I read most of the series, and it should be read in order.

It is a fun series, new characters are introduced all the time, but it does get a bit repetitive.  I think in order to make it readable for those who read stand-alone books, there is some stuff that it repeated almost verbatim in every book : like his beat-up old car and his miracle-worker mechanic, the fact that water heaters don't work around him etc.

If you read too many of the books one after another it can get quite boring.

So I would say the series is well worth reading (or better yet listening to - the audiobooks never get old or boring, the narrator is excellent!), but give yourself a break and read something else in between.

Cold days is the last one of the cycle (after Ghost Story) where he supposedly became  a ghost, I just ordered it as an audiobook.

I finshed Cold Days last night, it was very good.  It really sets up the rest of the series.  It also answered a lot of questions.

Mike

I at around 4 or 5 in the series. I have too many other books to read to sit and read just one series all the time. I am going to try to get through it soon though so I can make room for the new Steam Punk books he is writing. BTW he was the latest author profile on the Sword and Laser show on youtube.

Was the main plot well written? Was the murder scenarios creative and thought out? Did you see the ending coming?

I thought so, Butcher isn't formulaic enough that I notice it. I have pretty much always been able to figure the story out but I think with his it takes me longer.

I don't read much of the supernatural genre so it was pretty original to me. Whether it's original among it's peers, I don't know. I thought it was pretty creative, blowing people's hearts up remotely would be a handy skill to have.

I am one of those readers who don't try to anticipate the story line or who-dun-it.  I go with the flow of the story, and sometimes I see a certain twist or if the writer is good, some foreshadowing, but usually I am not trying to read the author's mind and write the book for him/her.

The Dresden files are fun to read, because they surprise me and you can't tell the ending or who was the bad or good guy.  Everybody in the series can be good or bad, like Marcone the crime King.

But I lack the intuition to say: yeah I totally knew the twist in Shutter Island, the moment I started reading about Teddy Daniels.  Good for all the psychics out there, I am not one of them.

Sometimes with some books you can see the plot twists coming and the ending is obvious, but I didn't think that with Storm Front.   I'm like Chris, I don't try to figure out the ending, but sometimes you just know.  There was no way to see those scorpions coming!!  I liked the book, and I have the next four on the shelf.

I would say that Jim Butchers two best strengths in this series are his supporting characters and his endings.  The endings particularly starting with book # 7 ( Dead Beat ) are amazing, he really knows how to wrap it up neatly and be surprising.

Mike

I agree about the supporting cast and it just gets stronger and stronger with each book. I care just as much about Murph as I do Harry and for me affection for a character is really important.

What demographic do you feel the novel is aimed at and why?

I don't really see it as aimed at any demographic, literally every person I have shared it with loved it, old, young, male and female.

I originally thought it was aimed at the teen male market.  But reading it was interesting, and I think anyone would enjoy it.