FURIES OF CALDERONName: Nathaniel GreenshieldsDate: March 31-April 1, 2015Page 260: QuoteBook Title: Furies of Calderon (Book one of the Codex Alera series)Author: Jim ButcherNumber of Pages: 502 (504 if you include the preview for the next book)Genre: Fiction / Fantasy

Point of View: The book's perspective is 3rd person limited, but also it constantly switches between the different characters, and not just protagonists but also some of the antagonists. Occasionally you get to see the feelings of other characters not in that chapter, as one of the main characters (Isana) can sense them.

Setting: The story takes place in the land of Carna, situated in an alternate dimension. The majority of the story takes place in Calderon Valley, a large land bridge between two continents. One of the continents belongs to a bestial race known as the Marat, who are half-human and half-beast. While the other belongs to the Aleran Empire, the people of Alera are descended from the Legio IX Hispana (aka the Lost Roman Legion) and make up the majority of the cast. The Aleran culture is very Romanesque including a multitude of Latin terms, a First Lord who is basically an emperor, and a feudal system. The both continents are inhabited by creatures called furies, which posses different elemental powers including Fire, Water, Earth, Metal, Air, and Wood. Crafting is the ability to control furies, it is used by Alerans in everyday tasks such boiling water, starting fires, blacksmithing.

Main Character (There are multiple main characters, so I have chosen to do Bernard primarily.):Bernard is one of the book's protagonists. He is the owner of a large envelope of land called Bernardholt, which is the largest of the holts in Calderon Valley. He is a retired soldier and as such heis well disciplined, he is also very good at hiding his emotions, making it hard for everyone but his sister Isana to read his emotions. He also is quite compassionate, providing moral and emotional support to others.

Physically he is described as being extremely muscular and tall, his exact age is not mentioned but the book seems to infer he is in his mid-late 30's, his hair is described as being short with a beard ofsimilar length. Around the middle of the story he meets Amara and soon after makes a romantic connection with her, something that hasn't happened since his wife and children were killed. He is a woodcrafter and earthcrafter allowing him to manipulate those elements and grant him abilities such as enhanced archery, and earth-ferried travel.

The rest of the characters are as follows: Tavi is a farm boy with no furycrafting he lives with his aunt and uncle. Isana is Tavi's aunt and Bernard's sister, she is a masterful watercrafter, which grantsher the ability to read emotions. Amara is a cursor, which means she serves the First Lord as a Praetorian of sorts, she is a windcrafter which allows her to fly. Fidelias is Amara's former teacher and betrays her at the beginning of the book, he is a skilled earthcrafter and woodcrafter. Fade is a skilled metalcrafter and blacksmith who has speech problems, most assume he is mentally challanged, but he is actually the greatest swordsman to ever live Araris Valerian in disguise.

Main Conflict or Problem: There are many conflicts faced by Bernard throughout the novel, but thereis the one persistent issue of the Marat invading. Bernardholt is described as being near the cusp between the Aleran Empire and the Marat Horde Lands, which hasn't been a problem in at least 16 years, until Fidelias (one of the main antagonists) made a deal with them. His main conflict is that he wants to find out why the Marat are invading the Aleran land all of a sudden, he dedicates the majority of his time trying to solve this mystery as well as inform the nearby fort Garrison of the Marat presence.

Solution: After about half of the novel Bernard arrives at Garrison, shortly before the Marat hordes arrive. He helps man and Amara help man a defense against the preliminary Marat warriors, and for thenext quarter of the novel they defend Garrison, the battles that ensues is described in glorious, grandiose detail. Near the end of the book the Marat Herdbane Hordemaster Atsurak, who is leading the Marat forces, comes directly to the front of the biggest wave of Marat to claim Garrison as a prize. When he arrives all hope seems lost, until Marat Gargant Hordemaster Doroga arrives in what can onlybe described as a Deus ex Machina and challenges Atsurak to a dual, which he wins and orders the Marat forces to pull back.

Motivation: The motivation of the various main characters are varying, but connect together well. Bernard's motivation is to protect his family and friends, as well as his Holt. Isana's motivations are similar to Bernard's except she is more focused on their nephew Tavi. Tavi's motivation is to earn enough money to attend The Academy in the capital, he also Fidelias's motivation is to take down the First Lord, and establish a new government since he felt that the First Lord betrayed him. Amara's motivation is to follow the First Lord's orders and take down Fidelias, as he betrayed her.

Summary: The story takes place in 3 acts, the first are each about a quarter of the book while the third is about one third of the book. The first act mainly consists of setting and main character introduction. The second act is where the real action begins, as Tavi and his uncle discover a Marat scout while searching for lost sheep. The Marat attacks and gravely injures Bernard, while Tavi gets separated from his uncle while escaping the Marat. He then meets Amara and soon after reunites with his aunt and uncle. They form a plan to go to the local outpost, Garrison to get help against the Marat. While travelling they encounter Fidelias and the rouge holt-owner Kord, and engage them in an intensebattle which ends up with Tavi and Fade getting kidnapped by Marat, Amara and Bernard getting separated from everyone else, and Isana kidnapped for slavery by Kord. Amara and Bernard travelled to garrison to warn them of the coming Marat invasion. The third and final act consists majorly of the battle to defend Garrison, while this is happening Isana escapes Kord and travels to Garrison to aid in the defense. Meanwhile Tavi is sent into a trial to prove his people have no quarrel with the Marat, as two of the Marat clans want to fight and two don't want to. During the trial he encounters the keepers, a race of giant swarm insects, which he inadvertently awakens by wandering into their hive. When he suceeds in the trial he gets the help of Marat Gargant Hordemaster Doroga, and Horse Hordemaster Hashat to stop the other clans. Tavi and the hordemasters arrive with timing that can only be described as a Deus ex Machina, and end up saving Bernard, Isana, and Amara. The book ends with Tavi getting a scholarship to The Academy from the First Lord himself for helping defend Garrison, while Isana is promoted to holt-owner and Bernard being promoted to count of Garrison.

Quote: Page 260: To Tavi's astonishment, the women wore nothing more than the men, and lean, muscular legs, strong shoulders and arms, and other things a proper Aleran boy was not supposed to see(but wanted to anyway) abounded. Tavi felt his face flush, and he shielded his eyes furiously, trying to pretend it was still the sun in them. I think this quote is great because it shows a bit of true teenaged boy nature. It helps make Tavi seem more like a real person you would meet, which helps Tavi be a

more appealing character to me.

Figurative Language: Here is one example on page 87 of a metaphor: Aquatine watched the exchange, his eyes sparkling with mirth.I hate to interrupt your fencing, gentlemen, but I have other interests this evening, and we have issues to discuss. Aquatine means that he hates to interrupt the others' debate, not that he is literally interrupting a fencing match. Another example of a metaphor is onpage 265: The words rang among the stones and fell on an odd and puzzled silence. As silence is not actually a person it cannot be puzzled and odd, it means that the silence was caused by the listeners taking a moment to contemplate something they didn't understand fully.

Theme: The theme of the story seems to caution us about who we trust. In this novel many characters were betrayed and driven to vengeance. Amara grew gradually more and more hateful toward Fidelias because he betrayed her by lying to her about his allegiance with High Lord Aquatine. Fidelias betrayed her because he felt that the First Lord had betrayed him, even though this wasn't the case.

Recommendation: I would most assuredly recommend this book to others (in fact I already have). It isabsolutely phantasmagorical, excellent, and a worth while read! I would recommend it to anyone over 13 as there is a fair bit of swearing, violence, gore, and sexual themes.