Book Review: Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series

Jim Butcher's back, this time with his Codex Alera series. This time, he's gone for a more solid fantasy setting as opposed to the modern one in the Dresden Files. The setting is a world called Carna and the country of Alera, which bears many resemblances to Rome in its later years. Everyone in Alera, from the poorest beggar to the Emperor, has the ability to wield magical powers by harnessing elemental spirits called Furies. Everyone except our protagonist, Tavi, that is.

Tavi, growing up in the Calderon Valley, has no Furies at all in a society that focuses on one's ability to use them.

Tavi, over the course of the books, gets caught up in events involving the machinations of powerful individuals wishing to seize control of Alera for themselves, and during the courses of these events develops a sharp mind that enables him to outthink people, overcoming his handicap with sheer brilliance.

While similarly well written, the Codex Alera series has a different narrative style than the Dresden Files books. Instead of being told solely from a single person's perspective, the book shifts perspective from chapter to chapter, but the shifts are handled well and are not confusing.

However, the books truly do something extraordinary: they juggle both action sequences and political machinations, without either one disturbing the proper flow of the other, and leaving a tad bit of mystery here and there for readers to mentally poke at as they read along at the same time.

Most wonderful of all, however, is the world Jim Butcher has made, which works sensibly, feeling like a real world, with real concerns like food, crime, slavery and other such social ills. He shows us both the good sides and the bad sides of this society, and how each side deals with these issues.

All in all, I highly recommend this book series and would suggest you check out the first novel in the series, "The Furies of Calderon," the moment you get the chance.