...I would have seriously screwed it up if I had tried.

I already read the series, and you still made me want to start reading it

But seriously folks, Jim Butcher is a fantastic author, I can't stress that enough.


As some extra incentive to try his books out, Jim Butcher will usually post at least the first chapter of each book on his website, even before its actually published. So not only can you read samples of books that have already come out, to see how much you would like them, you can also get a teaser sample of books about to be released.

He's posted the first five chapters of each of his Codex Alera books, and his later Dresden books also have those five chapters posted online.

And for those that don't want to start a series that hasn't been finished yet, his Codex Alera had the sixth and final book published last week. It's just as good or better than the Dresden Files.