Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files Welcome to the Jungle #1 - Welcome to the Jungle : part 1 of 4
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The only guy in the phone book listed under “Wizards”, Investigating elves, demons, vampires and all else that creeps
through the night. Harry is a wizard, who works as a private investigator of sorts in Chicago, dealing with paranormal crimes and consulting for the Chicago Police Department. He is named after three different stage magicians — Harry Houdini, Harry Blackstone, Sr., and David Copperfield. This name was given to him by his father, Malcolm Dresden, a stage magician himself, who raised Harry while still performing his magic show all across the country. Harry is considered a magical “thug,” lacking fine control of his power, but is one of the strongest living wizards in terms of pure magical strength, as well as factors surrounding the timing of his birth. Harry is accompanied by a a spirit of knowledge, the equivalent of a magical encyclopedia, named “Bob” who’s housed in a fake skull.
Other Media
TV Series
The Dresden Files
A twelve episode series that originally aired in 2007 on Syfy.
Additional information for the series is available on Screened.
Novels
Storm Front (Dresden Files Book One)
Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he’s the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. The “everyday” world is actually full of strange and magical things – and most of them don’t play well with humans. That’s where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a – well, whatever.
There’s just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry’s seeing dollar signs. But where there’s black magic, there’s a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry’s name. And that’s when things start to get… interesting.
Magic. It can get a guy killed.
Editions
Paperback (Roc, April 2000), ISBN: 0-4514-5781-1
Hardcover (Roc, November 2007), ISBN: 0-4514-6197-5
Audiobook (Buzzy Multimedia, July 2000), ISBN: 0-9657-2550-2
Fool Moon (Dresden Files Book Two)
“Business has been slow. Okay, business has been dead. And not even of the undead variety. You would think Chicago would have a little more action for the only professional wizard in the phone book. But lately, Harry Dresden hasn’t been able to dredge up any kind of work — magical or mundane.
But just when it looks like he can’t afford his next meal, a murder comes along that requires his particular brand of supernatural expertise.
A brutally mutilated corpse. Strange-looking paw prints. A full moon. Take three guesses — and the first two don’t count…”
Editions
Paperback (Roc, January 2001), ISBN: 0-4514-5812-5
Hardcover (Roc, July 2008), ISBN: 0-4514-6202-5
Audiobook (Buzzy Multimedia, April 2003), ISBN: 0-9657-2552-9
Grave Peril (Dresden Files Book Three)
“Harry Dresden’s faced some pretty terrifying foes during his career. Giant scorpions. Oversexed vampires. Psychotic werewolves. It comes with the territory when you’re the only professional wizard in the Chicago area phone book.
But in all Harry’s years of supernatural sleuthing, he’s never faced anything like this: the spirit world’s gone postal. All over Chicago, ghosts are causing trouble — and not just of the door-slamming, boo-shouting variety. These ghosts are tormented, violent, and deadly. Someone — or something — is purposely stirring them up to wreak unearthly havoc.
But why? And why do so many of the victims have ties to Harry? If Harry doesn’t figure it out soon, he could wind up a ghost himself…”
Editions
Hardcover (Roc, November 2008), ISBN: 0-4514-6234-3
Paperback (Roc, September 2001), ISBN: 0-4514-5844-3
Audiobook (Buzzy Multimedia, July 2005), ISBN: 0-9657-2555-3
Summer Knight (Dresden Files Book Four)
Ever since his girlfriend left town to deal with her newly acquired taste for blood, Harry Dresden has been down and out in Chicago. He can’t pay his rent. He’s alienating his friends. He can’t even recall the last time he took a shower.
The only professional wizard in the phone book has become a desperate man.
And just when it seems things can’t get any worse, in saunters the Winter Queen of Faerie. She has an offer Harry can’t refuse if he wants to free himself of the supernatural hold his faerie godmother has over him– and hopefully end his run of bad luck. All he has to do is find out who murdered the Summer Queen’s right-hand man, the Summer Knight, and clear the Winter Queen’s name.
It seems simple enough, but Harry knows better than to get caught in the middle of faerie politics. Until he finds out that the fate of the entire world rests on his solving this case.
No pressure or anything…
Editions
Paperback (Roc, September 2002), ISBN: 0-4514-5892-3
Hardcover (Roc, July 2009), ISBN: 0-4514-6275-0
Audiobook (Buzzy Multimedia, March 2007), ISBN: 0-9790-7492-4
Death Masks (Dresden Files Book Five)
Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only practicing professional wizard, should be happy that business is pretty good for a change. But now he’s getting more than he bargained for.
