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Book Review - Furies of Calderon
Apr. 14th, 2009 02:57 pmJust finished the Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher. An immersive fantasy. I keep feeling that I should have liked this book more than I did, it has: a Roman-analog Empire, a loyal Agent of the Empire, a young man who must live by his wits, political intrigue and war! But they just do not fit well together. And there are little things that bothered me (door knobs in a Roman house? really?) and the magic system, well, it is interesting but not coherent.
The Alerans, the main culture in the book, are born with the ability to manipulate furies which are elementals (the usual four plus wood and metal) but most Alerans only one or two types at their command. The furies a character commands are usually named and have some vestigial
personality and the power level of these furies vary greatly from master to master. One of the main characters (the young man who must live by his wits) is the only Aleran ever not to have furies of his own, at least that is the impression the book gives. But for all this structure, the furies ultimately do what is needed by the plot not what they should be in a coherent structure and, but some unknown method, they can be bound into items so we can have magical flashlights and floodlights ("fury lamps"), which halfway make sense in the setting, and will destroying slave collars, which do not.
The plot is also very predictable. While it was an easy read and the battles at the end of the book are very intense, it is just very . . . standard. Every plot twist was telegraphed and played out as expected. Most of the villains barely had three dimensions though our heroes managed slightly better. Still, not a bad read, but not really engaging enough to make me want to read the second book. My Grade: C/C+
The Alerans, the main culture in the book, are born with the ability to manipulate furies which are elementals (the usual four plus wood and metal) but most Alerans only one or two types at their command. The furies a character commands are usually named and have some vestigial
personality and the power level of these furies vary greatly from master to master. One of the main characters (the young man who must live by his wits) is the only Aleran ever not to have furies of his own, at least that is the impression the book gives. But for all this structure, the furies ultimately do what is needed by the plot not what they should be in a coherent structure and, but some unknown method, they can be bound into items so we can have magical flashlights and floodlights ("fury lamps"), which halfway make sense in the setting, and will destroying slave collars, which do not.
The plot is also very predictable. While it was an easy read and the battles at the end of the book are very intense, it is just very . . . standard. Every plot twist was telegraphed and played out as expected. Most of the villains barely had three dimensions though our heroes managed slightly better. Still, not a bad read, but not really engaging enough to make me want to read the second book. My Grade: C/C+