So you have devoured every tale of that wizard in the Chicago telephone directory—that magnificently sardonic fellow, Harry Dresden—and now you find yourself wandering the streets of your own city, rather hoping a vampire might accost you simply to break the tedium. Fear not, dear reader, for I shall be your guide to worlds quite as marvellous, where magic hides in plain sight and heroes possess tongues nearly as sharp as their swords.
Why Readers Adore The Dresden Files
There exists a particular alchemy in Jim Butcher’s creation that captures hearts most thoroughly. It is the marriage of the detective’s trenchcoat with the wizard’s staff, the blending of wisecracks with genuine peril. Dresden fans hunger for protagonists who face impossible odds whilst never quite losing their sense of humour—characters who stumble into magical conspiracies and somehow emerge victorious, if somewhat singed about the edges.
The Alex Verus Series by Benedict Jacka
Beginning with Fated
If one were to transport Harry Dresden across the Atlantic and settle him in Camden Town, one might very well produce Alex Verus. Indeed, Jim Butcher himself has declared that Dresden would approve of this fellow, and who are we to argue with such an endorsement?
Alex runs a magic shop in London—a proper one, mind you, not the sort selling crystal balls to tourists. His particular gift is divination; he perceives the branching possibilities of the future, which proves enormously useful when navigating the treacherous waters between Light and Dark mages. Having once apprenticed to a rather nasty Dark mage, Alex now wishes only to be left in peace. The magical community, naturally, has other plans entirely.
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
The Peter Grant Series
Picture, if you will, a young police constable named Peter Grant who, whilst investigating a murder most peculiar, finds himself interviewing a ghost. This unexpected development brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale—the last officially sanctioned wizard in England—and Peter’s career takes a decidedly supernatural turn.
What follows is a delicious confection of police procedural and fantastical adventure, all wrapped in the most gloriously dry British humour. The rivers of London are goddesses, you see, and they have opinions about jurisdiction. Critics have called it “the perfect blend of CSI and Harry Potter,” which rather captures the essence nicely.
The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne
Starting with Hounded
Atticus O’Sullivan appears to be a tattooed young man of perhaps one-and-twenty, running an occult bookshop in Arizona. He is, in fact, a Druid of some two thousand one hundred years, the very last of his kind, and various Celtic deities would very much like him dead.
Armed with a magical sword called Fragarach (the Answerer) and accompanied by an Irish Wolfhound with whom he can converse telepathically, Atticus navigates conflicts involving gods from every pantheon imaginable. The series has been likened to “Neil Gaiman’s American Gods meets Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden,” and one struggles to offer higher praise than that.
The Kate Daniels Series by Ilona Andrews
Beginning with Magic Bites
In an Atlanta transformed by magical apocalypse, technology and sorcery take turns ruling the world—when magic rises, guns refuse to fire; when technology returns, spells fizzle into nothing. Into this wonderfully unstable reality steps Kate Daniels, a mercenary who cleans up magical messes for a living.
Kate is magnificently formidable, armed with a sword and secrets in equal measure. When her guardian is murdered, she plunges into a conflict between the Masters of the Dead (necromancers who control vampires like puppets) and the Pack (shapeshifters of considerable military organisation). The world-building here is exceptional, and Kate’s sharp tongue would make Harry Dresden himself proud.
The Hollows Series by Kim Harrison
Starting with Dead Witch Walking
In an alternate Cincinnati where a plague carried by genetically modified tomatoes revealed supernatural beings to the world, Rachel Morgan works as a bounty hunter. She is a witch, you understand, and her partners include a living vampire named Ivy and a four-inch-tall pixy named Jenks.
When Rachel leaves the vampire-run federal agency to start her own business, she finds herself with a death bounty on her head and problems multiplying faster than pixies in springtime. Kim Harrison has crafted eighteen books in this series, which should satisfy even the most voracious appetite for supernatural adventure.
The October Daye Series by Seanan McGuire
Beginning with Rosemary and Rue
October “Toby” Daye is a changeling—half-human, half-fae—and consequently belongs fully to neither world. She has attempted to live as a human, but such hopes shatter when Countess Evening Winterrose is murdered and binds Toby with a dying curse to solve the crime.
Set against a faerie world running parallel to San Francisco, these tales combine mystery with mythology in the most enchanting fashion. The series now spans eighteen novels, exploring the dangerous politics of the fae with wit and considerable heart. Toby is that rare protagonist who grows more compelling with each adventure.
