.png)
Roc, copyright 2000, 322 pages
ISBN: 0-451-45781-1
Read: December 2011, at age 33
This is the first book in a long series (13 and
counting). It’s a quick read, crossing a
modern hard-boiled PI story with some well-conceived urban fantasy. Despite being from a long series, the book
was somewhat episodic – after the first book, I see no need to read the full
series in one go.
From the back cover:
Harry Dresden is
the best at what he does. Well,
technically, he’s the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that
transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the “everyday” world is actually full of
strange and magical 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.
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.
Reactions after the break. No spoilers in this one.
Overall:
It was good. I read it over the
space of a bath, a lunch-hour, and a couple hours on the couch the next
night. I didn’t want to stop, and if I’d
been feeling better (or had the potential for a sleep-in, well, ever) I’d have
stayed up much too late to finish it in one go.
Besides the action, (which only paused intermittently to breathe a few
breaths, drop a bit of tension, and then back at’er) the characters were
well-conceived and described, and the setting was fantastically conceived, and
well-described. The weakness in the book
to me, was that the main mystery (who’s doing it!?) was telegraphed too early
for my liking. I’d heard a lot of good
things about this book before picking it up, and they’re pretty well-warranted.
Rating: 4
Characters:
Our hero is a working class dude, with a basement suite, an office, and
affinity for magic, and technology just fails around him. He’s a decent guy who’s seen some tough
times, and it is easy to identify with him. This is fortunate, as the 1st-person
narration pretty much requires that.
There’s a lot going on with him, and we don’t learn too too much about
him due to all of the action.
The supporting cast is well-rounded, and well described.
Setting:
The story was set in a basically modern Chicago, but magic exists. Normal people generally don’t see it, but
they can certainly be affected by it.
The typical urban fantasy bits – vampires and all that – are there, with
a somewhat unique vampire, and a lot more time spent on less well covered creatures
such as demons and fairies. The magic
worked well, and it just fit together very smoothly.
Plot:
The book starts in media res, and never lets up. It’s telegraphed a bit much who the big
baddie will turn out to be, but otherwise, the intertwined mysteries, threats,
and interpersonal battles feed off each other, and kept me hurtling on to the
end.
Readability:
The writing was clear and evocative.
I didn’t notice any particularly delicious phrases, and I didn’t notice
any particularly bad ones, either. The
pacing was breakneck, but not overly so.
It ended up being a fast, fun read.
Other Opinions:
After a few books where there wasn’t much available online, there’s a
TON for this one. Here are few.
A Dribble of Ink - (one of the first review blogs I ever read – and the best
review on this list, IMO)
Seems like my read was pretty much like everyone else’s.
No comments:
Post a Comment