024C5: About Chicago's Consulting Wizard

The Dresden Files

Metro Manila Community Quarantine - Day 185

I just finished Book 16 of The Dresden Files, this being Peace Talks, and wow what a ride that was. I already scribbled my thoughts on the book on Goodreads so I'm not entirely sure what I want to talk about here. But I dunno, finishing a Dresden book always makes me feel good, I guess.

The Dresden books were initially outside my main areas of interest since I tend to focus a lot of big franchise stuff (e.g. Star Trek and Star Wars) or other science fiction titles (e.g. Dune). I've had a few dalliances with fantasy stuff (e.g. Shanarra), but contemporary urban fantasy stuff wasn't quite something I instinctively looked for when at the store. But friends kept recommending the series and so I eventually gave in and included it among my earliest Kindle ebook purchases.

And the franchise just hooked me with the first book alone. There's just something about the way that Jim Butcher blends a lot of the tropes of magic and fantasy while using the structure of a mystery novel to define the journey that always amazes me. Dresden is not an all-powerful wizard - if anything he's a highly flawed character who tends to push himself too hard just to do the right thing. And it's not like he always has a clear plan or knows exactly how things ought to go - but he manages to find his way to an acceptable solution in the end.

To be fair, I think I wouldn't have appreciated the Dresden books before I had played the different World of Darkness tabletop RPGs. My adventures under Tobie with narrative systems like Vampire and Changeling super prepared me to embrace the sort of setting of the Dresden books and how he encounters just about every supernatural creature imagined including faeries, werewolves, and even a "bigfoot", if you get me. And the way that Dresden manages to outsmart faeries using their rules and laws against them is totally something I enjoy doing in our games. 

And the greater shift to faerie-related stories in the latter Dresden books has only strengthened my love for the series and its characters even more.

So I guess it was nice that we also featured The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game for today's Baduy Pride live stream vlog. Then today really is a big celebration of the series. Now I just need to hold out for the 17th book to be released.

Comments