I’d heard the Dresden Files recommended for years before I finally started reading them in 2022, and I was quickly hooked. Over the next year or so I’d read or listened to the extant seventeen novels, two short story collections, and one novella. Then in 2024, for good measure I watched the TV series.

Now it’s just a matter of waiting for what comes next…

Introducing Harry Dresden

Harry Dresden - or Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, to give him his full name - is Chicago’s only consulting wizard. He even has an office with name-plate “Harry Dresden. Wizard.” on the door, and an ad in the phone book:

HARRY DRESDEN - WIZARD
Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations.
Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties or Other Entertainment.

With an ad like that he gets a lot of prank calls and some mockery. However, while many think he’s a charlatan, it turns out he’s the real deal. Some of his work is more like that of a glorified private investigator, but he does use magic, and as a result can investigate things that other investigators can’t. He even acts as a consultant on paranormal matters for the Chicago Police Department.

What else do we find out initially?

He’s struggling financially - fees from the Chicago PD are a lot of what keep him afloat. He’s under a suspended sentence (“The Doom of Damocles”) from the wizarding council for having killed his former guardian with black magic in self defence. And he’s given to wise-cracking.

The world of the Dresden Files

The world of the Dresden Files is a world in which magic and a host of paranormal creatures are real - but no-one believes in them. People disappear with regularity, unexplained things keep happening, but the majority of humans are determined not to accept magic as an explanation.

Yes, the people who do have weird encounters sometimes come to believe in the paranormal. But even they often rationalise those encounters or completely explain them away. And if they do accept the paranormal they might keep it quiet for fear of mockery (or worse!) from those around them.

This is even more true at the official level. I mentioned Harry was a consultant for the Chicago PD. Well, he’s working with the so-called Special Investigations (SI) - an entire division tasked with handling the awkward problems that no-one else can handle. And part of their job will often be to rationalise away any spooky stuff - talking about things like gas leaks, explosions, mysterious cults, and foreign agents at work.

So what paranormal entities are in the series? Pretty much any tradition you can think of, there’s a fair chance it’s been used somewhere in the series.

Take for example wizards. There’s obviously Harry, but he’s not alone. He’s a member of the White Council, a worldwide organisation with many members and a lot of politics both external and internal. They administer the Laws of Magic and make treaties with (or go to war with) other paranormal organisations and species. Of course, individual wizards don’t usually have the public profile among mortals that Harry has, which is why he’s the only consulting wizard. But they have considerably longer lives than other mortals, so have often been able to accumulate money, power and influence (this will be a common theme with other paranormal groups, too).

How about vampires? Not only are there vampires, but there are multiple different courts of vampires, each preying on mortals in their own way and with their own strengths and weaknesses (Bram Stoker’s Dracula, it turns out, was propaganda from one court explaining how their rival court could be conquered).

And fairies? There’s an entire Fae realm parallel to our own, with a Summer Court and a Winter Court keeping the balance. Going along with that are concepts like debts and favours owed and guest-host obligations, which run through the series and often end up getting Harry into trouble.

You’ll find a Summer Queen and a Winter Queen there, but also a vast variety of other creatures with different levels of power. To take one example, there are Billy Goats Gruff there. They have bigger brothers, too. Got to watch out for those…

What else? Let’s see…
Bigfoot? Check.
Ghouls? Check.
Werewolves? Check.
Norse gods? Check.

And talking of Norse gods brings me to the Christian god, which is actually one of the things that got me hooked on the world. OK, God himself and Jesus are off-stage working in mysterious ways, but some of the most interesting players come from their camp. There are archangels and demons. There are the Knights of the Cross - one of whom is a close friend of Harry’s. There are priests and church-based organisations that accept the reality of the supernatural and fight the injustices in it as best they can. There are sacred relics, like the Holy Grail and the Shroud of Turin, that can be possessed and have strange powers.

All this means this part of the paranormal world brings Harry challenges, supporters, enemies, and temptations.

Personally, I like the idea of the Christian god and his realm as just one player out of many, with its own internal power politics same as any of the other players.

Then there’s one final group of players I can’t overlook, even though they’re not paranormal - the ordinary humans. Yes, part of their role is to be innocent victims, unaware of the paranormal forces that surround them and prey on them. But many of them do get involved in their own ways, either in responding to magical forces or covering them up.

For example, there are the various officers of the Chicago PD, each with their own agendas. Not to mention the FBI. There are the politicians - and note that many of the paranormal groups have their own political pull due to wealth or connections. There’s also the world of organised crime, which sometimes gets targeted by or involved in the paranormal world.

Human weapons also come in very handy. And for Harry, using them also doesn’t breach the Laws of Magic even if he kills someone, though the police might have something to say about it…

Character development (and an expanding world)

I said how we first met Harry, as a struggling consulting wizard and PI. Without spoilers, I think it’s fair to say that he doesn’t stay that way.

