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Academ's Fury (Codex Alera, Book 2) By Jim Butcher ( Ace )
Release Date: 2006-11-28
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Product Description
In Furies of Calderon, bestselling author Jim Butcher introduced readers to a world where the forces of nature take physical form. But now, it's human nature that threatens to throw the realm into chaos.
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 A Bit Better than the 1st Book in the Series ( dlessnau )
"Academ's Fury" is the second in Butcher's "Codex Alera" series (Furies of Calderon (Codex Alera, Book 1), Academ's Fury (Codex Alera, Book 2), Cursor's Fury (Codex Alera, Book 3), Captain's Fury (Codex Alera, Book 4), and Princeps' Fury (Codex Alera, Book 5)). It picks up about two years after the first book. If you liked the first book, you'll almost certainly like this one: an interesting world, good writing, and, for the most part, fairly well done characters. I also felt that the pacing was a bit better in this one. Plus, Butcher added a bit (just a bit) more information into the furies, themselves. I only had three significant disagreements with the book:
- First, there doesn't seem to be any adult supervision at the Academy. A good chunk of the plot revolves around things happening that just shouldn't be able to at the premier learning institution in the world. I mean, nobody in their right mind would leave a group of (essentially) magic-wielding teenagers alone to practice their group-dynamics on each other like this.
- Second, as in the first book, the low-life human antagonists (not the elite ones) are just over done: they stick to their unpleasant behavior far past the point where it would make any sense. After a while, I'd just throw up my hands, roll my eyes and say "not again."
- And, third, it takes an awful lot of pounding to do any damage to anyone.
This is a fantasy book, though. Not high literature. So, I'm not putting too much emphasis on those things. Like the first book, this one is captivating and well worth the read. I rate it at a Very Good 4 stars out of 5.
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 Academ's Fury
Love Jim Butcher's adventures. He keeps things moving and I just keep pages turning. Great addition to the Fury adventure.
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book 2 of 6 ( msmoby )
Academ's Fury takes place two years after Furies of Calderon. Tavi is at the Academy (hence the title), still fury-less (magic-less), training to become a Cursor (secret agent), and working as the First Lord's page. It's finals time, and as his final exam as a Cursor, he's to catch the Black Cat--a thief who's been plaguing the capital but is inexplicably able to avoid the watch furies. He has other finals as well, which should be enough pressure, but then the First Lord collapses, and Tavi has to get him aid while keeping it a secret to prevent the realm from falling into civil war.
Meanwhile, back on the steadholt, Tavi's aunt Isana is attacked by an assassin as she's preparing to go to the capital for Wintersend, where she's to make public appearances as the first female steadholder.
And then the Marat arrive, led by Doroga, a small band who've survived a battle with a foe called the Vord. Cross the Borg with zombies, maybe, and throw in some horror movie spiders, and you'll get an idea of what they're up against. Oh, and it seems that one of the three Vord queens is looking for Tavi.
So now Isana has a bigger mission for her trip to the capital--alert the First Lord to send aid to the Calderon Valley, and warn and protect Tavi, while Bernard and the cursor Amara stay back in Calderon to fight the Vord there.
We're introduced to Tavi's new friends, the powerful but tormented Max and the weak but wily Ehren. And we're introduced to the Canim, huge wolf-like creatures.
The story is exciting and fast-moving. The book, as do the others in the series, alternates between story threads, and Jim has a habit of leaving readers on a cliffhanger at the end of a chapter, which could make one skim through some threads, if they weren't all so exciting.
In addition to the book-long plot of the fight against the Vord, there are also dramatic developments in the ongoing series plot. Tavi's growing both physically and mentally and gaining confidence through his Cursors training, as well as making important friendships and learning to wade through the politics in the capital.
We learn more about the other races on Carna, and through them, more about the Alerans. And some events occur that will have repercussions for years (and books!) to come. It's all just so tightly written that everything has a purpose, even as it's telling a thrilling story.
