Reviews

First Lord's Fury by Jim Butcher

winterscape's review

5.0

Having received these books as a teenager, it feels good to finally be able to say that I finished the Codex Alera.

The first 3/4 of this final book is perhaps a 4 star rating, great, but not spectacular, but the last quarter, the climax, is really well-paced and everything is tied together so well, that I think it deserves a 5 star in the end. Especially how

Spoiler

there is even a flash of sympathy for the Vord queen, who does not want her father to make her suffer

.

I really enjoyed my time in Alera and Canea and would happily buy any future books set in this world.

adamborst's review

5.0

I love the series. It's not Butcher's best work in my opinion but it's great. I love the ending coming around to where it began. I don't expect Butcher to come back to this world anytime soon but I'd preorder them as quickly as I could. There are enough things left open that I imagine that he did it on purpose.

As far as review, pretty straight forward structure. Good vs bad in 2 main locations. Not enough Varg and his folks, I love that race/culture. Just a very solid ending, for me a very cathartic ending.

drprd's review

3.0

An ending.

It was OK. A bit predictable. And a bit long.

imakandiway's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

suzi4213's review

5.0

I loved this series.
I'm so glad I finally read it. As a fan of The Dresden Files, I knew I liked Butcher's writing, but I also loved the setting and the characters were enthralling. Kitai is definitely my favourite!

catm9's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

atagarev's review

2.0

A very disappointing ending to an otherwise mostly enjoyable series. This book ended up having to tie up an awful lot of loose ends and while it technically gave us answers to the big questions set up in the series (

Spoiler

What are furies? What caused the Vord? Who killed Septimus?

etc.) almost all of them felt rushed and unsatisfying. In fact every "big" reveal was a character just saying or realizing something then the action has moved on to a different topic by the next paragraph. There were a few cases where the reveal was treated with a bit more respect but I would say this rush was a pervading issue with the whole book.

Similarly there was a lot of foreshadowing and set up that was supposed to pay off in this final installment but most of these things were either not sufficiently set up or just rushed (e.g.

Spoiler

Garados turning out to be a Great Fury was technically set up but we don't know enough about Great Furies to really know what that means or why it should be a surprise. On the flip side, Attis bluffing about taming powerful wild furies is unnecessarily complex when taming furies isn't something that hadn't even been established as a thing until that very scene.

) In short, the book has too much ground to cover and loose ends to tie up which prevents it from doing effective build up and pay off or having a satisfactorily structured narrative.

buckeyeordie's review

4.0

There were some epic scenes in this book. The vord are great bad guys but I feel like there were too many bad guys, now friends in this series. Alera was still too vague or mysterious for my taste, I wanted to know more. Overall a really good series. I like it more than the Dresden books I've read.

sarahreffstrup's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Så blev jeg færdig med serien. Der bliver til stærke 4 stjerner for hele serien! Hver bog kunne have været meget kortere og der var flere karakterer som Butcher did dirty. *Host*Max*host*. Og så brød jeg mig ikke om hvor hurtigt han rundede den af. Med alt det build up og alle de løse ender, og så smider han en masse info i vores hoved med få kapitler tilbage... Ak. Men en god serie, none the less 💪

thebeardrew's review

5.0

Great end to a great series.