Amber's Reviews > Storm Front

This book was terrible. The kind of terrible where I had to force myself to read the last half in a day just so I could be done reading it. The kind of terrible that made me reevaluate all the ratings of books I have previously given because I remembered what type of book I save one star ratings for. The kind of terrible where I roll my eyes at least once per page. The kind of terrible where I literally throw the book across the room when I'm done both out of frustration and out of the primitive impulse that I needed to get it the hell away from me as fast as possible. That kind of terrible.

There was not a single aspect of this book that I felt was done well. It tried to be a fantasy/detective story (which I believe is an intriguing concept), but it kinda failed at being both. It certainly wasn't a great fantasy story; the whole appeal of this type of fantasy is seeing how magic is performed and, more importantly, how it interacts with our world. But while the rules of Butcher's magic system were somewhat well explained when they were actually brought up, I never really felt like the system as a whole was clearly defined, and because of this, I was never entirely sure what was and wasn't possible. Sometimes rules would be established, only to be ignored later. (view spoiler)[e.g. the whole "it's bad juju" to enter a house uninvited, even though I'm going to do it at least twice with no consequences whatsoever. (hide spoiler)] And I swear that in just about every situation in which Harry had to use magic (and there weren't as many as I thought there would be considering this is a book about a wizard) he would say/think something along the lines of "I'm too exhausted/wounded to produce enough energy for magic." Yet he would still somehow manage to create magic. Every. Time. It got to the point where I really had no idea what his limits actually were or where he was pulling this energy from. (view spoiler)[With the possible exception of pulling energy from the storm (hide spoiler)], I had to read under the assumption that wizards can just pull some hidden reserve of energy out of their ass whenever they are in trouble, which both destroys the tension in these situations and completely confuses me as to what wizards are and aren't capable of doing. The magic that was produced in this book wasn't even that innovative or inspired: fireballs, protective walls, demon summoning, a couple of objects thrown around, etc, but nothing was used in a way I hadn't seen done somewhere else (and usually executed better). (view spoiler)[I will give Butcher props, though, for using the whole "animated cleaning broom" spell in an actual fight. Thank you for at least having the courage to play with one trope. (hide spoiler)] Besides that, the magic just felt unoriginal and poorly defined.

This book wasn't a particularly good mystery either, in my opinion. For starters, I found myself actually bored more often than not, which I think should be pretty hard to pull off considering we are following the exploits of a wizard who is solving murders. How do you make that boring? Beats the hell out of me, but Butcher managed it. There were only really three or four scenes that I would label as action/fight sequences. In 352 pages. Okay; I kinda expected more out of a wizard story, but whatever. Maybe the story is about all the exciting detectiving he gets to do? No. He does little in the way of detective work besides make phone calls (the man makes a lot of frickin' phone calls), which is, you know, obviously what I was excited to read about going in. Not interrogating people or finding clues. Just phone calls. Other than that, he just kinda muddles around until a piece of the puzzle falls in his lap, which leads to point two: the revelations in this mystery were either blatantly obvious to everyone but the protagonist (view spoiler)[(No freaking duh the two cases were connected. Did anyone not have that figured out halfway through or sooner?) (hide spoiler)] or the evidence and background information leading up to it were so vague that I have no idea how anyone could realistically have connected the pieces. (view spoiler)[I keep reading that section where Harry and Murphy decide the killer is also the supplier of the ThreeEye drug, and I just have trouble following their train of logic. (hide spoiler)] Their reasoning felt forced and contrived, and I'm not sure how I could ever have reasoned that out on my own, which I think is bad mystery. When pieces are fit together, it should make sense with the background information given. We should go "I can't believe I missed that!" instead of "Oh. Alrighty then." The puzzle pieces shouldn't have to be forcefully rammed together.

