|
|
Posted by Grete, on January 7th, 2010  After managing to engineer peace with the Canim, Tavi holds to his promise and escorts them home. Widespread devastation meets them and the belief that all would be well once Varg and his countrymen had set foot back on their own soil vanishes as they realise the dreaded Vord had laid waste to their entire country. Back home, his loved ones are fighting their own battle with the Vord and go far and above the call of duty for the love of Alera and her Furies. Alera must prevail.
So far, this series has been nothing short of amazing and yet Princeps’ Fury still manages to step it up a notch. It has been a while since I read book four but I had no trouble at all diving right back into the story and greeting old friends. Some authors tend to have a few major characters that I love intensely, but Butcher manages to sneak an entire legion into my heart. Tavi, Kitai, Isana, Bernard, Max, Amara, Varg, Nausag – the list just goes on and I have no idea how he keeps them all straight or devotes as much intense attention to them all as he does. With so many central characters I wouldn’t fault you for thinking it would be too many for them all to be so well rounded. Honestly though, the characterisations are just so good. I even felt I got to know the people better than before as they acted and reacted to the events unfolding in their lives.
The plot itself for this book is very different to what I was expecting. Shocking, emotional, harrowing and heroic. In between it all there are still shots of humour and love. I found this book deeply emotional and I can’t say more than that without spoilers but if you are at all like me, have some tissues handy. The pace chopped and changed a bit but that was dictated by the story and didn’t detract at all. In fact it would have been a bad thing had certain scenes been rushed as it would have lost all impact and emotion, and that is where the quality of the storytelling lies.
A truly engaging and entertaining book by a master storyteller!
Rating: 
Posted by Grete, on October 23rd, 2009  About Jim Butcher
Jim enjoys various diverse hobbies – martial arts, fencing, singing, riding, roleplaying and while that should make him seem like a fairly scary individual, all reports suggest he is a very nice man. He also does LRP (Live Roleplaying) which in my book makes him fairly awesome! He lives with his wife, son and dog and is without a doubt one of the best writers of urban fantasy and fantasy I’ve come across in a long time.
http://www.jim-butcher.com/
My Comments
I managed to start the Dresden Files right at the beginning with Storm Front and was blown away (no pun intended!) by Harry Dresden. As a character he is brilliant, sarcastic, enigmatic and often downright hilarious. You also see him develop a more sombre, angry side which adds more depth to the character and just helps you empathise with him all the more. The books themselves are a bit like riding a runaway horse. You can’t get off, you have to just hang on and keep going and eventually it will stop but you also know you just had the ride of your life. They are pure entertainment and just get better with each book. There was a short lived TV show which was a lot of fun and it was a crime when it was cancelled.
The fantasy side of his writing talent comes with the Codex Alera, a series based in a world where the ordinary is extraordinary and it’s down to a boy without the talents everyone else has, to use his wits and intelligence to get by. I wasn’t reading much fantasy at this stage but since it was a Jim Butcher book I thought I would give it a go and again, it was fantastic. Very different in theme and even writing style to the Dresden Books which I thought was good because we didn’t need another Harry Dresden but in a fantasy setting. All I can say is give the first one a go!
Bibliography
Dresden Files
Short Stories
Codex Alera
Posted by Grete, on May 13th, 2009  The Realm of Alera is a civilized and beautiful place, where the average person has furies at their command, elemental beings of earth, air, fire, water and metal, bonded with those who have an affinity for them. Out in the harsh frontier of Calderon Valley, Tavi is an ordinary boy in an extraordinary world. The nephew of Steadholder Bernard and his sister Isana, both with powerful furies of their own, he is seen by his peers as a freak as he commands none. Stumbling into the start of an invasion by the savage Marat, he meets Cursor Amara, one of the King’s spies and is thrust into events that could lead to the fall of Alera or the very least, the assassination of the King. Using his wits and intelligence where others would use their furies, Tavi fights to keep his family, people and ultimately Alera safe.
I’ve been a big fan of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files for a long time and was really interested to hear he was writing a fantasy based series. Fantasy was my first love but for a while now, I hadn’t found anything new that had caught my attention and imagination.
First off, I absolutely love the unique magic system Butcher created for his world. Elemental beings that bond with the Alerans, almost like pets and are used in everyday life. Fire furies that keep lights and torches burning, water furies that allow water to travel along pipes or be used to heal wounds, earth furies that can raise walls, track prey or imbue their people with greater strength and so on. The furies take on a personality of their own and become supplementary characters that enhance the story as you meet them, however briefly.
