I picked up the first book in this series by chance. I was looking for something fantasy to take with me on my vacation. I’d never heard of this series but I’d heard of Jim Butcher’s “Dresden Files” series and knew that many readers love it. So I thought “Why not?”
It was a good decision. Jim Butcher’s “Codex Alera” series looks to become one of my favorite fantasy series.
The Story
The story that connects the separate books in this series is that of an older (and weaker) getting High Lord (~ king) without an heir. A war of succession is looming and this situation causes two Lords in particular to think they should take a shot at establishing themselves as the next High Lord, preferable by not waiting for the High Lord to die of a natural cause.
That’s the background, and a boy, his uncle and aunt (they are brother and sister) are unwillingly drawn into this whole mess by the arrival of Amara, one of the High Lord’s agents who are called cursor, in their remote valley. Events are set in motion, other races, like the Marat and the Canim (I picture the Canims like this, a creature I first encountered in the PC game Baldur’s Gate) show up, and the series follows the boy and his uncle and his aunt as they have to leave their valley and struggle to do the right thing in a world that goes crazier and more dangerous with each year that passes.
All this is staged in a world with armies modeled after Roman Legions and a society that’s based partly on slavery, mostly in the south (rings any bells?). The magic in this world comes from furies, some kind of elemental beings. As people grow up, they show an affinity for certain elemental furies, usually one or maybe two, and kind of bond with one of those furies. Lords and Ladies can bond with stronger (and more) furies and the High Lord is overall the strongest fury crafter. Amara has a strong wind fury for example, and the aunt is a strong water crafter and the uncle strong in earth and flora crafting. Some crafters give names to their furies, and the kind of fury you bond with determines what you can do. A water crafter is a healer for example. A lot of things in this world rely on the ability to direct furies and a person without any furies at all is unheard of.
But one such person exists. It’s the young boy in the valley who’s fifteen at the start of the series and who’s called Tavi.
Furies of Calderon, Codex Alera #1
I actually wrote a short comment about this novel here so what follows is nothing new. This book sets the stage and introduces the characters. It’s also the book where the Marat first show up, a people similar in looks to the people who live in Alera except that they bond with animals and know nothing of fury crafting in the way the Alerans do. Plus the first hints at slavery and its problems show up.
I was really surprised by how much I liked this book. I went and bought the next in the series right away. The only “complaint” I had was that I thought the pace a bit too relentless: the characters stumble from one bad situation to a worse situation all the time.
Acedem’s Fury, Codex Alera #2
It’s about two years later. Tavi is in the capital at the Academy (think a bit Harry Potter), his uncle Bernard is heading the Garrison in the valley that’s guarding the way into Marat land, and Tavi’s aunt Isana is now a Steadholder in her own right, the only woman in that position in all Alera (a fact that makes her an important play ball in political matters).
At the start of the novel Bernard receives a warning from the Marat that an old enemy of the Marat has shown up, the Vord. The Vord come in different forms and sizes and are headed by a queen (think bees). There are spider-like creatures and there are small entities that can infiltrate another being and take over, making the infiltrated being a zombie-like creature (there are quite a few horror films based on that premise). And for some reason I picture some of the Vord creatures as looking like the aliens in the movie Alien.
So, the Vord are threatening Alera. They multiply at a rapid pace so time is of the essence, especially because fighting against them means HEAVY losses. The Marat took out one queen already but there are two queens remaining. Bernard sets out to destroy the one that hunkered down in the valley while Isana races to the capital to give warning, especially because it looks like the third queen is beelining for the capital itself.
So in Academ’s Fury, there’s the series’s ongoing political backstabbing for the position of the High Lord and there’s the thread of the Vord. Tavi, Isana and Bernard are drawn ever deeper into all this and on top of that all, the Canim come into play. They, of course, also pose a thread against the stability of the realm and mix things up.
I thought this book better written than the first in terms of pacing and characters’ development but funny enough I enjoyed the first one a tiny bit more (probably because I was so happy to have found a new fantasy series I thought I could like).
Cursor’s Fury, Codex Alera #3
Again, it’s a few years later. Tavi is send to a newly formed Legion as a cursor together with his friend Max. One of the aspirants to the High Lord’s position makes his move, Bernard is on a mission together with Amara to rally support for the High Lord so that the High Lord can win against his opponent, Isana is drawn ever more into the political intrigues, the Canim attack and Tavi finds himself in the midst of that battle.
Of course, there’s again development on the personal level, this time mostly Tavi’s as this book mostly follows him. While interesting, that actually made the pacing a bit odd, IMO. Bernard’s story line for example is mentioned in the beginning and then again near the end. It made sense because it involved lots of traveling and why recount that in between? But it made the whole a bit less well-rounded. I think that’s what “bothering” me. But nevertheless, I enjoyed reading it quite a lot.
Captain’s Fury, Codex Alera, #4
Again, lots of things going on (the war against the Canim come to a head, for example) and of course it’s again a few years later. It’s also the first book I thought there wasn’t an ethical problem mixed into the story. Before, quite a lot of what happens and the actions of the characters could be viewed as part of an ethical problem. In this book it’s much more subtle although it’s nowhere near one of the main elements in the novels before either. But still, I missed it a bit. What this novel does have is a world-changing development for at least two characters and what was white now actually now longer looks quite so white for one of the characters.
Once more, I really liked the novel and I’m looking forward to reading the next.
What I like about this series
- The premise of the series (High Lord without an heir) implies several ethical questions which I find quite interesting and which are more or less addressed in the novels. Questions like what are you willing to do for the good of the realm, for example.
