This series was not at the top of my list, I only just found out about it this year, I love Laurell K Hamilton’s books which led me to Richard Kadrey’s works which eventually led me to here. The first book was slow and very average, but it does it’s job of setting the scene and the rest of the series is amazing.
The series centres on Chicago’s only “Professional Wizard”, in this world vampires, faeries and spirits are all real, and while not mainstream they are something that Harry Dresden PI (the main character), has to deal with on a day to day basis.
Before I go any further I want to stress how much I love this series, it fills that fantasy niche that crosses with the real world, it has a male lead (which I find helps me empathise slightly), and the lead is in my age range.
In saying that this series does has its flaws. The lead is a misogynistic chauvinist who is prone to verbalising mild homophobia. This could be just a character flaw, and while I never condone Homophobia, especially not careless flippant homophobia, I overlooked it in light of the story line which at the time was not concluded.
The way women are portrayed as damsels in the series could be interpreted as insulting and demeaning, but again the story is told from a first person point of view so maybe its just a character flaw?
It’s the first book series I’ve ever been this conflicted about, great writing is supposed to inspire thought though and that’s definitely what this series did. If you’re a young adult and a guy who’s into the whole supernatural thing (and I am), then this series is for you.
Note: The image for this post is from the comic book series which is also a great read, the benefits of the comic books are that the artist was heaps nicer about what Harry Dresden looks like than my imagination was.