Starch's Reviews > Storm Front

Very basic and very cliche.

I find myself saying the same things about this kind of book: this is exactly how to NOT write a male power fantasy. (then again, a lot of people like this book. so feel free to ignore me)

Meet Harry Dresden. He's extremely powerful (so you'd think he's cool) but in practice he's really weak, nearly dying no matter whom he fights against (so you'll cheer for him as the underdog). He reports to the reader multiple times on how he acts "like a gentleman" with women, and how he doesn't understand why people think it's creepy. He then complains to the reader on how he always fails with women. Like I wrote in my review to The Name Of The Wind, this could have been an opportunity to let the protagonist realize why people think he's creepy and finally grow up -- but no, the author takes his side...

The plot uses about every cliche possible: The protagonist is an extremely powerful and knowledgeable wizard, but he works as a private investigator (of sorts) and is on the verge of bankruptcy. A murder is committed, and suddenly everyone thinks it's the protagonist (for no good reason. He wasn't even framed or anything). Harry can't call for help because the "white council" of wizards doesn't trust him because of his past, so he has to work alone. Harry has a powerful spirit ally named Bob, who blackmails harry for a day off; and guess what? that's the one day most of the plot takes place in. We get a climax between Harry, one of the most powerful wizards (as we're told), and a guy who barely knows anything about magic. Harry almost dies. It's presented like Harry's disadvantage is because he can't use magic to kill, but that makes little sense -- does he not know any non-lethal spells? after studying for years and possessing immense talents? come on.

We're told Harry is really strong so we'll look up to him, but we're always shown how weak he is so we'll cheer for him as the underdog. He's extremely talented, but he's very poor. He's very honest and a "good guy", but no one trusts him and everyone try to make his life more difficult. He acts like a gentleman with women, but they won't sleep with him. See my point? This is everything wrong with the average nerdy teenager's power fantasy: "All evidence says I'm a loser, but actually I'm secretly very powerful and amazing".

The book makes fun of science for missing all the monsters and wizards that clearly exist in the world. It's one of my least favorite storytelling tropes, especially since it reflects a real sentiment that exists among way too many people ("it's true because my book says so, but science can't see it so science is stupid. And I'm really smart because I see that science is stupid"). It's as if people really can't tell reality from fiction, and I guess that scares me a bit.

The magic itself is completely unimaginative. Mostly Harry just speaks a word and wind/fire/whatever comes to him. There's not even a semblance of originality.

Speaking of originality: it's about an orphan wizard named Harry, who's really-really special but no one believes him and everyone always accuse him whenever something bad happens. He killed a very bad wizard years ago, which is the cause of his reputation. He does magic mainly by speaking single words. There's a clear bad guy in the story, but it turns out he has nothing to do with plot and is only a misdirect by the author.

At the end (spoiler for the same cliche ending you've read a hundred times before): (view spoiler)[ the bad guy dies by his own creation, because the author wanted him out of the picture but also didn't want the protagonist to kill him. At least Harry wanted him to die and didn't try to save him. Had he done that, I would have given this book one star instead of two. (hide spoiler)]

Tried reading this book years ago and couldn't finish it, but people keep recommending it to me, so I decided to give it another shot. I'll try reading the second book, as many say the series improves a lot later on.

Contrary to what this review implies, I didn't hate the book. The prose is solid and the main character has potential. If only it had better plotting, less cliches, and anything even a little original, it could have been alright.