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Shaping up to be a great series
The second installment in Jim Butcher's epic fantasy series was, if it is possible, even more exciting and even more complicated -- and thus even more impressive -- than the first. "Furies of Calderon" set up the world, and spent much of its length doing that; "Academ's Fury" follows a taut, thrilling storyline all the way through, keeping up the suspense for over 500 pages. But because Jim Butcher is a truly talented and capable writer, it is never tiring or tiresome; I never lost interest in it, and I had as much trouble putting this down as I do with the Dresden books, which are some of my favorites. This series is well on the way to making the Best list, too.
The story picks up largely where the last one left off, though two years have gone by; the two years have taken care of the recovery from the first book's chaos and devastation, and now all of the characters are established in their new roles -- Bernard as the Count Calderon, Isana as the Holder of Bernard's former steadholt, Tavi as a student and secret Cursor candidate in the capital. This book picks up just as the fit hits the shan, as the old joke goes. I particularly liked that this book continues the redefinition of the villains from the first book: just as "Furies" moved the Marat from evil, bloodthirsty savages to real people with different ways, so this book moves the traitor Cursor Fidelias and the Aquitaines to -- well, not good guys, but they are no longer the arch-nemeses. The book also moves Isana into a less heroic role, but it does it without taking anything away from her character or altering her basic personality, which is just impressive.
That role goes to the Vord, the insectile race that was formerly trapped in the Wax Forest and which Tavi freed unknowingly during his race with Kitai in "Furies" -- thus continuing a recurrent theme in Butcher's books, the law of unintended consequences (For every action, there is one result that you expect, and two you could never have dreamed of), e.g., Harry picking up the blackened Denarius to save it from Michael's child in the Dresden Files. The vord are nasty things, highly adaptable and extremely dangerous, combining the fighting force of giant scorpion/spider insects with the insidious horror of mind-controlling bugs a la "Night of the Creeps." The best part about the vord is that they are true villains: they are just as smart as the heroes, and for every time the heroes get a step on the vord, the vord get a step on the heroes, and terrible things happen as a result. In addition to the vord, there are political intrigues as several of the nobles of Alera try to supplant Gaius Sextus as First Lord and Tavi and friends try to stop them; this has something of the feel of a manufactured plot device, as it removes the most powerful of Tavi's allies from the scene and leaves the others vulnerable, but it is done in a perfectly reasonable way, so it isn't bad or silly. There is also a great bully, who is shown to be the genuine threat such a bully would be, rather than the cardboard cutout that so often appears in novels that have young people being bullied at school -- he's closer to Draco Malfoy than Scott Farkas from "A Christmas Story," though I must say I love that movie dearly.
There is also the Canim, the warlike dog people who made brief appearances in the first book; they are not actually the villain of this piece, acting more as allies and fellow victims, but there is a wonderful moment when the Canim ambassador, who has been helping Tavi against a common foe, turns and tells Tavi why he is helping despite still being the enemy of the humans. He says, in essence, that he plans to destroy the entire Aleran race himself, and have fun doing it -- but he'll do it with honor, and without letting his own people be made complicit in underhanded tactics. It's a great speech, the kind of thing I've come to expect and appreciate from Butcher's writing.
The last third of the book is a constant cliffhanger, going back and forth between two very deadly, very well-written and exciting fights; this was when the book was hardest to put down. The first book was much the same, with an enormous and complicated, but still exciting, climactic fight sequence; I'm just hoping that this is part of all of the books, as I can't think of another author that can do huge fights in quite the way Butcher can. I love it, and I loved this book.
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A great follow up to Furies of Calderon
I agree with reviewers that say this was better than the first book. And I thought the first book was a solid read! Academ's Fury takes place 2 years after Furies of Calderon. Tavi is enrolled at the Academy and in classic Harry Potter style, he finds himself embroiled in the center of a maelstrom of adventure and intrigue surrounding First Lord Gaius.
The story takes place in the capital of LA. We are introduced to the Canim (a race of huge wolf/canine warriors), the royalty of Alera, further intrigue with cursors new and old, and central roles for my favorite Marats (Kitai and Doroga). You also find out what exactly the wax spiders are all about (hint, think Alien). All in all, Butcher spins a great interwoven tale and introduces some very interesting new characters while taking existing ones in new directions (e.g., Fidelias and Isana). My only complaint in this book was that sometimes his descriptions of things and events sort of drag on a bit.
But all in all, an excellent read and I would highly recommend it, especially if you liked his 1st book!
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