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!