Storm Front

A 1st Step into Fantasy – Storm Front by Jim Butcher

Do you want me to share a sophomoric thought? The type that a classmate shares when they are 5 chapters behind the rest of class but believe that they’ve stumbled upon an insightful nugget that the teacher, and class, just have to hear? The kind that elicits a collective sigh among everyone in the room as they realize that they will all have to sit through the painful process of derailing an otherwise enjoyable discussion to deal with the students “insight” as to preserve their feelings? Would you like me to do that? You got it!

It’s mildly amusing how one’s perceptions change once they get into something. Since I’m at a lack of examples, I’ll just cut to the chase; reading. For most of my life I could’ve been described as ‘not the reading type’. You know them. If you were never one, congratulations on your stable job and advanced awareness. It’s funny, though, how, once you get into reading, your perception of the hobby(?) changes. Back in my Neanderthal days, looking at a thick SyFy novel would beckon images of torture. The thought of sitting down and slogging through a fiction novel about magical worlds could best be described as cruel and unusual punishment. How could someone possibly write that many pages over something like that?! Then, once you’ve entered the world and gotten your beak wet with some of the classics, picking up a novel of a mere 300 pages you wonder how an author could possibly weave an interesting story in so few pages. They would need at least that many just to explain the world they’re taking me to, let alone give me a brief summary over something that might have happened in that world. That’s it. That’s my musing. The change in perception of someone as they go from a non-reading, sports obsessed, anti-nerd to a sweaty-palmed, slovenly, articulator of sentences. You’re welcome. 

After deciding to pick up a book about 8 years ago, I have waded through the genres; starting out in fiction before quickly reverting to the snobby world of historical non-fiction, and now making the decision to try my hand at SyFy. My interest in fantasy cinema encouraged me to try and find a world to immerse myself in. Recent life events, surely, had something to do with it, but I digress. 

While perusing the Fantasy section at the bookstore, I heard the sound of the store “associate” delivering his bio and credentials to a captive patron before he gave his unsolicited advice on the YA series he happened to be standing near. I knew that I wanted to avoid this situation as best I could, but I was unable to make a decision. I wanted to avoid any series in which I had already seen the cinematic production of. I find it most interesting to let my mind describe a story to me before Hollywood does, but everything I could see appeared to be some version of Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, or Star Wars. 

So, yes, the secret is out, I was at a Barnes and Noble. Sue me. Nevertheless, my romantic idea of just ‘letting the bookshelf speak to me’ in picking a random series to begin and hope for the best was being threatened by the annoying “subject matter expert” harassing anyone who even made a cursory glance in the fantasy section. He was circling a shelf after having scared off his last victim and I knew that if he made the turn and saw me, it would all be over, but I was unable to decide. 2 things were standing in my way; 1. It is impossible to know which book is the first in a series of novels without some type of research (20 books on dragons? Seriously?) and 2. The year is 2021. If there is anything, I felt, that is ripe for intersectional drivel, it would be fantasy. And I wasn’t about to shell out $15 for an on-the-nose metaphor for American brutality and social justice. Barf. 

So I abandoned ship. I saw his gray ponytail circling the shelf and wanted to get out of there before he cornered me. But I’m 6’1(it’s above average, ok?) and he saw me from the other side of the bookshelf, and he had picked up speed. Determined, I’m sure, to give me an in-depth breakdown of every possible fantasy series known to man. I could already hear him asking me whether I preferred magic or sorcery, dwarves or elves, cosmic or earthly, boxers or briefs. It’s not his fault, or necessarily the store’s. For some people, he is a value-add. I’m just not that type of person and never have been. And I don’t mean it like a lot of people that SAY they don’t like the store associate but really they do, or at least their presence does succeed in drawing a few more dollars out of them. They truly turn me off. And I have no problem listening to a 15 minute pitch, turning around, and walking out without making a purchase if I’m not into it. 

So I turned and started walking away just as ‘The Fantasy King’ rounded the corner in the closest thing I felt this guy got to a jog. “Were you looking for anything particular, sir?” was all he got out, and I was able to utter the obligatory “just browsing” without breaking stride as I escaped to the desolate Religion section. I was determined, however, to leave with a new fantasy story and now I had a bit of a dilemma on my hands. He wasn’t leaving the section and I would need ample time to flip through any book before settling on one. So, I did what I do with almost every problem in my life; turned to YouTube. 

I hadn’t brought any headphones with me so my investigation into Fantasy Best Of videos had me holding the phone to my ear while periodically checking the phone screen to see the book covers. I wasn’t asking for a lot; just something that wasn’t woke but that was generally considered a quality read (maybe I was asking for a lot). The guy on my screen seemed to have read every fantasy novel known to man. How do people stay thin when they read that much? A picture of a book called Jim Butcher (at least that’s what I thought the book’s name was) appeared on his screen in the number 3 spot. His brief analysis of the prior 7 books had garnered him some credibility with me and, even though his review of this one sounded more like apologetics than promotion, I figured the number 3 spot meant something with this guy. The book in number 2 had a logo but no words on the cover, so I didn’t like my odds and number 1 was Lord of the Rings, so Jim Butcher it would be for me. 

