The Dresden Files
August 15, 2025 - Books
I've got a long commute right now. I'm in the car for two hours four days a week, and sometimes the coffee alone isn't enough to keep me awake. I've been listening to a lot of podcasts: Pop Culture Happy Hour, Divided by Werewolves, Radiolab, Revolutions. But when I heard that book eighteen of my all-time favorite series is coming out in less than a year, I decided that it was time to go back through The Dresden Files. So I got ahold of the audiobooks.
I've now listened to the first five books. I'm surprised at how much of this I hadn't remembered, and I'm also realizing that as good as I thought this series was when I first read the paperbacks, the later books in the series are just so much better than the first few.
For those not in the know, Harry Dresden is a wizard living in Chicago, practicing publicly. Most people think he's a nut. But he's the real deal. He consults for the local police, and takes private eye type cases, but it barely pays the bills most days. Of course Harry gets into it with zombies, demons, vampires, evil fairies, and even regular-type mobsters. But it's the characters and the plots that really make the books shine.
Storm Front
The first book of The Dresden Files is much-referenced, and I remembered it well enough if only because they strongly based an episode of the not-great single-season Sci-Fi Channel TV show on this book, and secondly a fan-made rendition of the story exists somewhere on YouTube.
It's a solid story, made even more impressive because it's a first novel.
Fool Moon
Continuing the trend of the early books in the series using puns as titles, this book obviously centers on a plot involving werewolves and other lycanthropes. Although I now consider it not up to par with what the series is capable of, it's still a better read than most books, because The Dresden Files really is that good.
Grave Peril
I was shocked at how much I'd forgotten about this one - nearly all of it. Maybe that's why I enjoyed my second telling as much as I did.
The tale centers around ghosts, curses, and all the other background BS that Harry always seems to be going through. It's never just one thing.
Summer Knight
Probably my least favorite book in the entire series, but still a great read.
Amidst the backdrop of a looming war between wizards and vampires, the main enemies in this story are not in fact vampires. They're creatures of faerie: The sidhe, ogres, trolls, and lots of others. Of course, things are never black and white, and there are allies as well as enemies.
Death Masks
At this point in the series, Death Masks is easily the best book in the series. This may be just because it introduces my personal favorite set of villains: The Denarians.
Amidst the backdrop of a war between The Red Court of Vampires and The White Council of Wizards, Harry is hired by a priest from The Vatican to track down a religious artifact before fallen angels use it to unleash a plague.
Gawd, I love these books. I'll be starting Blood Rites soon. The 18th book in the series, Twelve Months, comes out in January. Maybe I'll be caught up on my re-read by then.