re: Sci-Fi/Fantasy Recommendation & Discussion Thread

With butcher the storyline keeps building on previous books, particularly as you go along. Each book typically has a case/problem that is individual to that book, but stuff happens that builds on the overall storyline.

Storm front is one where you could probably skip it as long as you read a good synopsis of the plot, as nothing happens that directly impacts the overall plot, it just gives a bit of background to Dresden and introduces a couple side characters briefly. You could possibly skip the second one if you read a synopsis as well, as it doesn't impact the overall arching plot but it does give a bunch of character development between Dresden and a series long antagonist/sometime ally and two other side/main characters.
Butcher is also fairly good at giving background info/history inside the stories so I think you could follow along either way.

You'd definitely need to read all the books from grave peril (3rd book) on in order, as stuff happens in book 3 that has major effects on the entire storyline. The third book is where I personally found the books to get much better, with 4 and particularly 5 where it really starts to take off.

So if you want to get a feel for what the quality of the series will be like from the beginning you could start with book 3.