The Sandman Slim Series by Richard Kadrey
Beginning with Sandman Slim
James Stark spent eleven years in Hell. Not metaphorically, mind you—actual Hell, where he fought in gladiatorial arenas for the entertainment of fallen angels. Now he’s escaped and returned to Los Angeles, seeking revenge on the magicians who sent him there.
This series is Dresden at his darkest, filtered through hard-boiled noir sensibilities. William Gibson called it “an addictively satisfying, deeply amusing, dirty-ass masterpiece,” and whilst I might phrase it more delicately, the sentiment holds true. Stark possesses a sense of humour as black as his reputation, and the eleven books following his journey are gloriously unrelenting.
The Felix Castor Series by Mike Carey
Beginning with The Devil You Know
In a London where the dead have begun waking up, Felix Castor makes his living as an exorcist. He’s rather good at it, actually—playing a tin whistle to bind spirits to his will—though he tries not to think too carefully about where those spirits go afterward.
Mike Carey, who wrote the magnificent Lucifer comic series, brings that same sensibility to prose fiction. The result is quintessentially London—sleazy, down-at-heel, and absolutely captivating. One sees shades of John Constantine in Felix, though he is very much his own complicated creation.
The Nightside Series by Simon R. Green
Starting with Something from the Nightside
Within London exists the Nightside, where it is always three in the morning, where anything can be bought and sold, and where the supernatural conducts its business far from mortal eyes. John Taylor works there as a private investigator with a very particular gift: his Inner Eye can find anything.
The series spans twelve novels of dark, cynical, and surprisingly humorous adventure. Classic pulp detective fiction meets unbridled fantasy, and the collision produces something rather wonderful.
The Bobby Dollar Series by Tad Williams
Beginning with The Dirty Streets of Heaven
Bobby Dollar is an angel—an actual angel—who advocates for human souls in the celestial courts between Heaven and Hell. He’s not the most angelic angel, truth be told; he struggles with pride, anger, and rather more lust than seems appropriate for a heavenly being.
When souls begin mysteriously vanishing before they can be judged, Bobby stumbles into conspiracies that threaten to spark all-out war between the realms. Patrick Rothfuss described the series as “part urban fantasy, part spy thriller, part hard-boiled adventure,” and it defies easy categorisation in the most delightful way.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Beneath the streets of London exists another city entirely—London Below, where the homeless and forgotten become invisible to the world above, where angels dwell in sewers and assassins named Croup and Vandemar take contracts with disturbing enthusiasm.
Richard Mayhew is an ordinary businessman who makes the mistake of helping an injured young woman named Door. For this act of kindness, he loses everything: his flat, his job, his very existence in London Above. His only hope lies in navigating London Below, a world where Tube stations become literal knights and the Angel Islington is neither metaphor nor monument.
Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines
The Magic Ex Libris Series
Isaac Vainio possesses perhaps the most wonderful magical ability imaginable: he can reach into books and draw forth objects from the pages. His organisation, Die Zwelf Portenære (the Porters), was founded by Johannes Gutenberg himself, and for five centuries they have protected humanity from magical threats.
Isaac has been relegated to cataloguing books in a small-town library—until vampires attack and Gutenberg himself is kidnapped. With help from a motorcycle-riding dryad and a fire-spider named Smudge who ignites when danger approaches, Isaac must uncover secrets that could unravel the very foundations of Libriomancy. This series is a love letter to readers, filled with references that will delight anyone who has ever wished books were truly magical.
Blood Price by Tanya Huff
The Vicki Nelson Series
Before Harry Dresden ever hung his shingle in Chicago, Vicki Nelson was solving supernatural mysteries in Toronto. A former homicide detective forced into private investigation by deteriorating eyesight, Vicki finds herself partnered with Henry Fitzroy—bastard son of Henry VIII, vampire, and romance novelist.
Published in 1991, this series predates the modern urban fantasy explosion and helped establish many conventions the genre now takes for granted. Vicki is tough, practical, and magnificently stubborn—qualities that serve her well when demons and dark magic come calling.
Finding Your Next Magical Adventure
Each of these series offers something Dresden fans cherish: protagonists who face supernatural threats with courage and humour, worlds where magic lurks just beneath the surface of modern cities, and stories that blend mystery with mythology in endlessly entertaining ways.
Whether you prefer the British sensibilities of Rivers of London, the hard-boiled darkness of Sandman Slim, or the bookish charm of Libriomancer, your next adventure awaits. The only question remaining is which portal to step through first.
For readers who have consumed all of the above—and what a magnificent reading marathon that would be—know that the urban fantasy genre continues to grow and flourish. New voices emerge each year, adding their own unique magic to this beloved tradition. The Dresden Files opened a door for many of us; these series invite us to explore the countless rooms beyond.
