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I feel somewhat remiss, because I have gone over a month in this blog without mentioning the Dresden Files.
That's one of my favorite currently-running series, and among my favorite series of all time. It stars a wizard who is also a hard-boiled noir-style private investigator, and he goes from book to book investigating various supernatural crimes in Chicago.
It's better than it sounds.
If you read that and thought it sounded boring, trite, or stupid, it's not. If you read that and thought it sounded awesome, it's not. It is far more awesome than you thought.
It's a #1 New York Times best-selling series, by the way. The sales continue to get better, year after year.
The first couple of books are largely self-contained, and though he makes references to the early events fairly often, they don't really have a lot of impact on the series as a whole. The real plot starts in the events of book three in the series, Grave Peril, and from there the story really takes off.
Why have I all of a sudden started talking about the Dresden Files, you ask?
What a silly question. It's because book twelve in the series, appropriately entitled Changes, was released today. I was lurking outside Books-A-Million ten minutes before they opened, and I was first in line to get the first copy of the book they had in stock.
Anyway. The book was fantastic.
A single word of warning: the series is definitely for adults. The language can get a bit...dicey, and there is nigh-constant violence along with some sexuality in each installment. There's no graphic sex or anything, but it's like he makes it a point to always include some scene that's the equivalent of a Bond Girl coming out of a pool in slow motion.
To balance those slight drawbacks, it has the advantage of distilled, concentrated awesome.
A single word of warning: the series is definitely for adults. The language can get a bit...dicey, and there is nigh-constant violence along with some sexuality in each installment. There's no graphic sex or anything, but it's like he makes it a point to always include some scene that's the equivalent of a Bond Girl coming out of a pool in slow motion.
To balance those slight drawbacks, it has the advantage of distilled, concentrated awesome.
For points today, I want to know the first thing that comes into your mind when you hear the word "wizard." It can be a picture, a phrase, whatever. I don't care. But there are +12 juicy-fresh points in it for your first answer.
I'm curious about your first impressions, because Jim Butcher (author of the Dresden Files) thinks one thing, but I think another. And I would like to know if he is even close to right.
Anyway, that's all for now, and thanks for reading!
For some reason I see like a mixture of Zeddicus Z'ul Zorrander and Gandalf. And then on top of that I've played "Mage: the Ascension" which forces your idea of magic to cope around present day. So then I picture them chilling around a modern day house in their wizard robes. lol
ReplyDeleteDude with a beard and a pointy hat, obviously
ReplyDeleteSee, a ton of characters in the Dresden Files, when confronted with the fact that Harry is a wizard, respond with "A wizard? Like, subtle and quick to anger?"
ReplyDeleteAs if everyone in the world is a huge Lord of the Rings fan.
Like you guys, I think "Old guy, long beard, gnarled oak staff, pointy hat" when I hear "wizard." But Jim Butcher kind of...well, I think he forgets that other people AREN'T mythology experts.
So in the last book, when Harry says that he's working for Queen Mab, some random guy goes "THE Queen Mab?"
You know how many people know who Mab is? Like, nobody.
Normally he's pretty good about avoiding that kind of thing, and he tends to remember that most people don't know what a loup-garou is. But there are a couple of times when I'm like...is this character a random guy on a sidewalk, or a folklore professor?
ReplyDeleteTwo things:
ReplyDelete1.) I need more Dresden files.
2.) Aren't finals over? Where is the postings?!
The postings is gone.
ReplyDelete