Review: First Lord’s Fury

Jim Butcher’s ending of his Codex Alera series came out today. It’s well worth reading.

The backstory of the Alera series is a world apparently settled by Roman Empire descendants. The Alerans generally use a form of elemental magic based on taming the spirits, called Furies, of Earth, Air, Fire, and so forth. Some of these Furies are more powerful than others and the ruling class is based on how powerful the nobility is in using the various Furies.

The protagonist is, at the beginning of the series, something of an Aleran freak in that he has absolutely no ability in fury “crafting”, skill at controlling these spirits.

Turns out that Tavi, the young man, is actually the hidden scion of the ruling family and his furycrafting ability comes to Jim in spades later.

First Lord’s Fury takes up where Tavi is the presumptive heir to the throne, but the Realm is threatened with extinction by the insectlike Vord. Tavi, now Octavian, must deal with the war while quickly learning how to control the Furies, and managing his forces and his nonhuman allies.

Butcher has built a very believable and engaging world here, one which I’m sorry to leave. But, at least we have plenty of Dresden File books still to come. Four and a half piggies for this work, only because the afterword feels a bit rushed.