It doesn't matter what of his you read...granted, I can't speak from experience on the Spider Man book...it's good. However, this review isn't a love letter to Jim Butcher...ok...it is a little. No, this is a review of the first book of the Codex Aleraseries, Furies of Calderon.
For starters, I feel like I should talk about Alera itself. Alera is sort of set up as an alternate history tale, where Rome fell not to disease, but to a rise in magics. The magics in Codex Alera are called furycrafting (which is where the titles of the books in the series get the addition of Fury or Furies).
Furycrafting made one of the six (possibly seven as cosmos/star is mentioned amongst the royal family) elements (fire, earth, metal, water, wind, and wood) correspond to a spirit, a fury, similar to the Djinni in Golden Sun. While each of these gave control over the element, they also brought with them a few other abilities, some that effects the world around them, some that affected others, and others that basically gave them a buff of sorts.
For example, Watercrafting allowed someone to control water, but it also gave them the ability to read minds or heal themselves and others or appear much youthful then the user's actua age. On the other hand, Earthcrafting allowed you to shape stone, but it also gave you immense strength, or allowed you to effect someones moods, especially sexual urges and morale. Also, it gave you the ability to travel across the flagstone roads to expedite travel.
Where Alera is Rome though, the Marat, the other culture (besides Alera) of man, are a mix of the Native Americans and Asians, tribesmen who bond with other species they call chalas, specifically, animals, like wolves, foxes, horses, oxen like creatures called gargants, giant carions called herdsbane, and in one case a human, however, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Other races include the Canea, a permanent lycanthropic species, that embodies both forms of the term (aggressive beserkerdom and werewolves), the Icemen, a yeti like species, and the only ones capable of 'icecrafting', though never really verified, and the Vord, and Vord rhymes with Borg, and that means trouble in a big ol' resistance is futile kind of way. The Canea and the Icemen don't really appear in the first book, and the Vord appear only as a portent of things to come.
Anyways, the story starts fifteen years after the Battle of Calderon, as the Cursors, spies and assistants to the First Lord and head of the House of Gaius, the royal family of Alera, Fidelias and Amara attempt to do recon on a small mercenary force building up in the countryside just west of Riva and the Calderon Valley. There, they are quickly captured by Aldrick ex Gladius, and his insane lover, Odiana. However, it is soon revealed that this is all a ploy by Fidelias to get his former student, Amara, to join him and the mercenaries in removing Gaius Sextus, the current First Lord.
Fidelias fears, along with some of the other High Lords (the other nobility of Alera and all very powerful furycrafters) that as Sextus' son, Septimus died fifteen years ago, that he should be replaced. Fidelias thus joined with Attis Aquitaine, the strongest of the High Lords besides Sextus himself.
She refuses. She then breaks free from her bonds, summons her fury, Cirrus, and flees from Fidelias and the mercenaries to the Calderon Valley.
Meanwhile, Tavi of Bernardholt, a steadholt, is helping his uncle bring in the sheep before a trial that he is hosting begins that evening. One of the rams, however, has led a portion of the flock away from their usually fields, and makes it harder for Tavi and Bernard, his uncle and leader of the steadholt, to find.
Tavi is unique amongst Alerans. He has no furycrafting whatsoever, and this has made him somewhat of a pariah. He's a freak by all standards of normality in their world. However, where he lacks furies, he has genius.
While searching for the sheep, he and Bernard are attacked by a Marat Warrior and his two Herdsbane pets. Due to some quick thoughts, he is able to kill one of the giant carrions and get him and his uncle to safety. However, nothing's ever that easy, is it?
During the fight, Bernard was badly injured. He was able to summon his earth fury, Brutus, to create an earth raft to get him and Tavi home just as he collapsed from exhaustion. However, the Marat warrior and his other herdsbane are still pursuing them.
Tavi distracts the warrior and carrion from attacking his uncle, and leads them away, into the storm. A storm in Alera is different from a regular storm though. Wild furies called storm furies awaken during them. They attack Tavi, the Marat, and the bird, allowing Tavi to effectively get away from his pursuers. Still dealing with the furies though, he runs for shelter, only to be knocked into by a flying woman attempting to land in the storm.
The woman is Amara, who used Cirrus to fly away from Fidelias and the mercs. Together, they rush toward shelter, only to find the Monument of the Fallen Princeps, Septimus. There, they rest out the storm.
That's only a synopsis of the first few chapters though...there's about forty more, and an epilogue alone, all leading up to the Second Battle of Calderon. If you like High Fantasy and the Hero's Journey, check this out. If you don't...check it out anyways, it's a good read.
-Sara
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