My first experience with the Dresden Files was the short lived (only 13 Episodes) TV Series whose poster is pictured above. If you haven't check it out yet and you like magic, mystery, and the paranormal I would recommend you check it out. It is a bit light, and soap opera-ie and definitely not the best show ever but it is fun and a decent series that I wish there had been more of. I found the series on Neflix over a year ago and have watched it all the way through a few times now. Good Stuff.
However the tail does not end there. As it turns out the Dresden Files is a book series. A really good book series, with around 12 novels (the latest one coming out this week) and several short stories published. The authors name is Jim Butcher. If you like to read, like a good mystery, a bit (read lots) of magic, the supernatural, and pretty any other kind of plot element in modern fiction today (except robots, no robots so far, but I'm only through book 2) you will find it in a Harry Blackthorn Copperfield Dresden novel. Or the Dresden Files for short.
I have to thank a good friend of mine, James from the blog 4 Ones for scoffing at me when I said the TV series was good while at his place recently, and insisting I take the first two novels home with me that night. Course I left them at his place instead accidentally, but as luck would have it I end it back at his place on Friday night and the first two novels end up coming home with me for the weekend. So I started reading the first one Saturday night and was done by Sunday afternoon. Today I felt a bit sick and stayed home from work. To pass the time I picked up book two and in just 7 short hours devoured all 401 pages of it. I'm half tempted to call James up and see if I can drop by to grab the next few books tonight.
Are the books like the show? Sort of, but better, much better. You get more of what Harry is thinking, more of his motivations, and more things happen that just couldn't work on a TV show and would have trouble taking place in the movies. You might be able to do it on TV, but it would take a whole 26 episode season just to tell one story, and not every episode would be as good as all the others. Lots of setup in a Dresden Files novel, lots of characters to meet and for you to get and understanding of before Jim Butcher flips that understanding on its head.
However there are things I miss about the show that aren't in the novel, or only sort of there. One of the big characters from the show was called Bob, he is a the ghost a powerful warlock who has been dead for 10,000 year who was cursed to be linked for eternity to his skull and serve whoever possesses it. In the TV series he is cool and witty and Harry's closest friend, teacher, confidant, and sometime conscience. In the book he is just an air elemental bound to a skull that Harry keeps in his lab in the basement of the building he lives in who is basically a talking almanac of sorcerous knowledge, and not even kind of a main stream character in the series, at least not yet. Also there are little differences to Harry's background, his training, and details to some of the characters that are different then the show. Just little things that bug me, as my first experience with the Dresden Files was the show and not the books and I have already formed images in my head about several of the main characters, and many of those details aren't the same between book and TV show. But what can you do?
Long story short, read the books and check out the TV series. You just might thank me for it. Also if any of you have any experience with the Dresden Files, the books or the series I'd love to hear your thoughts, so don't be afraid to share.