Magic and wizardry meet hardboiled detective fiction in this genre-blending debut novel from Jim Butcher.
Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a wizard for hire (he's in the Yellow Pages, under "Wizards"). He doesn't have a lot of competition: in fact, he's the only openly practicing professional wizard in the country. At the turn of the millennium, popular awareness of the paranormal has skyrocketed (aided by events like the Unseelie Incursion of 1994, when the entire city of Milwaukee vanished for two hours), but most of those with paranormal skills still prefer to keep their abilities under wraps.
Business is slow. So when the police department, which occasionally calls Harry in to consult on cases that involve the paranormal, asks him to assist with a particularly gruesome double murder that may have been accomplished by magic, he can't afford to say no -- even though it's immediately obvious to him that black magic is involved, and that the mage responsible is very powerful indeed.
The above is courtesy of the SFSite.com website.
I have seen the books around and were hesitant in buying the first one. I thought that it would be as mindstonkingly boring as the Laurell K Hamilton books, the Anita Blake series but found - happily - that I was wrong. This is much better written and the author, Jim Butcher, has taken great pains in creating a genuinely nice main character who is just that little bit unpredictable but completely understandable to snare you and draw you in. Unlike the Anita Blake or Merry Gentry novels, there isn't thirty pages of sex at one sitting to get through, in fact, there is no sex in this, but a lot of sexy and a lot (a lot) of action and tongue in cheek funny stuff.
It wasn't until I visited the Jim Butcher website that I found out they are currently shooting/have completed shooting the first episode (or entire series, I didn't read all of it) of The Dresden Files, which is based on Harry's adventures. Smashing stuff - and what is really cool is that they have an English actor playing the part of Harry, but with an American accent. His name is Paul Blackthorne (what a fantastic name, right!?). So, it looks good.
I am looking forward to reading the second book in the Dresden Files series which I picked up today.
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