By Steven L. Taylor
I have been meaning for some time to review the works of Jim Butcher, and having just finished the third book of his Codex Alera, Cursor’s Fury now is a good time to do so. To date I have completed all of his Dresden Files novels and the first three of the Codex Alera. I have the short-lived SciFi Channel production of the Dresden Files to thank for introducing me to Butcher and his highly entertaining, original and readable works.
While I have long meant to write full reviews of the Dresden books, let me say that if you even semi-liked the TV show, you will almost certainly love the books, which are far more complex and better reflect their own universe than did the TV show, which relied far too much standard TV detective show tropes and not enough about Butcher’s fantastical world of wizards, vampires and faeries. I will say that the first two novels are a bit more pedestrian than those that followed (although were still enjoyable reads). Both Storm Front and Fool Moon both struck me as more linear and less nuanced (at least in terms of the universe in which the tales are set) than the subsequent books. It is worth noting that Storm Front was adapted into the pilot for the TV series (which was inexplicably shown out of order) and was the closest of the small screen stories to those of the books. That story showed Dresden to be more powerful than the other episodes of the TV series, included the key character of Susan Rodriguez (who was expunged from the series) and contained a truer version of the relationship between Dresden and Murphy.
The Dresden books are entertaining, well paced and compelling.
Because I so enjoyed the Dresden books, I decided to give Butcher’s fantasy series, The Codex Alera, a whirl. First, I was pleased to find that these stories were not a retread of his Dresden works, but unique stories in their own right with characters and concepts that did not seem simply recast from the other series (something that authors often do when they go from one universe to another). Further, save for one key cliché that I will not reveal specifically, but will be obvious to any even semi-regular readers of fantasy, the books are quite fresh. Unlike many fantasy series that seem like a recasting of other tales and worlds, this world was quite different. This was no retread of the Lord of the Rings or really an echo of anything else that comes to mind. Yes, some of the basic elements of fantasy fiction are present, but they are accompanied by a number of inventive twists. Indeed, apart from some writing tics, one wouldn’t necessarily think that the books were written by the same author.
Another impressive element of the novels is that while there are a number of ongoing plots and story arcs, each of the three novels I have read to date (a fourth was recently published, but I have yet to read it) is that each has had its own unique story. In other words, while the books clearly form part of a large whole, they do not read simply as one long narrative broken into pieces.
I would highly recommend both series.
