Furies of Calderon: Codex Alera, Book 1

What an epic adventure this is! The story begins with our heroine Amara on a spying mission for the Kingdom of Alera. Rumors of war and treachery sent them out to investigate. But nothing is at it seems. If I describe much of the plot it will spoil the book for you. The beginning is terrific, and I was hooked pretty quickly. I stayed up late at night turning the pages wanting to find out what would happen next. Jim Butcher does a wonderful job of creating a world, establishing a complex magic, and developing a large cast of characters. Life in this world is challenging. Politically the world that we are in is a kingdom with a vaguely feudal system of Steadholders, Citizens and Lords who control their territories under the rule of the Kingdom. Most travel is on foot or on various large creatures, including horses. Weaponry is largely medieval, with daggers, swords, poisons, and arrows. Overriding it all, though, is the magic. Most of the inhabitants are bonded with an elemental fury connected to the earth, wood, water, air, metal, fire and so on. This magic is used for healing, for travel, for defense, for attack, and for everyday life. Even with magic, our characters are required to be creative, clever, and brave just to survive. This is the first book in a series, so the author must establish the world, the magic, and the characters all while telling a story that will engage the reader enough to want to continue with the series. Mission accomplished. All of the establishing information is fully integrated into the story. That is hard to do well, but Jim Butcher did it very well. There are times when I just had to keep reading to get enough details to fully picture things, but that just increased my connection to the story. I had enough information to be interested and not confused, all while avoiding long passages of expository text. That brings us to the characters. The point of view switches between different characters and scenes, again without confusion. This is a long list of characters, but it worked really well. There are different talents, different ages, different genders, and different loyalties. The gender equality is very good with power, significance, good and evil well-distributed among male and female characters. Not all of the characters are human, as we are also dealing with an invading horde of huge, human-like people with a different society and culture. The invented creatures are also very interesting and sometimes seriously scary. The story revolves around treachery, invasion, and impending war. Not surprisingly, it is very violent. While it is all fantasy violence, some of the images are horrifying, including images of beheadings, elements of sexual violence, creatures (including people) being eaten alive, and lots of battle violence, so this may not be the series for everyone. You might consider the level of violence and the complexity when you are deciding if this series is appropriate for your son or daughter. It is a book that has appealed to my sons as teenagers and as adults. This first book of the series reaches a natural stopping point, but there are enough open issues that it seems more like a pause or intermission than a true conclusion. The good news, is that I do not have to wait for the next book to be published. If you are a fan of the Harry Dresden books, this series is totally different in details (no contemporary urban setting, not told by in first person by a single narrator, no humor etc.), but Jim Butcher has managed to create another very successful fantasy series.

I'm reviewing once for the whole series.Overall, I'd rank this series in my top 10 for fantasy. It's absorbing, fast-paced (once it gets moving) and leaves you with a little extra perspective and knowledge than you had before you picked it up.Repeating what everyone else has said: this is a very different series than the Dresden Files. While each book in the Dresden Files is somewhat self-contained, the Furies series absolutely have to be read in order. Also, this book is written in the third person, and rotates through multiple perspectives. It's also more complex and compact -- there are a lot of subplots going on at once, and because it's a trilogy, there's not a lot of space for each plot. The series is also more morally complex. Bad guys become good guys, or at least do good things. Good guys do some things that are not so good (moreso than in the Dresden Files). Personally, I enjoyed these differences and thought they made the series deeper and more involving that the Dresden Files (which I still adore). That said, this series might not be for younger readers or readers who enjoy the straightforwardness of the Dresden Files.Still, this is Jim Butcher's work and so the basic things that make his work excellent are still there. Stubborn, hard-headed, intelligent heroes who always, always do the right thing. A constant uphill battle against impossible odds. Heroic sacrifice (rather more of it, in fact, because there are more characters to sacrifice).Most of the main plot points are fairly inevitable -- which is a little different than predictable. Butcher leaves enough hints along the way that you can guess the "surprises" long before they are revealed. You know what the ultimate outcome is going to be, but how the characters are going to get there (and who/what's going to be left standing when they do) is what's interesting anyway. Butcher takes on the challenge of having creative, intelligent characters and rises to it by having his characters do creative, intelligent things.One last thing: I don't know if Dresden has ever served in the military. I don't think so; he's never mentioned it. But he writes the military mindset extremely well. Not a lot of authors do the kind of research necessary to get the nuances of culture right. He's also got the attitudes and expectations of each rank down: Junior Officers act like junior officers, NCO's act like NCO's and lower enlisted act like lower enlisted. Both the good and bad. There's some obvious differences from the modern military -- less emphasis on small-unit tactics and more emphasis on stabbing things with with swords, for instance -- but I imagine those are well researched as well.Now it feels like this review is longer than the book. Anyway, I'll finish by saying that this series is very good. It's not perfect -- some of the characters who could have more depth are dissapointingly shallow -- but it's fun, it's engaging and it's marginally educational. But if you make the effort of getting past the first half of Book 1, you'll be well rewarded.

If you’re a fan of Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files", part of what makes this book fabulous is that there’s no hint that it’s by the same author.There’s no point explaining the story in a review - just read the sales to get an idea - but I think the plot is brilliant, the setting is original and the characters are well rounded and layered enough that you can identify with the fears and dangers being faced. I’d love to see another Harry Dresden book but the Codex Alera is a better read - it’s every bit as fantastical and yet the story is more "believable" and immersive. On to the second in the series….

I have been dying to read Codex Alera for ages now. I've enjoyed Jim Butcher's work from the Dresden Files days, and was curious after (verified) rumours surfaced of Codex Alera essentially being written in response to a challenge - write a good book based on the Roman Legion crossed with Pokemon. Here's the thing - Furies of Calderon is exactly that. And it is a damn good book! I'm really glad I bought this (the copy I received was damaged but replaced very promptly), I'm looking forward to reading more in this series!

El libro está bien, aunque desde mi punto de vista no llega a la altura de la serie de Harry Dresden. No obstante, libro entretenido y que se lee rápido.

A new form of magic with a good fight, deception and a lot of love. The good guys win and the baddies get to reform. A bit like the first star wars movie but good all the same.

Good immersive world. The story was so engrossing I lost track of time. Three hours gone in the blink of an eye. I read alot and haven't lost track of time for several years. I wouldn't recommend this book be started before bed or any looming appointment, you'll probably miss your appointment or be short on sleep if you do.