Line #31 Creator/JimButcher


1	[[quoteright:234:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jim_butcher_3553.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:234:The Man.[[note]]Back before his hair went out crimefighting. It has since returned and he looks like that again (at the time of this writing) [[/note]]]]
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4	->''"[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDJDn-ggqOo I don't have a muse. I have a mortgage]]."''
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6	Jim Butcher (born October 26, 1971) is a fantasy author, best known for writing ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' and ''Literature/CodexAlera''. His books are notable for their high levels of [[GenreSavvy genre savviness]], RuleOfCool, and {{Shout Out}}s. He attended a writing course taught by Creator/DeborahChester, and, in the attempt to prove her wrong, followed her instructions to the letter, which resulted in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''.
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8	Jim Butcher has also written a ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' novel, entitled ''Literature/SpiderManTheDarkestHours'', and is currently working on a SteamPunk series, ''Literature/TheCinderSpires''.
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10	He is now a big enough name that recommendations from him show up on the covers of other writers' novels, and other writers do {{Shout Out}}s to him.
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12	!!Tropes:
13	* ActionGirl: Extremely prevalent throughout his work, it'd probably be easier to list the ''non''-action girls. And several of them should be classified with a "not yet" note as they are still adolescent children. Fine examples include:
14	** Karin Murphy from ''The Dresden Files'', an otherwise normal human woman that's helped take on vampires, werewolves and fairy queens.
15	** Kitai from ''Codex Alera''. Daughter of a "barbarian" chief, she is is a dangerous fighter. She once bit a man's nose off because that was all she could reach when he was detaining her. She joins the hero Tavi in battle many times in the series.
16	** ''The Cinder Spires'' gives us Gwendolyn Lancaster and Bridget Tagwynn, both sixteen year-old maidens.
17	*** Gwen shows a fortitude and calm during a bad situation by calmly and intentionally blowing off the head of the enemy's leader.
18	*** Bridget worked for most of her life moving heavy slabs of meat in her family's vattery. She is probably north of six feet tall and can move those slabs with ease now, resulting in her being adept at close combat.
19	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: In late 2019, a fan comic affectionately knocking the history of frequent MaleGaze in Butcher's writing was posted to [[Website/{{Reddit}} /r/dresdenfiles]]. When many fans went into an uproar, Butcher himself [[https://www.reddit.com/r/dresdenfiles/comments/eb2n11/dresden_files_comic_oc/fb2d1i8/?context=3 eventually commented]] that he thought the comic was genuinely funny and it even made him laugh.
20	* AuthorAppeal:
21	** The name "Margaret". ''The Dresden Files'' has three Margarets, ''The Cinder Spires'' has one (Gwen's second name is Margaret).
22	** Similarly, the name "Gwendolyn"; Gwen Lancaster in ''The Cinder Spires'', and Margaret Gwendolyn [=LeFay=] in ''The Dresden Files''.
23	** {{Action Girl}}s, in particular those who are either very petite or Amazonian. Try finding a woman between five and six feet in height anywhere in a Jim Butcher novel. Go ahead. We'll wait.
24	** Royalty (particularly cases of RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething), medieval-style fighting, and martial arts. Butcher is a huge fan of martial arts in real life, and likes to [[ShownTheirWork Show Their Work]] in his novels through making most of the fights between different characters as realistic as possible.
25	** In regards to ''The Dresden Files'', Butcher absolutely loves to add references to Creator/MarvelComics, helped by Butcher being a huge Marvel fan in real life. Just as an example, Harry Dresden at one point claims to follow "the Tao of [[ComicBook/SpiderMan Peter Parker]]," and Butcher himself has freely admitted that Harry Dresden's character was originally conceived as "What if Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive wizard instead of a radioactive spider?"
26	* AwesomeDearBoy: He's admitted that he took a sizable pay cut to write ''Literature/SpiderManTheDarkestHours'' for Marvel just because he really wanted to write Spider-Man.
27	* CatchPhrase: Saying in a slightly nasally tone "I'm not gonna tell you." His answer to questions he doesn't want to answer. It has started getting applause at his Q&A Sessions.
28	* CreatorBacklash: Heavily downplayed; while he's still proud of having written them, as noted below under OldShame, Butcher doesn't usually like to talk about the first two books in ''The Dresden Files'' - ''Literature/{{Storm Front\|DresdenFiles}}'' and ''Literature/FoolMoon'' - as he finds them somewhat uncomfortable indicators of how mediocre he used to be as a writer. And the less said about "A Restoration of Faith" (a short story set in the Dresdenverse which Butcher openly considers to be an embarrassing first draft) the better.
29	* CreatorsFavorite: Butcher has openly stated in [=AMAs=] that Harry Dresden is his favorite character to write, as he finds him to be very relatable and has also admitted to seeing him sometimes as an AuthorAvatar.
