Codex Alera Series Book 1: Furies of Calderon

Bear Borg: I love the characters and their development. I love the concept with the way everyone has furies and the elements the incompass. The great storytelling is always a given with Jim Butcher and his wonderful tales.

United States on Nov 25, 2023

Lezlee Gunsolley: Jim Butcher does it again!
New lore that seems quite old, with wonderful character building! The people in this story are my friends now, and I’m gonna need to keep in touch!

United States on Nov 11, 2023

garlin and Shannon taylor: This was a rousing start to the series and left me wanting more. Time to go find the next one. Happy reading.

United States on Nov 08, 2023

Sandman Slin: It starts slow &!I’ve read about two other books during this period as the characters seem to have nothing but bad luck. This does continue but once it gets going it doesn’t let go of you!

I will be reading the next one.

United Kingdom on Nov 06, 2023

NSEFoden: It took me a while to get into this book, mainly because of the writing style, each chapter being one long paragraph taking 20 minutes or so to read, which can be inconvenient if you just want to dip into the book if you have a free 5 or 10 minutes, which is something I do. Because of this I was forced to stop at the end of a sentence, which I always find distracting.
This however, is just a personal preference and has no bearing on the story, which is very well written, engaging and fast paced with a lot of action.
The characters for the most part are all well written and have personalities that are developed in a believable way. Some of these characters are still shrouded in a bit of mystery and not as well developed by the end of the book as others, but as they will undoubtedly be in the following books so I will assume they will be more fleshed out in those.
The Furies in the story are elemental beings that can become attached to individuals humans who can then manipulate the element that Furie represents, the other race of beings in the story, the Marats, don’t have this ability, instead they seem to bond to certain creatures, which they can control.
Except for...

United Kingdom on May 07, 2020

Constant Reader: What an epic adventure this is! The story begins with our heroine Amara on a spying mission for the Kingdom of Alera. Rumors of war and treachery sent them out to investigate. But nothing is at it seems. If I describe much of the plot it will spoil the book for you. The beginning is terrific, and I was hooked pretty quickly. I stayed up late at night turning the pages wanting to find out what would happen next. Jim Butcher does a wonderful job of creating a world, establishing a complex magic, and developing a large cast of characters. Life in this world is challenging. Politically the world that we are in is a kingdom with a vaguely feudal system of Steadholders, Citizens and Lords who control their territories under the rule of the Kingdom. Most travel is on foot or on various large creatures, including horses. Weaponry is largely medieval, with daggers, swords, poisons, and arrows. Overriding it all, though, is the magic. Most of the inhabitants are bonded with an elemental fury connected to the earth, wood, water, air, metal, fire and so on. This magic is used for healing, for travel, for defense, for attack, and for everyday life. Even with magic, our characters are required...

United States on Aug 11, 2019

Jstagg_Photography: Short and sweet review here. I’d actually give this 3.5 stars if I could. It’s a very easy-to-read book, the story is quite fluid and does flow well. But, having read a multitude of other fantasy books containing large battle scenes, it would appear Jim Butcher isn’t very experienced in writing these. I found myself having to use a lot of imagination to help paint the scene that Jim’s words left unfinished. Aside from the battles, the characters are very well written, and the plot is good in that it encompasses a single book with a single confrontation, though always hinting that the scheme of things could span years (more books). It can be a bit cheesey at times - without spoiling anything, one too-cheesey scene that comes to mind is one of the characters appearing in the midst of a large battle (a highly dangerous place to be) and laughs and makes a little joke. It’s then immediately followed by how nervous, scared and disturbed the character is at the scene of death before them. The cheesey joke broke immersion for me, and it wasn’t the only occasion.

Bottom line: it’s easy to read, plot suggests a deeper and multi-book storyline, characters are well...

United Kingdom on Jan 31, 2019

Lance Mitchell: I was just about to start reading the Game of Thrones series, when a friend in Denver asked me if I had read the Codex Alera series. I must be easily distracted, because I picked up this first volume of the series and started reading. Although I am sure that Game of Thrones makes for excellent reading, I am quite happy that I got my nose into the land of Alera.

The book starts with Amara, who is a young "Cursor" and a leading character in this excellent story, riding atop a gargant bull into enemy territory. She is accompanied by her wise coach and mentor, Fidelias. They are on a dangerous spying mission to find out who is making treasonous plans to overthrow their lord and master, the "First Lord." Events rapidly turn ugly and life-threatening. The tension builds from the early pages of the book and maintains itself all the way through.

Cursors, along with most of the people of Alera, possess magical powers, which are aligned to earth, air, water, fire, wood and metal. These magical powers are called "Furies", hence the title of the book. I have no idea why Jim Butcher chose to call them "Furies", but one gets used to it after a while, and being baffled by this...

United Kingdom on Jan 27, 2014

Symposion: Zum Inhalt (ganz grob und kurz angerissen):
Der 15-jährige Tavi beobachtet eines Tages zufällig, dass Krieger der Marat, des feindlichen Stammes, in Alera eingedrungen sind. Dabei herrscht seit einigen Jahren Frieden zwischen den beiden Völkern. Als Tavi dann auf Amara trifft, die aus erster Hand erfahren hat, was vor sich geht, steht fest: Alera muss gewarnt werden vor dem bevorstehenden Angriff der Marat.

Der Leser wird, bevor er versteht, um was für eine Welt es sich hier überhaupt handelt, mitten ins Geschehen geworfen und mit Intrigen überhäuft. Das sorgt natürlich für Spannung von Anfang bis Ende, doch gleichzeitig wünscht man sich, mehr von den Kräften der Bewohner zu erfahren, die mit Hilfe der 'furies' (dt. "Geister") die Elemente für sich nutzen können. (Die Anwendung der Kräfte wird zwar öfters beschrieben aber viele Fragen bleiben dennoch offen.) Weil auf solche Erklärungen weitestgehend verzichtet wird, war ich zunächst etwas skeptisch, doch endgültig überzeugt haben mich einige Kapitel im zweiten Drittel des Buches; die dort beschriebene Umgebung allein ist schon faszinierend und zusammen mit der Handlung wird eine Spannung aufgebaut, die...

Germany on Jun 13, 2010

Timothy Fitzgerald: If you have read much about Jim Butcher, you have read his little blurb at the end of many of his novels about how he became interested in Fantasy. He talks about being sick and being given Lord of the Rings to read as a boy. He also talks about how he initially attempted to create "Swords and Horses" Fantasy first, and stumbled onto Dresden as a "happy accident" while trying to refine his Fantasy.

The reason I relate this story is because you can see all those things evident in this, the first book of the Codex Alera. You can see the kid influenced heavily by Tolkien at the beginning of the novel, and you can literally see his writing grow as the story unfolds. I once read a blurb by Stephen King talking about how the beginning of the Gunslinger was one of the first things he wrote, and you can tell! It is so ambitious and so epic, you can tell that it was written by someone who is still finding their legs as an author, and has not given up that youthful exuberance that drives you to aim very high. As that story grew, you could note the growth as an author, both in the storytelling, and in the professionalism. It was not just what he added to the story, but what he was...

United States on Nov 03, 2009