Book Review: Storm Front

You would think that with a series that has been running as long as Jim Butcher's Desden Files series it must have started with a great debut novel. At least that's what I expected. Sadly after jumping into Storm Front a week ago I did not see what all the fuss was about. My guess is people were captivated with the world more then a story. It's an urban fantasy novel that follows Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden (amazing name) a wizard in what at least in the first book seems to be in our world and time frame although I don't believe its explicitly pointed out.

Harry who's basically a detective with magical abilities is put on two cases early on in the novel while he also struggles to do normal human things like pay the rent. Lucky for him he's a Wizard and as such has abilities the normal police department don't have. What follows is a pretty run of the mill murder mystery with the added magical bits. The book very rarely makes use of its one big departure from the standard murder mystery and as such kept me entertained but never on the edge of my seat.

The other big problem is that because I listened to the audio version of the book the production value (which there was none) was a big distraction from the story. There was a lot of background noise, heavy breathing, other odds and ends that I've never heard in an audiobook before. I think the narrator was trying to read it differently since the story is told in the first person but it didn't work. All in all its not a bad book but I really doubt I will be going back for book 2 anytime soon.

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2015 Reading Challenge: Books 21-27

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Book Review: An Ember in the Ashes