Furies of Calderon

Writing update: I finished reviewing Chapter 30 in my draft, which puts me on page 157 of 208 in the revision process; 51 pages to go. My last updated said I had a total of 207 pages, but using the review feature of MS Word makes it longer when I put in comments until I delete them, so the total page count might go up one or two while I do this. When I'm done I hope to have fewer than 200 pages. Of course, this is MS Word format. Actual book format makes the book quite a bit longer. And now the review:

Furies of Calderon is Jim Butcher's first book of pure fantasy. His Dresden Files books fit more into an urban fantasy category: people using magic in a modern city setting. Furies is definitely in the tradition of Tolkien, but it in no way is a rip-off. The system of magic is similar to Dresden, the power of magic comes from you, though you can borrow from the forces of nature. If you use your magic too much, you're going to get worn out.

In Furies, though, magic is more restricted with each person. When a child gets old enough, they inherit one or more furies. A fury is a sort of magical spirit that bonds with you and will obey your commands. They're divided by elements, mostly, such as water, wind, earth, fire, and a few others. A fury allows a person to be skilled in one of these elements, depending on the strength of the fury. Most people have one fury, some have two. Our main character, Tavi, has none. This is where ingenuity and hard work have to override the ability of a fury.

The story starts out with Amara, however, who is a Cursor. A Cursor works for the king and does anything from delivering messages to spying. Basically a kind of information gatherer (think Tolkien's ranger, except there's a lot of them). Amara is a student performing her graduation exercise with her mentor when she stumbles on a plot to dethrone the king. She runs for her life (or flies, her fury is a wind fury) and learns that the plot will come at a head in the Calderon valley. This valley is comprised mostly of farmsteads and not much military support. The traitors have enlisted the aid of the Marat, a human-like race, without the aid of furies, but with the ability to bond with animals (the four animals they bond with are a sort of giant buffalo, a powerful and aggressive bird creature, wolves, and horses).

Tavi comes into the story as a young kid who neglected his duties and lost his sheep. Trying to regain his uncle's trust he goes to rescue them on his own and ends up lost in a storm. Storms in this world involve not just wind and rain but a sort of storm creature that can kill a person in a matter of seconds. Without a fury to protect him, he runs for his life, running into Amara. They are able to evade the storm and start to work together to save the valley.

Tavi's side of things is to perform tasks and gain loyalties with only his wits. In his home he is seen by a freak by most because of his lack of fury. The nicest people see him as one with a disability, not able to take care of himself. He proves them wrong by accomplishing great feats to save the lives of those he loves.

Furies of Calderon doesn't have a lot of the humor that appealed to me in the Dresden Files, and Butcher annoys me a little when we go into big scenes and he says something like "Tavi would remember this time later...." It kills a little suspense knowing that someone's going to be all right. Sure, I don't really think he's going to kill his main character, but don't tell me you're not.

But over all, this is a good high fantasy book. It's not my favorite book of all time, but it's a good start to a series and I like the magic system Butcher has worked out.