I visit Amazon.com pretty frequently to check out science fiction and fantasy novels. Recently, I began to notice that many of novels in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series were frequently in the top seller list. I looked into them a little more and found that they sounded pretty interesting and that they all got great reviews. I decided to try out the first novel and I’m really glad that I did, because Storm Front was awesome. It is definitely the best novel I have read this year.

If the Dresden Files sound familiar to you, it might be that you remember the short-lived television series that aired on the Sci-Fi Channel. I never watched the show, but I remember seeing promotions and I thought it looked lame. To be honest, even if the show was good, I’m glad I didn’t see it, because this way my imagination hasn’t been tainted by any of its imagery or anything.

Storm Front, the first of many novels in the ongoing saga, is a unique blend of fantasy, horror, and detective genres that somehow go together perfectly. Harry Dresden is a freelance wizard living in present day Chicago. He’s got an office and an ad in the Yellow Pages and takes on clients that need the services of a supernatural investigator. Harry is a sarcastic outcast of the wizard community with a shady past and a penchant for trouble. Harry’s primary income comes from the Chicago Police Department, when they hire him as a consultant for cases that involve elements of the supernatural. It’s on a grisly murder case that Harry’s troubles begin, launching him into a fast-paced adventure that combines just the right amount of action, suspense, and fantasy elements.

I would highly recommend the novels to any adult, since they do contain some strong language, violence, and adult situations.

Robert Jordan’s 1990 novel, The Eye of the World, is the first work in the epic Wheel of Time saga. Jordan completed the first eleven novels of the planned twelve book series before he unfortunately became ill and died last year. The series is slated to be completed by Brandon Sanderson next year. That being said, the first novel of the series, The Eye of the World, was rich with adventure, magic, and character development.

I might just be a sucker for a hero tale, but I found The Eye of the World to be a very exciting read. It was also a fairly quick read, despite its length. The novel is basically a Tolkien-esque, escapist, fantasy adventure, but it is not exactly run of the mill and very enjoyable nonetheless. As per usual, the novel follows an unlikely hero, Rand, and a group of friends as they are plunged into the middle of a fantastic adventure of growing up where they begin to learn of their greater destinies.

Jordan’s world, like Tolkien’s, is full of swords, sorcery, and fantasy creatures. The novel also includes well developed characters, imaginative locales, and a suspenseful plot. The novel is largely character-driven, though it has an excellent plot, which adds a lot of depth to the story. Jordan seems to be very good at writing characters, which is good, because there are a lot in the story. Not only is the adventure party rather large, but as the adventure unfolds, they encounter a number of additional characters that play some part in the story.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Eye of the World and I’m looking forward to reading the next novel in the series. When I picked up the novel, I had just finished the third book in Stephen King’s Dark Tower saga. I needed something a little more positive and The Eye of the World was a perfect fit.

The third novel in Stephen King’s Dark Tower saga entitled The Waste Lands was an engaging read that I enjoyed more than the second novel. My primary complaint about the second novel, The Drawing of Three, was that some of the main characters were difficult to connect with. The third novel greatly alleviated that problem with Odetta/Detta’s transformation into Susannah and the reintroduction of Jake.

The third novel takes up a short time after the end fo the second. During this time, Roland, Susannah, and Eddie have been traveling in search of the Dark Tower and Roland has been training the other two as gunslingers, his new partners. During the novel, we see Susannah and Eddie develop into their new roles as gunslingers and as a couple. However, we also see Roland’s mental stability begin to falter as he struggles to deal with the paradox of Jake’s death…he died and, yet he did not. As mentioned previously, Jake also becomes a major character in the third novel. His story actually starts off in New York, where he quickly falls into the same mental paradox as Roland and make the realization that, in order to save his sanity, he must rejoin Roland’s world.

Despite his death in the first novel, I truly believed that Jake would return to the story in some capacity. It probably had something to do with his dying words, “Go then, there are other worlds than this.” That statement seemed to be a very strange thing for a dying child to utter (though his comments always did seem to have more wisdom by far than those of an average child) and screamed of foreshadowing. We actually saw Jake again in book two through the eyes of Jack Mort, his (would-be) killer, but only briefly. He didn’t gain a larger part until book three and I believe that is one of the main reasons I liked the third novel so much more than the second. Jake is definitely my favorite character after Roland.

Overall, I thought The Waste Lands was a very good read. For me, it still wasn’t as good as The Gunslinger, but I enjoyed it far better than The Drawing of Three (which many people seem to like a lot more than me). I have never been a reader of horror novels, so some of King’s imagery is a bit dark for my tastes, but, despite that, I have still enjoyed this series pretty well and I look forward to venturing on.