30	* CreatorsPest: In a [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/iekfx9/im_jim_butcher_author_of_the_dresden_files_ama/g2hrixy/?context=3 2020 Reddit AMA]], Butcher said that High Lady Invidia Aquitaine from ''Codex Alera'' was his least favorite character to write, outright describing her as a "terrible combination of self-interest and self-righteousness."
31	* DarkActionGirl: He's had plenty of these show up. Lara Raith of the White Court of Vampires and High Lady Invidia Aquitaine are probably the best examples.
32	* DeadpanSnarker:
33	** The defining trademark that each of his main characters possess.
34	** The man himself is no slouch either, with many of his [=AMAs=] consisting of him lightheartedly snarking at the commenters' questions just as much as he actually answers their questions.
35	* ExactWords: When he was in his early 20s in his writing class where he developed the basic idea of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' he presented his first two chapters to his professor. She gave it praise and asked for how the rest of the story goes. She meant just this first book. Butcher came back excitedly the next week with outlines for a twenty book series capped off by a big apocalyptic trio to present to her.
36	* GeniusBonus: [[invoked]] Butcher absolutely ''loves'' to throw in allusions to obscure trivia in his novels. Just two examples include Harry's ShoutOutToShakespeare in his musing regarding the "primrose path" in ''Changes'' and [[spoiler:the Awakened Vord Queen's practice of "decimation" against a Roman-descended force in ''First Lord's Fury'']].
37	* GenreThrowback: Most of Butcher's work is a love-letter to a particular genre he really likes.
38	** The {{Male Gaze}}-y descriptions of female characters (most of whom are {{Femme Fatale}}s of some shade or another), popularity of [[RevolversAreJustBetter revolvers]] as the firearm of choice, heavy focus on organized crime (with the associated [[TheDon crime bosses]] and [[{{Mooks}} hired goons]] that you'd expect), taking place in a WretchedHive, and Harry Dresden's PrivateEyeMonologue (among other aspects of the series) are all indicators of ''The Dresden Files'' intentionally harkening back to the pulpy detective noir novels of the 1930s and 1940s. The effect is aided in how wizards are all {{Walking Techbane}}s who can't use virtually any technology created after World War II without setting it on the fritz, further adding to the series' subtly retro aesthetic and themes. Admittedly, it's worth noting that most of these traits [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness are more predominant in the earlier novels than in the later entries]] as the series grows its own identity, but even by ''Battle Ground'' the majority of these elements are still there moreso than not.
39	** Similarly, ''Codex Alera'' seems to be largely written as a homage to the HighFantasy literature of the 1980s, with the novel's blurbs even describing ''Alera'' as a love-letter to the swords-and-horses fantasy tales Butcher loved to read when growing up. This is probably best showcased in the series intentionally invoking a lot of tried-and-true fantasy tropes of the time (i.e., [[spoiler:the protagonist being a secret heir to the throne who has lived in hiding for many years on the frontier of civilization]]), but putting a unique spin on them ([[spoiler:the protagonist is a BadassNormal GuileHero in a world where EveryoneIsASuper]]) to help serve as a reminder for ''why'' those tropes have lasted for so long.
40	** The only exceptions to this seem to be both ''Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours'' and ''The Cinder Spires'' (and even the latter is only in this territory since Butcher hasn't yet finished writing the next few novels).
41	* LineToGod: He has a [[http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/ LiveJournal]].
42	* MaleGaze: It's visibly apparent in every one of his novels, which has also gotten him accused of objectifying women (mostly in regards in ''The Dresden Files''). To Butcher's credit, though, this issue has become increasingly better handled as he has improved and matured as a writer, and in ''The Dresden Files'' in particular, it's often used as an indicator of the protagonist Harry Dresden both being an UnreliableNarrator and having an incredibly dysfunctional childhood causing him to be saddled with lots of hang-ups regarding the fairer sex along with the series partially being a GenreThrowback to the pulpy detective novels of TheThirties and TheForties. Notably, short stories in the Dresdenverse where other male characters are the narrator -- i.e., John Marcone or [[spoiler:Waldo Butters]] -- describe female characters ''without'' any lavish descriptions in regards to their physical attractiveness. Amusingly enough, the narration of his female characters in ''Codex Alera'' more often than not showcases the ''FemaleGaze'' in regards to their male love interests.
43	* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Quite fond of these. Consider that his two main book series are respectively about a vampire-hunting wizard FilmNoir OccultDetective and prehistoric monster-riding Roman Legionaries who can control more elemental forms of Franchise/{{Pokemon}}.
44	* OldShame: The introduction to "A Restoration of Faith" (the first story Butcher ever wrote to be set in TheVerse of ''The Dresden Files'') is ''very'' much full of SelfDeprecation and him mocking how sophomoric the story is and reflective of him having been writing it when he was a first-time college student. Additionally, Butcher has been very dismissive towards the first few novels in the aforementioned series (''Storm Front'' and ''Fool Moon'' in particular), and he has openly advised new fans to start reading ''The Dresden Files'' with ''Literature/DeadBeat'' since he feels that it's the best entry point for new people into the books.
