Let me get this out of the way. For the life of me, I struggle to identify the difference between science fiction and fantasy. I think wizards/vampires lands us firmly in the fantasy camp, but I’m not certain. I feel better having confessed this.
That out of the way, let me give a thanks to the CBR community. I was looking for a new audio book to sink into and went searching through posts on the CBR facebook page and found a post from someone asking about audiobooks and there I discovered something wonderful: James Marsters, aka, Spike from Buffy, was the voice of Harry Dresden in the Dresden Files series. Well well well!! I had heard of the Dresden Files as vaguely a thing that existed but didn’t know anything about it. If I was excited when I heard about James Marsters, I was over the moon when I discovered this was a mystery series a la noir gumshoe/detective style but the detective was also a WIZARD. I jumped into book one, and though I often have to plod myself in this commute-less world to find an occasion to listen to a book this was the opposite and I kept finding opportunities to keep tuning in.
Marsters is absolutely pitch-perfect as the worn and weathered Dresden, with his regular ol’ accent. His voice has such a lovely tone, and he is equally adept at shaping all of the other characters. But he IS Dresden. And y’all, I got such a giggle when he would talk about vampires. Because he PLAYED a vampire, and now he is trying to wheel and deal with them. It was just a spectacular bit of fun. Suffice it to say it only took this one book for me to become a fan, and as soon as I finished it I got the next from the library, which is unfortunately due in two days, so if you’ll excuse me, it’s back to Dresden I go!
If it’s science or space- or space-travel based it’s usually science fiction. If it has magic, or made up worlds, it’s fantasy. There can be books that are both! But they are more rare than you think. This is definitely fantasy, subgenres: urban fantasy (because it takes place in a city) and paranormal fantasy (because it features paranormal creatures like ghosts, vampires, werewolves, etc.) I hope that helps!
Also, I’m so glad you loved it! If you liked book one this much, you will love the rest of the series, as 1-3 are widely considered the weakest books in the series.