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Title: Cursor's Fury
Series: Codex Alera #3
Author: Jim Butcher
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 654
Words: 177K
Series: Codex Alera #3
Author: Jim Butcher
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 654
Words: 177K
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Synopsis:
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From BN.com and Me
The
power-hungry High Lord of Kalare has launched a rebellion against the
aging First Lord, Gaius Sextus, who with the loyal forces of Alera
must fight beside the unlikeliest of allies-the equally contentious
High Lord of Aquitaine.
Meanwhile,
young Tavi of Calderon joins a newly formed legion under an assumed
name even as the ruthless Kalare unites with the Canim, bestial
enemies of the realm whose vast numbers spell certain doom for Alera.
When treachery from within destroys the army's command structure,
Tavi finds himself leading an inexperienced, poorly equipped
legion-the only force standing between the Canim horde and the
war-torn realm.
Steadholder
Isana finds herself trapped in a city under siege by Kalare and his
forces. The Canim have cast some sort of spell that turned the sky
read and has filled the clouds with intangible monsters that can kill
anyone who comes within reach of their clutches. This means that air
travel is nigh impossible for the Knight Aeries and that the city is
on its own. Fade protects Isana from an arrow but it is poisoned and
he begins to die. Isana performs a very dangerous form of healing and
during the process we learn what happened at the first Battle of
Calderon where Isana gave birth to Tavi and Septimus died. Fade, now
fully Araris, is healed and reveals his love for Isana and she
returns it.
At
the same time, Amara and Bernard team up with Lady Aquitaine, her 2
underlings from the first book and Rook, the woman controlled by
Kalare. Lady Placida is being held hostage by Kalare and only Rook
knows where. Everyone agrees to rescue Rooks little daughter while
they rescue Placida. Once Lady Placida is rescued, her husband Lord
Placida can unleash his forces against Kalare and help the First
Lord. The rescue happens, the expected double cross from Lady
Aquataine happens and Amara handles it all.
Tavi,
now leading the Legion in the area of the Canim incursion, realizes
that the Canim are divided between the warriors who are loyal to
their War Leader Nasaug and the Ritualists who are loyal to Sarl, who
we briefly met in the previous book. Tavi throws the Canim back and
eventually breaks their spirit. However, he finds out that the boats
were carrying the Canim nation, not just warriors, when he finds a
Canim female with a newly birthed litter of pups. Tavi realizes that
the Canim were not invading Alera but were fleeing their homeland.
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My
Thoughts:
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Oh my goodness! Oh My goodness!! Oh My Goodness!!!
This is exactly what I want in my Epic Fantasy. How can this book be
written by the same guy who writes that whiny loser Dresden? It must
be a miracle!!!! Or Butcher is just that good of an author and knows
what exactly to write for each genre his series is in. Give this man
a cookie. Phhh, give him the whole box of oreos!!!!
Once again, this was my “lunch break”, “down time at work
(hahahahaha!”) book and I found myself making excuses to read it
outside of the normal parameters. Get to work 5 minutes early? No
problem, just sit in the car and read this for 5 minutes. After work,
let the car warm up and read until I'm ready to drive home. Heck,
have my bookbag with me with this in it and sitting in a parking lot
waiting for a Craigslist deal to go through, read this!
With this being my 3rd read of this book, there obviously
weren't any surprises. Yet I wasn't bored in any way nor did I ever
come to a section and feel like “oh, here we go, hang on until we
get back to the good stuff”.
The story, the characters, how the plot unfolds, it just works for
me. These aren't Dune
level of books, in that there are deeper, underlying themes and
ideas, but for pure entertainment that is well written and stands up
to multiple re-reads, The Codex Alera just can't be beat.
The only thing to be aware of, which might be an issue depending on
your personal psychological make up, is that each book usually only
takes a week to happen and then there are 2 year skips between books.
From the first book to this has been 5 years. But you don't get 5
years worth of data about Tavi growing up. You get little snapshots.
That doesn't mean there is no character growth, you just get it
compressed. It works well for me but I know that it might not be
everyone's cup of tea.
These are big books (this was almost 700 pages) but Butcher never
gets bogged down. He skillfully keeps the story moving at a breakneck
pace. Onward to the next book!
★★★★★
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