- The Dresden Files
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This article is about the series of books. For the television series, see The Dresden Files (TV series).
The Dresden Files Author(s) Jim Butcher Cover artist Lee MacLeod, Christian McGrath Language English Genre(s) Detective
Contemporary fantasy
Urban FantasyPublisher Roc Books
Dabel Brothers (comics and graphic novels 2007–2009)
Dynamite Entertainment (comics and graphic novels 2009–present)Publication date April 2000–present Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Serial (comics and graphic novels)
Audiobook (CD & MP3)The Dresden Files is a series of contemporary fantasy/mystery novels written by Jim Butcher. He provides a first person narrative of each story from the point of view of the main character, private investigator and wizard Harry Dresden, as he recounts investigations into supernatural disturbances in modern-day Chicago. Butcher's original proposed title for the first novel was "Semiautomagic", which sums up the series' balance of fantasy and hard-boiled detective fiction.[1] In an interview, he mentioned that the best short description of the series was "Dirty Harry Potter".[citation needed]
In 2007, a television series based on the novels aired for one season on the American Sci-Fi Channel.[2]
Contents
Plot
In the world of The Dresden Files, magic is real, along with vampires, demons, spirits, faeries, werewolves, and other mythical monsters. Harry Dresden works to protect the general public, who are ignorant of magic and the dark forces conspiring against them. This makes it difficult for Harry to get by as a working wizard and private eye. The Chicago PD's Special Investigation unit, when led by Karrin Murphy, regularly employs Dresden as a consultant to help solve cases of a supernatural nature.
Characters
Main article: List of The Dresden Files charactersOrganizations
Main article: List of The Dresden Files organizationsIn The Dresden Files universe, each species (humans, faeries, vampires, etc.) has its own political and societal rules, and organizations. The human wizards depend on the White Council, while faeries may belong to either the Summer or Winter courts or be independent altogether, and vampires may belong to a number of courts, of which three (White, Red and Black) are relevant to the series.
Miscellaneous groups in the series
Main article: List of The Dresden Files groupsThe Seven Laws of Magic
Main article: Laws of Magic (The Dresden Files)Publishing history
Jim Butcher decided to become a professional author at the age of nineteen. Subsequently he wrote three novels within the fantasy genre and one which he has classified as paranormal—books which the author has described as being "terrible".[3] In 1996 he enrolled in a writing class where he was encouraged to write a novel similar to the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton, rather than the more traditional high fantasy that had been his focus in the past, as Butcher had previously stated that he enjoyed the Anita Blake series.[4] Despite initial resistance, he wrote the first book that semester, closely following the instructions of his teacher, author Deborah Chester.[1]
When I finally got tired of arguing with her and decided to write a novel as if I was some kind of formulaic, genre writing drone, just to prove to her how awful it would be, I wrote the first book of the Dresden Files.
— Jim Butcher, in 'A Conversation With Jim Butcher', 2004 [5]
The result was Semiautomagic, later to be retitled as Storm Front. His writing teacher declared it to be publishable, and Butcher started hunting around to do just that.[4]
Butcher failed to secure a publisher for two to three years. During this period he completed the second novel, Fool Moon, and had made significant progress on the third, Grave Peril. Deciding to focus on agents and editors who had already published similar novels, Butcher targeted Ricia Mainhardt, the agent representing Laurell Hamilton, and submitted a copy of his manuscript.[5] It was not accepted.[3] Finally, Jim Butcher met Laurell Hamilton at a convention, and was invited to lunch along with her agent (Mainhardt) and a second agent, Jennifer Jackson. Ricia Mainhardt agreed to represent him, and six months later The Dresden Files was sold to ROC, an imprint of Penguin Books.[3]
The first volume, Storm Front, was released in 2000 in paperback; the next two novels in the series, Fool Moon and Grave Peril, were released shortly thereafter, in January and September 2001, also in paperback. Subsequent novels in the series have been published annually since then, with the most recent novel, Ghost Story, published July 2011. Omnibus editions have been released by the Science Fiction Book Club, with each of the four volumes reprinting two or three of the novels in the sequence.
The series' first six novels were originally only published as paperbacks, but in 2007 ROC changed its strategy and began to publish hardcover reprints of books one to six. Volume six, Blood Rites, was released in July 2007. From book seven onwards, each new book was directly published as hardcover and paperback both.
