I finished reading the final volume of this fantasy mini-series. I read the first book borrowed on multiple recommendations. I went out and bought myself the second and third books as I worked through them. The fourth and fifth I bought simultaneously while on a recent business trip out west. And this sixth and final tome was my first ebook purchase for my Nook. I’ve been a fan throughout the arc and I am a steadfast fan to the last. But if anyone wants to borrow the series, well I can only really partially help out.
Before I even started this book, I noted something that struck me about the series. As I was finishing the fifth volume, I noticed that Tavi did not end up in the role represented by the subsequent title prior to the end of the book (which tended to be the case in the previous books). As I found, Tavi ends up having multiple struggles to face through the sixth arc in order fulfill said destiny. As previously established, the realm is in peril of being overtaken by the Vord and the odds are severely stacked in the invader’s favor. But Tavi proves to have so many tricks up his sleep you wonder where he must keep his arms. What also bears out is that many of those faithful to him have pretty keen heads on their shoulders as well.
What I find most fascinating about this series is the way that Jim Butcher weaves such a vivid world with so many well developed races and creatures. On top of that, he has woven in a subtle stitching of narrative and history to suggest that the origin of the story’s human population could have been a lot roman legion – that a full legion and its follower camp mysteriously came to in this strange and hostile land. And over the course of the millennia that passed on Earth where we developed advances in technology, they instead came to harness these elemental furycrafting abilities and used them to similar ends (transportation, communication, etc.). This narrative also bears the subtle suggestion that societies constantly at war could have the tendency to stagnate and to demur progressive ideas.
First Lord’s Fury proved to be a more satisfying ending to The Codex Alera series than I had anticipated. And while I’m was happy to enjoy a series with a definitive run, part of me wonders what the fictional future could hold for the people of Alera (not that I’m suggesting a continuation or another mini-series is needed, but if Butcher has any such designs already in mind I know I would enjoy the reading). I guess I’ll have to get my fantasy kicks elsewhere now (at least for a while) and look forward to more Dresden Files novels. In the meantime I will keep reading something (there is always something to read).