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A review by songwind
Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher
3.0
[book:Furies of Calderon] was a fun read.
This is [author:Jim Butcher]'s first fantasy novel, and it shows. He takes some time to get his rhythm and find each character's home, but once he gets started, the story hums along nicely.
The plot is a pleasantly complicated one. There are enough sharp turns and surprises to keep it interesting, but not so many as to make it seem out of control. Both the heroes and villains range from clearly delineated to morally ambiguous. Butcher puts down enough false leads to create a few surprises, but the reveals are still internally consistent.
The main characters' home, Alera, is clearly heavily influenced by the Roman Empire, from the character names to the military organization. Their northern neighbors, the Marat, read like a cross between the central European tribes that plagued the actual Empire and an idealized concept of the Native American Noble Savage. Both groups diverge from these real life templates enough to make them seem separate while still retaining a comfortable groundwork on which to build.
The magic in Codex Alera is pretty interesting as well. The furies and their relationship with human furycrafters is a nice touch. I hope later books explain more about it.
There are some problems with the text, mostly when the descriptive passages seem to get away from the author.
This is [author:Jim Butcher]'s first fantasy novel, and it shows. He takes some time to get his rhythm and find each character's home, but once he gets started, the story hums along nicely.
The plot is a pleasantly complicated one. There are enough sharp turns and surprises to keep it interesting, but not so many as to make it seem out of control. Both the heroes and villains range from clearly delineated to morally ambiguous. Butcher puts down enough false leads to create a few surprises, but the reveals are still internally consistent.
The main characters' home, Alera, is clearly heavily influenced by the Roman Empire, from the character names to the military organization. Their northern neighbors, the Marat, read like a cross between the central European tribes that plagued the actual Empire and an idealized concept of the Native American Noble Savage. Both groups diverge from these real life templates enough to make them seem separate while still retaining a comfortable groundwork on which to build.
The magic in Codex Alera is pretty interesting as well. The furies and their relationship with human furycrafters is a nice touch. I hope later books explain more about it.
There are some problems with the text, mostly when the descriptive passages seem to get away from the author.