- The series itself feels like a potpourri of history and popular culture elements. While there is nothing original about the world, the story or the characters, I really like how Butcher manages to make the well-known elements his own and turn it into something interesting and new. Well, I find the mix rather enjoyable to read.
- I like that the different races (Aleran, Marat, Canim) have different views of things, things like honor for example, and that these views are set against each other and question and illuminate each other.
- I like that nearly nothing is mentioned without a reason. Something you find odd can be resolved a few paragraphs later (like Isana reminiscence about her past in the middle of an action sequence). Something you think fell down by the wayside can get picked up later in the novel/series again. And then there are the little details that add up to a larger picture in the end (like the meaning of rings in a certain context, for example).
- Last, but certainly not least, I really enjoy the way Butcher handles political intrigue and battles. I think that’s something the series is really good at.
- Oh, and I like the things Kitai, a Marat girl, says, especially when she wonders about the differences between her people and Alerans and think the Alerans act stupid.
What kept me reading
The Codex Alera series is clearly an action-driven story. Characters do change and develop, world views are shattered and there are probably no completely black and white characters, but overall it’s the action that sets the pacing and character development. So what kept me reading when I usually prefer character-driven stories?
- Isana’s story. I wanted to find out about her past and I hope for a good future for her
- the ethical questions
- I plain think that the author is good at what he does
~ * * * ~
And OMG I just realized that my copies don’t look the same even though they are by the same publisher. I’d always thought the books felt different but I’d also thought I’d imagined things (“it’s the same publisher!”). But oh, their size is different…
Me don’t like.
Megan Hart – “Deeper”
23 SepGENRE: erotic novel
PUBLISHED:
WHY THIS NOVEL: Love Megan Hart’s stories and the way she tells them.
After twenty years, Bess returns to the beach house of her grandparents, the beach house that she now owns. It’s the place she fell in love with Nick, the bad boy of the town, twenty years ago and the place she spent a hot and glorious summer at his side. Back then, she had her life ahead of her and she was looking forward to it. True, she suspected her boyfriend, Andy, cheated on her but there was Nick, and Nick made her look at her idea of love anew. Now she feels like she isn’t ready for what lies ahead. She’s recently separated from Andy, her husband of nearly twenty years (who again cheated on her), and after coming back to the beach house she just discovered that Nick is dead.
Based on the summary quoted above, I had no clear idea of what to expect from this story. Would Deeper be a ghost story? Would it be a story about a woman who imagines things to better deal with her grief? I had no preference either way but after reading the first few chapters I was fairly sure what kind of story it was (a ghost story). So I also had a rather clear idea what to expect of the romance and the ending.
Deeper is about a love lost and getting over it and about a woman who goes from saying “…she wasn’t sure she was ready for what lay ahead” (7) to a woman saying “…though [she] wasn’t sure she was ready for that, she was no longer fighting to make sure she’d never be” (376). To better understand how Bess gets from feeling not ready for what comes to being more open (and leaving the past), Deeper is divided into two parts: the summer twenty years ago, titled “Then,” and the summer present time, titled “Now.”
The summer twenty years ago Bess was twenty and working as a waitress during summer. She suspected her boyfriend Andy of cheating on her and was attracted to the bad boy of the town, Nick. This attraction got stronger and stronger and became something more, especially after she more or less had proof of Andy’s cheating. At first, Bess and Nick tried to be friends because of Andy but it was clear that there was more between them. They got together and as great as being together was, they also realized that they had to face a few problems (and reality) if they wanted their relationship to last longer than the summer. The summer twenty years ago tells how they tried to accomplish that.
The summer present time Bess is just divorced from her husband Andy. She comes back to the beach house where she’d met Nick and fell in love with him. Now, twenty years later, she still thinks of Nick and suddenly, he’s there. Only problem: while she’s twenty years older, he still looks the same (sort of “older-woman-younger-man pairing). At first, they don’t question, they are just happy to be together again. But slowly problems emerge and they steadily lead to a confrontation with the fact that Nick’s a ghost and what that means for them as a couple and individual. The summer present time tells how they try to make it work as a couple this time.
I really enjoyed reading Deeper although that’s not much of a surprise because I really like Hart’s voice and the way she tells her stories. There are two reasons that kept Deeper from being a “perfect” read. First was my impression that the “explanation” of how Nick could come back wasn’t really part of the story. There were some allusions to ghosts and there was a Ouija board but that’s about it. So rather than make me believe in the possibility of Nick coming back it pointed me towards how huh? that is. I would have preferred either a thought-out explanation of how Nick could come back or nothing at all.
The second reason was that I couldn’t shake the feeling that Bess was responsible for her heart ache twenty years ago. Really, there was a time or two I thought “poor Nick!” In addition, her realization that she was rather weak then and for the following twenty years (= more or less let things just happen) isn’t a main focus of the story though at least at the end there are hints that she takes more responsibility. I understood why she acted the way she did but still…a bit more realization on her part now (or a bit more backbone then) and all would have been better IMO.
But overall, these things bothered me only a little. Bess and Nick had good chemistry and I enjoyed their romance(s) a lot, the romance twenty years ago being my favorite (“good girl-bad boy” couple). I especially liked how the two summers and their stories paralleled each other and so enhanced the understanding. I found Deeper an interesting read because of its structure and an enjoyable read because of the romance(s). Like with the other novels I’ve read by her, I wasn’t disappointed by picking up a novel by Megan Hart.
Tags: erotic fiction, Megan Hart