Review: Storm Front (The Dresden Files Book 1)

Storm Front by Jim Butcher

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Now, this was a lot of fun and a great example of world-building that shows in the story without needing to see the details of how everything works. I'll be hitting the library for the next books in the series very soon.

Harry Dresden is a wizard living in Chicago. Barely making a living as a magic private investigator in a world that kind of accepts magic, Harry depends on a consulting gig with the police, like any good PI in a mystery novel, Harry is grizzled, desperate, and hungry.

So when he catches a consulting job on a magical murder the same day a distraught wife shoves money at him to find her missing husband, Harry thinks his luck is changing. Of course, he's wrong. Instead, he gets caught up with the mob, an angry vampire, and a shadowing mage who is somehow doing the impossible. All of whom want Harry either dead or out of the picture. Oh, and he's being pursued by a fanatical enforcer from the White Council who is just itching to execute him.

I have an unabashed love of noir mysteries and urban fantasy, and I'm amazed that it has taken this long to find this series. Dresden is both a detective in the grand footsteps of Philip Marlowe and Lt. Columbo; a bit misanthropic but a dogged investigator. He's very human in that the damage he takes through the book lingers, and he's not an iron man, which makes him relatable. Add a strong supporting cast and great writing, and I'm hooked!



View all my reviews

All. The. Laundry. With bonus insurance idiocy.

Burning Man preparations continue apace. Today we did a task that should have been done last September. We washed the sleeping bags and the bed pillows. In the Free Trader Beowulf, we use the sleeping bags as both a base and a cover for cold nights. However, given how mild that nights have been the past few years, we're picking up a set of sheets at Big Lots and binging lighter blankets. But the sleeping bags and pillows needed to be clean, because this will be the year temperatures drop below freezing at night.

Since we were going to Oasis to use the big load machines anyway, kshandra decided to attack a pile of laundry that had been accumulating in a corner. Along with every else, we pretty much filled Darby. We made two quick stops, the bank for $80 in quarters (!) and Kirsten ran in into Safeway for more laundry pods and some lunch.

As an aside, I'm loving Liquid Metal on SiriusXM. A great mix of classic metal and newer bands.

We get to Oasis, haul all our crap in, and start the action. Long story short, everything for the Playa is done and bagged and will be tossed in the Beowulf next time we go down to fiddle, and Kirsten is taking a nap before tackling her mountain of clean clothes. She has promised to triage every item in an effort to reduce clutter.

Now, the insurance morons. Last January I started a Medicare Advantage plan, and my coverage was sold to some company I've never heard from. My insurance is still through Anthem Blue Cross, but these people keep sending me mail. Which, recently, has been a series of denied claims going back long before I got my new insurance.

I'm mean, the surgery I had in 2015. Pretty much every blood draw I had as part of my Dilantin checks. All of which was covered by MediCal! Needless to say, I shall be calling them Monday morning.