(This review may contain spoilers).
I recently picked up one of the later books in this series, so when a book reading challenge gave me the opportunity to re-read the first book, I jumped at the chance.
The Dresden Files might be one of my favourite series of books. I particularly like how resourceful Harry Dresden can be, but also that he’s completely clueless when it comes to more mundane things. While there were quite a few instances of information dumping, I still very much enjoyed reading this book and it was quick and easy.
I liked the relationships Dresden had with the other characters, even those like Carmichael, who really disliked him. But one of my favourite characters was probably Karrin, who it was nice to see again for the first time. I really enjoyed her interactions with Dresden and I felt she was a strong character, perhaps in spite of Dresden’s chivalry, which did kind of come across as annoying at times.
I really liked the opportunity to learn more about the rules of magic in Dresden’s world, in particular how he made the potions. And it was really good to see that things did go wrong and not necessarily according to plan, but also to see that Dresden would get up and keep on fighting, despite what happened to him.
Even though I do think vampires are over-used in popular culture, it was interesting to see Bianca and how she and Dresden interacted with each other. The scene with Toot made me giggle and it was really good I had the opportunity to see different types of creatures in the world. Plus, it was nice to see the mystery aspects with the unusual murders. I did, however, get a bit frustrated with Dresden and his abject refusal to tell Murphy anything.
I also really liked Bob, although I was left unsure if the skull was actually an ally, or if he had some ulterior motives, given Dresden had to effectively bargain with him to get what he needed for him and Susan to escape.
Despite the instances of information dumping, this remains one of my favourite book series and I do have other books in the series, along with two more on order.
Ink of Blood 