The UM Book Report - Summer Reading: Volume 1 

Summertime is upon us, and for more than a few folks in the world, summer is a time of increased leisure and a lull in our hectic day-to-day.  This is also a time when vacations, summer working hours, or a change in our scholastic habits muck around with our playtime.  As children, we were assigned summer reading projects, so here at Ubique's Monthly we thought: why not take a look at books that might be of specific interest to the role-playing community?

In choosing which books to cover over the next few months, it seemed important to try to find some books that were not as widely known as others.  Many people have heard of and/or read Tolkien's work, Harry Potter, or the Wheel of Time series, so those more popular books will not be reviewed this summer.  The books chosen also needed to be relevant to role-play in some identifiable way.  While it is certainly feasible that someone might want to engage in some Sweet Valley High fan-ficcing, the adventures of those blonde twin girls just don't seem quite as relevant to the world of online-role play, as we know it, so books of that nature were also not considered for this feature.

In talking about these books, the decision was ultimately made to produce spoiler-free reviews.  Many readers enjoy the reveal of finer plot points, particularly in books that have any small degree of mystery in the book.  Nobody wants to learn from a review that Dumbledore is made of German chocolate or that Captain Ahab is Ishmael's baby-daddy.

To kick off the summer season, let us begin with a review of a series collectively known as the Dresden Files.  The series, penned by Jim Butcher, has about the most overtly Rhydinian premise of any story I have ever read outside of a message board.  The premise is that in modern day Chicago, there lives a professional wizard by the name of Harry Dresden.  He is the only wizard in the phone book, and works very much like a private investigator for people with supernatural needs.  In Butcher's very clearly drawn world, today's Chicago collides neatly with magic, vampires, fairies, wizards, and a highly entertaining skull known simply as Bob.

These stories, narrated in the first person, combine elements of fantasy and noir in a way that is engaging and easy to read.  Harry is a smart-ass, and Butcher writes him with appropriate wit and a casual, conversational air.  He makes mistakes.  He has virtues and foibles galore.  He feels utterly human in scope, which can be unusual for a narrator like Harry.  Aware of his weakness for a pretty face, or anything female and distressed, Harry still allows an overblown and archaic sense of chivalry to pull him, time and time again, into impossibly stupid situations. 

Another thing that Butcher writes surprisingly well are women.  In this genre, few male writers seem to be able to write a fully realized and layered female character.  Karrin Murphy, another very prominent character in the series, is not a devastatingly attractive, unforgivingly feminine counterpart to the dry and witty Harry Dresden.  Murphy is tough, and she's earned it.  She is a good shot and a better human.  She manages to hold down a thankless and difficult job running Chiacgo's Special Investigations unit without withering into the realm of cop-story cliché.  She even manages to hold her own against some pretty dangerous elements of the supernatural. 

Susan Rodriguez fills the Lois Lane role in this series, and she is equally engaging.  Empirically attractive, she uses her wiles to help her in her career as a reporter for a tabloid (one of the only publications that ever accurately covers supernatural events).  She is the other side of the coin; a feminine, but driven and independent woman who makes a lovely romantic interest for Harry.  Their relationship blooms slowly over the course of the novels, and it is nice to see an author that does not need his characters to be madly in love with one another by the end of the very first book.

Having vanilla mortals, like Murphy and Susan, in the cast of characters also provides an excellent device that Butcher can use to explain the magical physics of his universe.  This helps to break up much of the exposition that naturally must occur in a setting where the rules are markedly different from reality.  Again, because Harry is so casual and conversational, the rules are explained pretty clearly, and by the end of the first book, the reader has a pretty good grasp of how magic works in Harry Dresden's Chicago.  None of the magic feels particularly groundbreaking or original, but the combination of different traditions works very well.  There is also logic in his magic, with exchange of energies, and ways that the craft can be honed. 

The political world of the supernatural is also fodder for excitement in his books.  Different magical beings are aligned differently, which feels like an appropriate nod to your favorite tabletop adventure.  Fairies are allied to a Summer or Winter queen.  Vampires belong to different courts, and their lineage gives them different powers and even markedly different methods of feeding.  Even the human wizards have a council, complete with laws that are enforced within the magical community.  It is entertaining to see these world collide with the Chicago Police Department (and in Fool Moon, the FBI).

My primary complaint about this series is universal to any series of this nature: the plots and the format of the books is extremely formulaic.  Like an adventure television series or a James Bond movie, they can be neatly broken into acts.

 

(Editor's Note: This is exactly spot on. While reading the first book, I remember telling my husband, "I feel like I'm reading the show."  Important to note that this entire concept was once made into a television series aired on SciFi known as the Dresden Files.  Much to my dismay, it is no longer running.)

 

In act one, the hero is presented with a strange situation and a compelling reason to get to the bottom of it.  In act two, the hero finds out he is in over his head.  In act three, the stakes are raised by some direct threat.  In act four, he figures out who the bad guy is, and in act five, he whoops some ass.  At least the first four books seem to follow this format pretty faithfully, but again, this is the nature of any serial. 

What Butcher lacks in original plotlines or new magical concepts, he certainly makes up for with a generous wealth of interesting characters.  Not only does he have a veritable rogues gallery of dangerous would-be villains and monsters, he surrounds the likable Harry Dresden with believable allies and colleagues who have the good sense to grow, change, make mistakes, act more intelligently than our hero, and occasionally die.

All in all, Butcher's eerily Rhydinian looking version of Chicago is not a terrible place to spend a few hours.  Strong one-liners, great characters, and observation of successful conventions makes the series enjoyable, and ideal for a morning with a paperback at the beach, or a rainy day in.  I will be checking out the rest of the ten-book series, down the line.

Do you have a science fiction or fantasy book or series that is so unbelievably awesome that you want to share?  Or, perhaps you have such contempt for an unforgivably terrible piece of fiction that you would like to see it ripped to shreds in a scathing amateur review!  In either case, I am taking suggestions, particularly for good books that might be outside of the public's general awareness.  Just drop by Mutual Endeavors to fill my suggestion box, or feel free to e-mail me directly at:  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it