Storm Front

The Dresden Files, Book 1

By: Jim Butcher

Narrated by: James Marsters

My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk. I'm a wizard. I work out of an office in midtown Chicago. As far as I know, I'm the only openly practicing professional wizard in the country. You can find me in the yellow pages, under Wizards. Believe it or not, I'm the only one there.

With rent past due and a decent meal becoming an issue of some importance, Harry needs work, and soon. A call from a distraught wife, and another from Lt. Murphy of the Chicago PD Special Investigation Unit makes Harry believe things are looking up, but they are about to get worse, much worse. Someone is harnessing immense supernatural forces to commit a series of grisly murders. Someone has violated the first law of magic: Thou Shalt Not Kill. Tracking that someone takes Harry into the dangerous underbelly of Chicago, from mobsters to vampires, while he himself is under suspicion of the crimes.

©2000 Jim Butcher (P)2002 Buzzy Multimedia

Horrible narration of a decent story

Not a bad story; I think I could have really loved this series which makes the narration all the more disappointing. Not only can't this guy act, he BREATHS and SIGHS into the microphone continually which is extremely distracting. I could barely finish the book as the narration was so irritating that it was difficult to focus on the story. I kept thinking about how good it would have been with an excellent narrator. So if you value your credits don't bother.

Butcher+Marsters=Dresden

Marsters is more than any narrator, he is a voice actor. Most narrators just read and do change up in voices. For example a character will same something, then the author will write something like and he laughed, and the narrator just reads the line straight. James will add that laugh when he is speaking. He also does the breaths, sighs, adds tension, etc. He brings real emotion and life to the characters. Butcher does a great job of doing this book in 1st person, not many writers can pull it off. Patrick Rothfuss is a good example of poor 1st person writing for comparison. What I like about Butcher is his owns the vamps, zombies, werewolves, fairies, etc, and breaths news live into them. I so loathe vampires any more, but he makes them refreshingly interesting. If you ever watched the TV show it is nothing in comparison to the books. There are somethings that do bother me though, like wizards foul up technology, wish is cool. But revolvers that do work and semi auto pistols don't does not really add up, since revolvers can have more parts than an auto does and semi autos are not that much older than modern cartridge revolvers. Also he can drive a car but can't own a frig? All a frig is a motor, pump and temperature switch. A car has more moving parts than that. Those are small things but easily forgiven since it does not effect the story that much and probably something only a person like me would notice. Highly recommend that you read the books in order as they will make more sense that way, but each book can stand alone. Also read, Side Jobs after you read book 12 or it will spoil the plot of the other books. Ghost Stories book 13 is due out in July 26, 2011.

Series continues to get better.

Love the Dresden files. I think it takes a little while to get rolling. The characters are strong from the outset and the plot is well constructed, but my favorite part of the series is world building.

Great Beginning

I had seen THE DRESDEN FILES on the SciFi channel wnich made me curious to read Butcher's book. When I saw that the narrator was James Marsden (Spike of Buffy fame), I d/l the book immediately.

It's wonderful. Marsden's voice and Butcher's words combine magically to make the experience feel like it's being told to you by a friend. This one is more than worth a credit -- and the sound of the voice stays with you for a long time.

great story, great narrator

I had watched every episode from season 1 of the Dresden Files on DVD and was left craving more, only to find out it would be the ONLY season. Listening to the audio books was the next best thing to more episodes. I recognized elements of Book 1 from one of the episodes, but the book had so much more detail that it was still new and exciting.

I absolutely love James Marsters doing the narration. I am a huge fan of his from "Buffy" and "Angel" fame (he played Spike the vampire), and was delighted to find him in his new role as narrator for such a great series. His delivery as Harry Dresden (as well as all the other characters since he doesn't change his inflection much for any of them, my only complaint) is so similar to the actor who played him in the tv series, which I like since that's my frame of reference.

Jim Butcher makes it so easy to root for Harry. He's likable in a sad-sack kind of way. Between Harry's dry sense of humor and Bob the ghost's lascivious longings, there's definate comic relief throughout the book to balance out the dark side of Harry's investigative work.

To sum up, I am definately looking forward to listening to Book 2 in the series.

Can't go wrong with this series

This is the second Harry Dresden book I've listened to, and must say I'll probably just keep going from there. Can't believe it took me so long to give this series a try.
The narration is excellent, he picks up all the characters excellently, with all their little mannerisms. You feel scared at times, and laugh out loud at times.
The book is non stop mystery, action, suspense, with a touch of sexual tension.
Love the characters that are being built, and looking forward to more of this series.

Just a Hoot

Imagine a cross of Phillip Marlowe and Harry Potter. Not quite, but close. Harry operates in Chicago, not England, and the use of msgic is not in the conciousness of John Q. Otherwise, Harry could be Phillip's brother, right down to the sardonic humor.

James Marsters is excellent as the reader, capturing Harry Dresden's wit and personality. He does a decent job with "Bob" too.

All in all, a fun "read." Not War and Peace, but a fine way to clear the mental palette.

The world vs. Harry Dresden...

Harry Dresden gets beaten up more than any PI character I can recall. Still, he gets up and keeps throwing his magic at the baddies, without any superhuman feeling to it. Enjoyable world building. Will follow this series for a while at least.

James Marsters does'nt read the book, as much as he acts it. Not always a good thing, but he pulls it off admirably. It takes a while to get used to his "reading voice" (breathing, sighing and all), but once you do, it fits the character perfectly.

Pretty Good Book, Great Narration

And i don't even like Sci Fi books, to the point that if i do buy one by accident, i will send it back. Sometimes it is not easy to tell. But this book was very entertaining & the Narrator was great. He had a talent to make himself fall naturally into the main character. It was also quite humorous. And i learned a lot about wizards too.

smorgasbord of complex fun

I've heard about the Dresden Files through listeners I follow and never paid much attention, which was a mistake. I turned to it when there wasn't anything else of interest and now I am hooked. It has a bit of all the genres I enjoy - paranormal, suspense, romance, mystery, and a little police procedural. The best part is that it is witty without being trivial, but you have to be a quick wit. Not to mention that the variety of characters promises enjoyment for several more sequels. I ignored books I had cued in my library to buy Book 2, that's how much I liked it.