A review by alargelady
Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher

dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

The concepts of the furies was really interesting and hooked me right away but I wish we could have gotten more exploration of this magic system and seen more furies abilities in action. 

By the last 3 hours, I was barely making it through there were so many issues I had with this story: 
  • There were so many instances of people surviving things that should have killed them
    or being resurrected from the dead
    that by the time the big battle came around it was hard to feel invested in the safety of these characters because how could anyone actually die?
  • Amara had a lot of potential at the beginning of the book to be a strong and interesting character but she really didn't do much. Also
    twice during the big battle she nearly got shot in the head with an arrow and multiple comments were made about how she should wear a helmet, why did no one give her a helmet?! She's a countess why didn't she demand a helmet??
    It also felt hard to gauge her age, she seemed young, Isana refers to her as a girl which made
    the spontaneous romance with Bernard (sp?) feel a bit icky
  • The Marat felt inappropriately based on the indigenous peoples. Early on they're referred to as "savages" and "not human", I thought because this was a fantasy book maybe they literally were a different humanoid race but instead it's just using racist tropes of indigenous people
  • Overall the women characters had big promise to be strong: Isana was feared by others for her water crafting abilities, Odiana similarly and yet all we saw from these characters was them overcoming extreme acts of violence against them that didn't actually contribute to the story. The Kord storyline was extreme and what did it accomplish? Just a bad feeling in my gut.
  • The romance in this book felt like it came out of nowhere. Would have liked to see more time on character interaction and development and less time in battles 

I read this after loving the Cinderspire series and wanting to read more Jim Butcher but it's clear his ability to write women characters has GREATLY improved since this came out in 2004 and I don't think I will bother with the rest of this series. 

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