Storm Front (novel)
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| Storm Front | |
 First edition cover |
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| Author | Jim Butcher |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Dresden Files |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction, Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Penguin Putnam |
| Publication date | April 1, 2000 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) & AudioBook (Audio Cassette & AudioCD) |
| Pages | 322 pp (first edition, paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-4514-5781-1 (first edition, paperback) |
| Followed by | Fool Moon |
Storm Front is a 2000 novel by science fiction and fantasy author Jim Butcher. It is the first novel in The Dresden Files, his first published series that follows the character of Harry Dresden, professional wizard.
This book is published by the Penguin Putnam company with the ISBN 0-4514-5781-1
Contents |
[edit] Plot
It has been a slow couple of weeks at Harry Dresden's office when he receives a phone call from a woman named 'Monica' who asks Dresden if he could help find her husband. After talking with her and asking her to come down to his office so they could discuss it more in detail, he receives another call from Lieutenant Karrin Murphy, director of Special Investigations (SI) for the Chicago Police Department.
Since working as a consultant with the SI branch is his main source of income, he hurries down to the scene of the crime -- a Madison Hotel room, hoping to make it back before the appointment. Once there, he is shown by Murphy's partner, Detective Carmichael, the bodies of two people, intertwined in an act of passion, now grusomely murdered. The detectives give Harry the name of the man, Tommy Tomm, a bodyguard for 'Gentleman' Johnny Marcone, and learn that the woman was Jennifer Stanton, an escort from the Velvet Room, a high-priced gentleman's club run by Bianca, a member of the Red Court of Vampires. After telling them that he'll work on the case, and exits, trying to make it back before his appointment, he is picked up by a limo, occupied by Marcone himself.
Marcone offers him a deal of 1,200 dollars a day if he does not investigate the murder of Tommy Tomm. Dresden refuses, and unknowingly locks into a soulgaze, coming out more shaken than Marcone. He holds true to his deal however, and lets Dresden off at his office.
He meets in his office with Monica, who tells Dresden that her husband, Victor Sells, who had been dabbling with magicks, had gone missing, and asked him to track him down, saying that she'd come to him because he knew about magic, and figured it may have been important. After agreeing to take on the case, and receiving a good sum of money and another envelope containing a dried scorpion, belonging to Victor. Monica mentions that Victor might be hiding out at their lake house, so it's in a rather secluded area.
He runs into Susan Rodriguez at McAnally's, a small tavern where practitioners and those aware of magic go to relax. Susan interrogates him fruitlessly about the murder, and then unexpectedly asks him out on a date. Taking her up on the deal for later that week, Harry heads to the lake house of Monica and Victor Sells.
After finding a film canister, he enlists a help of a fairy known as Toot Toot (or simply 'Toot'). He asks Toot what he knew, and he could only say that there was a pizza delivered and after promising to check with other fairies in the area for information, Harry releases him. After the fairy disappears, Warden Donald Morgan appears, accusing Harry of breaking the Fourth Law of Magic, which is punishable by death. After a brief argument, Morgan lets him go, since he's technically done no such thing as the law only applies in reference to mortals.
After a bit of advice and making a love potion and a teleportation potion with Bob at his sub-basement laboratory, Harry goes to meet Bianca, owner of the Velvet Room. After terse conversation, Bianca accuses Harry of killing Jennifer Stanton. The situation quickly escalates, and Bianca ends up the loser of the brief spat. She vows revenge on Harry for not only killing Jennifer Stanton, but for the events of that night. He leaves with the number of another woman, Linda Randall, who was close to Jennifer and used to work for Bianca. Harry tries calling Linda, but she hangs up on him. Judging by the noises in the background, he tracks her to Chicago O'Hare Airport, where she is now a private driver for the Beckitts. They arrive as Linda and Harry are speaking, and Linda brushes off the rest of the conversation. Harry slips her his card and Mrs. Becckitt glares him from the interior of the limo.
From there, Dresden decides to go back to the Sells case, and calls up the only pizza place nearby who delivered, and discovers that someone else had called, threatening to kill the driver who had taken the pizza that night. By the time he gets back to his apartment, he's attacked by someone threatening him to stay out of the case.
The next morning, Harry goes to Lieutenant Murphy's office, and after a run-in with a man on 'ThreeEye', a drug that gives them a brief dose of 'Sight', he goes to Murphy telling her that the two bodies are related to a gang war in the streets between 'Gentleman' Johnny Marcone, and the makers of the drug ThreeEye and that the two people killed were killed as a warning to Marcone. Dresden also explains that a group of dark arts users had to conduct the spell. When Murphy asks for the names, Harry could give her none, and enraged, Murphy tells him off. Despite her arguing with him, Harry collapses, from the beating he took last night and the long night he stayed up deducing.
Lieutenant Murphy takes him home, and, after waking up to a bad storm, he remembers not only does he have a date with Susan, but also with Linda the same night. Susan arrives first. As Harry is cleaning up, another knock comes and Susan answers the door and is met with not Linda, but a toadlike demon with the ability to throw electricity and acidic spit. After an intense battle in the small confines of his apartment, and a mishap where Susan drank a love potion instead of the teleportation potion, they both manage to escape using the latter potion, trying to get to a place on the other side of the nearby river that has overflowed due to the many recent thunderstorms. A voice calls to Dresden, and it is revealed that it is the wielder of the toad-demon. Dresden pulls a daring move with the storm, using the lightning to explode the Toad-Demon. After this, Morgan reappears, telling him that he's been accused of killing Jennifer Stanton and Tommy Tomm, which violates the First Law of the White Council and that he will be tried for their deaths.
