Cursor’s Fury

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1. 

   Dussan @ 3:58 pm

   Return again to Alera Imperia, the Roman Empire inspired fantasy realm from Dresden Files author Jim Butcher. A world in which all of humanity share the ability to use elemental furies, everyone except Tavi. As a Cursor in service to the First Lord of Alera, Gaius Sextus, Tavi must survive using his wits and intelligence in a world where everyone can command these supernatural powers.

   This is a continuation of the last book, in which Tavi is now a full fledged Cursor (spy, assassin and special forces operative), and is given an assignment to impersonate a Legion officer and sent to the furthest corner of the realm to avoid a potentially devastating civil uprising that could prove fatal to the young furyless Tavi. This does not work out well as the Legion is faced with an invasion force of Canim, a savage werewolf like race, many times the legions size. When a devastating first strike against the Aleran Legion destroys the chain of command, it leaves Tavi as the Legion commander with no experience as a Legionnaire or an officer. With no furies of his own, Tavi uses every bit of his wit and cunning and bravery to stop the Canim invasion.

   Like previous Aleran Codex novels the books are divided into two stories. One is Tavi’s and the other is of another cursor Amara. Amara is faced with saving hostages from the ruthless Kalare, who strikes at the First Lord to take the throne for himself. Amara must make an alliance with the Lady Aquitaine, the First Lords political enemy, and a traitor Cursor called Rook.

   This book may very well be Butcher’s finest work to date, and I say this as a long time fan that reads anything with his name on it. It hit every note correctly, it finally answers the mystery of why Tavi is furyless and confirms the identity of his parents (though Butcher gave it away in the most obvious hints in the first book). Like Harry Dresden, Tavi is a hero you WANT to see succeed at everything he does. IN this world furies are used to not just manipulate the elements but to augment physical prowess of a furycrafter. It’s the practical applications of furycrafting that truly sets this series apart. Tavi being furyless doesn’t mean he is a Fighter/rogue in a world of wizards, it means he is technically handicapped because furycrafting is used for EVERYTHING. It’s like a man with no legs.

   Yet Tavi overcomes this handicap and excels beyond anyone’s expectations by showing intelligence, forethought, preparation, and quick wits, you can overcome anything.

   The ending is everything you hope. You read each chapter wondering how Tavi is going to overcome the odds, and it’s not just his mental skill that proves out, it’s his ruthless focused mind that drives him to do the things he does.

   In the end you know Tavi will rip through everything if ever gets furies on his own, because he is so devastating without them.

   This is a must buy for Butcher fans, and anyone that is looking for a new series to get into, buy Furies of Calderon and get started.

   
2. 

   Troy Puyear @ 4:13 pm

   The feeling to which I refer is probably familiar to readers around the world. You know the one – you’re in the bookstore, all of your favorite authors are between installments, and then you choose something based on the back cover (paperback) or inside flap (hardcover). Who knows if this will be worth your time or end up in your next garage sale?

   I am grateful for the day I discovered Jim Butcher and “The Dresden Files,” because that is a well-written, enjoyable series in its own right. However, having been a sword-and-sorcery connoisseur for much of my life, I may be even more pleased with the Codex Alera. Mr. Butcher has created a world and society that are different enough to capture interest (the furies are an inventive twist on “magic”) but familiar enough so that you don’t spend all of your time trying to puzzle out different languages and unpronounceable names.

   Almost all of the primary characters in these books are likable, or at the least, intriguing. As I tend to prefer, there are shades of gray and uneasy alliances. The reason I prefer this is because it injects some “real life” into the proceedings. I love the shifting political winds and the actions taken to adjust to them. But mostly I really enjoy Tavi, the protagonist, and his efforts to survive and excel while being possibly the only Aleran citizen with no ability at furycraft. His history and the hints that he may be more than he seems are handled masterfully, not too heavy-handed or too cryptic. I will continue to follow this series and I know I will enjoy Tavi’s ascension to whatever fate awaits him. Thank you, Mr. Butcher, for a thoroughly enjoyable read.