Orbit Books purchased the series for UK publication, and released the first novel, Storm Front in September 2005—five years after the initial US release. They then proceeded to publish two books per month. In November 2007, Orbit Books announced that they had purchased the rights to Changes, the twelfth novel, as well as the thirteenth Dresden novel, Ghost Story.[6]
The first 12 volumes of The Dresden Files have been released as audio books narrated by James Marsters. The cover art for the series was created by Chris McGrath. Per a release on Jim Butcher's website on June 27, 2011, he reported that, "due to personal reasons", James Marsters would be unable to voice "Ghost Story"; instead, the narration was performed by John Glover.
Books in the series
Dresden Files Bibliography No. Title Hardcover Release Date Hardcover ISBN Paperback Release Date Paperback ISBN Audio Release Date Audio CD ISBN MP3 CD ISBN Audio Length 1 Storm Front 2000 November 6 0-4514-6197-5 2000 April 1 0-4514-5781-1 2002 July 0-9657-2550-2 0-9657-2556-1 8h 1m 2 Fool Moon 2008 July 1 0-4514-6202-5 2001 January 1 0-4514-5812-5 2003 April 30 0-9657-2552-9 0-9657-2558-8 10h 6m 3 Grave Peril 2008 November 4 0-4514-6234-3 2001 September 1 0-4514-5844-3 2005 July 30 0-9657-2555-3 0-9657-2559-6 11h 59m 4 Summer Knight 2009 July 7 0-4514-6275-0 2002 September 3 0-4514-5892-3 2007 March 31 0-9790-7492-4 0-9790-7493-2 11h 12m 5 Death Masks 2009 November 3 0-4514-6294-7 2003 August 5 0-4514-5940-7 2009 October 29 0-1431-4519-3 — 11h 21m 6 Blood Rites 2010 July 5 0-4514-6335-8 2004 August 2 0-4514-5987-3 2010 April 15 0-1424-2806-X — 13h 11m 7 Dead Beat 2005 May 3 0-4514-6027-8 2006 May 2 0-4514-6091-X 2010 April 15 0-1424-2807-8 — 15h 14m 8 Proven Guilty 2006 May 2 0-4514-6085-5 2007 February 6 0-4514-6103-7 2009 April 30 0-1431-4473-1 — 16h 16m 9 White Night 2007 April 3 0-4514-614-01 2008 February 5 0-4514-6155-X 2009 April 30 0-1431-4474-X — 14h 13m 10 Small Favor 2008 April 1 0-4514-6189-4 2009 May 3 0-4514-6200-9 2008 April 1 0-1431-4339-5 — 13h 50m 11 Turn Coat 2009 April 7 0-4514-6256-4 2010 March 3 0-4514-6281-5 2009 April 30 0-1431-4472-3 — 14h 40m 12 Changes 2010 April 6 0-4514-6317-3 2011 March 11 0-4514-6347-1 2010 April 15 0-1431-4534-7 — 15h 28m 13 Ghost Story 2011 July 26 0-4514-6379-X — — 2011 August 4 0-1424-2906-6 — 17h 52m 14 Cold Days TBA TBA — — TBA TBA — Dresden Files Omnibus Bibliography No. Title Release Date Book ISBN Audio CD ISBN Contents 1–3 Wizard for Hire 2005 March 0-7394-5193-6 — Storm Front, Fool Moon & Grave Peril 4,5 Wizard by Trade 2006 March 0-7394-6581-3 — Summer Knight & Death Masks 6,7 Wizard at Large 2006 October 0-7394-7658-0 — Blood Rites & Dead Beat 8,9 Wizard Under Fire 2007 May 0-7394-8344-7 — Proven Guilty & White Night - Side Jobs 2010 October 26 0-4514-6365-X 0-1424-2826-4 ten short stories All the books are published by ROC, an imprint of Penguin Books. The Science Fiction Book Club (SFBC) is reissuing the series in hardcover omnibus editions. So far, all of the audio books of The Dresden Files have been read by actor James Marsters, with the exception of Ghost Story, which was read by John Glover. The first four are produced by Buzzy Multimedia Publishing. The fifth audio book Death Masks is produced by Penguin Audio. The audio books for the remaining books of the Dresden Files will be released in 2010[dated info] from Buzzy Multimedia with James Marsters reading. Proven Guilty and White Night were released in April 2009 alongside Turn Coat. Death Masks was released November 2009, and Blood Rites and Dead Beat were released April 2010.[7] The next book in the series will be titled Cold Days, and the release date has not yet been confirmed.[8]
Butcher is currently planning for approximately twenty books in the "case files" of the series, to be capped by a further "big apocalyptic trilogy".
