I haven’t read this in almost two decades, and boy is it dated. It occupies the same headspace as really silly pulp, especially with a particular kind of power fantasy. Even when I was young I was warned repeatedly that the first few are really not great, but they get better. Basically, when I’m in the mood for fantasy trash. This is doubly confirmed now.

Because it is narrated by Dresden it is laughably solipsistic and unconvincing. He’s a wizard who got dealt a bad deal. The white council thinks he’s bad all because they don’t believe what happened between he and his master, who turned evil and tried to kill him. He’s dogged by a watcher as he tries to eek out a living helping out the cops when occult stuff goes down. In this case, a particular nasty killing sends him careening into a pretty straight forward plot that is pretty much just an endless series of fights. By the end he’s all haggard and people who trusted him didn’t believe him, but of course he’s right about everything, even if he stumbles his way there.

It’s not good, it’s fun. As long as you can look past a lot, including some of the worst writing of women. They always have ulterior motives deployed in sexist ways. Thankfully this was pretty heavily criticized and they get adjusted as they go. But this book is best thought of as the pilot that somehow managed to get green lit despite internal consistency issues that the newest of editors should have caught.

Where it does get things right, I think, is this pseudo mash-up of fantasy pulp and detective noir, mixed with the accessibility of commercial fiction and it’s playing into the monster of the week formula that has rooted nostalgia dating back for all generations who are likely to pick it up. Also they’re a very quick read.