   
3. 

   mlle. x @ 4:28 pm

   I am a big fan of the Dresden Files series, and I occasionally like sword-and-sorcery books, so one day when I was waiting impatiently for the next Dresden book, I started the Codex Alera series. I picked up the first one in the series, Furies of Caderon, I read it, and I thought, “Well, what a good book, that Jim Butcher is a talented author.” Then I went about my business for a while, without any burning desire to read book two. I checked bookstores when I passed the fantasy section, but for some reason bookstores never stock book two, and it was almost a year before I finally bothered to order it.

   So I finally read book two, Academ’s Fury. And by the time I was done, I was totally hooked on the series. The first thing I did after I finished the last page was order book three, Cursor’s Fury, even though it was only available in hardback. I couldn’t help it. I had to know what happened. Cursor’s Fury was even better than Academ’s Fury – Butcher has this truly incredible ability to get a series off to a good start and then make each book better as it goes along.

   I think it’s only now, at the end of the third book, that this series is really ready to begin. All of the characters are on the brink of major changes, all of them are well developed, there are incredibly complex relationships between them, conflicts between personal and political goals, between feeling and principle. Characters must choose between good and evil, but they must make even more difficult choices between different goods, which cannot both be obtained, and different evils, which cannot both be prevented. We know who the (many) main characters are, what they’re up to, and how it came to be so.

   I love the character of Tavi, and I really love that Butcher has written against the genre and created a character who can be a hero in a magical world without ever using magic. And I absolutely cannot wait for the next installment of the series to appear.

   
4. 

   Douglas Baxter @ 6:12 pm

   I’ve been reading science fiction and fantasy all my life, like many of you. You know when you find a good writer. Jim Butcher is a rare talent, and seems to be getting better with each book he writes. He also seems to write new books fairly quickly, which is obviously important to us readers (How long has the Wheel of Time been turning?). Each book in the Codex Alera is superb, and Cursor’s Fury is no exception.

   So what? Lots of writers do that. But how many series have you read where the author starts out great, then after a couple of books the story starts wandering across an overly descriptive landscape with characters that do nothing but talk? For example, I loved the first books from Jordan, Eddings, and Goodkind.

   Well, enough of that. Jim Buther creates great characters on both sides – not just the good guys. Every plot line he opens he brings to a logical conclusion. Yes, the major story ends with a teaser, but we want that. You can actually finish the book satisfied, but still wanting more. If you’ve read Modesitt, you’ll understand what I mean, although Modesitt’s books are a little more standalone.

   Many other great reviewers have described the storyline very well here, so I won’t bore you with details. The bottom line, as others have noted, is that this is a excellent book in a great new series. Get it now.

   
5. 

   Esther Schindler @ 9:04 pm

   In the Codex Alera, Jim Butcher is proving himself to be a master at world-building. He’s put together an alternate universe that’s built on a Rome which turned in another direction — when people apparently found that they could master water, earth, fire and air furies — and then somehow found itself in a place where other non-human races reside. The “technology” that Rome had developed (such as road-building) has become irrelevant and is now myth. I still haven’t figured out how this came about, but I want to know.

   I loved the two earlier books in this series, so I was excited to read the third novel. (Which, since it doesn’t _completely_ have closure, implies that another is to follow.) I liked the characters, especially the boy-without-furies Tavi and the Cursor Amara, and I wanted to see what happened to them.

   Unfortunately — and disputing the opinion of other fans here — the author stumbles. It isn’t that the storyline is unbelievable but that I found I didn’t care about the events quite as much as I expected to. The major weakness is that Butcher lost each character’s unique voice. Tavi is now a young man, but he most of the time he has less personality than he did in the earlier books, and when he does express himself he sounds entirely too much like Harry Dresden. Amara and her husband have a more realistic relationship, but they’re both busy being so heroic that, so to speak, you rarely hear them talk when they’re comfortably at home with one another.

   I’m not quite sure how Butcher faltered in this way; it kept feeling to me as though he was distracted with another project, and the result is like listening to a radio station that’s *almost* tuned in. I wanted to know what happened enough that I finished the entire book, but the static got in the way of me completely enjoying it.

   It does earn its four stars, though, because the book does continue a story that I want to hear. But the uneven voice makes Cursor’s Fury depend on the worldbuilding a little more than it should have to.