Butcher, Jim: Storm Front
Storm Front
Writer: Jim Butcher
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 322
I never really had an interest in reading this book. Hell, I never had an interest in watching the short-lived SciFi series either. But since the urban fantasy bug likes to bite, and since Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files has become one of the staples in the genre, I figured I might as well give the first book a shot. I never did give the show a shot, though I saw the end of a couple episodes when they aired because it came on right before Battlestar Galactica.
The premise: Harry Dresden is a wizard for hire. Only he lives in modern day Chicago, and no one takes him seriously. The ones who do are either crazy or simply don't trust him, even when they need his help. And he gets more than he can chew when the police call him in on a double-homicide, one committed with black magic. It wouldn't be so bad, if everyone around him didn't think he was the killer.
Spoilers ahead.
I'm sure there's been many a joke and/or comparison between Harry Dresden and Harry Potter. Two of the biggest series of our time, and both series feature wizards named Harry. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Potter fans didn't find Dresden appealing, so long as they can handle more adult, noir kind of voice.
But the voice never grabbed me. The problem might be that I'm reading an awfully lot of similar books in a short period of time, but Dresden's voice never drew me in. It's a preference thing more than anything. Whereas women in the UF genre tend to be tough and aggressive (which shows in the narrative, driving it forward), the men in the UF genre tend to be betas, powerful in their own right but unable or unwilling to use their talent. I noticed that subtle passivity in John Levitt's Dog Days, and I noticed it here too. Dresden is an outcast of the wizard community, and he basically sits around hoping a case falls in his lap. In this book, two do, and of course, those two are related, but not in the way I immediately thought, though I wish I'd figured it out sooner. It's a funny thing to read these two books so closely together, as one commenter of Dog Days called Mason, the narrator, a "transparent author avatar," -- essentially, a Mary Sue, or rather, Marty Stu (the names make me shudder, folks). I listened to the commenter's reason's why Mason was such a character, but never quite bought into the theory with that particular book.
But if someone were to make the same accusations about Harry Dresden, I'd welcome them with open ears. Dresden's powerful, skilled, talented, and he's got lots of cool toys (how does an outcast wizard end up with such a priceless artifact as BOB, for goodness's sakes?). He might fumble with the ladies, but that doesn't stop any of them from being tender when tenderness is called for. He's been wrongly prosecuted, and he really is just a good guy trying to do the right thing, if anyone would let him.
The one problem I think I had with this book was just too much damn build-up. Too many people I know love this book, and more people I don't know sing its praises, and unfortunately, there's a thin line between taking their word for it and being suspicious. I'm afraid I'd already crossed the line to suspicious by time I read this book.
But I did have issues with the plot. In most cases, I really, really, REALLY hate the tired old thread of the innocent guy wrongly prosecuted for something he didn't do (or justly did). I really hate the snap judgments that constantly make the good guy look bad, even though the reader knows better. This book is rife with such things. The White Council is just WAITING for Dresden to fuck up so they can kill him, which was just fine except there was Morgan, who supposedly haunted Dresden's every step. And when the murders happen, Morgan ASSUMES it was Dresden because black magic was involved, and at one time, Dresden was involved with black magic.
The problem? MORGAN'S SUPPOSED TO BE FOLLOWING HIM. Which means, that while this righteous bastard is gathering evidence, he should be watching Dresden every moment to catch him in the act. And if he had, as logic DICTATES, he would've known in fairly short order that it wasn't Dresden at all.
But we can't have that now, can we? Yes, Butcher does a good job of stripping away Dresden's allies, adding conflict after conflict to the story, but so much of it felt artificial to me, like it was a case of timing. To me, it was a fairly simple plot that could've been connected faster, which would've resulted in a shorter book, but hey, when that happens, you use what you've got to create MORE conflict.
Not that Butcher does a bad job with what he had, I just felt like I was being jerked around. When I can figure something relatively simple out before the characters, I get annoyed when the characters can't do the same. It doesn't matter that we're not supposed to even like Morgan, but he needs to be credible if I'm to take him serious as an obstacle, and he wasn't. He was just annoying.
And actually, so was Murphy. I don't know WHY I simply couldn't stomach her attitude towards Dresden's secrecy, but it bugged me. It bugged me a lot. I completely believe that she's in a high-pressure job and the case needed ANSWERS and that Dresden was looking more and more like a suspect, but I never bought her change of heart. I never bought her hard-ass attitude with him. Which led to more annoyance.
Oh, another annoyance: Murphy. Mason. Oh, and let's not forget MONICA. Do you KNOW how often I kept getting those names confused?
Of course, I can't blame Murphy completely for her attitude. I wanted Dresden to sit down and say, "This is what I know, but there's things about the wizarding world I can't tell you, or you'll get killed. You'll have to be happy with what I know, and know that as a rule, wizards are meant to HELP people, not harm them." Yes, Dresden knows he's made a mistake by NOT telling her this shit by the end of the book, but I never bought his reasoning for making the decision in the first place.
Yeah, I'm being mean and picky. So let's talk about what I did like:
The eye thing was wicked cool. I don't recall seeing that in fantasy anywhere, or even in fairy-tales, so it was a really nice touch to this world. And while I'm growing tired of the whole true-name-gives-others-power-over-you bit, I really liked the stress Butcher made on knowing not just the full name, but exactly how to pronounce it as well. Electronics fizzing out when Dresden's around? Fun. The toad-demon, also cool, though the naked/love-potion conflict during the demon attack was more annoying than funny, but I think that's just a matter of taste. Oh, and I loved seeing what vampires REALLY look like.
My Rating
Worth the Cash: if you're an urban fantasy fiend, you should read this, because as I said before, it's a staple of the genre. For my two cents, I'm glad I read it, but it didn't grab me or amaze me as it has others, and I don't know if it's a case of too much build-up or the fact that voice never really grabbed me or both. I'm not inclined to buy the rest of the series, but if the books come my way, I might read more, depending on my mood.
Next up: Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black