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Fighting the good fight.note 

"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."
Harry Dresden

An Urban Fantasy/mystery series of novels by Jim Butcher. Harry Dresden is a wizard and private detective operating out of modern day Chicago (he's in the phone book under "wizards"; surprisingly, he's the only entry), and reluctantly hired by a special police task force as a consultant on supernatural crimes. The Genre Savvy protagonist cracks jokes about the Urban Fantasy-Dungeon Punk setting and the tropes it uses.

Harry meets a wide variety of characters in the series, including Karrin Murphy, the Action Girl cop who's aware of the city's supernatural underworld; Bob, a spirit of intellect who lives in a skull—human-shaped ghost in the television series—is Harry's literal Magical Computer; Michael Carpenter, a modern-day paladin wielding a holy sword; Billy the Werewolf and his pack of Alphas (a group of young heroic wannabes); Thomas Raith, the Loveable Rogue incubus White Court vampire; Harry's on-and-off love interest reporter Susan Rodriguez; and Molly Carpenter, Michael's oldest daughter and Harry's apprentice. Like many detective stories, Harry meets a ridiculous number of femmes fatales, crime bosses, and hired goons, which is frequently lampshaded in the series.

There are currently seventeen published novels in the series, with the last book, Battle Ground, having been released on September 29, 2020:

  1. Storm Front (April 1, 2000)
  2. Fool Moon (January 1, 2001)
  3. Grave Peril (September 1, 2001)
  4. Summer Knight (September 3, 2002)
  5. Death Masks (August 5, 2003)
  6. Blood Rites (August 3, 2004)
  7. Dead Beat (May 3, 2005)
  8. Proven Guilty (May 2, 2006)
  9. White Night (April 3, 2007)
  10. Small Favor (April 1, 2008)
  11. Turn Coat (April 7, 2009)
  12. Changes (April 6, 2010)
  13. Ghost Story (July 26th, 2011)
  14. Cold Days (November 27, 2012)
  15. Skin Game (May 27, 2014)
  16. Peace Talks (July 14, 2020)
  17. Battle Ground (September 29, 2020)

Novels 1 - 9 have been collected in 4 different omnibus editions; books one and two have additionally been adapted into graphic novels.

There are also forty shorter pieces of fiction set in the Dresdenverse. Most of them have been published or republished in Dresden-exclusive collections. The collections and stories are:

  1. Side Jobs, a collection containing eleven Dresdenverse short stories.
    1. "A Restoration of Faith"
    2. "Publicity and Advertising" (listed as "Vignette" in Side Jobs and the website)
    3. "Something Borrowed" (originally published in My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding)
    4. "It's My Birthday, Too" (originally published in Many Bloody Returns)
    5. "Heorot" (originally published in My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon)
    6. "Day Off" (originally published in Blood Lite)
    7. "Backup" (originally published by itself)
    8. "The Warrior" (originally published in Mean Streets)
    9. "Last Call" (originally published in Strange Brew)
    10. "Love Hurts" (originally published in Songs of Love and Death)
    11. "Aftermath" (originally published in Side Jobs)
  2. Brief Cases, a collection containing twelve Dresdenverse short stories.
    1. "A Fistful of Warlocks" (originally published in Straight Outta Tombstone)
    2. "B is for Bigfoot" (originally published in Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron)
    3. "AAAA Wizardry" (originally published in Our World, a rulebook for the Dresden Files tabletop RPG)
    4. "I Was a Teenage Bigfoot" (originally published in Blood Lite 3: Aftertaste)
    5. "Curses" (originally published in Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy)
    6. "Even Hand" (originally published in Dark and Stormy Knights)
    7. "Bigfoot on Campus" (originally published in Hex Appeal)
    8. "Bombshells" (originally published in Dangerous Women)
    9. "Cold Case" (originally published in Shadowed Souls)
    10. "Jury Duty" (originally published in Unbound)
    11. "Day One" (originally published in Unfettered II)
    12. "Zoo Day" (originally published in Brief Cases)
  3. One novella:
    1. "The Law"
  4. Six graphic novels:
    1. Welcome to the Jungle (set before Storm Front)
    2. Ghoul Goblin (set after Fool Moon)
    3. War Cry (set after Dead Beat)
    4. Down Town (set after White Night)
    5. Wild Card (set after Small Favor)
    6. Dog Men (set after Wild Card)
  5. Four short stories which have not been collected in Dresden-exclusive anthologies:
    1. "Christmas Eve" (also published at the end of Battle Ground)
    2. "Monsters" (originally published in Parallel Worlds)
    3. "Little Things" (originally published in Heroic Hearts)
    4. "Fugitive" (originally published in Instinct: An Animal Rescuers Anthology)
  6. Six microfiction vignettes which have also not been collected in Dresden-exclusive anthologies:
    1. "Mike"
    2. "Journal"
    3. "Goodbye"
    4. "Job Placement"
    5. "Everything the Light Touches"
    6. "The Good People"

The three Bigfoot stories were collected in a separate illustrated collection entitled Working For Bigfoot and were also made into a full graphic novel adaptation simply titled Bigfoot. The short story "A Restoration of Faith" and the microfiction vignette "Everything the Light Touches" were adapted into illustrated versions as well.

The Dresden Files have been adapted into a short-lived television series on the Sci Fi Channel and a tabletop RPG, written from the characters' perspective, using FATE Core, a second edition, using FATE Accelerated, Dresden Files Accelerated, was released later. The series has also been the subject of a cooperative card game which funded on Kickstarter at over $500,000.

Word of God says that the series will have twenty-two "case" books like the ones already published, which will then be capped off by an apocalyptic trilogy for a total of twenty-five books.note  Because, to quote the author, "Who doesn't love apocalyptic trilogies?" In August 2011, he hinted that the titles of the final three books would be "Stars and Stones", "Hell's Bells", and "Empty Night", because "they're called curses for a reason." There is also a planned Young Adult Literature spinoff series to be co-written with at least one of Butcher's sisters centered on Dresden's daughter, Maggie, and dog, Mouse.

The recap page is under major construction, so help with it would be appreciated.


Due to length, the trope list has been split off to subpages:


Alternative Title(s): Dresden Files

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