Book review - Codex Alera

[rich_jacko]

The story goes that Jim Butcher bet he could make a decent story out of any two random ideas he was given. So he ended up writing a six-volume, 3,000-page, dynastic fantasy epic based on the concept "Lost Roman Legion meets Pokémon".

He somehow managed to make it work, as only Jim Butcher can. Mostly. So long as you refrain from thinking "Brutus! I choose you!" or similar any time a character calls on one of their personal elemental furies. And so long as you refrain from substituting the word "furies" with "furries" in your head. Which would turn it into a series for gwengothelf ;o)

Alera itself is essentially a Roman civilisation, but whose citizens have varying degrees of elemental magic abilities. It is surrounded by hostile races on all sides - the savage Marat to the east, the warlike Canim over the seas to the south and west, the obligatory Icemen to the north, and the mysteriously alien Vord. Infighting among its own High Lords also threatens to tear Alera apart from within.

Thrust into all this are the main characters - a farmboy living on the frontier (because, in the author's own words, "let's face it, swords-and-horses fantasies start there"), his aunt and uncle, an agent of the First Lord, a traitor, and a young Marat.

Comparisons with Butcher's other series, The Dresden Files, invite themselves. Both are action-packed fun. Both are full of immensely likeable, anti-authoritarian, smart-arsed heroes and anti-heroes, who win the day mostly through their own mad genius and their ability to convince others to go along with them. Both rattle along at a good pace before devoting the last 100 or so pages of each book to epic final confrontations that would be ludicrously over-the-top if they hadn't been set up so carefully. All of this is good.

It's not as dark or complicated as Dresden. The plot twists are more obvious, the characters more invulnerable, the line between good and evil more clearly drawn. But it's not really trying to do the same thing. Alera is more an escapist swords-and-sorcery fantasy, where the magic is more super-powered, the conflicts are bigger, and one person's actions can shape a whole continent. There's still plenty enough intrigue, revelations, betrayals and sacrifices to keep you turning the pages.

It's also a single story arc over six books, whereas Dresden is more separate stories with a linked continuity. I read Alera from start to finish in a little over three months, and I really enjoyed seeing the characters grow and following their journey over that time.

And now I really am all out of Jim Butcher books. What else is on the bookshelf...?

Comments

[caerban.livejournal.com]

I liked 'em too :)

[morecake.livejournal.com]

And so long as you refrain from substituting the word "furies" with "furries" in your head

Sadly, I was unable to do this :-) Sounds great, though, and reminds me that I really need to check out the Dresden books, enough people have raved about them. As for what else is on the shelf, may I suggest anything by Jasper Fforde?

[grok-mctanys.livejournal.com]

I thought that the characters in Alera weren't nearly as well imagined or described as those in Dresden. I only really got to understand Tavi, Fade, Fidelias and Varg. Maybe to a small extent Kitai, Sextus, Invidia and Odiana. But Amara, Bernard, Isana, and a bunch of other fairly important characters, more central to events than some of those listed above, were almost complete ciphers to me.

On the other hand, consider the first 3000 pages of Dresden, which is something like the first 8-10 books. I feel like I've got a fairly good handle on Dresden, Karrin, Bob, Susan, Thomas, Michael, Molly, Father Forthill, Marcone, Hendricks, The Leanansidhe, Ebanezar, Ivy and Kincaid. On top of that, Sanya, Lara, Justine, Mortimer and Toot-Toot are also pretty well-rounded. And there are a lot of other memorable characters in there too, like Butters, Ms. Gard, Injun Joe, Queen Mab, The Erlking, Anastasia and The Merlin.

[rich-jacko.livejournal.com]

I'd agree the characters in Dresden are better drawn. But I didn't want to write an entire review about all the things that are better done in Dresden ;o)

I got a pretty good handle on the eight characters you mentioned, plus Isana, Max and Ehren. Amara and Bernard were the weak links - I just didn't find them very interesting.

[grok-mctanys.livejournal.com]

Fair point. But it's not that the characters in Alera aren't as good as the ones in Dresden, rather the characters in Alera just aren't very good. (Good call on Ehren though - I'd forgotten about him, but agree that he was well written)

You did bring up Dresden, so it was there for comparison anyway, but it makes a particularly good contrast in this case because of the enormous cast of incredibly vivid characters it contains.

[kerida-eira.livejournal.com]

I liked them. They weren't meant to be complicated, just epic fun :)