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)

Good start to a series!

I have been a Dresden fan first, next was the Cinder Spires books and now this series. Really enjoyed this story , the characters and the world . Kate Reading is a perfect choice as narrator. This might be called YA but being over 70 yrs, I loved it just as much as I would have as a teen. Well done!

Fantastic as always!

I’ve been reading Mr. Butcher’s works for year now. Caught up on all of Dresden and aeronauts. Started Codex and as always he knocks it out of the park. Starting book 2 now and can’t wait to see what’s ahead. Thank you Jim Butcher for everything you do. Keep up the great work!

Lost Roman Legions...And POKEMON?

If you follow my reviews, you know that I like to roll the dice, to randomly buy a series on a whim, on the luck of the draw. Sometimes, it's a bust.

This time, it's a definite win, but if you go by how the series was created, you'd probably run in the opposite direction.

Here's one for the books: Jim Butcher is well-known for his "Dresden Files" series, created a fantastic fantasy series on a BET. Yep, a bet. Read on.

To quote the Codex Alera Wiki site, "the inspiration for the series came from a bet Jim was challenged to by a member of the Delray Online Writer’s Workshop. The challenger bet that Jim could not write a good story based on a lame idea, and Jim countered that he could do it using two lame ideas of the challenger’s choosing. The “lame” ideas given were “Lost Roman Legion", and “Pokémon”.

It DOES sound lame.

Well, Butcher makes it work. To the nines.

I've finished this first novel, and I'm enjoying this unique story line of humans with Roman similarities binding with elemental furies. Add unique races, backstabbing, politics, military battles, duels and an interwoven story line that pulls it all together, and you get a fantastic story that's simply put, a VERY VERY good listen.

The whole concept of fighting alongside elemental familiars used here is wonderfully executed. It's deep, well-thought magic-based partnership of man and magical creature is a pleasure to experience.

So, what about the writing?

Again, if you follow my reviews, you know that I love ENGAGING fantasy or scifi writing. Anything less won't do. And this is definitely engaging. There's great characters that plot, backstab, challenge, fight for their beliefs, devour their enemies, and celebrate their victories. You're taken on a great romp of a story, and in the end, isn't that what we all want in a good listen?

I know I do, and I so enjoyed this first audiobook in the series, that I bought the entire series. Yep. And I'm not disappointed with the decision.

Who knew that Lost Roman Legions and Pokemon could knock it out of the park?

Home run, Jim. Home run.

Sound Effects

For some reason they have added trumpet sounds at strange places throughout the narration. It's very annoying and really is not not well performed either. The narrator is great. It is just the sound effects that are bad.

What is with the idiotic fanfares?

If you could sum up Furies of Calderon in three words, what would they be?

Battles galore!

What did you like best about this story?

Actually, the saga is fascinating and will clearly lead to more books in the series. It stimulates the mind to consider what went before and what will come after - not just in the story, itself, but for humankind.

The characters are well-drawn and engaging, but I find that the author relies too much on battle behavior to expand information about a number of the characters, but left far too many holes in the actual development.

Which scene was your favorite?

Tavi going back for Kitai

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I must admit, I did get bored with all the battles. Each one was extended and highly detailed making it feel like the series was little more than one VERY LONG battle. IOW, there was more battle description than actual story.

But what there was of story and of character was strong and engaging.

Any additional comments?

The single biggest irritation were those awful fanfares with reason for them - just stuck in from time to time in the middle of a conversation. It was almost as if they were put in to mask an edit-join in the recording. However, instead of masking them, they highlighted them and the sounds were absolutely TERRIBLE and disruptive to the narrative.

Adventurous, though Caught Between Two Aesthetics

Having just finished the story, I'm confident in saying that I liked the book, thought it was definitely worth the time and money, and look forward to listening to the next book in the series. The author definitely has some quirks, though; the aesthetic of the story was split, making it a little difficult to tell who the story is really for.

The aesthetic is split between:
1) adventurous coming-of-age on a wild frontier, complete with exciting encounters with dangerous people, monsters, weather, etc, and
2) low fantasy war with lots of gruesome moments, despair, cannibalism, and death

Added to that second aesthetic is female slavery psychological horror. Odiana's segments, as well as some other mentions of promiscuous powerful females, felt really out of place in the rest of the story. This aspect of the story was not very interesting to me, and distracted from the story, which is why I did not rate the story 5 stars.

The two aesthetics feel very separate because they are occurring to different characters for most of the story. This makes this book difficult to recommend to a certain type of listener. I cannot really recommend it to readers who primarily like fantasy coming-of-age stories unless they also tolerate or like jumping between that and low fantasy elements, including a pinch of psychological sexual horror, as well. I cannot really recommend this for young adults, either, though the parts of the book I liked most could have certainly been made to include that audience.

The characters are a lot of fun, for the most part. I would have loved if the story focused more on Tavi and Kitai; their adventure was my favorite aspect of the book and I look forward to seeing what becomes of them more than any other characters.

Excellent series.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Excellent series. Familiar feel that allows you to easily fall into the story. Characters that you develop a relationship with and want to hear more about.

What did you like best about this story?

Multiple converging story lines that show the world and what's happening from many points of view.

What does Kate Reading bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Kate Reading brings the characters to life. It was easy to tell the different characters apart. Since most of the characters are male it was especially interesting. Her male voices sounded male and each character had it's own voice. I will try other books read by her because of her talent alone.

good book

I liked the book a lot however it was slow to draw me in. Now to listen to book 2.

Almost great

If it weren't for some jarringly choppy audio edits, I'd call this a near perfect start to a series. As it stands, there are numerous edits where the silence between paragraphs is cut too short, making it feel as though content is missing due to the abrupt change in flow.

fantastic epic

I can't wait to read/listen to the next book. Character development was astounding. lots of action and suspense.