A cop picks Harry up and escorts him to the murder scene of Linda Randall, killed in the same way as Tommy Tomm and Jennifer Stanton. Harry realizes that they were using the storms to conduct enough energy to produce the killings, and Murphy angrily demands information from Dresden after discovering that the deceased had Harry's business card. Dresden wants to protect Murphy and find out who was killing these people, and Murphy turns on him, threatening him with arrest.
He was attacked again after leaving, and the attacker took a piece of his hair, which could be used in a spell against him. He recognizes the guy as the other bodyguard when he'd talked to Johnny Marcone. Using some of the man's blood from under his fingernails from when Harry scratched him in the scuffle, he called a cab to track the man back to Marcone's club, Varsity.
After telling Marcone what happened, Hendricks shoots the bodyguard, and Marcone and Dresden deduced that the man had doublecrossed Marcone and gone to his enemy, who decided that Dresden was too much of a threat. After leaving, Dresden, with two sentences hanging on his head, decides to go back to Linda's place. He finds another film canister that matches the one he found at the lakehouse, and he falls asleep on Linda's floor. In the morning, he wakes and hurries to get out before the landlord or the cops find him there. As he's leaving, someone else is coming in. It's a photographer named Donny Wise, who has taken pictures for Linda before.
Wise tells Dresden that the night the pizza delivery man showed up, there was a party going on, a sex orgy that Wise was photographing, in this party was Linda Randall, and a lot of other people. Dresden, now curious, goes to Monica Sells' house, who confesses to him that Victor had used the act of sex to gain power and become a stronger sorcerer. he began making the ThreeEye, and used the money from the Beckitts, who blame Marcone for the death of their daughter, to produce it en masse. It is also revealed that Jennifer Stanton was Monica's sister, and that Victor had killed her after she threatened to go to Marcone, and that Tommy Tomm had been caught in the crossfire.
From there, he heads back to his office, where Murphy is waiting to arrest him, and was going through his things. She unfortunately discovers the scorpion that Monica had given to help track down her husband. The scorpion is reanimated and begins to grow, attacking the Lieutenant. It stings Murphy, and attacks Dresden later after he arrives and finds the injured Murphy. Battling the scorpion while handcuffed to the semi-conscious Murphy, he ends up smashing the car-sized scorpion between the elevator and the top of the elevator shaft. Leaving Murphy in the care of the paramedics who have arrived, he leaves and tracks down Victor Sells.
He returns back to the lakehouse and interrupted Victor Sells, who was performing the death spell that was to end Dresden's life. An epic battle ensues, with Harry ending up the victor after burning the house down, however, Dresden is trapped inside the burning house, and he ends up being saved by Morgan, who, even though he despises Dresden, would not let him die.
[edit] Plot points introduced
- Soulgaze: An event where a wizard locks eyes with another human (and only another human, as faeries, vampires etc. don't have human souls) sees a piece of their souls, it is normally a daunting experience. Later books reveal that the experience is different based on the people involved. Some wizards experience the soulgaze like they would a work of art. Some hear, rather than see, the soulgaze, and some, like Dresden, see symbolic representations of who the other person is.
- Laws of Magic: A list of seven laws held by the White Council, that must be upheld by all wizards. Breaking one of these laws is punishable by death.
- Sight: The ability for wizards to see what is being looked beyond its mundane 'normal' view, and also to see the spirit, soul and true nature of persons. It's in brilliant color and will never fade from their minds, no matter how much time passes or how much it is done. This must be used carefully, or the wizard could be driven insane. Dresden refers to the experience as opening and closing "the Third Eye".
- Death Curse: Briefly mentioned is that a wizard has the ability to perform a death curse, though this idea is not expanded upon until later novels in the series.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Characters introduced in this novel
- Harry Dresden: Professional wizard and main character of the book
- Monica Sells: One of Dresden's clients, and wife of Warlock Victor Sells.
- Lieutenant Karrin Murphy: Director of Special Investigations
- Detective Ron Carmichael: Murphy's partner at SI
- Jennifer Stanton (deceased): Employee of the velvet room and Monica Sells' sister
- Tommy Tomm (deceased): Bodyguard for Gentleman Johnny Marcone
- Hendricks: Bodyguard for Gentleman Johnny Marcone
- Gentleman Johnny Marcone: Crime lord of Chicago
- Mac: owner of McAnally's tavern
- Susan Rodriguez: reporter at the Midwester Arcane, and Dresden's love interest
- Toot Toot: a dewdrop faery who helps Dresden
- Warden Donald Morgan: A Warden of the White Council, they are the keepers of the peace in the magical community, and their job is essentially like a police officers. They aid their citizens and punish them when breaking the Seven Laws.
- Mister: Dresden's 30+ pound house cat
- Bob: A intelligent air spirit who lives inside a skull in Dresden's sub-basement laboratory.
- Madam Bianca St-Clair: Mistress of the Velvet Room and a Red Court vampire
- Linda Randall (Deceased:) One time employee of the Velvet Room, now a driver for the Beckitts, and friend (and sometime lover) to Jennifer Stanton.
- The Beckitts: A rich couple who provide money for Victor Sells.
- Donny Wise: a photographer of a local adult magazine.
- Victor "Shadowman" Sells: villain of the novel and sorcerer, produced the drug ThreeEye, husband of Monica Sells.
[edit] Storm Front in Other Media
- Storm Front has also been recorded as an audio book. Narrated by James Marsters, it is also available on Jim Butcher's website, along with mp3 audio samples.
- The plot of the novel was also condensed down to a 90-minute prospective television pilot for the SciFi Channel. Though the television movie was not used as the pilot episode, it was edited in half and used later in the first season.
[edit] External links
- Storm Front The website summary of Storm Front and the first two chapters to preview.
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