Cursor's Fury

Were [b:Furies of Calderon|29396|Furies of Calderon (Codex Alera, #1)|Jim Butcher|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1329104514s/29396.jpg|3098584] introduced us to the world and the Marat and [b:Academ's Fury|133664|Academ's Fury (Codex Alera, #2)|Jim Butcher|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1381026900s/133664.jpg|6614430] gave us a taste of the politics of Alera along with the threat of the Vord, it's [b:Cursor's Fury|29394|Cursor's Fury (Codex Alera, #3)|Jim Butcher|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388360145s/29394.jpg|6614461] where we really shift to the military focus that defines the rest of the series.

A civil war in Alera plus an invasion by the Canim? Oy.

Tavi having to fake being an officer as part of his duties as a show more cursor, only for everyone to die and him somehow to end up in charge of everything? Still without furycraft of his own? Oy oy.

Turning his smarts to his advantages with tactics that no city-raised fury-capable warrior would ever dream of and (of course) saving the day? OY!

Hints that as huge as the events of this book are, they're nothing to what is coming next? ... oy.

Quite a book.

Tavi is a wonderful character and deserves the trust he eventually gains from his men. At times, he seems impossibly good at what he does, but given the disadvantages he has to work around, perhaps it's deserved. It's enough to get around the 'chosen one' / 'too powerful main character' tropes at least in my mind. Good for that.

On top of that, the side mission with Bernard and Amara (still wonderful together) along with High Ladies Aria Placida and Aquitaine to rescue prisoners held by another High Lord? We haven't had much chance to see what the top tiers of fury crafters can do, other than vague hints at Gaius' powers and Lady Aquitaine saving the day in [b:Academ's Fury|133664|Academ's Fury (Codex Alera, #2)|Jim Butcher|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1381026900s/133664.jpg|6614430]. Watching them let loose? Wow Tavi is outclassed. And still manages to hold his own.

And on top of that on top of that? Finally getting some more backstory from Isana and Fade along with a surprising-but-not-in-hindsight bit of growth for the both of them? Isana cares about those close to her far, far more than most people do, to an honestly insane extent. Oh, she's an interesting one.

And oh, that last scene! Tavi has finally come into his furycraft! Only to find out that somehow Kitai has furies as well?! AH! NEXT BOOK!

I had forgotten how good this series is.

ONWARDS! show less

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Title: Cursor's Fury
Series: Codex Alera #3
Author: Jim Butcher
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 654
Words: 177K

Synopsis:

From BN.com and Me

The power-hungry High Lord of Kalare has launched a rebellion against the aging First Lord, Gaius Sextus, who with the loyal forces of Alera must fight beside the unlikeliest of allies-the equally contentious High Lord of Aquitaine.

Meanwhile, young Tavi of Calderon joins a newly formed legion under an assumed show more name even as the ruthless Kalare unites with the Canim, bestial enemies of the realm whose vast numbers spell certain doom for Alera. When treachery from within destroys the army's command structure, Tavi finds himself leading an inexperienced, poorly equipped legion-the only force standing between the Canim horde and the war-torn realm.

Steadholder Isana finds herself trapped in a city under siege by Kalare and his forces. The Canim have cast some sort of spell that turned the sky read and has filled the clouds with intangible monsters that can kill anyone who comes within reach of their clutches. This means that air travel is nigh impossible for the Knight Aeries and that the city is on its own. Fade protects Isana from an arrow but it is poisoned and he begins to die. Isana performs a very dangerous form of healing and during the process we learn what happened at the first Battle of Calderon where Isana gave birth to Tavi and Septimus died. Fade, now fully Araris, is healed and reveals his love for Isana and she returns it.

At the same time, Amara and Bernard team up with Lady Aquitaine, her 2 underlings from the first book and Rook, the woman controlled by Kalare. Lady Placida is being held hostage by Kalare and only Rook knows where. Everyone agrees to rescue Rooks little daughter while they rescue Placida. Once Lady Placida is rescued, her husband Lord Placida can unleash his forces against Kalare and help the First Lord. The rescue happens, the expected double cross from Lady Aquataine happens and Amara handles it all.