A duel with the Red Court of Vampires’ champion, who must kill Harry to end the war between vampires and wizards…
Professional hit men using Harry for target practice…
Professional hit men using Harry for target practice…
A handless and headless corpse the Chicago police need identified…
Not to mention the return of Harry’s ex-girlfriend Susan, who’s still struggling with her semivampiric nature. And who seems to have a new man in her life.
Some days, it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed. No matter how much you’re charging.
Editions
Paperback (Roc, August 2003), ISBN: 0-4514-5940-7
Hardcover (Roc, November 2009), ISBN: 0-4514-6294-7
Audiobook (Penguin, October 2009), ISBN: 0-1431-4519-3
Blood Rites (Dresden Files Book Six)
For Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard, there have been worse assignments than going undercover on the set of an adult film. Dodging flaming monkey poo, for instance. Or going toe-to-leaf with a walking plant monster. Still, there’s something more troubling than usual about his newest case. The film’s producer believes he’s the target of a sinister entropy curse — but it’s the women around him who are dying, in increasing spectacular ways.
Harry’s doubly frustrated because he got involved with this bizarre mystery only as a favor to Thomas, his flirtatious, self-absorbed vampire acquaintance of dubious integrity. Thomas has a personal stake in the case Harry can’t quite figure out, until his investigation leads him straight to Thomas’s oversexed vampire family. Harry’s about to discover that Thomas’s family tree has been hiding a shocking secret: a revelation that will change Harry’s life forever.
Editions
Paperback (Roc, August 2004), ISBN: 0-4514-5987-3
Hardcover (Roc, July 2010), ISBN: 0-4514-6335-8
Audiobook (Penguin, April 2010), ISBN: 0-1424-2806-X
Dead Beat (Dresden Files Book Seven)
There’s an entire world that exists alongside the everyday life of mankind. There are powers, nations, monsters, wars, feuds, alliances – everything. Wizards are a part of it. So are a lot of other things you’ve heard about in stories, and even more you’ve never heard of…. Vampires. Werewolves. Faeries. Demons. Monsters. It’s all real.
Harry Dresden knows full well that such creatures exist. Paranormal investigations are his stock-in-trade, and Chicago is his beat as he tries to bring law and order to a world that exists on the edges of imagination. Luckily Harry’s not alone in this struggle. And although most inhabitants of the Windy City don’t believe in magic, there’s a department that’s been set up within the Chicago PD to deal with “strange” cases: the Special Investigations department.
Karrin Murphy is the head of SI and a good friend of Harry’s. So when a deadly vampire threatens to destroy Murphy’s reputation unless Harry helps her, he has no choice. The vampire wants the Word of Kemmler and all the power that comes with it – but first Harry has to determine what the Word of Kemmler is. Now Harry is in a race against time – and six necromancers – to find the Word before Chicago experiences a Halloween night to wake the dead…
Editions
Hardcover (Roc, May 2005), ISBN: 0-4514-6027-8
Paperback (Roc, May 2006), ISBN: 0-4514-6091-X
Audiobook (Penguin, April 2010), ISBN: 0-1424-2807-8
Proven Guilty (Dresden Files Book Eight)
Harry Dresden is the only wizard in the Chicago phone book. He consults for the police department on those so-called “unusual” cases. he’s even been on talk shows. So there’s no love lost between Harry and the White Council of Wizards, who find him a little brash and undisciplined. But now war with the vampires has thinned the ranks of wizards, and the White Council needs Harry, like it or not. He’s drafted as a Warden, and assigned to look into rumors of black magic in the Windy City.
And if that isn’t enough, another problem arrives for Harry in the form of the tattooed and pierced daughter of an old friend, all grown-up and already in trouble. Her boyfriend was the only one in the room when an old man was attacked, but in spite of this, he insists he didn’t do it. What looks like a supernatural assault straight out of a horror film turns out to be… well, something quite close to that, as Harry discovers that malevolent entities that feed on fear are loose in Chicago. All in a day’s wok for a wizard, his faithful dog, and a talking skull named Bob…
Editions
Hardcover (Roc, May 2006), ISBN: 0-4514-6085-5
Paperback (Roc, February 2007), ISBN: 0-4514-6103-7
Audiobook (Penguin, April 2009), ISBN: 0-1431-4474-X
White Night (Dresden Files Book Nine)
Someone is targeting the city’s magic practitioners, the members of the supernatural underclass who don’t possess enough power to become full-fledged wizards. Many have vanished. Others appear to be victims of suicide. But the murderer has left a calling card at one of the crime scenes – a message for Harry Dresden, referencing the book of Exodus and the killing of witches.
