Background
Academ’s Fury is the second book in the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. It takes place two years after the events of the first book, Furies of Calderon. The story follows Tavi, a young man who has no furycrafting abilities, but is still determined to protect his people from the dangers they face. In this book, Tavi is a student at the Alera Imperial Academy, where he is training to become a Cursor, one of the First Lord’s elite spies. He also serves as the First Lord’s page, and is privy to many of the secrets of the realm. As the book progresses, Tavi must use all of his courage and resourcefulness to save his people from a new threat that is even more dangerous than the ones they faced before.
My Thoughts
Much like the first book, it took a minute to get this one going but it did hook me after a bit.
It finally dawned on me that this series features the main character who has no magic in a world of people who do, which is in nice juxtaposition to the Dresden Files where the protagonist is the only person with magic in a world without. Sorry Mr. Butcher, I’m a little slow sometimes.
The evil in this book amounts to the same as zombies though of a decidedly different flavor. I’ve always thought the zombie to be the least frightening of the monsters. However, the whole concept of something that is already dead, that you can’t kill, that you can’t reason with, that wants to take the “you” from you does make a good monster.
Recommendation
As the 2nd book, I feel like the series is just getting going.