@rambo @missy
I've raved about them here before, but my favorite book series of all time is the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.
The Dresden Files is a series about one Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, who is the only professional wizard in the city of Chicago. The main stories in the series are told through his perspective, as we find him doing battle with rogue wizards, werewolves, vampires, queens of faerie, lesser gods, and horrors unknown. In addition to private eye work, Harry works with the Chicago Police Department to help solve the more "unusual" cases that the regular police can't solve. In so doing he works with Karrin Murphy - a tough, no nonsense cop whose skepticism is overruled by the results Harry gets and the crimes she sees. These two and a slew of other characters investigate supernatural mysteries, murders, and conspiracies of the highest order.
The first reason that I love the Dresden Files is that it has some of the best characters and character development that I've ever read. Every character is crafted with loving care so that they all contribute in some way to the stories. Harry is the most likeable hero I've ever come across, and Karrin is his perfect foil/foot up his ass when he needs it. And the characters in the series change drastically over time. By book 16, you see Harry and his friends glide past problems that gave them major issues in the first books because of the knowledge they've gained and experience of battling. The second reason I love this series so much is the universe that it creates. While most of the supernatural entities and monsters come from Western mythologies, it's left open in such a way that basically any sort of mythos possible could be introduced into the series. The third reason that I like this series so much is that the humor is laugh embarrassingly loud in public kind of funny. As funny as Harry the character is, Harry the narrator makes the series even that much better. A fourth reason I love this series so much is how expansive it is. There's sixteen books currently in the main series, but there are a bunch of short stories of some slightly more mild adventures, sometimes from the perspective of other characters. There's also several comics and even a RPG that were developed for it.
I'll leave with a Dresden quote, because they are always good:
“I don't want to live in a world where the strong rule and the weak cower. I'd rather make a place where things are a little quieter. Where trolls stay the hell under their bridges and where elves don't come swooping out to snatch children from their cradles. Where vampires respect the limits, and where the faeries mind their p's and q's. My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk. When things get strange, when what goes bump in the night flicks on the lights, when no one else can help you, give me a call. I'm in the book.”
