I have got up to Ghost story and about 10 chapters in it but can't read any further. 13 books in and I still don't get the hype this series gets. I have read way more high quality fantasy series than this. I will say its entertaining in the way marvel movies are formulaic but fun but not really up there with the likes of LOTR, HP, The Dark Tower, Wheel of Time, Stormlight Archive.

 

I don't like it as much as I once did. I think it also has greater appeal to those in their late teens or early twenties. That said, I think sometimes it gets in its own way wrt the things it does best - it's a solid detective series, and does really well with teeing things up for future plots, but there can be a lot going on and its biggest sin was the huge slowdown in publication rate. So it's good, but not great.

 

Well, depends on how you rate it. It's a solid series that is favorite to people who like this kind of mix of magic and noir, but I doubt anyone who is not a fan of genre is going to be amazed by them.

 

There was a time where I would reread the series once a year in preparation for the next book coming out, all the way up to book 15, but I can't really stand the series at all anymore - I've never even thought about reading the latest ones. It's not a matter of being overrated, I think the series is actively bad. If I look at a list of the first 15 books, I can say that I think only 6 of them are some level of good, 9 of them are some level of bad, and one of them is decidedly in the middle.

Also, I'm not sure where you are seeing hype for the series. How many of us here would actually care about the series if someone here hadn't written a crossover with it 15 years ago? Jim probably owes thanks to some of the authors here for making him thousands of dollars. I won't say fanfiction is an indicator of a series popularity, but the series is 20 years old and between ao3 and ffn, theres like 4k fics. Crossovers push that up probably to 5k. I question how many new readers the series is actually drawing in, and how many of them can actually drudge through 17 books, or how many of those people do a little research, sees half the internet saying to skip the first X books, and picks the series up anyway.

 

Well in the r/fantasy yearly best fantasy series polls Dresden Files is always rated up there with best fantasy series out there. That's where the hype comes from and made me try it out I'm sorry but Jim Butcher isn't anywhere near a author as Tolkien, Pratchett, King, Jordan, JKR, Erikson, Martin or even Sanderson. The authors works I mentioned when you read them you get feeling it's their magnum opus with sincere work where they have poured their heart and soul. But with Dresden Files I never get the feeling. And I even tried out his other series Codex Alera. I read the first book and it was really bad. Hence why I think it's overrated. I'm not sure if the idea is even original behind it. It looks like the thinking behind the series is adult detective Harry Potter in America fighting fantasy monsters and their societies. Like I said before it's an enjoyable series but not really of high quality. And I also think the writing of women is really bad in this and Alera.

 

Oh yes, r/fantasy, the best source for objective criticism. r/darklordpotter says so.

Edit Did not mean to post before I gave my actual opinion. To me, The Dresden Files becomes a slog to get through by book 7. I personally found that the books that people say to skip are the best ones.

 

"Yes but–"

In some ways, I think the series is rated, especially here on an ffn forum, for what it could have been. The biggest flaw is that some of the characters and relationships are 2D. But, as mentioned, there's a solid core of mystery/detective set-up, layered and gradually revealed lore and backstory, and an MC that becomes more competent and faces some measure of loss along the way. These are a compelling base, but not always well executed on.

For example, imagine if Dresden had the mystery stylings of JKR writing the Cormoran Strike series, the gravity and depth of lore that G.R.R. Martin brought to ASoIaF, the cool factor of Shezza's Denarian series, the twists/backstory of Awaken Sleeper, and the emotional depth, humanity and ethical nuance of – well some of those books, and some other book that isn't coming to mind. The plotline as is does have the skeleton storyboard to accommodate these layers, but it doesn't get there.

It's not a bad story. It's a decent page turner but it could have been, or be, more.

 

Same.
I did read the new ones, and was very bored most of the way through. I’ll probably finish the series for nostalgic purposes, but it no longer excites me like it used to.

A big part of that is simply that the context has shifted. People’s tastes are different, and there’s a lot more competition.

So, the series was adequately rated at the time, but has aged poorly.

 

The biggest problem is time between books in my opinion. That managed to destroy all the momentum that it had that allowed a lot of issues to be ignored.

 

In fairness to Butcher, to a certain extent with that list you're comparing him to people who are writing very different works. They're all writing fantasy, sure, but even allowing for the increased scope of the Dresden Files as its gone on, they're only comparable to something like Lord of the Rings in the broadest sense, in the same way that films like Star Wars and Blade Runner are both science fiction, but immensely different. And of course, at least some of the authors you mention, and arguably all of them, have written genre-defining works.

