“Storm Front” by Jim Butler . [Dresden files book 1]
08.07.2012
Ms Muffin probably didn’t discourage me enough... as i'm reading Storm Front. Harry is such a jerk, he keeps making completely unfounded assumptions about women. Also, he babbles and misses all the cliffhanger opportunities...
[Spoiler (click to open)]
That said, it’s very readable, although that might be because I’ve only resorted to reading the books after going through all the fanfic and I’m familiar with his voice but waiting for when Marcone will show up with a dastarly plan to win Harry’s heart.
The writing is mediocre but there are very neat moments/insights.
There’s also a lot of implied misogyny. Which I’m not sure if it’s made better or worse by the character constantly commenting on how Murphy would call him a chauvinistic pig/have his balls if he made this or that comment to her. Is he dismissing her concerns as inflated? (At one point it’s about the small size of her wrists, which is like... WHAT?)
I heard a metallic, ratcheting sound behind me and spun my head in time to see Beckitt, naked, point an automatic weapon at me. I threw myself to one side, and heard a brief explosion of gunfire. Something hot tore at my hip, spinning me into a roll, and I kept going, into the kitchen. I heard Beckitt snarl a curse. There were a number of sharp clicking sounds. The automatic had jammed. Hell, with this much magic flying around the room, we were all lucky the thing hadn't just exploded.
--> Obviously the male Beckitt is the threat and there’s no need to clarify till the next paragraph this is the case because the woman wouldn’t take the initiative (she’s perfectly willing to shoot Harry later).
The end of the twentieth century and the dawn of the new millennium had seen something of a renaissance in the public awareness of the paranormal. Psychics, haunts, vampires-you name it. People still didn't take them seriously, but all the things Science had promised us hadn't come to pass. Disease was still a problem. Starvation was still a problem. Violence and crime and war were still problems. In spite of the advance of technology, things just hadn't changed the way everyone had hoped and thought they would.
Science, the largest religion of the twentieth century, had become somewhat tarnished by images of exploding space shuttles, crack babies, and a generation of complacent Americans who had allowed the television to raise their children. People were looking for something-I think they just didn't know what. And even though they were once again starting to open their eyes to the world of magic and the arcane that had been with them all the while, they still thought I must be some kind of joke. -PP 3
I stood up, and rubbed at my face with my hands. "The way magic works. Whenever you do something with it, it comes from inside of you. Wizards have to focus on what they're trying to do, visualize it, believe in it, to make it work. You can't make something happen that isn't a part of you, inside. The killer could have murdered them both and made it look like an accident, but she did it this way. To get it done this way, she would have had to want them dead for very personal reasons, to be willing to reach inside them like that. Revenge, maybe. Maybe you're looking for a lover or a spouse.
"Also because of when they died-in the middle of sex. It wasn't a coincidence. Emotions are a kind of channel for magic, a path that can be used to get to you. She picked a time when they'd be together and be charged up with lust. She got samples to use as a focus, and she planned it out in advance. You don't do that to strangers."
"Crap," Carmichael said, but this time it was more of an absentminded curse than anything directed at me.
Murphy glared at me. "You keep saying'she,'" she challenged me. "Why the hell do you think that?"
I gestured toward the room. "Because you can't do something that bad without a whole lot of hate," I said. "Women are better at hating than men. They can focus it better, let it go better. Hell, witches are just plain meaner than wizards. This feels like feminine vengeance of some kind to me." PP. 21
Wizardry is all about thinking ahead, about being prepared. Wizards aren't really superhuman. We just have a leg up on seeing things more clearly than other people, and being able to use the extra information we have for our benefit. Hell, the word wizard comes from the same root as wise. We know things. We aren't any stronger or faster than anyone else. We don't even have all that much more going in the mental department. But we're god-awful sneaky, and if we get the chance to get set for something, we can do some impressive things. PP. 109
Then why is Harry not affected by the same scorpion bite that leaves Murphy in need of an ambulance in 5 minutes? And goes on through a whole battle afterwards?
Maybe he'd even had her bring him a sample from Tommy Tomm. Or maybe Jennifer and Tommy Tomm had just been too close, as they were making love, for the spell to affect just one of them when he killed them. PP. 269
See? This is good. Not very well exploited plot-wise but good.
book-2012, 2012, 2012: novel in english, #fantasy, +adventures, *author: male, +magic, +adventures, [quotes], [quotes] book, #urban fantasy