Review: Princeps’ Fury (Codex Alera 5) by Jim Butcher

The penultimate entry in the Codex Alera series is also probably the best so far. The action follows a number of separate perspectives, including Tavi’s journey with the Canim to the latter’s native land and the First Lord struggling to fight yet another armed threat to his realm.

Every thread of the story is written with pace and/or tension, and there are plenty of surprising twists and turns. A little more is revealed about Tavi’s father and we see Raucus, father of Max and Crassus, for the first time.

One particularly interesting feature of the book (and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the series) is the notion of power being more of a burden than a blessing. Given Mr. Butcher’s fondness for Romanesque references (legions, the Senate etc) I wonder whether he was thinking of the 3^rd century, when many army leaders were proclaimed emperor (against their wishes and without their consent) by their army and had to choose to either get killed at once or fight for a prize they never wanted in the first place. Gaius, First Lord of Alera, has a similarly unhappy position, as his heir is far away and unaware of what’s happening to Alera, and numerous lords seek to usurp his throne.

We learn more about the Canim, who are always interesting to read about, and their own country, as well as being introduced to some more of Varg’s enemies. The numerous plot twists throughout leave not a moment to be bored or allow oneself to become relaxed, and one or two of the surprises are especially cunning.

I raced through the book, and thoroughly enjoyed it. If I hadn’t already done my top 10 reads of the year this would probably make it (I might add it to next year’s list).

Thaddeus

Return of the Death Star and other ramblings

One of the blogs I enjoyed reading, http://workingatthedeathstar.blogspot.com/, went dormant recently. However, I’m glad to report that it has since erupted back to life and is now, once more, liquifying boredom in the lava of mirth.

In entirely unrelated news, here are some little tips that apparently help reduce the lag bug that afflicts some PS3 copies of Skyrim:

Turn off autosave

Try and keep 2GB or more of hard drive space free

Sometimes waiting (in-game) for a while can help

I think the above reduce the problem rather than solve it entirely.

Been making some progress with the general plot outline of the (probable) next book I’ll be writing. It’ll be more tightly focused than Bane of Souls because of its nature (a small group of people hunting down a gang of treasure-seekers who are in a remote location). After Christmas I’ll try and make some progress on finding a cover artist (assuming I ever get that reply I need), and maybe ask for Bane of Souls and Book II at the same time, to cut the delay for the second book. Of course, this will mean thinking up a title and cover image before completely finishing the text.

With luck, once I get the reply (and the cover art, obviously) it won’t take too long to get it released.

Thaddeus

Review: Captain’s Fury (Codex Alera 4) by Jim Butcher

After a bit of a pause I decided to return to the very enjoyable Codex Alera series.

The fourth book continues the over-arching theme of the succession question, and focuses upon the war, (and potential end to it), with the Canim, who have annexed western Alera following an exodus from their native land.

The book has three main storylines, that of Tavi (who’s trying to find a peaceful end to the war), Valiar Marcus (who is busy fighting it) and Amara, who is trying to help the First Lord prevent Kalarus from committing a lunatic act of destruction.

I quite liked the book. It was as well-written as I’d come to expect, there’s more genuine progression of the series’ theme and there’s some more romance (for those who like that sort of thing. I prefer sadism and violence, which may explain why I’m single).

A few more plot twists would’ve gone down nicely. Sometimes it felt a little too predictable, although I did enjoy the ongoing mental torment of Valiar Marcus. He, more than Tavi, seems to be the real central character of the story (not unlike Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker). I also enjoyed the ending of the Amara storyline, and the scene-setting for book 5.

Mr. Butcher does well with some significant news Tavi receives, and the emotional conflict he suffers. Given he’s no longer a boy but a seasoned soldier and leader I think his reaction emotionally makes perfect sense, though he seems slightly too self-assured about its implications.

The approach of the Canim and their leader, Nasaug, to the war and Alerans fits with previous Canim behaviour. The writing of the campaign is good, as it avoids getting bogged down in petty detail yet manages to get across why some decisions are moronic, and the idiocy of a certain kind of politician.

I enjoyed it, but think a little more pace/urgency would have helped. I’ll certainly be getting book 5, though I may get something else first. I’ve been considering getting another saga (although Njal’s was something I found a bit of a slog), but was surprised to see some are more costly in eBook than physical format (which I hate).

Thaddeus

Hiatus over (sort of)

I’m still lacking the necessary reply, so I can’t make progress with Bane of Souls just yet, but have decided to fill the gap with some world-building.

The next two projects I’m looking at are a small(ish) stand-alone book and a series about a civil war. It’s quite enjoyable to try and piece together a nation, plotting which cities go where, how the climate and people differ and so on. I had a lot of the ideas either half-formed in my head or written down concisely already, so it’s going pretty well.

The theme of human subspecies is going to continue, with some slightly more divergent examples (for the civil war series, I may use just Kuhrisch, Dennish and Felarian for the stand-alone book).

Bane of Souls occurred almost entirely in a single city, Highford, so I was able to go into quite a bit of detail, a lot of which can be used for the other two projects. It’s useful for a writer to have done some world-building before going into the first draft because it helps smooth things out, and can provide inspiration when writer’s block threatens.

One of the most helpful pages I’ve found (well, saw on Chrons) was by S. John Ross about medieval demographics. Whilst not every fantasy world is medieval, quite a few are, and even if one isn’t the principles behind what Mr. Ross wrote are useful to know.

At the bottom of Mr. Ross’ page are a few links to calculators. Sadly one of the best is now defunct (if anyone knows if Derek Bryan has relocated his calculator, please do let me know) but most of them are still active.

I’ve done quite a bit of work regarding the major cities and the differing peoples of Denland, and plan to do some of the basics regarding just how big each city and region should be. Map-making’s always fun, and I’ve done the first of those (it’s mildly amusing that my artistic talent with computer-generated maps is as bad as when I’m drawing by hand).

So, whilst I’d prefer a swift reply so I can get on with publishing Bane of Souls, I’m at least keeping busy with related work and will hopefully be able to make a running start with whatever I do next.

Not sure how often I’ll be blogging from now until the New Year, but fret not if I’m a little quiet until January.

Thaddeus