Harry Dresden: Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

Discovery.

Where to start when talking about one of my most favorite literary character's of "The Dresden Files"? From the beginning I suppose. I was first introduced to the wizard a little late in the game when several of the novels had been out already. The Syfy channel (then Sci-Fi, and good...) bought the rights to make it into a television series. The advertisements had peaked my interest because they showed this guy who happened to be a wizard in modern Chicago and I wasn't aware of the sub-genre of urban fantasy yet. Anyways, it looked like a promising program. My first clue that it was going to be a bad series should have been when I saw in the opening credits that Nicolas Cage was a producer, but I didn't know any better then yet. The acting wasn't bad though, they cast a British guy Paul Blackthorne to play Harry, and let's face it British actors are superior. However there was something missing in the show and it was in the writing. They didn't seem to treat the source material seriously and it reflected in the scripts. Also the made his wizard's staff a hockey stick which I thought was dumb even though I like hockey enough. Like any show with crappy writing the show only lasted one semi-season of 12 disappointing episodes. Needless to say the show left a bad taste in my mouth and I thought if the show was that bad than books might not be that great either, obviously I didn't know much about Hollywood then and their history of bastardizing works of literature.

Re-discovery.

I forgot about The Dresden Files for along time after that, I think for about 2 or 3 years actually until I hit the internet one night. I was reading some article on one of the Twilight films at one of the forums I frequent and I decided to let loose a reasonable argument of why Edward Cullen was not a true gentleman, and stupid, in the comments section. However I was beat to the punch by somebody else and she said a better example of a gentleman was Harry Dresden, a man who was so chivalrous that it often was what got him in serious trouble. I thought to myself that I should try to give the books another chance especially if someone was using them to bash Twilight. Twilight stinks. Again though I forgot about the books for a while and instead I read the Watchmen which I got as a gift. Then I read a pretty good Christian book called Ruthless Trust, but after those two I read the official sequel to Dracula which stunk to the high heavens. After that I was yearning for a good book and finally I picked up the first novel in the Dresden Files series called Storm Front and I could not put it down, thus started my obsession. I read all of the published 13 books in about nine months.

Harry.

What I like about Harry is that he doesn't compromise on his values. That quality also is what gets him in trouble though. Being a wizard private detective dealing with the supernatural sometimes you might need to find a gray area, but not in Harry's case. With his sense of integrity he has burned a lot of bridges between beings he could have had a reasonable relationship with, even if had meant looking the other way on things he didn't like, but he doesn't have a problem with those burnt bridges. His black and white viewpoints also have alienated the wizarding council he belongs to. The council prefers to keep a bureaucratic and sometimes blind eye approach to diplomacy, where as Harry would just rather do the right thing. He would rather do the right thing so much that one of his most powerful enemies, mocking him, made Harry a headstone that reads "Here lies Harry Dresden: He died doing the right thing". Harry's sense of integrity has also built up a lot of strong and loyal friendships like Karen Murphy, a Chicago police detective, and some truly unlikely allies in within the supernatural world of the books, like his own army of magical sprites who call him The "Za Lord" due to his payment of pizza's to them and the "Knights of the Cross" who are like holy warriors who brandish special swords supposedly sent from God.

Another thing about Harry is that he has absolutely no idea just how powerful he actually is. With every book he does things more and more powerful than the last, which is normal obviously for story progression reasons, but they all have so much substance and yet simplicity to them. I think a lot of the other wizards know how strong he is though, especially on the council and they dare not reveal it to him because I think they are scared of him or what he could do if he every realized it. He can cast huge spells yes, but that's not where all his power lies, he is also smart as a whip and a great improviser. With one of his most powerful spells he pretty much started a war with the vampires and with one of his most powerful ideas he ended the war. His steadfast loyalty to his friends also give him power and it gives them power in return he is constantly risking his life to saves the ones he loves.

I know what you're saying. "but it's a fantasy book". I realize that a lot of people these days might not take fantasy to seriously, but the author Jim Butcher really has built up a solid and strong character as well as a world within these books. Jim Butcher also spent a lot of time researching old fairy tales and myths of several cultures to incorporate into the books and uses them smartly. He is also geek friendly, he was inspired by a lot of the values JRR Tolkien wrote about in The Lord of the Rings, and he has a background playing D&D, but he doesn't really use that kind of writing style, that is to say he doesn't say things like "and then gorgoth summoned flimboz of the eternal flame to smite his enemies!". In fact he makes light of that kind of thing in one book which where he is confronting a billy goat gruff (yes that's what I said)

"Would thou likest Jelly upon they donut?"

"Nay, prithee sprinkles 'pon it, and frosting of white."

Anyways there are a lot of times when I find myself laughing out loud, or saying what the fudge, and even tearing up a little. If you have ever flirted with the idea of reading fantasy or urban fantasy than I strongly recommend you start with The Dresden Files.