This is Jessi Wakefield with the Sioux City Public Library, and you are listening to Check It Out.
Today I am very excited to recommend my all-time favorite contemporary fantasy series, The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Harry Dresden: private detective, wizard, and all around smart aleck narrates his accounts as he investigates supernatural disturbances in modern-day Chicago. He works as the world's only "consulting wizard", accepting cases from both human and nonhuman clients, as well as the Chicago PD's Special Investigation unit. In Harry’s world, magic is real, along with vampires, demons, spirits, faeries, werewolves, outsiders, and other monsters. Cursed with an unwavering sense of right and wrong, and the need to “do the right thing”, cynical wisenheimer Dresden almost begrudgingly throws himself into the fray if it means protecting the people in his city. And it seems he is absolutely incapable to do so without a joke or a wise crack. Beginning with the first novel Storm Front, the series progresses with Dresden taking on an increasingly important role in the supernatural world at large as he works to protect the general public. He finds himself facing off against a variety of creatures while realizing that his various cases may all be tied together and that his role might be greater than he is willing to admit. Butcher is able to brilliantly construct a world that seamlessly incorporates the real world with the fantastical. And he does it with biting humor and laugh out loud dialogue. Truly, if you come away with nothing else, remember that these books are very smart and very funny. Over the course of 15 books, Harry Dresden has come out to be one of the most unique voices in all of fantasy literature. Come to the Sioux City Library and get your copy of the first in the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Also available are the wonderful audiobooks narrated to perfection by James Marsters.
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