At the Tyson's Corner Book Signing on August 1, 2011, Butcher hinted that the titles of the apocalyptic trilogy would be "Stars and Stones", "Hell's Bells", and "Empty Night", referring to curse words used by Harry and the White Court vampires, respectively.
Novelettes
Backup: A Story of the Dresden Files is a novelette set in the "Dresdenverse", but narrated by vampire Thomas Raith. In the novelette, Harry is in danger and is unaware of it, and Thomas runs interference for Harry, trying to protect Harry without his realizing it. The novelette was published on October 31, 2008 by Subterranean Press.[9] It was also published in the novel of short stories, Side Jobs.
Short stories
- "Restoration of Faith" (short story)
- "Publicity and Advertising" (vignette)
- "Something Borrowed" (short story), published in My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding (October 3, 2006, ISBN 0-312-34360-4)
- "It's My Birthday, Too" (short story), published in Many Bloody Returns (September 4, 2007, ISBN 978-0-441-01522-1)
- "Heorot" (short story), published in My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon (December 26, 2007, ISBN 978-0312375041)
- "Harry's Day Off" (short story), published in Blood Lite (October 21, 2008, ISBN 1-4165-6783-6)[10]
- "The Warrior" (short story), published in Mean Streets (January 6, 2009, ISBN 978-0451462497)[11]
- "Last Call", published in Strange Brew (July 7, 2009, ISBN 978-0312383367)
- "AAAA Wizardry," published in Volume Two: Our World of The Dresden Files Roleplaying Game (June 15, 2010, ISBN 978-0977153480)
- "Even Hand", published in Dark and Stormy Knights (July 20, 2010, ISBN 0312598343)
- "Aftermath", published exclusively in Side Jobs (October 26, 2010)
- "Love Hurts", published in Songs of Love and Death (November 16, 2010, ISBN 1439150141)
- "Curses", published in Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy (July 5, 2011, ISBN 978-0312385248)
Butcher has also released all of his Dresden Files short stories except for Curses, AAA Wizardry and Even Hand in a single anthology, Side Jobs.[12] He has promised that all of his shorter works will someday be available in a collected format.[citation needed]
Other media
Television
Main article: The Dresden Files (TV series)The Dresden Files was adapted to television in 2007 by the Sci-Fi Channel, and was canceled after one season.
Graphic novels
In October 2007, Jim Butcher announced on his website that Dabel Brothers would be producing a Dresden Files graphic novel series:
"Working together with Dabel Brothers Productions, the Dresden Files are going to be translated into a graphic novel format. The current plan is to lay out the Dresden Files storyline at the rate of one of the novels every twelve to sixteen monthly issues, with occasional side-trips and independent stories thrown in. (Ever wonder what happened in Branson the month before Storm Front? How about what somebody saw in the lake in Minnesota between Storm Front and Fool Moon? Maybe I’ll get to tell those stories now! How cool is that?)
"I will be assisting with the writing of the comics, and am also involved in the design and approval of the characters, art, tone, and so on. This is an actual hand-in-hand project in which I have full creative input and influence, and I’m friggin’ giddy about it. I mean, come on! Comic books!"
The four-issue mini-series called Welcome to the Jungle, ran as a prequel to Storm Front from early to mid 2008. A compilation of that run was released as a hardcover graphic novel in October 2008. Storm Front was announced as the next adaptation, by the same creative team.[13] The first issue was released in November 2008. Welcome to the Jungle was nominated for the first Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story.
