Complete Dresden Files Books by Jim Butcher In Order
“When I realized wizards and PIs were the same character, it became real easy.”
The Dresden Files is a hard-boiled detective and urban fantasy series by Jim Butcher that follows private investigator and wizard Harry Dresden, who investigates supernatural cases in Chicago. The world’s only “consulting wizard,” he faces off against a variety of beings—including spirits, vampires, werewolves, and other monsters—accepting cases from human and nonhuman clients, as well as the Chicago PD’s Special Investigation unit.
“I realized wizards and private eyes do the exact same things,” Butcher told Strand Magazine. “They perform the same role; they just have a different hat on. Whether they are plunging into the underworld of Chicago’s criminal scene or plunging into the literal underworld like in LOTR, they’re both people who go to dark places and are a threat, not necessarily because of what they can do, but mostly because of what they know. When I realized wizards and PIs were the same character, it became real easy.”
Jim Butcher celebrated the 20th anniversary of Storm Front, the first novel in the series, with two new additions to the Dresden Files cannon—Peace Talks (Dresden Files #16) and Battle Ground (Dresden Files #17). The Dresden Files has also expanded into other formats, ranging from short stories and a role playing game to the short-lived 2007 television series. Fox21 Television Studios have optioned the rights to develop another TV show.
Author photo © Portrait Gallery / Photography by Shersten the Golden
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Storm Front (Dresden Files #1) 2000
Fool Moon (Dresden Files #2) 2001
Grave Peril (Dresden Files #3) 2001
Summer Knight (Dresden Files #4) 2002
Death Masks (Dresden Files #5) 2003
Blood Rites (Dresden Files #6) 2004
Dead Beat (Dresden Files #7) 2006
Proven Guilty (Dresden Files #8) 2007
White Night (Dresden Files #9) 2008
Small Favor (Dresden Files #10) 2009
Turn Coat (Dresden Files #11) 2010
Changes (Dresden Files #12) 2011
Ghost Story (Dresden Files #13) 2012
Cold Days (Dresden Files #14) 2013
Skin Game (Dresden Files #15) 2015
Peace Talks (Dresden Files #16) 2020
Battle Ground (Dresden Files #17) 2020
Twelve Months (Dresden Files #18) - Title Subject to Change, Date TBD
Mirror Mirror (Dresden Files #19) - Date TBD
Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files: Complete Series comic books
These volumes of The Dresden Files Omnibus collect Harry Dresden comic book story arcs, including both adaptations plus original stories co-written by Jim Butcher that expand the official continuity with adventures never-before-seen in the novels!
Find the Dresden Files comic book omnibuses on Amazon (affiliate link)
The Dresden Files TV series
Harry Dresden (Paul Blackthorne) is a regular-guy private detective with extraordinary abilities. Whether consulting for the police on seemingly inexplicable crimes or following his own cases, he battles dark forces with a wry sense of humor.
Find the Dresden Files TV series on Amazon (affiliate link)
Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game
Play Harry Dresden and his friends as they take on the cases from Jim Butcher’s bestselling Dresden Files novels in the ultimate what-if scenario! As a character from the books, solve cases and beat the odds in the final showdown. “You don’t have to be a fan of the source material to enjoy the Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game (although that does help), as this one should appeal to anyone who loves trying to puzzle out a win, especially when the odds are stacked against you.” (Board Game Quest)
Find the Dresden Files card game on Amazon (affiliate link)
The Dresden Files author reveals what sparked him to start writing fiction, explains the problem with defining genres, and shares why he wrote the first Dresden novel to prove a point.
Jim Butcher On What Made Him Start Writing Fiction
I found myself looking for stories that I wanted to read but couldn’t find. At the end of the day, I became a writer because I wanted to read these stories and nobody else was writing them, so I wrote ’em myself. I wanted more of that type of story. I thought to myself, if I want more, maybe a lot of other people want more. That was one of the reasons why I started writing urban fantasy.
Read the interview: Jim Butcher talks about his character Harry Dresden (Strand Magazine)
Jim Butcher On The Problem of “Genre” Classifications for Authors
To me, genres are not for writers; they are really for bookstores and then for readers. As far as writers go, writers write because if they didn’t they would probably lose their minds. I really think that’s the motivation for why they do it. You know there’s a story within you and it has gotta get out, and it doesn’t care about genre conventions. The only consideration for genres I take when I’m writing is when I think about how I’m going to market the book to an editor. For example: with The Cinder Spires I would say it’s a steampunk story but it has fantasy elements to it. At the same time, however, I have to consider how I will talk about this, or present this, to the fans. I believe that The Cinder Spires is like a steampunk opera. A space opera meets steampunk. But there is no actual section for a “steam opera” in the bookstore. I know it will land in science fiction and we’ll call it steampunk. But what I really rely on is the fan. It is their word of mouth that makes the story. Those fans out there are the ones that are on your side and the best marketing, I believe, you can have. Which makes the genre conventions not really applicable. That said, The Dresden Files is classified as urban fantasy, which is good enough to get people started. You introduce them to the world and then they look around for themselves and make their own decisions.
Read the interview: Jim Butcher interview, exclusively on Suspense Magazine
Jim Butcher On How He’s Been On Track With Dresden Files Since the Beginning
When I first outlined the series, I outlined 20 books and I said: “Here’s the kind of plots that I want to have … here are the kind of bad guys that are going to be showing up … the kind of big events that are going to be happening…” And I’ve still got the outline at home which is something I wrote as a class project long ago, and now, as we’ve gone on the books have done very well. I see no reason to fix it if it isn’t broken, so I’m still using those outlines. Which is just stuff I came up with a while back, and basically it’s just fun, like: “I want to have Dresden in prison in this story!” or “I want him in an insane asylum with no magic”. You know, and these are things that I’m hoping to have happen as the series goes on.
Read the interview: My Interview with Jim Butcher—The Arched Doorway
Jim Butcher On How He Wrote The First Dresden Novel to Prove a Point (But Failed To Make His Point)
For this book, I started off writing this to prove to my writing teacher about how wrong she was all the things she was trying to teach me about writing and she’d been suggesting that I try an urban fantasy-style novel for a while. I decided the way to impress upon her how wrong she was, considering I had a degree in English literature while she’d only published 40 novels, was do everything she told me to, and that would show her! I’d fill out all her little forms and do all her little work sheets and outlines, character summaries, and she’d see what sort of cookie-cutter crap came from that, and so I wrote the first Dresden Files book.
Read the interview: A Man of Many Ways: The Jim Butcher Interview - Dragon Con
Jim Butcher On What Keeps Harry Dresden Fresh Book After Book
It’s what keeps any character interesting—the fact that he grows and changes as he goes along. There are core elements of his personality that are probably never going to change, like he’s always going to be “lipping off” to people when he shouldn’t, but at the same time, he’s also somebody who grows and who gets scars, and he finds out things he didn’t know before and things he didn’t know about himself before.
At the end of the day, as long as the character is growing like that, and you know where he’s going and you you know where he’s headed and where he’s going to end up, there’s never a question of the character growing stale because you’re not writing just Harry Dresden over and over. You’re writing this book’s Harry Dresden and this book’s Harry Dresden has got to be different than the last book’s Harry Dresden.
Read the interview: Writing Harry Dresden: An Interview With Jim Butcher
Find more Jim Butcher online
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Happy 20th Anniversary to Storm Front! (Jim Butcher)
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