With my decision made, I would dart back into the Fantasy section, grab the first in the series, and dart out without having to encounter The King. Ha! The alphabetical system in Barnes and Noble will never make sense to me. I’m sure it’s based on industry standard or the Dewey Decimal system or something, but when they’re arranged by author and when it’s by title has always alluded me, no matter how many times I’ve been told. And since I was still under the impression that the books were called ‘Jim Butcher’, I didn’t stand a chance. I perused for all of 15 seconds before he spotted me. I did see another shopper carrying around one of the Jim Butcher books while I did, so that was encouraging. 

He came over and asked me if I’d made my decision and I finally had to cave. I asked him “ya, where did that guy get that Jim Butcher book?” 

“Oh the Dresden Files?” –what?? “Ya, they’re right around here,” he took me around a corner to a shelf I had already poorly scanned during my first attempt. My new plan was to say ‘thanks’ and allow him to drift off to the next customer. I’m funny that way. Then, he had to ask the question, “which book are you looking for?” I’ve made a rather recent life decision to not lie to people, no matter the magnitude. I knew that telling him I was just starting the series would prolong the conversation by at least 8 minutes, but them’s the rules. There were 25 Jim Butcher – uh, Dresden Files– books on the shelf and I was gonna be hunting for number 1 anyway. Luckily, the ponytail that I saw carrying one of those books had wandered back to the associate due to a question he couldn’t answer on his own, so we got to share in the suffering. 

He informed me that there were going to be something like 20 books in the series and they’d just released number 15. He also informed me that they created a television show from the series but advised me not to watch it. He then gave me the reasons why not to watch it. My new partner in misery agreed. “It’s trash,” was his astute review. Of all the pain of the experience, the one piece of gratitude I had was in his ability to quickly grab the book I needed. It would have taken me 6 more minutes of Googling to identify the first book in the series and find it on the shelf. He grabbed it almost without even looking. THAT’S what a book store associate should do; find what you’re looking for quickly. All my mind could think about as The King was going through his disappointment with how the show writers had made Harry’s skull companion into a frog, or something, was ‘It is 2021, we’re still doing this? Hasn’t society’s strict aversion to face-to-face communication made this practice extinct by now?’ 

Nevertheless, I had finally made my selection. I had selected what I believed to be ‘The Dresden Files #1, Jim Butcher’. I paid for it and the other 2 that I’d already selected from the snob section and put them all on the floor next to my chair for 3 days before I pulled it back out to learn the actual name of the book; Storm Front.

So, now that you know of my inexperience with syfy (so far, just Hitchhikers and some Comic Books) you know how much salt to consume along with my review. But I would say that, for the novice reader looking to dabble in the black arts of SyFy, I would approve. My gauge for good story-telling is probably similar to many others. Build me an interesting world. Give me substantive, distinguishable characters with their own personalities. Don’t forget the adventure, and don’t preach to me, at least in a way that I can tell I’m being preached to. Lastly, I require a healthy level of nuance. Not nihilism (I’m sick of that), But nuance. And while the obsession with the anti-hero today does get annoying, I tend to fall for it almost every time…almost.

The world that Jim Butcher builds in Storm Front flips a lot of my switches. His main character, Harry, is an interesting character that resonates on so many layers, in the seemingly short amount of time with him, that it’s no wonder there have been 15 books in the series. He’s a guy who’s life path brought him into Wizardry and not some desire for power or status (a contrast that appears in the story). Setting the story in the real world allows for a level of groundedness that’s perfect for a Fantasy beginner, and also allows for a certain level of entertaining absurdity to fill the pages. He’s a wayward soul, trying to make a buck in the world, and finding little success; the perfect underdog. 

Harry possesses a unique power, but it is a power that carries very little esteem in a world that, generally, doesn’t believe in it. And therein lies the issue that I anticipated in my stroll through the genre. “Opening one’s mind to a limitless world” is really a way of saying “opening one’s mind to a world with different rules.” A world with no rules at all is uninteresting. Even if the rules have changed and we don’t know them, we must believe that there are rules, nonetheless. And, in the world of Fantasy, I felt that I might happen upon something that may have been bright and flashy, but ultimately uninteresting. This was not the case with The Dresden Files. 

While there were certainly some convenient world reveals throughout the story, Butcher was still able to convey a sense of mortality in Harry that kept me hooked. He goes out of his way to explain how ordinary and human he is throughout the book, despite his abilities. He loses as much as he wins, and the consequences that he experiences convey a sense of weight. 

As far as the other characters go, they were good, not great. Don’t get me wrong I loved them, and I hope to see more of them. Every woman is beautiful, smart, and most are provocative (yes, please!). His sidekick is a blast and he even does a good job of giving his cat a small but distinguishable personality.  

After spending an acceptable amount of time in the beginning of the book doing some world building, Butcher certainly doesn’t forget the adventure. After muscling through the first couple chapters, I read the majority of the book in one night; completing the final 250 pages in one sitting as the action had me blowing through the chapter pauses.

The book had plenty to enjoy; mobsters, vampires, demons, nosey reporters, the rugged police chief and, of course, wizards. Batman meets MacGyver meets The unassuming ladies man. My first step into the world of written fantasy was great. And, with 14 more books to catch up on, I plan on strapping in and enjoying the ride.