But while not accomplishing either of the things it tried to be certainly didn't help this book's cause, the real reason I couldn't make myself like it is that fact that I really couldn't stand a single character. There were only a couple of characters, in my opinion, that even had the hint of a personality. Besides Murphy and Dresden himself (and possiblely Bob the Skull, who was the only character I didn't want to punch in the mouth), the characters were either boring clichés (Carmichael, Mac, et al.) or sexist clichés (every single female character including, to a lesser degree, Murphy herself). But while Murphy was sometimes badass/a strong female character, her good qualities were vastly overwhelmed by her stereotypical ones and the fact she was a bully more often than not. Almost every time she interacted with Harry she either insulted, threatened, or physically abused him. Harry acted like it wasn't a big deal and that she was really a good friend even though she's aggressive, but I don't buy into that. (view spoiler)[Like her physically shoving him into a wall when he doesn't give her information and then trying to arrest him. I know he was withholding information, but can't she just trust that he had a good reason because he is her friend? That's not how friends treat one another, if you ask me. (hide spoiler)]

And now for the man himself: Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Wizard extraordinaire and perhaps one of the most unlikeable characters I have ever encountered. He was (mostly) a competent wizard, but he was not a competent human being. The numerous aspects of his personality that I could not stand are perhaps best organized into a list.

1)His freaking chauvinism- I had heard about this going in, and I told myself I wouldn't let it bother me because that was just an aspect of this particular character. But it did bother me. A LOT. Part of my problem is that I expected deliberate chauvinism, chauvinism that was fictional. I mean, there were a few instances of a character pointing out Harry's tendency toward this, but most of the chauvinism was very subtle, and if Butcher's otherwise blunt, straightforward writing in this book is any indication of his skill, then I honestly don’t believe he was capable of deliberately making the chauvinism this subtle. For example, almost every time a woman was described, the adjective "feminine" was used. "With a feminine pout..." or "with a movement that oozed feminine grace" or "she wore a look that made her seem more feminine." Every time he had an interaction with a woman. EVERY TIME. I'm pretty sure there was not a single female character that wasn't described as being overly feminine in some way. Another example would be how every woman was described almost exclusively by her looks, which were usually very "feminine": "Her delicate little lady's hands…" and so on, and they were all beautiful or drop dead sexy in one way or another. Besides Murphy, none of them had anything but the shadow of a personality beyond their looks besides the usual tropes: hooker with a heart of gold, timid housewife, etc. So I guess all of the female characters existed for the sole purpose of being sexy. There was even a scene where Harry had "accidentally" invited two women over at the same time; he was going out on a date with one, and the other was going to give him information on the case. It would seem logical enough that you would explain the situation to the one you are going out on a date with (who arrived first), especially seeing as how you weren't intending to go out with both of them. But Harry didn't tell her! He just ran around trying to get ready thinking "Boy, things are going to get catty in here." Because, you know, every woman reacts to these situations with a cat-fight. And the whole circumstance was not only chauvinistic, but it reeked of some sort of sexual fantasy. It kinda felt like the opposite of that female teenage love triangle bullshit. Two women are about to have a catfight over me! Well, I see you aren't taking any steps whatsoever to prevent it, either. Don't flatter yourself, asshole. God, these situations and examples just didn't feel all that fictional to me. Whether deliberate or not, though, they annoyed the hell out of me. It is hard to like a character who constantly views themselves as superior than the opposite sex.

2)He was a tool- Sorry, but it's true. Passive characters also tend to annoy the hell out of me, and Harry Dresden was one of them. Every character ordered him around in one way or another, and he usually just took it. (view spoiler)[Susan forcing him into a date, Murphy forcing him to do this investigation into something that will probably get him killed, Bob forcing him to make certain potions, the White Council forcing him to watch his step (which is the most legitimate of these) (hide spoiler)], and he barely puts up any resistance. "Doing this will probably get me killed, but okay." You aren't going to at least try to explain that you have very legitimate reasons not to do this? "She is probably just going out with me to get information, but okay." STOP BEING A TOOL! "I can't say no to a damsel in distress." First of all, this brings us back to the chauvinism complaint. Second, stop letting people walk all over you! It is hard to respect a character who is an active doormat.

