Review of Storm Front by Jim Butcher

The first thing to remember when reading a book is that you have to go into the story with an open mind. The world you find in the pages of a book is a place where anything (literally anything!) can happen. I do have a hard time going into something with an open mind. I enjoy Jim Butcher’s books, specifically his Codex Alera series. That’s why I’ve had such a hard time finally opening the pages of the Dresden Files (It’s another world that I couldn’t see falling into the beautiful writing of the Codex Alera). But now I have and I must say that I’m quite impressed. I’m completely open minded when it comes to genre, but for some reason I fell that every writer should stick to a certain genre at the very least. Jim Butcher is very quickly changing my mind about this (and yes I know that both the Codex Alera and the Dresden Files fall technically into the same genre! But one is pure fantasy, the other is modern fantasy. Writing both takes talent.)

The book I read so grudgingly was Storm Front, and despite my preconceived notions, it was a truly wonderful book (and yes Chew I know I should trust your taste in novels more.). Here is a quote from the first chapter that made me realize that I was going to love this book:

“Science, the largest religion of the twentieth century, had become somewhat tarnished by images of exploding space shuttles, crack babies, and a generation of complacent Americans who had allowed the television to raise their children.”

I learned long ago that you find truth in books among the well spun fiction. Now the reason I loved this book as much as I did was because of the reality I saw (not something I normally look for in books, just for the record). Here is how I generally saw the book (giving a little away as possible):

Harry Dresden is a wizard living in Chicago, who is barely getting by. He makes his living as a sort of private detective and police consultant. His bitter, sarcastic and generally the type of guy you don’t know whether to laugh at or pop in the face. When he consults for the police department he work with Detective Murphy (short, blond, very hardcore female detective) who deals mostly in mysterious and unexplainable murders (she’s like a special homicide detective). Dresden is her ‘ace in the hole’ on these cases. She tries her best not to ask to many question about how Dresden does what he does (and fails, because after all, she is human). Then there is Bob, who is an elemental who lives in a skull in Dresden’s lab. He’s a pain in the ass, he gets into tons of trouble when Dresden lets him out, so Dresden never lets him out. Bob is basically the potion’s master of the book, he knows all the recipes and Dresden just doesn’t have the memory for all of that.

Dresden is working two cases in this book, one is for the Police Department and one is for a very frightened and fidgety woman who wants to find her husband. The case that Dresden is working on with Detective Murphy is a gruesome murder of two individuals (one of which has ties to the mob). The murders very obviously involve black (or dark) magic, which Dresden knows quite a bit about. Now there are a few obstacles in Dresden’s way (one of which is Morgan, a warden for the White Council, who has it in for Dresden).

Now one little spoiler for you, these cases become intertwined at some point in the novel, but that’s all I’ll say. Other than that you’re going to have to read to find out. There is mystery, one very sexy and dangerous situation, fairies and lots of magic. This book is worth the read, and that’s something that I will guarantee on my own reputation. Pick it up, give it a try, and I’m sorry I couldn’t give you more information, but I feel it would spoil the enjoyment of reading the book.

Review of Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

Ok, so I got the idea of doing book reviews a little more than 7 months ago, but I never did anything with it. Nothing that I have been reading in the past few months really merited the idea of a book review. That is, until I read Unseen Academicals, the latest Disc World novel but Terry Pratchett. Now I’ve always been a huge Terry Pratchett fan, but this book was by far his greatest novel yet.
Now it’s possible to pick up any Disc World novel and enjoy it without feeling too lost, but most of them fall into a certain story line (the witches, Sam Vimes, Rincewind, Death and Susan, and Tiffany Aching). This particular book is a standalone novel set in Disc World. My favorite thing about this book is the fact that he mentioned some minor characters from past novels (Oats, Lady Margolotta) and of course there are the ever present characters of Archchancellor Ridicully, Lord Vetinari, and the Librarian (who is not a wizard but a orangutan). At first appearance the main character seems to be Mr. Nutt, which is true to a certain extent, but as you continue to read the novel starts to follow more the actions of Glenda than of Mr. Nutt directly. Glenda is a cook in the Unseen University, which, if you are a Terry Pratchett fan, you know is run by wizards, headed up by the magnificent Archchancellor Mustrum Ridicully.
Here is a general outline of the book as done by me:
This book is about football which is played in the streets as American football, where violence is ever present. The wizards have discovered that in order to receive a certain amount of money that they have to play a game of football or as it is called “poor boy’s fun.” Vetinari, who is a tyrant in an odd sort of way, has his hand in basically everything agrees to support the game if the rules are reverted back to that which they originally came (what the rest of the world refers to as football).
Now down on the streets football is almost like law. Certain teams hate each other. This brings about a bit of a Romeo and Juliet story between Trev and, oddly enough, Juliet, who both support different teams. Glenda is Juliet’s next door neighbor, best friend, and basically her conscience. Glenda has gotten so used to making all of Juliet’s decisions for her that she is afraid to let her friend make any decisions of her own. Glenda meets Trev’s friend Mr. Nutt and finds him to be polite and kind. She takes some pity of him and starts giving him the odd pie out (as I said, she’s a cook, and a master at pie making).
As the story progresses there are a lot of odd things that happen (Mr. Nutt is an odd duck and starts training the Unseen University’s team, the Unseen Academicals, Juliet wants to be a fashion model, and Glenda, who is always used to being in the background, grows a spine and starts doing things she normally wouldn’t even dream of doing.) which all leads up to the big game at the end (with the new rules in place.). I won’t tell you who wins the game or how exactly (but Glenda helps), because I actually want you to read this book to find out.
I summed up the whole middle of the book for that very reason. Read the book, it’s worth it! It will make you laugh, and there is an orangutan, a skeleton, one necromancer (*cough* excuse me, I mean Post-Mortem Communications professor), orcs, a vampire, and some really big bullies. It is all very ‘magical.’
That’s about all I can say without giving a majority of the plot away, so read it, enjoy it, and tell me what other books you’d like me to read and then “review.”