Well, technically, I read Storm Front and Fool Moon last year, but then my interest waned. From what I've gathered around the interwebz, the first two books are among the less impressive ones, though outside of generalizations opinions vary, as opinions do.

DF is a big part of DLP and I decided to try it again to see just what this thing is about. I'm even willing to push myself through it a bit. Not everything I've ever liked was love at first sight.

As I posted in the TOMD thread, I finished Grave Peril some hours ago and began Summer Knight not long after. Here's me sharing my thoughts on the series so far.

I liked Storm Front. It introduced some interesting things. Bob, the toad demon, the potion whipped up using literal money for the sexfactor (that one was pure gold), the novelty (well, to me it was novel) of a wizard semi-openly working as a supernatural PI and the leather duster prone to billowing in the wind. All that was awesome.

I enjoyed how the little things came together in the finale. Victor's Sells wife at the beginning just dropping by the office, then Dresden is whisked away to a scene of grisly murder and in the end those two cases turn out to be parts of a bigger whole.

For some reason, I found Fool Moon a chore. I can't really pinpoint why, the plot didn't suck me in. I swallowed Storm Front in two days, Fool Moon took me a week. I'm not hating here - okay, maybe a bit - but I just found it boring. And the multitude of werewolf types seemed unnecessarily complicated.

So, Fool Moon put me off the series for a long while. Then, last weekend, I decided to give it one more try. Grave Peril was miles ahead of Fool Moon. I wished there was a potion in this one too, but the vampire party in the middle was pretty awesome.

The Nightmare was a cool villain. Interesting idea and while the motive was, at heart, a typical revenge plot, it had enough of a twist that I paid little attention to that small detail. And in the end, the true villain turned out to be Bianca, which I liked. I like a good political subplot and I hope the Red Court/White Council war will get more than just a background mention in subsequent books.

The one thing I found, let's say, unconvincing, was Leanandsidhe. For this looming, threatening figure, she showed up too much and Dresden tricked her too easily for my liking.

I'm very early into Summer Knight as of right now, but if I'm to judge this early, the plot already seems more interesting than the previous three books put together. Also, maybe it's because I was coming straight from Grave Peril, where Lea, Bianca, Justine and Lydia got plenty of words dedicated to describing how hot they were, that I found Mab's introduction a little repetitive (she's unearthly beautiful, yup, got it) and her literal Ice Queen persona has left me... ambivalent, but I'm reading ahead.

I want to Discuss All The Things, but obviously without spoilers.

 

I very much had to force myself to finish book one and book two. I actually skipped three entirely, because I had heard the first three weren't really worth bothering with.

The rest of the series was amazing, and I lost a solid week just reading each subsequent book, one after another. Not knowing what happened in the third book still trips me up a little even now, but ultimately I don't think I missed anything that wasn't recapped elsewhere.

Glad you're joining us on the magical DF ride, Scott. I don't think you'll regret it.

 

Book Four was where it stopped being a chore and became legitimately fun for me to read. There isn't really a bad book after that. If it's too much, you can just skip to Dead Beat, book seven. It was his first hardcover, and is written in such a way as to be a starting book for people who want to skip the first six.

 

Hah, this made me chuckle.

Scott, you should totally update this thread with your thoughts on each book. I'd enjoy reading your reactions as you come to realize why this series is as loved as it is.

Books didn't truly pick until 5-7 for me. But after that they quickly became some of the best books I've ever read.

I actually found books 1-5 much better on a reread, once you start to get an idea of the scope of everything, there's a quite a bit going on in the background that you don't really realize on the first read through.

 

I got stuck on book two for a while, too. Past it, I kept devouring about a book a week. Glad to see more people read the books. The fandom needs every boost it could possibly get.

Soon you will learn of the OTP and all its glory.

 

The Dresden Files is pure awesomeness.
I finished the whole series in around three weeks.(my wallet felt very light for quite some time) I couldn't remember doing anything else in the hols.

I don't know why DF doesn't have much popularity as some other fandoms which aren't as good as it.

 

Jim Butcher himself stated recently on his AMA that he recommend people start on book 7. That sounds ridiculous to me, to just skip the first 6 books which contain a lot of semi-important plot stuff, but I can see why he would say it.

Fool Moon is a chore because it might be the worst book in the entire series. There's not a single interesting character in it, and you just want to choke Murphy the entire time for being retarded.

 

Awesome to see someone else diving in. And yeah, I always suggest folks skip books one and two... especially two. Least organic story in the series, just feels... off. I always skip it on a re-read. But Grave Peril is where things get good... and that party. According to Jim, a dozen books later, the consequences of things that happened that night - some of which Harry himself did not witness - are still playing out. So, don't skip that book.

And I second the request that you do a book-by-book review. Love to see your thoughts on each one.

 

I have a feeling people just want to see me go OMGWTF when I get to an appropriately mind-screwing moment.

 

Does that mean you aren't gonna do it?

 

Of course I am. I wouldn't deny fellow DLPrs entertainment.

 

I am going to enjoy the shit out of you reading Dead Beat. :3

 

I am with you, ScottPress .Book one and two didn't really make it for me but I'll power through and see what the hype is about.

 

I had to force myself through the two first books too, took some breaks, but the third one was decently interesting, and the series got really good and interesting after that. Only one bad book (Ghost Story) since then. But Dresden Files is definitely one of my favorite series now. It gets really epic at times, and the characters grow up a lot along the way. The scale and intensity just keep getting higher every book. Looking back, the early books are really lite.

Well, enjoy the series. And do share your thoughts, it's always fun to read~

 

I never really had a problem getting through the first few books, though Fool Moon was kind of weak.

 

I was just saying in the TOMD3 thread that I recently began a reread as well, and what a happy coincidence. Having read all of them, seeing Harry destroy Morgan in the very first book with nothing more than a chair was glorious.

I wonder if that was a situation where he was still working out the mechanics of the world and it was something anomalous that would never occur later on, or could never occur.

 

I just completed Grave Peril myself for the first time yesterday. The party was all sorts of awesome, though some of the events that followed seemed a bit too easy for Dresden to handle, when by all rights given the state he was in they shouldn't have been.