First Lord's Fury (Codex Alera) (edition 2010)

Amazon preorder,Amazon received

The ending was a little bit weak, I would have liked for it tone a little bit more after the fighting was over. The whole story of the Codex Alera was an excellent one. The story ark and the character development were extraordinary, and very satisfying to follow.

All of the main characters were shown to grow and mature through the series, and Tavi's sheer intelligence for all things made him such a love able character I am very sad to have finished the series. The world building of this fantasy was likewise extremely well done, and it feels like I could travel to Alera and find my way around, although I would be scared to meet a Canim, or even worse a vord in whatever shape it might be.

The relationships between the characters were well thought out, and they made a lot of sense. It is always so good to read a story where it is possible to understand the characters, and identify with more than one of them, even when they live in a world so different from the one we readers live in.

I feel like I have been traveling around Alera these past days, fighting next to Tavi and Kitai, flying with Amara, and growing stronger with Isana. The insight to so many different characters' inner thoughts might have been confusing, but Jim Butcher managed to keep them all so real, and different enough both in their mannerisms and their way of speech it was simply awesome.

The political system in Alera seemed difficult to grasp in the first book, but it soon became something well known, and the intrigues that ensued because of the system made the story even more interesting, especially where Tavi was concerned.

The story was always character driven, and the plot and sub-plots, albeit complicated, made sense, and helped moving the story along as well. This series will go on my 'fave' shelf, and also on my 're-read' shelf.

( )

Well, crows, but Jim Butcher sure knows how to end a series on a high note. I would happily keep reading about the adventures of Tavi et al (and it's a pretty huge cast of characters at this point) every year until they all died of old age...but I guess that's not to be.

But, rest assured, this final installment in the Codex Alera is epic. It is tightly plotted, with key characters slowly converging on the Calderon Valley where the whole series started. It's full of big magic, big battles, big disasters and it's likewise packed with sly scheming, witty conversation, and political intrigue. But wait! It also has romance, tenderness, and a new emphasis on the importance of family.

We finally get our showdown with the Vord Queen...not a long buildup to a brief encounter, where Tavi and the Queen meet face to face and two pages later everything's decided. Not at all. All the characters we've grown to love have a part to play, and the battle stretches through half the book.

I have rarely been so satisfied at the conclusion of a series. FIRST LORD'S FURY is a roller coaster, a really good one of the kind readers have come to expect from Jim Butcher, but it makes a soft landing. I'm happy with where we leave the characters on the last page. I'm still curious to know what happens next, but that's a good feeling too: Butcher didn't wring his story dry before drawing it to a close.

Goodbye Tavi, Kitai, Isana, Bernard, Amara, Max, and Fidelias, I'll miss you. I think I'll even miss Invidia. ( )

Jim Butcher books are always a compelling read, and I'm glad I was able to race through it before vacation--it would have been horrible to leave it halfway done for a week!

This was much more militaristic than the previous books in the Codex Alera series, and a bit more difficult to keep track of the character jumps. This is not a book that can stand on it's own; it's a good culmination of events, but I'm going to need to read it again after I've reread the previous books in the series to be sure I was keeping proper track of the characters and the backstories. ( )

It's hard to write anything about this one book individually.

So much of what goes on is a continuation of events that begin in the previous novels. That's to be expected in a series of this type, especially with the concluding novel.

I like Tavi so much because of how much he's grown, both magically and in personality since the first book. The same with so many of the other characters. Butcher took the time to really develop them early on in the series, and now in this final book, though there's character building moments, he doesn't really have to work at it. Instead, he can focus on the action. And there's a lot of this. It's probably the most battle oriented book in the series.

One thing I truly appreciate is how many threads come full circle. The series both begins and ends with Tavi, Kitai, and the Vord queen. Both the beginning and ending occur in Calderon valley, and his father's memorial tomb. And despite Tavi's growth in magic, it begins and ends with intelligence and hard work taking as big of a role, if not bigger than furycraft.

While I do want to know more about what happens later, I don't really want more of Tavi and Kitai's story. I want the story of their grandchildren, or their great grandchildren. I would really love to see how the world that Tavi has begun to create in this series turns out. ( )