The Best of the Dresden Clones

The Best Fantasy Books Similar to The Dresden Files

See the ranking

All these books are in some way similar to The Dresden Files while still being completely unique. Butcher's Dresden seemingly created an entire subgenre of Urban Fantasy -- one of the more popular genres in Fantasy.There's dozens and dozens of these types of books now -- with most of them ranging from terrible to mediocre. Still there's a handful that are delicious reads, every bit as good (arguably BETTER) than the books that definitely inspired them (The Dresden Files). I've decided to cook up a dedicated list to help you folks find books similar to The Dresden Files. So if you are hungering for some more Dresden-like action, feast on these reads.

The ranking

Alex Verus (Alex Verus) Start here

by Jacka, Benedict

Alex Verus by Benedict Jacka A lot of the books on this list have a similarity. They may be in wildly different settings and various fantasy worlds, but most of them are some time in the past. Jacka’s urban fantasy offer...

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Dirty Streets Of Heaven (Bobby Dollar) Start here

by Williams, Tad

This one by Tad Williams, a master at writing well plotted, rich fantasy tales.This is his second foray into urban fantasy territory (first being War of the Flowers - another well recommended urban fantasy tale) and look...

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The Devil You Know

by Carey, Mike

Read Mike Carey's Felix Castor series for something just like Dresden in style and form, yet completely different. The blurb states it's 'every bit as good as Jim Butcher' and this is no exaggeration. It is just as good...

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Sandman Slim (Sandman Slim) Start here

by Kadrey, Richard

Of all the books on this list, Sandman Slim is probably the darkest and most brutal. But it's disturbingly good a story about a sort of Harry Dresden character who comes unhinged, due in part to long stint being torture...

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Child Of Fire (Twenty Palaces) Start here

by Connolly, Harry

I quite liked this one. I think it's probably the best next It’s dark, gritty, and it dose new things in the genre. Yes, it’s got some of the elements of the Dresden novels, but there’s enough here that it’s no simple cl...

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Something From The Nightside (Nightside) Start here

by Green, Simon R.

An interesting concept. A dark gritty hidden part of London that functions as a sort of universal septic tank -- home to gods, demons, angles, humans, misfits and every sort of creature every imagined in the present, pas...

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Garrett, P.i. Series (Garrett, P.i.)

by Cook, Glen

Gritty detective fantasy in a warzone - this is The Dresden Files before Dresden. Garrot PI has been vastly overshadowed by Cook’s The Black Company, but these are actually some of cook’s best writing. The books are funn...

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Rivers Of London

by Aaronovitch, Ben

Ah, detective urban fantasy but with a decidedly police procedural bent. If you like the idea of Dresden but hate the over-the-top, break all magical rules on a whim aspect of Dresden, then Peter Grant's Rivers of London...

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Hounded (Iron Druid Chronicles) Start here

by Hearne, Kevin

The Iron Druid Chronicles is one of those series you either really like or you are completely ambivalent about. I fall into the later category; for the most part, Hearne pretty much takes the whole Dresden formula and ch...

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Libromancer

by Hines, Jim C.

How to describe this one? It's kind of like Brandon Sanderson and Jim Butcher got it on in a library and this was their literary love child. There is really no easy way to explain this one. But, there's a lot of zaniness...

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