Tavi, now leading the Legion in the area of the Canim incursion, realizes that the Canim are divided between the warriors who are loyal to their War Leader Nasaug and the Ritualists who are loyal to Sarl, who we briefly met in the previous book. Tavi throws the Canim back and eventually breaks their spirit. However, he finds out that the boats were carrying the Canim nation, not just warriors, when he finds a Canim female with a newly birthed litter of pups. Tavi realizes that the Canim were not invading Alera but were fleeing their homeland.

My Thoughts:

Oh my goodness! Oh My goodness!! Oh My Goodness!!!

This is exactly what I want in my Epic Fantasy. How can this book be written by the same guy who writes that whiny loser Dresden? It must be a miracle!!!! Or Butcher is just that good of an author and knows what exactly to write for each genre his series is in. Give this man a cookie. Phhh, give him the whole box of oreos!!!!

Once again, this was my “lunch break”, “down time at work (hahahahaha!”) book and I found myself making excuses to read it outside of the normal parameters. Get to work 5 minutes early? No problem, just sit in the car and read this for 5 minutes. After work, let the car warm up and read until I'm ready to drive home. Heck, have my bookbag with me with this in it and sitting in a parking lot waiting for a Craigslist deal to go through, read this!

With this being my 3rd read of this book, there obviously weren't any surprises. Yet I wasn't bored in any way nor did I ever come to a section and feel like “oh, here we go, hang on until we get back to the good stuff”.

The story, the characters, how the plot unfolds, it just works for me. These aren't Dune level of books, in that there are deeper, underlying themes and ideas, but for pure entertainment that is well written and stands up to multiple re-reads, The Codex Alera just can't be beat.

The only thing to be aware of, which might be an issue depending on your personal psychological make up, is that each book usually only takes a week to happen and then there are 2 year skips between books. From the first book to this has been 5 years. But you don't get 5 years worth of data about Tavi growing up. You get little snapshots. That doesn't mean there is no character growth, you just get it compressed. It works well for me but I know that it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

These are big books (this was almost 700 pages) but Butcher never gets bogged down. He skillfully keeps the story moving at a breakneck pace. Onward to the next book!

★★★★★ show less

A few years after the Vord's defeat, Gaius sends Tavi as a Cursor and officer in the newly created First Aleran, a group of legionares purposely made up of men from various cities so that it would not be under the control of any one of the High Lords of Alera. At the same time, Bernard tries to convince others of the threat the Vord still poses and the High Lord Kalarus maneuvers against the First Lord.

Fast-paced action and cliffhanger chapter endings have been the strength of the Codex Alera series so far, and book three is no exception. I did sometimes get frustrated with the narrator's tendency to slow down the action with unnecessarily lengthy explanations of what was going through a character's head. I like getting to know the show more characters, but sometimes only a few words rather than two paragraphs would have explained their thoughts and actions sufficiently. Still, the ending left me looking forward to the next book in the series. show less

Cursor's Fury is the third book in the larger Codex Alera. Tavi, apparently the only person in his country who doesn't have a fury (an elemental who essentially performs magic), has now left the Academy and is on assignment for the First Lord himself. He has been assigned to a new type of Legion, one made up of Citizens from all the different states within the country. The theory is that a Legion without strong ties to any one state will be more loyal to the First Lord. In reality, the Legion will potentially be a breeding ground for spies. Tavi goes undercover as a Legion officer to spy on the spies within the Legion. He discovers a treachery worse than anyone had feared. Amidst a civil war, Tavi must defend his country from an even show more worse threat from the outside.

It took me a little longer to get into this book than it did the other two, but once I did get into it, I couldn't put it down. I like the characters in these books and find them to be well-developed. Maybe a little one-dimensional, but still pretty fully realized, at least in my imagination. The plot rarely drags and, like I said, I really couldn't read about the last half of the book fast enough. Tavi's world is so well-described, it almost becomes almost real.

My problems with the book: This one's kind of minor, but it really bugged me. In the first several chapters, there were some really awkward sentence constructions that I had to go back and re-read a few times in order to understand what was being said. That really broke the flow of the book for me.

This one's the big one: I'm really kind of ready for it to be over. I was expecting a trilogy, but now there's at least a fourth book, and with all the unanswered questions from this book, I bet they can squeeze out at a fifth one.



***************SPOILER***********************************



Some questions were answered, such as, "Why doesn't Tavi have furies of his own?" and "Is Tavi the heir to the throne?" It's pretty obvious by now that Tavi will eventually become the First Lord's heir and gain the most powerful furies in the country. There's not really any tension left in that anymore. Just get it over with already.

