More fangirling about the Dresden Files books

[sholio]

I've now finished books 1, 3 and 4 -- never did read book 2 since B&N didn't have it, and I figured I'd rather go on and find out what happens next rather than going back and getting caught up. I can always get caught up later.

OMG, I love Murphy! She's awesome! I didn't really get into her much in books 1 or 3; in 3 she basically spent the book comatose, and in book 1 she was a pretty typical tough-gal sidekick, though the handcuff scene was fun.

But in book 4 she totally kicks ASS. Murphy going up against a magic-proof troll and a nearly-unkillable plant monster with a chain saw -- that just sent me into stratospheric realms of EEEEE! I love her! I've always had this huge soft spot for the "normal person" among the cool people -- the nonmagical person in a room full of magic users, the non-badass person in a cast full of tough fighters, or whatnot. Murphy is, of course, badass in her way, but I love that there is nothing magical about her and yet she's still smart, resourceful, brave and resilient enough to deal with Harry's world.

Plus she's about my height. Us short people have to stick together. *grin*

I'm also falling more and more for Harry. One thing in fiction that really sucker-punches me is a character who has every reason NOT to be a self-sacrificing person and yet does these amazingly self-sacrificing things with no hope of getting anything back -- that is, incidentally, something that gets me from time to time on SGA, too. It's interesting how often in the Dresden books Harry is offered a choice between doing the safe/easy/pleasant thing, or the thing that's hard and painful and likely to get him killed, but *right* -- and of course he takes the hard road (admittedly with rather disastrous consquences at the end of book 3).

There are also a lot of very cool, for lack of a better term, "mental special effects" in this series. The battle between the Summer and Winter queens of Faery; Harry channeling lightning; transforming werewolves and Harry's long black coat and penthouse jungles and skulls with glowing eyes and Michael swinging his sword; it's just a very visually rich series, which sounds odd considering that it's all taking place in my head, but then, I have an overactive imagination. *grin*

At this point, I'm kind of torn on the TV series. I think they've done a marvelous job of casting Harry, but I wasn't crazy about the first episode and I'm too into the books right now to do my "bookverse/movieverse" mental divide. I've done it without difficulty before (e.g. Red Dwarf, X-Men and others), so I'm sure I'll enjoy the show just fine once I finish reading the books, but I really need to finish up the books beforehand.

They are also very bad for my ability to get either "serious" writing or fanfic done! No new chapters on "Fading Sun" ... I was reading Dresden instead. *sigh*

Comments

[angw.livejournal.com]

I have seen the posts (not read though) about the Dresden files on LJ. I watched the first 6 episodes last week and was a little torn. I really like Bob. But, the whole thing seems like a cross between a cop show and a grown up Harry Potter; there is still some sort of governing body over the magic, a supernatural theme and Dresden has a secret in his past.

I am contemplating reading the series.

[sholio]

I'd recommend giving the books a try; of course, I have been reading the books and not watching the series, so I *would* say that. The books have a kind of weird goofball charm to them that the series doesn't quite capture (based on the exactly ONE episode I've seen so far). However, "cross between a cop show and Harry Potter" actually does sum it up pretty well -- well, more like a classic film-noir detective kind of deal with magic thrown in. They're not really *deep* books, but they are fun.

[angw.livejournal.com]

Sweet. Will do, one of these days.

[sol-se.livejournal.com]

I'm also reading the books *covers eyes to avoid spoilers* I'm on book 3. And I completely agree with your previous post about him being a punching bag. Wow. I honestly can't think of any other character who gets hurt quite as much! I also agree that the show is missing *something.* I can't really put my finger on what, but it's just not capturing me like the first book did. I'm a few episodes behind though, so maybe it's gotten better.

[sholio]

I really can't believe how much he gets beat up! *grin* Book 3 seems to be the worst for that, at least so far. I agree with you that I can't think of any other fictional character who suffers that much trauma in such a small space of time, except maybe Bruce Willis in the Die Hard movies.

[rogue-pudding.livejournal.com]

Popping out of Lurkerdom to say I'm glad you're enjoying the books. I started reading the Dresden Files about a year ago and Jim is now one of the only writers who I will bother to get while his books are still hardcover; instead of waiting for softcover.

[Pauses to count the days until White Night (book 9) is available]

You should definitely pick up Fool Moon (book 2) as soon as possible, it's a really good book and plus, after reading Summer Knight, it would be good to know where Billy came from.

If you think you've seen hurt you haven't seen anything yet.

Anyway; cheers and I hope you give your thoughts on the rest of the books as you go through them.