Furies of Calderon

Codex Alera, Book 1

By: Jim Butcher

Narrated by: Kate Reading

Length: 19 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

In the realm of Alera, where people bond with the furies - elementals of earth, air, fire, water, and metal - 15-year-old Tavi struggles with his lack of furycrafting. But when his homeland erupts in chaos - when rebels war with loyalists and furies clash with furies - Tavi's simple courage will turn the tides of war.

©2005 Jim Butcher (P)2008 Penguin Audiobooks

Critic reviews

“Epic fantasy in the best way, inspired by Tolkien.” (New York Times best-selling author Simon R. Green

“A stay-up-all-night-’til-you-finish-it-book, Furies of Calderon is a marvelous read.” (Number-one New York Times best-selling author Patricia Briggs)

“Absorbing...Butcher does a thorough job of world building, to say nothing of developing his action scenes with an abundance of convincing detail.” (Publishers Weekly)

Very well done. Looking forward to the next book.

Great story. Well paced and entertaining. I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

Fantastic story! Horrible narrator!

What made the experience of listening to Furies of Calderon the most enjoyable?

The story was well-written, exciting, and entertaining. Though the narrator was horrible, the story and characters kept you listening, and everyone once in awhile you would forget Kate Reading's ridiculous voices long enough to truly get immersed in the story.

What did you like best about this story?

You could really throw yourself into the story, and the characters were real, entertaining, and really made you feel for them. It's a story of grand adventure and mishap, and I can't wait to read the next one!

Would you be willing to try another one of Kate Reading’s performances?

Absolutely not. I thought she would be great because she has a very good voice with an English accent, but her character voices were appallingly bad. When just narrating, she was good, but every single female voice was two octaves higher than it should have been, and she tried so hard to give the males low voices that she made them all seem slow and mentally incapable. Of course a female narrator isn't going to be able to do the men perfectly, but in past books, it's definitely been passable and certainly not jarring. And, with a female narrator, you would expect the female characters' voices to be better than passable, but Kate's were high-pitched, irritating, and made every female character seem like a complete airhead. She definitely does not do this book justice, which is a shame, because it's a great book.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

No spoilers! But that one part in that one place in the book when the one character fell in love with that other character...you'll know it when you read it.

Great story, Narration could use a little work.

I can say that so far I'm planning on continuing this series, as it's refreshing to find a series that isn't still in progress, causing you to have to wait painstakingly for the next book. It's also nice to have such an original premise in terms of the magic system, even if it is based on the concept of Pokemon.

The only big beef I have with this audiobook is the narration. Kate Reading is quite good at her portrayal of each character voice and the emotions portrayed, but the pronunciation can be absolutely dreadful at times. This isn't usually a problem with fantasy fiction, since many of the places and names are completely fictional and have little to no possibility of a real world analog. However, the people in the story are supposed to have originated on our world in ancient Rome, meaning there are some words that the reader would have already heard. The most annoying to me is the pronunciation of Legionnaire(s). I have a very hard time getting past the narrator pronouncing this (phonetically) Legion-AH-Ray(s). Sure it could be said that over the course of intervening centuries the pronunciation changed with the language or some such nonsense, but it's sort of a stretch when many of the other terms and names which originated in Rome are correctly spoken. It's a minor nitpick, I know, but it's one of the only things I can truly find wrong so far, and that makes it even more irksome.

Otherwise this is an engrossing story grabs onto the readers (listeners?) attention and holds it well. I'm looking forward to continuing the series.

Annoying sound effects.

For some reasons they included VERY annoying sound effects between chapters. Kate was good as usual but someone needs to edit this recording.

Just awesome`

I started listening to these books because of Kate Reading. Loved her reading in the "Wheel of Time" series. And she shines in this series. Jims take on magic and diplomacy in these books are second to none

started out ok but by the end I loved it ....

Would you consider the audio edition of Furies of Calderon to be better than the print version?

yes I would

What was one of the most memorable moments of Furies of Calderon?

once i got the caracters

Which character – as performed by Kate Reading – was your favorite?

Tavi

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

yes

Any additional comments?

Wonderfully good and it was gamble i would take again!!

My all time Favorite series!

This book is the beginning of what is quite probably my all time Favorite series! Yes... I admit that the very beginning is a trifle slow, but that soon changes, and then you find yourself sucked into the lives of Tavi, his Aunt Isana and her brother Bernard, a slave named Fade, and many, many others... it turns out that the lives of everyone in the vast, Calderon basin, depends on what this family does... 
I've actually read the book 3 or 4 times... This time I listened to the audible edition which is narrated by Kate Reading, and she's simply amazing! Kate's a great voice actor, capable of portraying many different roles in a wonderful fashion!  One downside to the audio version was that between major plot breaks, there was this utterly insipid fanfare of horns, and they took me right out of the story... If they hadn't been so laughable, I would've been writing nasty letters to the publishers... Ya' hear me?   I don't need the Horn Fanfare!!! 

annoying horns at regular intervals

the story was great, and the narrator good, but there were horns that played at regular intervals, most likely a holdover from when this book was on compact disks which were jarringly loud compared to the rest of the audio. otherwise, a good book.

Roman Legions & Pokemon

I find this series a true gem, and find it highly amusing to find out it started out as a debate about whether a good premise can make a book, or the author does. So Butcher asked for two disparaging topics and said he could turn it into a best selling series. Pokemon & Roman Legions were the topics and The Codex of Alera is the result.

I find it interesting the number of people comparing The Dresden Files and The Codex of Alera. To me, they are two different series coming from two quite different styles. This is a well written epic fantasy series, with some well done political intrigue.

The narration felt very natural. The editing was bothersome at times, but overall didn't have a major impact on the appeal of the book. Definitely worth a listen in my opinion.

great story! but...

Why the hell are the stupid trumpets sounding still? I imagine they are left over from the days of cassettes indicating time to switch sides. incredibly annoying. terrible oversight for a company that is the premier audio book purveyor.

book and reading are both incredible nonetheless