Book Reviews and the sharing of inspiration

[LD]

Mieville's Embassytown is coming out very soon :D

[Superfluous Crow]

Got around to reading the first three novels in the Dresden Files: Storm Front, Fool Moon and Grave Peril. All written by Jim Butcher. I'm sure many of you have read them as well.

These books are the ultimate in fantasy airport fiction. You pick them up, you gobble them down, and you feel content. These are not deep books, but they are quite enjoyable.
They actually have rather complex storylines for 300 pages and Butcher has made a good effort to construct a system for his magic. It is not terribly original, but I guess there are only so many ways you can draw a magic circle.
His monsters are classics such as werewolves, vampires, ghosts and fey but he does his best to diverge at least a little from the norm. His favored method seems to be splitting the creatures into different groups representing various mythological origins. So with the vampires you have the Red, White, and Black Court:
[spoiler=vampires]Nasty monsters in human guise, humanoid sex vampires and the classic undead variety[/spoiler]    
With the werewolves there are like 4 types depending on who does the transforming and such.
The narrator (the eponymous Harry Dresden) is quite likeable and reasonably flawed and human for this sort of novel, although he is terribly goody-two-shoes at times (admittedly, he has his reasons). Also, already in the first three books there has been quite a lot of foreshadowing concerning Dresden's past and I'm impressed how much has been alluded to without the author necessarily revealing it all. There are a lot of questions left.

I am sure some of you have read the series; what are your favorite books in it? Should I keep reading?

[Lmns Crn]

They get better as the series goes on. In particular, Storm Front and Fool Moon look really weak in comparison to some of the later books.

Harry's drama compounds itself, you start to see bigger issues affecting the supernatural world at large, and a lot of Harry's arsenal of powers gets pared down in one way or another (there is a lot less of the "I've got a magical solution for any possible problem" issue in the later books; pretty soon, for example, we all just quietly forget about the existence of potions, which I think is a step in the right direction.)

I am looking forward to running the Dresden Files RPG as soon as I get some spare time. (It's even FATE-based.)

[Superfluous Crow]

I did kind of enjoy the potions, it was one of the more original approaches to magic with the necessary ingredients.
I do like how Butcher really isn't afraid to have Dresden (and the other characters) suffer. He really does get into a lot of trouble and he gets beat up a lot. You can't help but sympathize with the poor guy.
You mention that Harry comes off as a "magic solves everything" kind of guy, but even in the first three books he spends a lot of time relatively drained of power. He's really drained in most of Fool Moon and he has a fair amount of power sapped in Grave Peril.
The one thing I'm the most worried about is that the plot seems to be converging on fae and vampires as the main villains. Especially with the conclusion of Grave Peril: [spoiler=spoilers]Susan is now a vampire and there seems to be a wizard-vampire war underway.[/spoiler]
I would have preferred to see the universe expanded with more strange creatures instead of merely dealing with the ones that have already been "covered", although there is certainly still a lot of story options left with those two inhuman groups. Is it an incorrect impression about the direction of the story/plot?

[Lmns Crn]

This is definitely a book series where the main characters suffer a great deal. Fighting hurts.

In terms of "main villains", there are a couple of big story arcs that span multiple books, and they all sort of overlap. You are correct about one of them [spoiler](there is definitely a big wizards vs. vampires war that spans a bunch of novels, either as an upfront problem, or as a background "things are getting tense in the supernatural world" detail).

Butcher mostly chooses to go with monsters that exist in folklore and literature, which I think makes sense for the series, given the premise that that folklore and literature exists because those creatures have existed for centuries, and people have been noticing them for centuries.

There are some interesting... extrapolations, though. Now that you've met Michael Carpenter, you're primed to meet the traditional enemies of the Knights of the Cross in another couple of books. I don't want to ruin the reveal, but it's a novel idea.

[Superfluous Crow]

He should definitely face mythological creatures as opposed to completely home-spun creatures, but it would be a pity to limit it to 4-5 monsters in this kind of storytelling. Compare it to the Supernatural tv series where a few monsters do make frequent comebacks, but where they throughout the seasons make a good effort to include new creatures and beasties in the universe.

[Lmns Crn]

I'm not familiar with Supernatural, but the more I hear about it, the more I think I should probably check it out.

[Superfluous Crow]

I love the show. The characters are likeable, it does both humor, suspense and horror well, it is good at taking monsters in original directions or at least supplying an interesting mythology for them. Most of the episodes are stand-alone monster-of-the-wekk episodes, but there are some interesting overarching plots as well. I can heartily recommend it.