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Contains Mild Peril
Thursday, 2 July 2009 02:52 pmI've discovered a minor problem with our Luvverly New Sofas, TM. They're insanely comfortable, but if I happen to realise that my 10 days of leave have switched my brain off as a gesture of sheer self-defense and recovery, and embrace this effect in order to spend three days in a row crashed out on the sofa reading Random Ginormous Epic Fantasy Serieseses, the cushion directly under my buttocks ends up compressed to about half the width of its neighbour. Note to self: plump cushions. Also, switch them around occasionally. Also, take leave more often.
All that being said, I am pleased to relate that I can say many mostly good things of the Random Ginormous Epic Fantasy Series Du Jour, which happens to be Jim Butcher's Codex Alera one. I hauled this off the Evil Landlord's incredibly disorganised bookshelf of recent acquisitions mostly because I expected it to be fairly mindless: I haven't been impressed with Butcher's Harry Dresden series, which I find is a bit flailing and unwieldy and doesn't quite either achieve freshness in the overcrowded paranormal category, or pull off its voice. I have, however, been thoroughly sucked in by the Codex Alera, to the point where I'm somewhat miffed to realise, after ripping through four books in short order, that there are actually five in the series and the EL doesn't own the last one. Pshaw.
The setting is relatively straightforward Ginormous Fantasy Epic, with a rather well-constructed and believable political landscape entailing city-states ruled by magic-wielding high lords who are more or less at each other's throats; the whole pot is stirred by the fact that the aging First Lord doesn't have an heir. There really aren't any serious surprises in the way the story unfolds, since Butcher tends to telegraph the twists books ahead, but I really enjoyed both his hero and his thoroughly beguiling magic system. Magic is permitted by controlling furies, which are more or less animist elemental spirits. Effects are elementally categorised and their associations are well-thought-out. I found it interesting that the assumption is that everyone in this society can manipulate furies to some extent or another, and with very widely varying degrees of ability which are built into agriculture, warfare, weather control, travel - you name it. The apex is in the High Lords' families, who are ridiculously powerful in a way that completely underpins and rationalises the political system. More importantly, the hero is the usual young man growing to maturity, but he's singular not in enormous magical power, but in a bizarre and absolute lack of it. He's also charismatic, stubborn, slightly naively idealistic, highly intelligent and efficient and thoroughly likeable.
Nutshell Assessment: Upsides. Intelligent magic, intelligent politics, occasional inverted clichés. Lots of detail in tactics, combat, martial arts (the author is a martial arts geek and it shows). Lovely non-human races (one doglike lot, one set of strange alien brain-suckers), NO ELVES! Or dwarves. Or anything remotely resembling a hobbit. Considerable narrative tension, humour, likeable protagonists.
Nutshell Assessment: Downsides. Only mild peril. The characters perpetually end up threatened by capture, torture, death, rape, mind-rape or worse, but always escape unscathed. After a bit you stop taking peril seriously. Lots of detail in tactics, combat, martial arts. Solidly unobtrusive writing rather than any striking linguistic skill. (But I have to say, way better than Harry Dresden). Have to either acquire the last one in hardback or bloody well wait for it. Phooey.
All that being said, I am pleased to relate that I can say many mostly good things of the Random Ginormous Epic Fantasy Series Du Jour, which happens to be Jim Butcher's Codex Alera one. I hauled this off the Evil Landlord's incredibly disorganised bookshelf of recent acquisitions mostly because I expected it to be fairly mindless: I haven't been impressed with Butcher's Harry Dresden series, which I find is a bit flailing and unwieldy and doesn't quite either achieve freshness in the overcrowded paranormal category, or pull off its voice. I have, however, been thoroughly sucked in by the Codex Alera, to the point where I'm somewhat miffed to realise, after ripping through four books in short order, that there are actually five in the series and the EL doesn't own the last one. Pshaw.The setting is relatively straightforward Ginormous Fantasy Epic, with a rather well-constructed and believable political landscape entailing city-states ruled by magic-wielding high lords who are more or less at each other's throats; the whole pot is stirred by the fact that the aging First Lord doesn't have an heir. There really aren't any serious surprises in the way the story unfolds, since Butcher tends to telegraph the twists books ahead, but I really enjoyed both his hero and his thoroughly beguiling magic system. Magic is permitted by controlling furies, which are more or less animist elemental spirits. Effects are elementally categorised and their associations are well-thought-out. I found it interesting that the assumption is that everyone in this society can manipulate furies to some extent or another, and with very widely varying degrees of ability which are built into agriculture, warfare, weather control, travel - you name it. The apex is in the High Lords' families, who are ridiculously powerful in a way that completely underpins and rationalises the political system. More importantly, the hero is the usual young man growing to maturity, but he's singular not in enormous magical power, but in a bizarre and absolute lack of it. He's also charismatic, stubborn, slightly naively idealistic, highly intelligent and efficient and thoroughly likeable.
Nutshell Assessment: Upsides. Intelligent magic, intelligent politics, occasional inverted clichés. Lots of detail in tactics, combat, martial arts (the author is a martial arts geek and it shows). Lovely non-human races (one doglike lot, one set of strange alien brain-suckers), NO ELVES! Or dwarves. Or anything remotely resembling a hobbit. Considerable narrative tension, humour, likeable protagonists.
Nutshell Assessment: Downsides. Only mild peril. The characters perpetually end up threatened by capture, torture, death, rape, mind-rape or worse, but always escape unscathed. After a bit you stop taking peril seriously. Lots of detail in tactics, combat, martial arts. Solidly unobtrusive writing rather than any striking linguistic skill. (But I have to say, way better than Harry Dresden). Have to either acquire the last one in hardback or bloody well wait for it. Phooey.