3)His "snarky wisecracks"- These were sort of a hit and miss for me; sometimes they were hilarious, but more often they were annoying as hell. The problem was he did them ALL. THE. TIME. And because Harry was the first-person narrator, these "witticisms" weren't limited to dialogue. We had the joy of riding inside his head where we were able to listen to his snark 24-7. It just didn't work for me. It was partly because most of the time these wisecracks were not funny or charming. He's almost like a comic relief character without the serious foil character to balance him out, and comic relief characters by themselves are often more annoying than charming. Look at the fourth Pirates movie On Stranger Tides. Jack Sparrow crossed the line from witty, charming, and funny to annoying as all shit. That was because having comic relief characters without their foil DOES. NOT. WORK. Listening to it constantly isn't funny; it's annoying. Shut up. Most of his humor was also very juvenile and immature, and he would sometimes wisecrack at rather inappropriate times. (view spoiler)[Like when Morgan gave him mouth-to-mouth and saved his life in the end. Dresden woke up from, you know, almost dying and said "You gave me mouth-to-mouth? Ew! Give me some mouthwash." That is only slight paraphrasing. He almost literally said that word for word. (hide spoiler)] First of all, that isn't even funny. Not even a little. That is elementary school "You have cooties!" level humor. This is a book for freaking adults. It contains mature themes, swear words, and a dark tone and is marketed for adults. So do you seriously expect your audience to laugh at "You're gross!" playground humor? Second, (view spoiler)[THIS MAN JUST SAVED YOUR PATHETIC, USELESS EXCUSE FOR A LIFE! And Dresden's first emotion isn't awe or new-found respect or gratitude for the person who brought him back from the brink of death. Not even for a moment; he just jumps straight back into his snark. Even almost dying can't penetrate his ego. (hide spoiler)] Very telling of Harry's character. And I don't likes what I sees.

4)His strange combination of self-deprecation and arrogance-
Okay. On the one hand, he would constantly put himself down and feel bad for stupid reasons. For example, he was getting vital information out of this one woman; talking about that topic made her upset, and she started crying. And he kept thinking about how horrible a person he was. You are not a horrible person for getting information that will save countless lives including your own. It wasn't like he was beating it out of her or anything; it was just a hard subject for her to talk about. You aren't a monster; get over it. Or when he felt bad for making another woman cry (there are a lot of crying women. Aaaand back to the chauvinism) because he had revealed something about her while defending himself from her murder attempt. Again he felt like a horrible person. STOP IT! Why do you feel bad? You did what you had to do to stop her from killing you. If someone tried to stab me and then started crying when they failed, I doubt I would feel that sympathetic. For a badass wizard, he was pretty oversensitive.

But then on the other hand, bafflingly, he would show extreme circumstances of narcissism. He would feel bad for stupid reasons, but whenever he did something good or even slightly heroic, he couldn't seem to do so without acting like he was a martyr. "Did you guys see what I just did? Wasn't that heroic of me?" He couldn't seem to do anything vaguely laudable without giving himself a giant pat on the back for doing it. Ugh. Harry Dresden is just not the type of person I would like or respect, which is kind of a problem considering this is a series following his exploits.

To make a long, rambling rant short, I felt an extreme abhorrence for this book. It wasn't a groundbreaking fantasy, an exciting mystery, or a tale about a character I care to follow. I have multiple other issues with this book (like the writing style, featuring such gems as "I stood there in silence for a moment, but said nothing."), but I've covered the ones that well and truly broke the story for me. I've heard that the series gets "really good" about four books in, but I don't think I will be finding out. Unless Harry gets a complete personality overhaul, I just don't see it happening. I'm not sitting through any more of Butcher's unoriginality or misogyny, thank you very much.