Review by angorarabbit - Storm Front

angorarabbit 's review for:

Storm Front by Jim Butcher

3.25

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

TLDR: I really want to find some good books in the paranormal detective novel. This didn’t quite scratch the itch.

Let’s talk about the good stuff first. I did not notice any spelling or grammatical errors. The plot was good with no odd dropouts. The characters were interesting, the females were not particularly weak or hiding behind a strong male. The abused spouse beat was handled with sensitivity and care. The world building was interestingly gritty and realistic if you accept the main premise of the world. All in all a serviceable novel.

My problems are nitpicking but added together not negligible. The plot, while solid was predictable with very few twists that you couldn’t see coming chapters away. The main male character was engaging but the female characters were more stereotypical. There was also more description of the female characters appearance than the males. Perhaps this is in part due to being written in the first person view of the mmc in a hard boiled detective genere, but it was tiresome none the less.

I did have to keep in mind when this was written. The amount of smoking threw me a little, it was legal in bars in Chicago until 2008. Harry’s electrical problems were confusing. He couldn’t use the gas heating in his apartment, or the water heater but he could use a kerosene heater in his subbasement lab? Both the kerosene heater and wood stove would be breaking all sorts of fire codes, much less ventilation concerns Also the kerosene heater would have an electric ignition unless it was very old. The numerous life and death situations were a bit over the top, becoming boring. Backstories for characters are slim, but this is a series after all so I expect there is some filling in as you go on. There also is occasional anti-science jabs that are a little weird.

I’ve read other reviews that later books in the series are better, which makes sense since this was Mr Butcher’s first published novel so I will probably check out later books at some point. Thank you to my library for letting me sample before I put my money down.

Content Warnings