Storm Front is refreshingly non-woke. Characters are defined by personality and skill, not identity checkboxes. The protagonist, Harry Dresden, has clear flaws and development. Secondary characters are diverse in temperament and role, but there's none of that “diversity at all costs” energy. Representation feels natural, not forced, and identity politics barely make a blip.

Butcher's take on family, gender, and even the supernatural mostly sticks to traditional themes. Masculinity isn't mocked, if anything, Dresden’s old-school chivalry is part of his charm, albeit sometimes played for laughs. There’s no heavy-handed revisionism or obvious subversion of established norms. This book reads like it remembers the world before every story had to preach.

Storm Front plays it straight. While modern political themes are all but nonexistent, there's no effort to villainize traditional perspectives or push uniformity of thought. Opinions clash, characters argue, but it feels like normal human conflict, not a clash of ideologies or a lesson in woke moralizing.