Has anyone read "The Dresden Files"?

No, but I loved the TV show, especially the actor who played the lead. It made me want to read the books, but then I forgot about them. May try them now.

Yes, all of them, in order. They were recommended to me, along with the caveat that the author didn’t really get good at it until book 5. I kind of hummed along through the first four, and then, yes, they took off. (But don’t skip the beginning; it sets up a lot of what follows.) It’s not the sort of thing I usually read, but I loved them. I’m waiting for the next one.

I have a better-than-average knowledge of myth, folklore, and fairy tale, and I appreciate the way Jim Butcher develops those themes in a very modern, high-action narrative while still giving them an original interpretation. The line between what he uses of traditional mythology and what he invents is well blurred.

Harry Dresden is a likeable character, flawed enough to be interesting, even though he has some verbal quirks that bug me a lot (in addition to excessive use of expressions such as “hell’s bells”). They probably don’t bother many people. I’m not talking about his wisecracks but about some narrative habits that I wish an editor had cleaned up.

But the stories are fun, exciting, fast-moving, and imaginative. They’re great escapism. I even know someone who has read the whole series twice, so it does stand up to that.

Also the author’s ability to keep on inventing new and worse adversaries for Harry Dresden to tackle is impressive. I like the fact that he explains all the magical phenomena—although I’ve noticed that some readers don’t get that he made up those explanations, that they’re a big part of his creative work, and he didn’t just look them up on some website of arcana.

There are also some interesting secondary characters, some good recurring elements, some dropped threads, and some places where I think Butcher cornered himself a little bit with a plotline or situation. He is good about following the (very important) rule that you can make up any laws you want about how things work in your invented world, but then you have to obey them.

Thanks for the opinions! What age group would you say they’re appropriate for, @Jeruba?

@longgone, well, they’re accessible to a competent reader of any age, but Harry isn’t shy about reporting his sexual encounters, some of which definitely steam up the windows. So I would bear that in mind if I were thinking of a young reader. I generally don’t seek out fiction with vivid sex scenes, which are very difficult to write well, but if they’re there, I’m okay with them. I know some readers who wouldn’t be.

And I would not have been comfortable offering these books to my kids when they were teens, not because they couldn’t handle it but because reading is such an interior, intimate experience, and it would have been too much like sharing headspace with my sons.

(One thing worth remembering, though, and forgive me if you’re not one who needs a reminder, is that older people don’t need to be protected from sex. People do not get more innocent with age.)

Also (sorry I didn’t mention this first, but you know…) some of the violence is a bit graphic, and readers of any age might be sensitive to that. The first novel begins, as I recall, with a splash—an especially revolting one. I might have closed the book right then, but I was going on my friend’s recommendation. There’s not a lot of that (and not a lot of sex either), but enough to be worth mentioning.

Thanks, that’s really helpful. I’ll read the first one before giving it away as a gift.