a characters starting attributes. Unlike most skills they start off at 1D. There are three Force skills - control, sense, and alter. Control lets you contr...
Keep reading

Developing Boston for 1920s Call of Cthulhu

Image
While Chaosium has produced sourcebooks for many locations in Lovecraft Country (Kingsport, Arkham, and Innsmouth) as well as non-fictional cities of the 1920s (such as New York City and New Orleans), the nearby city of Boston, while being featured in many adventures, has never received its own full sourcebook. The most common era for my Call of Cthulhu  games has been in the 1920s - some campaigns have been in New York City while others have been in Lovecraft country. For those in Lovecraft Country, many adventures have been in nearby Boston. Over the years I've slowly been building up some expertise in the area and I thought it might be of interest to others gaming in the same setting - whether with Mythos horrors or a purely mundane game. First, let us investigate those official sources. While Boston has found its way into many adventures, I can think of two sources where it has been given a fair amount of detail. First, The Unspeakable Oath  double issue 16/17 has ...
Keep reading

Balancing Classes in Swords and Wizardry

Image
DM: "The box is the size of a small trunk; it is latched but not locked."  Dougal: "I'm looking for traps on the box."  DM (rolling for Dougal's "find traps" ability. The roll indicates that Dougal has failed to find the poisoned needle in the latch.) "You don't find a trap."  Morgan (the group's leader): "Black Dougal will open the box."  DM: "Black Dougal, you find out that you missed a tiny discolored needle in the latch. Roll a saving throw vs. Poison, please!"  Dougal (rolling): "Missed it!"  DM: "Black Dougal gasps 'Poison!' and falls to the floor. He looks dead."  Fredrik: "I'm grabbing his pack to carry treasure in." Game balance. It's a tricky concept in RPGs. D&D 3rd and 4th editions made a very strong effort to balance the character classes with one another as well as to balance encounters. For my purposes, they went too far. A...
Keep reading