Midway through the production of Storm Front, the title changed hands[14] from Dabel Brothers to Dynamite Entertainment, causing a long gap between issues #5 and #6. Artist Ardian Syaf left the project to work for DC, and Brett Booth was brought in to finish the graphic novel. Issue #6 was slated for May 2010.[15]
List of Graphic novels
No. Title Release Date 1 Welcome to the Jungle (prequel to Storm Front) October 2008 2 Storm Front, Volume 1: The Gathering Storm June 2009 3 Storm Front, Volume 2: Maelstrom February 2011 4 Fool Moon, Volume 1 November 2011 Role playing game
Jim Butcher has spoken openly about a pen and paper role-playing game released in 2010 based on the Dresden Files universe. The game has been produced by Evil Hat Productions.[16][17]
In January 2008, the project went into an early alpha phase of testing,[18] and was in various beta testing phases throughout 2009. Pre-orders were opened up on April 4, 2010, and include immediate access to the pre-print PDF, dubbed the "Early Bird" version.[19] Evil Hat released the game between June 23–27, 2010, to coincide with Origins 2010.[20] The RPG consists of two books, Volume One: Your Story, the core rule book, and Volume Two: Our World, a text describing the game universe. The game, which uses a modified version of the FATE system, emphasizes narrative structure over simulation of magical physics. It allows players to play a wide variety of characters, ranging from an ordinary humans such as Karrin Murphy or Gentleman Johnny Marcone to magic users like Harry Dresden or Molly Carpenter to powerful supernatural creatures along the lines of Thomas Raith, all in the same game, with all the players able to make a contribution.
References
- ^ a b "The Wizard interview with Jim Butcher". Wizards Harry.com. http://www.wizardsharry.com/dresden5.html. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
- ^ The Dresden Files on the Sci-Fi channel page
- ^ a b c Butcher, Jim (2004). "How'd Jim Get Published?". Jim-Butcher.com. http://www.jim-butcher.com/jim/. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
- ^ a b Whiteside, Lee (2007). "A Conversation With Jim Butcher" (PDF). ConNotations 17 (2). http://www.casfs.org/ConNotations/Volume_17/ConNotations_17-02.pdf. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
- ^ a b McCune, Alisa (2004). "A Conversation With Jim Butcher". The SF Site. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/jb182.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
- ^ Pagan, Bella (November 7, 2004). "More, more, more Dresden Files!". Orbit Books. http://www.orbitbooks.net/2007/11/09/more-more-more-dresden-files/. Retrieved 2008-02-05.
- ^ http://www.buzzymultimedia.com/proven-guilty-audiobook.html
- ^ http://twitter.com/#!/longshotauthor/status/54775910271942657
- ^ "Jim Butcher and Orson Scott Card Sold Out on Publication!". Subterranean Press. 2008-11-02. http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/2008/11/02/jim-butcher-and-orson-scott-card-sold-out-on-publication/. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
- ^ "Amazon: Blood Lite". ASIN 1416567836.
- ^ "Amazon: Mean Streets". ASIN 0451462491.
- ^ Re: Name a character or event that you would want jim to turn into a series, Jim Butcher, February 21, 2010.
- ^ Dabel Brothers Publishing announces "Jim Butcher's Storm Front" creative team, Comic Book Resources, July 2, 2008
- ^ Dynamite acquires Dabel Brothers titles, Heidi McDonald's The Beat, December 3, 2009
- ^ Dynamite Entertainment MAY 2010 Solicitations, Newsarama, February 24, 2010
- ^ "Dresden Files RPG - News and Press". http://www.dresdenfilesrpg.com. Retrieved 2009-01-04.
- ^ "The Game's the Thing Podcast". http://www.thegamesthething.com/index.php?post_id=204567.
- ^ "Dresden Files RPG - Evil Hat Interview and Playtest Update". http://www.dresdenfilesrpg.com/2008/01/11/evil-hat-interview-and-playtest-update/. Retrieved 2009-01-04.
- ^ "Dresden Files RPG - The Preorder Is Go!". http://www.dresdenfilesrpg.com/2010/04/04/the-preorder-is-go/. Retrieved 2010-04-07.
- ^ "Dresden Files RPG - The Problem With Being A Small Company". http://www.dresdenfilesrpg.com/2010/06/29/the-problem-with-being-a-small-company/. Retrieved 2009-06-29.
External links
- The Dresden Files Series at Jim Butcher's website
- Buzzy Multimedia—Publishers of the audio books
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher Books Storm Front · Fool Moon · Grave Peril · Summer Knight · Death Masks · Blood Rites · Dead Beat · Proven Guilty · White Night · Small Favor · Backup: A Story of the Dresden Files · Turn Coat · Changes · Side Jobs · Ghost Story · Cold Days
Graphic novels Welcome to the Jungle · Storm Front · Storm Front Vol 2
Characters Categories:- The Dresden Files
- Contemporary fantasy novels
- Novel series
- Urban fantasy novels
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