| "Storm Front" Review By Kuzibah |
| Decription: A review of the audio-book "Storm Front" by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters. Archive- Please email request. Feedback- Absolutely. ******************* As some of you may have noticed, one of the banners popping up here in Voy-land is an ad for the audio book "Storm Front," written by Jim Butcher and read by James Marsters. I just finished this recently, and thought I'd tell you about it. First, I strongly suspect JM did this reading a couple of years ago to pay the bills between jobs and the company is now taking advantage of his cult noteriety. I've personally never seen the reader's picture featured on the front of an audio-book before, and I can't find a copyright date anywhere on this thing, plus the packaging has a very quickly-thrown-together feel. Not that there's anything wrong with all this, it's just an observation.* The story concerns Harry Dresden, a wizard/private eye living and working in Chicago. In this universe demons and monsters exist and magic works, but most people just aren't aware of it. The police know, some reporters know, but for the most part humans and magic never meet and everyone's happy to keep it that way. Harry has his own wizard-for-hire agency, but most people think it's some kind of joke. He also helps the police solve occult-related crimes, but a number of them doubt his authenticity, as well. As the story begins, he gets two cases at once: a missing husband who dabbled in the dark arts, and two people killed by magical means. Are these cases ultimately related? Does Sam Spade wear a slouchy hat? Harry is definitely in the hard-boiled detective tradition. He wisecracks, he flirts with the ladies, he's got a mysterious and dangerous past. But he's also a wizard. Magic is real, and he's good at it. He carries a magic ward alongside his revolver and mixes up potions to carry along on a case. I liked that Butcher set up definite rules for magic and sticks to them, and the plot is lively and entertaining. But he really needs to work on his craft as a writer. A lot of the writing is static, descriptive passages are rather perfunctory, and there are a lot of cliches. One of the "hard-boiled detective" trademarks is the descriptive metaphor, but Butcher needs help. In this book, if something is stiff, it's "stiff as a board." If someone goes white, he's "white as a sheet." One or two of these are okay, but after awhile they're annoying. I don't want a woman's legs "long and lovely." I want legs that would "make a Bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window" (thanks, Raymond Chandler). But this is a minor quibble, and the book overall is fun enough that I ordered the sequels from Amazon to read on the train. Marsters, as I said, is excellent, and if you're a fan the book is worth a listen just to hear him act out the two dozen or so characters, from the laid-back Harry, the tough lady cop, the damsel in distress, the hooker with a heart of gold, the vampire femme-fatale, the disembodied spirit that resides inside a skull, and the five-inch-high fairy snitch, among others. Granted, at $45 it's a little pricey, but the holidays are coming, so it doesn't hurt to get a request into Santa early. *Update- JM has since recorded book 2 in the series, "Fool Moon," so I amend my previous observation, and now think he either has some connection with the company, or as he's mentioned in interviews, he's trying to get into voice-over work. Main Menu ~ Return to Odds and Ends Menu |