Author: Jim Butcher
As you know by now, I am a fan of the Dresden Files novels. Aside from another novel about Harry Dresden, Professional Wizard, what would be a good book for a Dresden Files lover?
How about a book with short stories in the Dresden universe?
That's what Side Jobs is.
Author Jim Butcher has written several short stories for various anthologies, in which he fills in gaps of time which take place between the novels. For most of these stories, he gives a bit of depth to secondary characters. Most of the time, but not all of the time, the stories are written from the standard "Harry Dresden first person" point of view, but for a couple of them, where it made sense, Butcher put us in the mind of one of those other characters.
In almost every case, the stories in Side Jobs added interesting details to characters we have grown to appreciate, and often to love. While these stories are not necessary for understanding or enjoying the novels, I will say that, for most of them, they add flavor and explanation that added to my appreciation of the universe Butcher has created. And, since Butcher clearly indicates the placement of the stories within the timeline of the novels, it would be easy for a relatively new reader to insert those stories in the correct places, as long as the reader has the patience to put Side Jobs down again when he or she reaches a point where the next story takes place after a novel which has not been read.
That's what I had to do. I started reading Side Jobs after Turn Coat, but before Changes, and the final story in Side Jobs takes place after Changes. I put Side Jobs aside for a while. It was the right decision.
Now, in every review of every Dresden novel, I have been unreservedly positive about every Dresden story Butcher published. So this review contains something new: a less-than-enthusiastic reaction to a story.
And yet.
And yet, I am impressed. Why?
The very first entry in Side Jobs, "A Restoration of Faith," is highly unusual, in my experience. Jim Butcher had never published this first story before, and he freely admits, in its introduction, that it was not good enough for publication. It was his first attempt to write a story about Harry Dresden, shortly after he started trying to write for a career. It was rejected as not good enough; Butcher agrees; I agree. As I said, it's highly unusual, in my experience, for an author to show his own less-than satisfactory work. Butcher is, in a sense, quite courageous to do so.
I read the story, at first, knowing that the author recognized its failings, but hoping he was just being modest. Nope. While the story contained the core concepts which would become Harry Dresden and his world starting in the first novel, Storm Front, the writing was unsatisfying. It's strange to see cool concepts (fighting a troll under a bridge is cool) poorly executed in books, because we readers tend to be the beneficiaries of fully vetted, fully edited work. We see less-polished results on episodic TV, because of the speed at which such fiction needs to be produced, I think, but in books, there is an expectation that quality will win out.
I guess, in a sense, it's really good to see Butcher's first failed attempt to write Dresden. Aspiring authors can see that a good idea can be poorly written. And here we have a comparison point: we can take "A Restoration of Faith" and compare it to later work, such as that first novel, and identify the ways in which the short story does not work, while the novel does. And then, if we'd like, we can also compare those to other short works in Side Jobs.
I'm going to be honest here: in my view, these are excellent additions to the universe, but they are not as complex or intense as the novels. It's not much of a surprise, really, when you take into account the prefaces for the stories, in which Butcher tells us why he wrote each story. But in this format, you just can't generate the complexity of a novel. And, being in the same world, requiring that the story fit in, it's not as if you're going to get a story which treads entirely new ground, so they are not the sort of thing that is going to win a head-to-head competition against the stories which show up in anthologies of the "Best Of" variety. But they are plenty good for what they are: inserted short pieces about Harry Dresden because Butcher knows his characters and his world. But, as stand-alone stories,
I still love the stories. I really do. And if you are, like me, a fan of the Dresden Files, this collection is a must-read.
But when all is said and done, give me a Dresden Files novel. That's where the true genius of Jim Butcher is on display.
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