And now, as they say, for something totally different. Yes, it is (finally, some would say) I, Marcus, back at long last. To those puzzled by my long absence from posting, and infrequent posts when I was present, I will simply ask how many times Marcus showed up in the early episodes of the series. However, now that G'Kar is getting ready to depart for realms most sandy, my appearances here will hopefully be more frequent.
This morning I'd like to talk about a series of books that I've recently discovered, the Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher. It is now also a series on the SciFi channel, but you needn't worry about spoilers as I haven't seen a single episode as yet.
The Dresden Files are a series of books chronicling the adventrues and misadventures of modern day wizard Harry Dresden. Given that 'wizarding' doesn't pay all that well in modern day Chicago, Harry also works as a police consultant on arcane matters. The books feature excellent characters, adventurous plots, a bit of mystery, and plenty of dry wit.
Buthcer's characters are very well developed, and have plenty of warts. Like the real world, few are ever 100% good or bad, and Dresden lives in a world full of various shades of gray. These include Dresden's nominal boss, police detective sergeant Murphy, gentleman mobster Johnnie Marcone, a faerie godmother who wants his soul, a pack of werewolves, and vampires too numerous to mention.
In each volume, Harry is confronted by both normal crime and all kinds of nasty critters from the NeverNever, Butcher's version of Faerie that lives next door to our own reality. His writing is definitely improving with each volume, and the books provide hours of entertainment. The 9th volume in the series was published in hardback earlier this month.