Harry Dresden and Sean Drummond

When I first started reading from Sean Drummond's perspective in The Kingmaker more than 10 years ago, I was instantly hooked. Here was a murder mystery fest, fronted by a wise-talking, bone-breaking all action hero, which was just the type of humour I craved. Hence, from time to time, I would look out for further books in the Sean Drummond series. While Private Sector and Man in the Middle did thrill, there seemed to be a pattern in each of the plots, whereby the hero would be taken on a merry on round by associates/enemies, but still end up on top in the end. Recently, I gave The Night Crew a go, and while Sean Drummond does move up the career ladder across the series, there does not seem to be much character development, and the jokes just dont seem so funny anymore.

Compare this with Harry Dresden, wizard for hire. Initially, the first two or three books in the Dresden Files series also seemed to take similar arcs, whereby the hero solves mysteries to pay his rent. However, from the third book, Grave Peril onwards, things take a dramatic and irreversible turn, when Harry's girlfriend, Susan is turned into a half vampire and he ends up starting a war between the White Wizards and the Red Vampires. From this point on, the perceived repetition ends, and Harry ends up in a variety of roles (Warden, Winter Knight, Ghost), and levels up in terms of skills and magical powers. The supporting cast is also given time to shine, be it his holy dog Mouse, or his doctor friend turned Jedi. I guess it also helps to have long term enemies in the book, for additional drama.

All in all, I'm looking forward to the next instalment of the Dresden Files!