45	-->'''Jim Butcher:''' [[http://heroespodcasts.com/jim-butcher-qa To me, Storm Front is the one I wrote when I knew the least about how to tell a good story.]]
46	* PurpleProse: His works are often heavily laden in lavish descriptions and detail. Butcher is very much a man with an appreciation and eye for aesthetics, as any of the elaborate descriptions of characters' outfits will convey. Similarly, the descriptions given to Arctis Tor in both ''Proven Guilty'' and ''Cold Days'' are basically the literary equivalent of SceneryPorn.
47	* PyrrhicVictory: The "loser" in such a confrontation in the late 1990s. When on a chat room, he took a challenge that one could take two "bad" ideas and make them into a compelling story. The challenger gave him ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' and LostRomanLegion. After some research and playing with the concepts, he had a good basis for a story and was unsure how posting the idea to the internet in those days would affect his publishing rights and ownership of the idea. So, he explained this to the other guy, who believed he was right because Butcher had nothing. Butcher decided to let the matter drop. The man might've won the argument, but Butcher ultimately got a six-book deal out of it.
48	* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: All three of his series so far have included people of royal standing (or near enough to it) willing to get their hands dirty.
49	** In ''Codex Alera'' being an almighty badass is a literal job requirement for any High Lord or Lady.
50	** ''The Dresden Files'' has the Faerie Queens, one of whom saved Harry's life. The same series also gives a meta-example with the Knights of the Cross, wielders of divinely powered swords who are apparently always descended from royalty. And during the Wizard-Vampire War, the Red King of the Red Court of Vampires is frequently on the front line or at least close to it.
51	** Spirearch Addison Albion of ''The Cinder Spires'' puts on a front of absent-mindedness and powerlessness (since he has helped reform Albion's government into more of a constitutional monarchy), but the events of the first novel make it clear this front is a façade and he in fact has a great deal of influence.
52	* RuleOfCool: Runs ''heavily'' on this.
53	* SelfDeprecation: The blurbs on the back of Butcher's own novels describe himself as "a martial arts enthusiast whose resume includes a long list of skills rendered obsolete at least two hundred years ago", and also claims that he "turned to writing as a career because anything else probably would have driven him insane." The blurbs also mockingly describe his writing process as him "trying to record his conversations with his imaginary friends".
54	** Similarly, Butcher often likes to mock his own writing ability in interviews and [=AMAs=], with him freely admitting that he usually doesn't see ''The Dresden Files'' as much beyond entertaining escapist fantasy (despite other interviews and his own writing implying otherwise).
55	* ShownTheirWork: Virtually all of Butcher's novels are remarkably well-researched, even if they often go to fantastical extremes. Just two examples include the "Destroying Angel" mushroom prominently featured in ''Grave Peril'' being real and the logistics given to the Aleran Legions (who are closely patterned both InUniverse and out-of-universe on the Legions of the Western Roman Empire) being highly detailed and more-or-less accurate in ''Codex Alera''.
56	* SignatureStyle: Jim Butcher really, really likes political intrigue, characters with ulterior motives, complex and out of the ordinary strategies in battle, characters playing XanatosSpeedChess, unique and unexpected application of magic, sleep deprivation and [[{{Determinator}} soldiering on]] in the face of [[MadeOfIron massive physical trauma]]. There's also non-human psyches, the idea of most supernatural creatures being like predators and being "less likely to attack if you don't show fear", and the whole idea of creating ice by pulling the heat out of the air or water. Other traits include strong female characters, emotionally intense scenes of all kinds, MoodWhiplash between scenes, and justified RuleOfCool, particularly of the NinjaPirateZombieRobot and CoolVersusAwesome varieties.
57	* SpringtimeForHitler: During Butcher's time in college, after his first few attempts at writing HighFantasy fell flat, his teacher suggested that he should write a novel like the UrbanFantasy series he loved so much using her method of novel creation as a useful basis. According to Butcher, he got so fed up with arguing with her over the potential novel's merits that he decided to write the book "as if I was some kind of formulaic, genre-writing drone, just to prove to her how awful it would be." The end result was ''Storm Front'', the first book in ''The Dresden Files'', and the rest is history.
58	* WarIsHell: While the combat in his novels provides many opportunities for the protagonists to do no end of ridiculously awesome things, neither do the books shy away from showing how much mental and physical damage conflict does both to the combatants and the civilians involved. While various candidates for BigBad may use war for their own ambition, they never actually believe WarIsGlorious (and anyone who ''does'' espouse that mindset is either seen as an idiot or is deliberately using it to manipulate others) and however cool the battles may be, the books do not for a moment suggest that the awesomeness outweighs the suffering and brutality.
59	* WordOfGod: He pops into fan forums (including on this very site) every once in a while to confirm or [[{{Jossed}} joss]] plot points.

Context Creator / JimButcher