PS/SS was a fun read. Storm Front not so much.

I remember the only reason I slogged through the first 3 Dresden Files books (excluding my OCD for doing things in order) was because everybody here was swearing on their mothers that it gets better. Indeed it got better.

I'd pick DF over HP since it delivers more on what matters most to me when reading a story. I love a good hero. While I still consider HP Harry as a hero, DF Harry delivers in spades.

HP Harry as a hero could be easily summarized into one word. Lucky. Every single time he defied Voldemort wasn't because of a conscious decision he made but mostly because of decisions people made that placed him on a position to reap the reward.

How he became the Boy-Who-Lived? Voldemort chose his parents (not him).
How he beat Voldemort in PS/SS? Lily's sacrifice.
How he was able to beat the Basilisk? Fawkes destroyed the eyes (granted it was his loyalty to Dumbledore that brought Fawkes to his aid. Still it wasn't a conscious decision but a child's naivete).
How he escaped the graveyard? Voldemort's cockiness and Voldemort's horcrux being attracted to Fawke's tail-feather.
How he defeated Voldemort? Elder Wand's convoluted rules plus playing into Dumbledore's master plan.

Sure, HP Harry spits in the eye of the villain like every hero should, but from the point of view of a reader his story was mostly a product of lucking into the winning situation.

Now compare to DF Harry. DF Harry has his own share of luck but he definitely steps into the ring because he makes the decision to step into the ring. Everytime he defied the villain wasn't because he just happened to be in the area or had decisions made for him. He always made the conscious decision to step in front of his enemy because he knew that someone had to and that someone was him.

That's why DF wins out over HP fmpov. Because of a better protagonist.

And also the zombie T-Rex.

 

I know I already weighed in, but honestly, we're comparing apples and passion fruit.

HP is a child's fantasy, about finding family and friends and facing growing up, and overcoming the pains of childhood and growing into the person you are going to be, where adults are useless and authority is against you.

DF is an adult fantasy, where you make mistakes and begin to understand the outside world, and lose friends not through moving away or even simple death but through your own failings and choices, and that adults aren't useless, they're just closed-minded, and authority isn't *against you*, it's just *for itself.*

Ultimately, there are a lot of similarities, yes, but I think there are far more differences, which makes any comparison ultimately pointless. the better one is the one you enjoy more.

 

Alright I don't think I explained my position properly.

Yes. Both of them do this. But in my opinion, HP Harry's victories are devalued due to the fact that some previous circumstance put him in a position to come out on top. DF Harry not so much.

I think this is one of the flaws of HP. Knowing what you know, you can't really tell yourself that Harry did all the work to merit his victories. Take away his crutches and you probably don't have a story.

DF Harry might have benefited from this once in a while but most of the time he does all the heavy lifting to create his own win condition. In a pinch, he'd gamble a lot to pull something out of his ass. In the end, you can't make an argument against the fact that DF Harry came out on top because he's just a stubborn mofo that doesn't want to lose.

 

Yeah... You really gotta get to book 4 or so before Dresden Files gets going. Before that, it's sticking a little to close to the detective fiction tropes. Or that's I'm assuming, in any case.

Not sure why you'd vote for HP when it's a matter of comparison if you haven't even read DF, Xandrel. That sooorta doesn't make sense.

I personally prefer Dresden because its universe is more fleshed out and consistent.

Sure, Harry Potter is aimed towards children, but the tone is just... Weird. It jumps back and forth a lot and I just cannot stomach good guys who are so hopelessly good that they won't get their hands dirty, nor bad guys like Voldemort who are just pure cackling, babystrangling evil.

It's just a pity the Dresden Files community is so tiny and shitty.

 

The first 3 are widely accepted as the weakest in the series, Ghost Story is also the a notable dip in interest, but that comes much later and is needed to move side characters development along.

 

Nope. Murphy is the actual worst character in the series for the first several books, and you can only groan when you realize that she's here to stay. Her writing gets better, but only just. And you're spot on the money when Jim Butcher literally writes every single female as super attractive. Sure, you can pass it off as them being supernatural predators preying on human mortals, and being attractive makes that easier, but it does span through every single book and is quite tiresome. It's very formulaic at times.

 

I completely feel you there. None of the girls are much good - it's tedious to listen to how attractive they all are for the umpteenth time. It feels like they're all potential love interests, which is excessive: even Ancient Mai, at over 400 years old, is described as beautiful.

But on the bright side, the actual romance aspects of Dresden Files tend to remain background stuff, and apart from Murphey being irritating, none of this seems to affect the plot too much.

 

Well it's not like I'd vote Dresden if I haven't read it

But like I explained a few posts above, I don't have to read DF to know that I won't like it because I'm not a fan of the premise/type itself.

 

I enjoy Dresden Files very much. It's my favorite series of it's kind. But nothing can beat the magic of the first 5 Harry Potter books. Only thing that comes even close to me is Hobbit, but it's not as relatable as the first five of the Harry Potter series.

When Rowling tries to turn the heat up in the later books is when Dresden Files IMO can compete, because that series has some superb villains and epic moments, while IMO Rowling flounders pretty badly with the last 2 books.

 

Personally, between the two, I prefer Dresden Files. While the first books were somewhat weak, I found later stories to sketch out a larger world which kept my imagination active. In the Harry Potter books though, I found that after the fourth book, maybe the fifth book, the writing began to lose its attraction. I still read the books, but they were secondary to other works that interested me more.

I find that Dresden builds into a deeper character over the course of the books, striving to survive when placed massively out of his weight class, working in a gray world while Harry is in a world of black and white. If Rowling had gone deeper into building a wider world during the Harry Potter books, it would interest me more, but as it is, I don't really find what i'm looking for there.

 

This weird idea just came to me, what is better Hp set in DF, or DF set in the HP world? I read a lot of cross overs. You would be surprised how the two worlds would be merged.

 

I've always wanted to see the often mooted Harry Dresden as DADA professor. Sure all the attempts thus far have been terrible, but that doesn't mean it can't be done.

As for the actual topic, I find it hard to say. I was at the age where Harry was perpetually within a year or two of mine and it was a large part of my childhood. I quite like the Dresden Files, it's one of the only series I buy on the day it's released, but it doesn't have the same emotional weight. I do like Dresden more that Potter though, he's less the everyman.

 

People love to attribute Harry Dresden's sexism to Butcher. The way women are described in DF is an explicit and acknowledged character flaw of the first-person protagonist, not the author. He doesn't do this in the Codex Alera where there are different genre conventions, a very different series of protagonists, and many fewer supernatural beasties that find it convenient to look super-hot to further their agendas.