Beyond that, basically what Celestin said. If Butcher had kept to his original rate of release, we'd be on the cusp of the last couple of books right now, going by the original plan of 22 'files' and a finale trilogy, rather than 6-10 books away.

 

Yeah, when I think of the Dressden Files, I think back on the great times I had re-reading each book in the series leading up the new release, and being hyped for seeing how everything would move forward.

I disliked the ending of Changes. I very much disliked Ghost Story... And I think the delay in Skin Game, and the fact I was at Uni so didn't have all my old books, kind of put a dampener on it. Then it's been five years, a double release, and looks like nothing since.

To me, it's not just the change of pace (although that's a major problem), but it's also got the change of scale (and sides) that we saw in Worm.

Dresden being a down-on-his-luck P.I. was an interesting story by itself. Seeing him royally screw up on the world stage, and face titans was cool. And then he's no longer scrub tier.

 

Butcher did release a novella (The Law) and two shorts (the Toot centered Little Things and a Mouse centered The Fugitive). The Law was alright, more funny than serious, and The Fugitive did see a return of a pair of characters of whom there has been serious debate.

 

I can’t get into his recent books, but I think you have to give him credit for his worldbuilding and influence on the urban fantasy genre.

 

Ghost Story is the worst book in the series. I will read all the books to finish the series because of how much I used to like it back when I was a teenager, but if Butcher never finished the series, I don't think I would care. I think Awaken Sleeper is better than the series itself.

I stopped recommending them to people when I was in my early 20s.

 

I think as long as you signed up for pulpy urban fantasy the series is decent. That said, if you're ten books in and it's not working for you--it's not going to get better. Might actually get worse.

I'll echo others here in saying I haven't been really into it since my early 20s (10 years ago lawl), partially as a matter of taste and partially because the series has changed significantly as it's gone on. And I actually respect the way Butcher has allowed his characters and world to change rather than always returning to a set norm--I just don't always enjoy it.

I think the most memorable part of the series is the setting--the magic systems and factions and such. The whole thing is admittedly a gestalt of pop fantasy tropes, but it's a fun playground that hangs together coherently enough to enjoy. Usually.

I haven't bothered to read the last couple books, and haven't been terribly enthused by the post-Ghost Story oeuvre overall. That said, I do care enough to see the thing through. I hope Butcher does write his apocalyptic final trilogy, and I'll catch up to read it when it happens.

 

I couldn't finish battle ground. I liked the weird Urban fantasy/crime noir setting of the earlier books, less so the grand scale apocalyptic battles and conflicts of the later books.

There is some fantastic fan fiction out there, @Todeswind endless Pantheon might be the greatest fanfiction ever written and does the large scale conflicts much better then the original. The author has stated several times that he plans on continuing the series, so we might get some more content at some point in de future.

 

Yeah, these books are far more like Jack Reracher novels than Tolkien. And as Fantasy Reacher novels they were pretty good until Ghost Story and the hiatus. Good pulp is good pulp. I read them once close to 15 year ago, and I can remember much of it, and I think thats a positive sign.

Jim Butcher was running pretty hot, blurring a bunch of ideas together in an enjoyable manner, putting out a book a year. I dont think he'll get back to that in schedule or quality. He was in the zone.

 

I liked the series a lot more pre-Changes. Ghost Story was awful. Cold Days was alright. Skin Game needs another read but didn't pull me, and I think it was at that point that I finally accepted the series had lost my interest. I read Peace Talks and Battle Ground and was largely bored. I hate how Dresden has gained power, yet feels like he hasn't. I hate how he dissolves into a hooting chimp with the mantle. His character just doesn't do anything for me like he used to. I'll still read the series just to finish it out, but I don't actively enjoy it like I did as a teenager and early 20 something last decade.

 

They entertain me more than they annoy me, which is pretty much the most basic thing I require to enjoy something.

 

I feels a bit unfair to me to compare Dresden Files to the greats in traditional fantasy when it falls under a different sub-genre and I would argue that a lot of the "hype" it got was in comparison with other urban fantasy books which at least in my memory tended to be more romance focused supernatural stories than anything else.

And for me in hindsight I think I liked the possibilities contained within the early Dresden Files books, like the Denarian coins, mantle of the Winter Knight or romances etc, far more than I would their eventual execution and indeed seeing their execution kinda ruined the earlier works for me. I think I would have preferred to never read anything after changes than to see what Butcher's take on things like the mantle of the Winter Knight or the general cast of characters.

Plus while I personally only really had an real issue with the pop culture stuff in the later books I suspect that what was present in the earlier books hasn't aged that well either.


I personally haven't recommended DF to anyone in near a decade I think and I don't think i will return to the series unless it ever gets actually finished.