LogFAQs > #926469134

The timeline:
* I begin writing urban fantasy, so I begin reading urban fantasy
* I read at least the first in a bunch of established series in the genre
* Legions of rabid Jim Butcher fans swear how good the Dresden Files are
* I read book 1. I am indifferent. It was so-so, but nothing that makes me eager to read on.
* I inform the board. The legions of rabid fans swear up and down, "But it gets good after book 3! Or maybe 4! But you have to get past the first two!"
* I dust my hands off and walk away, disinterested in reading a series that takes so long to get going.
* Several years pass.
* The legions of rabid fans scream, "NOO! YOU HAVE TO READ TO AT LEAST BOOK THREE! IT GETS GOOD THEN!"
* I consider that if I want to ever sell my own writing, I need to know the players in the industry, and that means I better understand why people like The Dresden Files.
* I suck it up and read book 2. It's mediocre at best. Having been writing for a while, I'm able to more specifically point to things I don't like about it, as well as what Butcher does well.
* I report to the board. The legions yell and mock and wail, "BUT IT GETZ GUD AFTIR BOK THR3E! I SWAER!!!!"
* I read book 3. It seems like simply more of what I experienced in book 2. There's a new character, Michael, who's kinda cool, and otherwise I fail to see anything neat or awesome about it.
* I am now reporting to the board one more time, so that, if my guess is correct, everyone will tell me how, no, it's book four where it gets good, and three's the one where you should start seeing that.

.

But look, no, sorry. These books aren't that good. There's one main problem with the stories, which leads to another problem that kinda ruins the books.

The first is that the story moves too fast. It's funny, because usually you want fast-paced tension in your story, but Butcher never takes his foot off the gas. There's no time where I have a point to catch my breath, stop and wonder about the story, to appreciate the impact of anything that's happening, because as soon as something has happened, we're right off to the next crisis. Everything is rammed so close together that there isn't even time for reflection. Simply put, these stories need to slow the fuck down. Y'all must be a bunch of crack addicts with ADD if you call this good pacing.

And the main reason why this matters, TBH, is because I have absolutely zero empathy for Harry. I don't have time to have empathy for him. He's just some dude who keeps doing a bunch of stuff. He gets beat up, tortured, broken down, and everything else, and because the story never gives him any time to actually be beat up, tortured, broken down and everything else beyond simply acknowledging these things in passing, he reads as an android or a video game lead. I don't feel like he's a real person, in any way, shape, or form.

The moment that put this over the edge for me, the moment where Butcher simply lost me and never bothered to take a second to try to recover, was when Harry discovers the death of Kim Delaney in book 2. Kim's dead, this woman he tried to mentor, and then tried to protect by not telling her things that might lead to her harming herself, and when he discovers her corpse....nothing. No shock. No anguish. Not even anger at the stupid bitch who fucked herself over. He just keeps on analyzing the scene and moving on to the next bit of action.

At brief moments, Harry betrays his own humanity by acknowledging things he should be feeling, but he doesn't actually feel them. This has been the consistent tone of all three books (as best as I can remember book 1, anyway,) and it's why I'm really not especially interested in reading about this guy.
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