Academ's Fury Book 2 of the Codex Alera by Jim Butcher Fantasy
480 pages




This is my review of the 2nd book of the Codex Alera. I have to state again that I am a HUGE Jim Butcher fan, so please keep that in mind in regards to this review. :) It is hard not to be biased when you are reviewing someone's work that you really appreciate.

You can check out my review of the first book here. Furies of Calderon Review

Ok, in book two of the serise Tavi is now training to be a Cursor (spy mostly) and it is two years since the events of the first book.  As usual, he tends to be in the right place at the right time and discovers a plan to kill the First Lord of Alera.  Meanwhile, Bernard and Amara are trying to hunt down a mysterious, yet deadly enemy known as the Vord.  They have the ability to shapeshift and take over someone (after killing them) and control them, which includes making them fight.

That is as much as I will say about the plot in the non-spoiler part of this.  The book is better than the first one because of the maturity of Tavi.  He has to deal wit things that are beyond his age and intellect, but he does this very well.  Since he does not have a fury, it forces him to use his brain instead of always depending on a fury (which is what most other people do).  This allows him an edge from time to time since he is able to figure things out quickly.

Overall, this is a great second book to the series.  You can really see that Butcher's writing is getting better the farther he gets into a series.  The characters shine and mature and the story does as well.  The plot becomes much more complicated and the lines of allegiancet are blurried.  Good stuff.

Ok, I am a huge Jim Butcher fan.  This is a great series that really compliments his Dresden Files series.  I will start with the writing.  Jim Butcher's writing is defiantely getting better over the years.  The stories are much more mature and with each book I am just more impressed with each story.

The characters are fun.  I love Tavi.  I appreciate that he is the only one that anyone knows that cannot call upon a fury in times of danger.  It gets him in trouble since some of the nobles of Alera look down upon him as a "furyless freak".  But he makes do and instead uses his mind to figure things out.  Or course it doesn't help to have his friend Max around when he is getting too picked on.  :)  Things get started when he comes across the First Lord (since he is one of his pages) who passes out in front of him.  Tavi had to make a quick choice about this and calls upon the Captain of the Guard Miles.  They decide to have Max impersonate the First Lord since if word came out that he was unwell, civil war would ensue. 

Bernard and Amara are visited by the the remains of a Marat war party that had hunted down something called a Vord queen. The vord are creatures that shapeshift and take over someone (usually by means of a leech type thing) and forces them to do their bidding.  Which usually in this case means joining their ranks and killing. 

Isana goes to the imperial city because she is now a steadholder.  Since she is the first woman to be so, she gets involved in politics, even if she doesn't want too.  It starts when someone tries to murder her in her home and continues when she gets into the city and has to make hard choices about where her allegiance lies.

This was a much richer plot than book 1 and people had to make tough decisions all the time.  There were a lot of really good  moments in the book:

-Max willing to lay his life for the First Lord, knowing it could kill him.  Also his friendship with Tavi.
-Isana having to turn to her enemies to try to find Tavi, knowing what it would cost her.
-The battle at the end where Tavi, Kitai, Max and others take on the Vord who are trying to kill the First Lord.
-Tavi standing up to the Canim, knowing they could kill him easily.  Also how quickly he reacted to the First Lord's collapse. 

The plot was good and is evolving as the series goes along.  The bottom line is there are so many other factions that want to be the First Lord and they are willing to do almost anything to achieve this.  The First Lord is hard pressed and getting older, but he is still very smart and has a lot of pieces in motion to try to stay alive.  But pushes himself too hard and collapses. 

I also appreciate what Bernard and Amara go through.  They do not expect to live through the fight with the Vord so they get married.  Only to live through the fight and have to deal with the consequences of it.  Amara cannot have children and Bernard is mandated to have children for the world to prosper.  It is an interesting situation.

My rating.  Pushing the cusp of greatness.  9.0 out of 10.  Overall, this was a fun book that took the series in a new direction.  Enemies become allies, and the threat of the Canim and the Vord are brought into the series.  The characters are interesting and it is fun to watch them grow.   Book five of the series comes out in a week, so you will be seeing a few more reviews.  :)