Harry sets out to find the killer before he can strike again, but his investigation turns up evidence pointing to the one suspect he cannot possibly believe guilty: his half brother, Thomas. Determined to bring the real murderer to justice and clear his brother’s name, Harry attracts the attention of the White Court of vampires, becoming embroiled in a power struggle that renders him outnumbered, outclassed, and dangerously susceptible to temptation.
Harry knows that if he screws this one up, a lot of people will die– and one of them will be his brother.
Editions
Hardcover (Roc, April 2007), ISBN: 0-4514-614-01
Paperback (Roc, February 2008), ISBN: 0-4514-6155-X
Audiobook (Penguin, April 2009), ISBN: 0-1431-4473-1
Small Favor (Dresden Files Book Ten)
No one’s tried to kill Harry Dresden for almost an entire year, and his life finally seems to be calming down. For once, the future looks fairly bright. But the past casts one hell of a long shadow.
An old bargain has placed Harry in debt to Mab, monarch of the Winter Court of the Sidhe, the Queen of Air and Darkness — and she’s calling in her marker. It’s a small favor he can’t refuse… one that will trap Harry Dresden between a nightmarish foe and an equally deadly ally, and one that will strain his skills — and loyalties — to their very limits.
It figures. Everything was going too well to last…
Editions
Hardcover (Roc, April 2008), ISBN: 0-4514-6189-4
Paperback (Roc, May 2009), ISBN: 0-4514-6200-9
Audiobook (Penguin, April 2008), ISBN: 0-1431-4339-5
Turn Coat (Dresden Files Book Eleven)
The Warden Morgan has been accused of treason against the Wizards of the White Council– and there’s only one, final punishment for that crime. He’s on the run, wants his name cleared, and needs someone with a knack for backing the underdog. Someone like Harry Dresden.
Now, Harry must uncover a traitor within the Council, keep a less-than-agreeable Morgan under wraps, and avoid coming under scrutiny himself. And a single mistake may cost someone his head– someone like Harry.
Editions
Hardcover (Roc, April 2009), ISBN: 0-4514-6256-4
Paperback (Roc, March 2010), ISBN: 0-4514-6281-5
Audiobook (Penguin, April 2009), ISBN: 0-1431-4472-3
Changes (Dresden Files Book Twelve)
Long ago, Susan Rodriguez was Harry Dresden’s lover-until she was attacked by his enemies, leaving her torn between her own humanity and the bloodlust of the vampiric Red Court. Susan then disappeared to South America, where she could fight both her savage gift and those who cursed her with it.
Now Arianna Ortega, Duchess of the Red Court, has discovered a secret Susan has long kept, and she plans to use it-against Harry. To prevail this time, he may have no choice but to embrace the raging fury of his own untapped dark power. Because Harry’s not fighting to save the world…
He’s fighting to save his child.
Editions
Hardcover (Roc, April 2010), ISBN: 0-4514-6317-X
Paperback (Roc, March 2011), ISBN: 0-4514-6347-1
Audiobook (Penguin, April 2010), ISBN: 0-1431-4534-7
Ghost Story (Dresden Files Book Thirteen)
Meet Harry Dresden, Chicago’s first (and only) Wizard PI. Turns out the ‘everyday’ world is full of strange and magical things – and most of them don’t play well with humans. That’s where Harry comes in. But he’s forgotten his own golden rule: magic – it can get a guy killed. Which didn’t help when he clashed with unknown assailants with his murder in mind. And though Harry’s continued existence is now in some doubt, this doesn’t mean he can rest in peace.
Trapped in a realm that’s not quite here, yet not quite anywhere else, Harry learns that three of his loved ones are in danger. Only by discovering his assailant’s identity can he save his friends, bring criminal elements to justice, and move on himself. It would just be easier if he knew who was at risk. And had a (working) crystal ball. And access to magic. Instead, he is unable to interact with the physical world – invisible to all but a select magical few. He’s also not the only silent presence roaming Chicago’s alleys. Hell, he put some there himself. Now, they’re looking for payback.
Editions
Hardcover (Roc, July 2011), ISBN: 0-4514-6379-X
Paperback (Roc, TBR August 2012), ISBN: 0-4514-6407-9
Audiobook (Penguin, August 2011), ISBN: 0-1424-2906-6