The characters are superbly written, the main cast all have depth and detail that lead you to care about them right from the start, even the ‘bad’ guys who have their own stories and reasons for choosing the path they have taken. You also have the Marat, a tribal people who the Alerans consider savages with ways incomprehensible to them. Their characters are intriguing, vastly different to the Alerans and their society rich with tradition and beliefs. When the two begin to mix, it produces often amusing exchanges as they try to learn how to interact with each other.
The story itself is wonderful, flows easily throughout the book and the pace is just right. Exciting action alongside somber, tender moments, sharing a character’s dread at something that just happened and at times I was moved to tears. It has all the elements of a story I love – heroic endeavours in the face of overwhelming odds, clinging to something you believe in no matter how futile it might seem and finding love at the bleakest of times. These are all things that capture my heart and imagination.
By the end, I was in love with the world and it’s characters and left with a feeling of having read something truly remarkable.
Rating:
Posted by Grete, on April 17th, 2009 Harry Dresden is used to being in over his head where the supernatural community is concerned, even used to it turning up on his doorstep. When a severely wounded Morgan, Warden and Executioner for the White Council (and regular pain in Harry’s ass) turns up at his door asking for help, Harry is of the mind to refuse. Morgan is accused of murder and the penalty for the crime is death, along with anyone who helps him. In spite of overwhelming evidence Harry knows Morgan is innocent and there is something much larger happening. Can he let an innocent man (even if it is Morgan) die for a crime he didn’t commit and can he stop the plot that threatens to bring the entire White Council down? Most sane men would turn Morgan in but hey, this is Harry.
Wow. That’s the first word that sprang to mind when I finished Turn Coat and I even had to sit and reflect for a while. You get answers to some questions that have been running through several books, new questions needing answers and some truly emotional scenes. Harry as usual is in over his head and the highly entertaining part is how he gets out of it, with mind, skin and bone mostly intact. I feel that Harry has become just that bit more mature as well, while the usual supporting cast are there, by and large, he figures things out on his own.
Jim Butcher has such an entertaining writing style that lets you get up close and personal with his characters and this latest and 11th book in the Dresden Files certainly has that, in spades. Many a long running series can suffer with the reuse of plot, phrases and same old descriptions of characters but I can honestly say there is nothing like that here. The only downside I can think of is that it will be another year til the next one is released.
Rating:
Posted by Grete, on April 16th, 2009 Woohoo the new Dresden Files book is out and I’m reading it right now!
Posted by tony, on July 18th, 2008  It’s been a long time since I read and subsequently reviewed a book. That’s mainly because it’s been a long time since I read (or at least, finished) a book. I asked Grete specifically for something that was easy to read and entertaining, and she had no problem recommending the Jim Butcher books, of which Storm Front is the first.
The first thing that struck me about the book is the similarity to the Dirk Gently stuff by Douglas Adams. This isn’t a bad thing, I loved the Dirk Gently books and the Dresden Files (the name of the series for which Storm Front is the first one) felt comfortable almost from the first chapter.
Jim’s writing is clean, tidy and easy to read. The books are detective novels in the classic style with the current popular added theme of the supernatural / magical / mythical world playing a great role. Our hero is Harry Dresden, the only wizard in the phone book. The first person style makes it very easy to get into Harry’s head early and within a few pages we’re already empathising with him and feeling his pain. The pace is good, carrying us through the introduction of the world (modern America) and the principal characters, and into the story all in a fairly short time. We meet pretty archetypical police staff, paranormal magazine reporters, bad guys and people who need the services of magical private investigators.
The story arc is pretty simple, I can’t decide if I was pleased or upset at the lack of major twists. I certainly felt that there was going to be a huge twist at the end, and it never arrived. Having said that I don’t think the story suffered for it, it was unpretentious, and delivered exactly what it set out to do at the start. There was plenty of action, humour and good character interaction. In any first person style work, you spend a lot of time in the head of the main protagonist and so you have to feel something for them, otherwise the story just isn’t going to be worth reading. Harry Dresden is interesting, witty and worth spending time with, so it was no chore to listen to his thoughts and follow the story through his eyes.
It was a fun book, worth reading, and although I don’t think it made me laugh as hard as it could have done, it certainly kept me interested all the way through, and it’s a long while since I actually finished a book as quickly as this one. Worth getting, worth reading, and easily worth the price.
Rating:  
|
Very young children eat their books, literally devouring their contents. This is one reason for the scarcity of first editions of Alice in Wonderland and other favorites of the nursery.
Rosenbach, A. S. W.
About BookThing! BookThing! is a website where Grete can indulge her passion for books. There are reviews covering a range of genres (paranormal romance, crime, fantasy, romantic comedy), bibliographies for selected authors, features and sometimes the odd free book giveaway!
|
Recent Comments