Storm Front
Jim Butcher, 2000
Fantasy Mystery, thriller & crimeGraphic novels & humourScience fiction
A broke Chicago wizard takes a missing-person case and a police consultation, then finds both pointing at magic used for murder. A brisk, wisecracking first-person case story with a noir edge, magic treated as a working stiff's problem.
Feels like serenity. About power and identity.
Who it’s for
You may enjoy this if you like detective plots with a snarky wizard narrator and a Chicago setting. The murder case is grim, and the first-person wisecracking can crowd out quieter moments.
Why read it
It gives you a compact noir mystery where magic has costs and the hero is more stubborn than powerful, with humor that keeps the grim case moving.
A page from the book
What paranoia looks like when it keeps being proved right.
Paranoid? Probably. But just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that there isn’t an invisible demon about to eat your face. Jim Butcher.Dresden's full name is built from three stage magicians: Harry Houdini, Harry Blackstone and David Copperfield—a wizard named after illusionists.
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Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Storm Front for me?
- You may enjoy this if you like detective plots with a snarky wizard narrator and a Chicago setting. The murder case is grim, and the first-person wisecracking can crowd out quieter moments.
- What is Storm Front like?
- A brisk, wisecracking first-person case story with a noir edge, magic treated as a working stiff's problem. Feels like serenity. About power and identity.
- What should I read after Storm Front?
- If you liked Storm Front, try Yellowface (R.F. Kuang), The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie) and First Lie Wins (Ashley Elston).
A taste of the feed
The particular hell of watching everyone else succeed while you're still writing.
Every writer I know feels this way about someone else. Writing is such a solitary activity. You have no assurance that what you’re creating has any value, and any indication that you’re behind in the rat race sends you spiraling into the pits of despair. Keep your eyes on your own paper, they say. But that’s hard to do when everyone else’s papers are flapping constantly in your face.
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What poverty actually teaches, from someone who sat through the lesson.
Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.
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The honest inventory of a girl who knows exactly how much trouble she's in.
By the way, my name’s Rose Hathaway. I’m seventeen years old, training to protect and kill vampires, in love with a completely unsuitable guy, and have a best friend whose weird magic could drive her crazy.
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