Category: book Nook
Hi all,
Was just wondering if any of you fantasy/mmystery fans have read or have heard of the Dresden files. Basically it's urban fantasy with mystery thrown in. A wizard in Chicago who has to deal with werewolves, vampires, fey and all kinds of magic.
It sounds kind of simplistic, hokey even, when put that way, but Butcher's characterization is pretty good and his writing is solid, if not particularly excellent. Also, James Marsters, who reads the commercial versions and is also known for voicing Spike from the Buffy TV series, gets pretty awesome.
It's a 15-book series thus far and shows no sign of slowing down. It's not the best series I've ever read or anything, but it's solidly good and seems to be hitting its stride.
Just wanted to share thoughts and whatnot with anyone who might've read the series and liked it. I'm on book 11 currently, and love the fact that Butcher can actually surprise me. In fiction, that takes quite a bit...I've read a good bit in my time.
I love it. I hope the next one comes out in May. My favorite chars are Harry, Molly, and Mouse.
I like Molly quite a bit. I also really like Murphy for sticking to her guns (ha ha). Favourite character is probably Murphy overall, though others are pretty decent too. I get a bit tired of all the beautiful sadistic political tricky fey/sidhe characters, that's about my oonly gripe. That, and there's basically no depth to the black-court vampires.
Every series has flaws, though, and I'm willing to skirt these because the good points are just that good.
Wow, I did not know James narrated that series. I do like his voice, though I'm not sure how he'd do with narrating. For my part, I haven't read this series. Surprising, since I really enjoy urban fantasy taking place in the real world. I have no good reason why I haven't gotten into it. Though the fact it is fifteen books now is a little overwhelming. It's one of those I keep thinking I should check out one day. On the heals of that, There's another really great urban fantasy series by Ilene Wilks called the World of the Lupi. It's about an NYPD police officer with some rudimentary psychonic abilities. In this world, ware creatures are common place, if not exactly first class citizens. Magic too is more common place, yet the setting is present day. I’m not sure what accessible formats it’s in, but Graphic Audio, a company dedicated to very high quality narrated dramatizations of novels and shorter books does a fabulous rendition of it. They use traditional narration alongside a cast of great actors, cinematic music and some pretty high-quality sound effects.
man. jim butcher's book/series are awesome. i've read and love the dresden files and the codecs alera series. and yeah I like molly, mouse, mister. and even bob the skull.
Oh, Bob is awesome.
Marsters takes three or four books to really come into his own. He's a bit too quiet sometimes in the first few, and then he really gets good. His accents are mostly solid, and his snark is awesome.
Remy, I'll have to give that other series a look. Don't let fifteen books daunt you. They're self-contained, for the most part. Just start at the beginning and goo at your own pace.
I haven't read it, though have said I will get round to it.