An urban fantasy series written by Jim Butcher, following Chicago's first (and only) Wizard P.I. as he takes odd jobs and consults on supernatural crimes, trying to keep the city safe.
The Dresden Files are Jim Butcher's first published series, and to date his most popular. The series tells the story of Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, Chicago's only openly practicing wizard (he's in the yellow pages, even) and private investigator. Each novel covers a major case in Harry's career, and now with (at current) 15 published novels, numerous tie-in works, and more to come, Dresden has had a lengthy and storied career.
The urban fantasy setting of the series puts forth that magic and the supernatural have always been around, somewhere between hidden and simply keeping low profile, while the modern world rationalizes away anything it can't explain. Many legends, myths, stories, and monsters have at least some basis in truth, even if the truth about the supernatural doesn't exactly line up with how it's shown on TV and movies. Harry's cases have involved rogue magic users, ghosts, werewolves, vampires, the many realms of Faerie, shapeshifters, fallen angels, Eldritch creatures from beyond, and even the not-so-simple regular humans. His intended role is to hire himself out to help find lost things or explain the supernatural, but often gets (or starts) in too deep and ends up playing the full-blown hero. Dresden is very genre savvy and pop-culture aware, and is often cracking wise and lampshading cliches as he tackles a case.
Dresden has some few allies that help him protect people. Karrin Murphy is head of Chicago's Special Investigations division of the police, and hires him to get results and explanations that regular cops would dismiss. Bob is a spirit of intellect that lives inside a skull in Harry's lab, playing the role of minor sidekick and exposition assistant, having a perfect knowledge of most of the supernatural. Joining in further into the series are a local pack of friendly werewolves / college students, a modern-day paladin, a shameless incubus, and occasional old flames. Dresden has authority issues that keep him from getting too much help from fellow wizards, and they in turn have good reason to keep a suspicious eye on him.
Dresden has expanded into a small media franchise based on the books' popularity. Butcher has written multiple short stories in the setting and released one full collection, with another in planning. The novels were adapted for television in 2007 by SyFy. The television series only used the broad parts of the setting, starred Paul Blackthorne as Dresden, and unfortunately failed to last past its first season. Many graphic novels have also been released, some detailing Harry's lesser known cases and others adapting the earlier novels directly. A role-playing game has also been created which comprises 3 volumes so far, based on the FATE system designed by Fred Hicks, with heavy input from Jim Butcher. Further projects are in the works.
This tag should be used for any works in the Dresden Files universe, in any media. For other works by the author, see the codex-alera or jim-butcher tags. For more information on the series, see the author's site, which includes sample chapters, or the Wikipedia page.