Overall though, these books are still some of the best fantasy I've read in a while. (Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind is another good one I stumbled on recently though.) I recommend them for [b:fantasy lover|84136|Fantasy Lover (Dark-Hunter, #1)|Sherrilyn Kenyon|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171050604s/84136.jpg|2384]s who like more than just a fantasy story--the ones who like a well-written fantasy story. show less

This is the third novel in Butcher's Codex Alera Series, and it is set 2 years after the end of the 2nd book.

Tavi has completed his cursor training and is assigned to an out of the way posting. Of course, the post is nothing of the sort as trouble blows in from many different directions. It's even possible that some of the mysteries of Tavi's background will be addressed.

Bernard and Amara are getting more and more involved in the machinations of the High Lords; and Tavi's aunt Isana is struggling to cope with the decision she made to throw in with one of the ‘bad’ court factions.

Butcher's writing is a lot more assured in this book than "Furies" and this is a really entertaining tale, well told. The politics are worthy of a George show more RR Martin or CJ Cherryh novel, but never interrupt the narrative flow of the book, and Butcher intersperses plenty of action in between.

I’ll start book 4 as soon as I finish this review. show less

I am a big fan of the Dresden Files series, and I occasionally like sword-and-sorcery books, so one day when I was waiting impatiently for the next Dresden book, I started the Codex Alera series. I picked up the first one in the series, Furies of Caderon, I read it, and I thought, "Well, what a good book, that Jim Butcher is a talented author." Then I went about my business for a while, without any burning desire to read book two. I checked bookstores when I passed the fantasy section, but for some reason bookstores never stock book two, and it was almost a year before I finally bothered to order it.

So I finally read book two, Academ's Fury. And by the time I was done, I was totally hooked on the series. The first thing I did after I show more finished the last page was order book three, Cursor's Fury, even though it was only available in hardback. I couldn't help it. I had to know what happened. Cursor's Fury was even better than Academ's Fury - Butcher has this truly incredible ability to get a series off to a good start and then make each book better as it goes along.

I think it's only now, at the end of the third book, that this series is really ready to begin. All of the characters are on the brink of major changes, all of them are well developed, there are incredibly complex relationships between them, conflicts between personal and political goals, between feeling and principle. Characters must choose between good and evil, but they must make even more difficult choices between different goods, which cannot both be obtained, and different evils, which cannot both be prevented. We know who the (many) main characters are, what they're up to, and how it came to be so.

I love the character of Tavi, and I really love that Butcher has written against the genre and created a character who can be a hero in a magical world without ever using magic. And I absolutely cannot wait for the next installment of the series to appear. show less

High Lord Kalare makes his move on the throne in this third instalment of Butcher’s engaging Codex Alera series.

Tavi, still undercover as a Cursor, this time in the role of military subtribune, all too quickly finds himself commanding a fresh and untried legion against a cunning and furious Canim army, in alliance with Kalare but now outside of even his control. Using only the wits and tactical brilliance he has forged out of necessity - through not having even a modicum of furycraft available to him – Tavi must hold off the largest army of giant canine-warriors that Alera has ever seen. Count Bernard and Cursor Amara are, meanwhile, making some disturbing temporary alliances of their own, in order to release several Lords’ show more family members from Kalare’s clutches; once free of his blackmail, the Lords would be at liberty to suspend their forced ‘neutrality’ and aid the First Lord in the fight against the seven fully functioning legions that Kalare has amassed. Isana is using her healing craft on Fade, no longer (to the reader) just the family’s loyal indentured servant; and while she works, more back-story is revealed.

I’ve been enjoying these books more than I expected to, and I think this is my favourite in the series so far (overlooking the entirely unlikely catastrophe-caused promotion of Tavi to command actual troops) … it has a longer lead-in which gives more time for positioning the characters, and thus watch them exist at an other-than-frantic pace, which makes the politics and character relationships seem as important as the fun … excuse me … horror of battle. And while Butcher sometimes reminds me of David Eddings in his character interaction and relationships, he can also out-write David Gemmell when it comes to fictional battle crafting and is in a class of his with the political structure – he keeps it easy enough to maintain the ‘young adult’ appeal of the series, but layered and interesting enough not to loose older fantasy fiction readers, not an easy balance at all. They aren’t perfect, but they are really good. show less