He remains something of an agent of chaos, and he continues to favour the use of fire (one of my favourite lines is “The building was on fire, and it wasn’t even my fault”). But he also grows in subtlety, both in his use of magic and in his politics. Perhaps not as much as some of those around him would like, but the changes are still significant.

New responsibilities, new encounters, new experiences - they all change Harry. So too do the impressive array of injuries he acquires. But the bigger picture here is that the stakes continue to escalate, and so Harry is forced to improve just to stay in the game.

When it comes to changes, the 12th book actually has the title Changes, and in it a lot changes (to the extent that almost everything published since then has “Do not read unless you want spoilers for Changes” tags attached). But even without that, Book Eleven Harry is a very different protagonist with a very different support crew from Book One Harry.

Talking about the support crew, this another thing that changes across the books. Over time he gains new allies and supporters, new family, new friends, and new pets, while at the same time building an increasing list of enemies. Some come to respect him, some to fear him, and some plan to use him while others plan to bring him down.

What’s more, important members of that supporting cast of characters have their own character arcs from book to book, sometimes with surprising changes. This is also part of why I like the short stories - many of them are told from the perspective of characters other than Harry (unlike the novels, where the narrator is always Harry). And those different voices give interesting insights into what’s going on.

Doing the right thing

In an early book, Harry is gifted a tombstone with epitaph:

Here Lies Harry Dresden

He Died Doing the Right Thing

And in spite of the greyness of some of the choices he’s forced to make from book to book, that feels real. More real for him than almost any wizard we meet on the White Council.

In another passage, Bob, his talking skull (don’t ask…), reminds him how frequently he’s risked his life - surely there have to be better ways of making money?

Harry: No, I’m not in this for the money.
Bob: Why do you do it?
Harry: Because someone has to.

This also rings true to me.

I read that the author based him on the Bruce Willis character from Die Hard, and I think that fits. Harry won’t give up in the face of overwhelming odds, and he doesn’t know when he’s beaten. Or rather, he does know or at least suspect it, but it won’t stop him doing what he thinks is right.

All that said, he does frequently end up making choices he didn’t want to have to make, and doing deals he didn’t want to have to do. I don’t know if I’d make the same choices he has made if faced with the same situations (and I shouldn’t assume that the author would, either).

But there’s no doubt he’s principled (uncomfortably so, for many around him!). When authority figures and organisations don’t do what he thinks they should do, often for seemingly good or at least pragmatic reasons, Harry isn’t impressed. He’s not happy with the power politics, or with the bureaucracy, and he doesn’t worry too much about potential reprisals from the actions he’s decided are right. As a result, he may tread on a lot of toes, and be viewed as a loose cannon even by those who grudgingly accept that what he’s doing is right.

As he spends more time among the groups that he thinks of as monsters, and as he makes more difficult choices leading to obligations he’s unhappy with, he asks whether he’s become one of the monsters. I presume he will continue to do so in later episodes, and his choices will become ever greyer, but there’s no sign yet of him renouncing his principles.

Even where he thinks he’s done the right thing, and where his actions have measurably made things better, he still beats himself up over unexpected consequences from his actions, whether to his friends or to the world at large.

Will the series ever be finished?

It’s now more than three years since I started the series, and nearly two years since I finished it. There have been no new novels, though the next one has been showing as written for a few months and now has a release date of January 20th, 2026.

The author published the first Dresden novel in 2000, and the fifteenth in 2014 (roughly one a year). Since, then, he published 16 and 17 together in 2020 (a six year gap). There’s only been a novella and a few short stories since then. This next novel will have another six year gap.

So what’s happened? Not only has he been writing more slowly, he’s also started two other series in that time. Personally, I don’t begrudge him that - he doesn’t have to be enslaved by the one series. I’d just prefer it to be finished because I want to know what happens 😉.

From what he’s said about the overall narrative arc there has to be at least another half dozen novels, and quite possibly more. Unless he begins publishing more frequently again, that math doesn’t work out great for him finishing the series.

Personally, I don’t know how big a deal this is, because I think the books are worth reading now. Yes, I’m sure it’s building up to a big, explosive conclusion, and each novel builds on the previous one, but each novel also has its own narrative arc and conclusion.

It will perhaps make it harder to remember what’s going on each time a new one comes out, but I don’t think that will stop me.

As for the rest, I haven’t read any of his non-Dresden writings. Perhaps I will one day. But my impression is that they don’t have what I like about the Dresden Files, though they could well have other things that are just as good.

In summary

To me the Dresden Files are the story of a man who is continually forced to overcome overwhelming odds, often with the support of new and interesting allies, and incurring the wrath of new and interesting enemies. And that man just happens to be a wizard involved in a complicated magical world parallel to - and overlapping with - our own.

The world is interesting, the stakes are constantly rising, and I like the voice and attitude of the protagonist. What’s more, a single page can easily contain both lines that make me laugh and lines that make me think.

And that’s why it’s one of the most compelling series I’ve read this decade.