Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

This is our discussion of the novel....

Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher

The second book in the Codex Alera series. See The Codex Alera discussion hub for more info on the series and pointers to discussion of its other novels.

We're up to 700 pages (from 500 for the first book.) Extrapolating, the 6th book will be 1500 pages.

I have to say this novel opened with a repetition of an annoying trope, the poor, young kid from the country goes to college, gets bullied by his wealthy, cosmopolitan "betters." rolls eyes The series keeps flying into bad YA territory.

As I couldn't help in the previous book, I ended up matching them up to characters in other books. Not sure why that happens so much in this book and not others that I read. But the school thing was totally Draco Malfoy, with Harry, Hermione, Neville/Ron (felt he was more Neville like than Ron)...and well, ok, there was no equivalent for a big physically strong protector friend for Harry :)

The Amara/Bernard romance is making my brain hurt.

Sometimes it seems Butcher loses track of his own descriptions. Chapter 4: Dorogo arrives at Fort with "a cut on his chest that had closed itself with thick clots of blood." Two paragraphs later he meets Bernard. "You're looking well," Bernard says.

Chapter 5-6: The assassin in the barn tags Isana. "A flash of steel, a hot sensation on one of her hips." Two paragraphs later, "There are no wounds on her," Bernard says.

Isana has blown my theory of Tavi's dual royal/Marat heritage, which I thought would explain his lack of Furies. The Royal part still holds, but unless Isana's sister was Marat.... Isana really hates Gaius, though she won't say why. Apparently Isana and Bernard are really his Aunt & Uncle by blood, not just a courtesy.

G33z3r wrote: "Isana really hates Gaius, though she won't say why"

I thought it was just because he ordered the legion out to the where they unfortunately met the Marat and her sister and brother in law died there. But that does seem to be extreme hate given that yeah, it was Gaius job to order legions around and legionnaires die. I can see hating him for it but its rather irrational. Now the fact she's kind of pissed at the fact he's using her and Tavi as pawns as well, that maybe makes more sense.

G33z3r wrote: "Chapter 5-6: The assassin in the barn tags Isana. "A flash of steel, a hot sensation on one of her hips." Two paragraphs later, "There are no wounds on her," Bernard says. "

I noticed that too. Maybe it was just a physical blow that hurt, but still, should have a nasty bruise. But looked like an authorial oversight/poor editing to me too.

G33z3r wrote: "The Amara/Bernard romance is making my brain hurt."

I thought when they called her Countess that they were married...but apparently not.

Andrea wrote: "G33z3r wrote: "Isana really hates Gaius, though she won't say why"
I thought it was just because he ordered the legion out to the where they unfortunately met the Marat and her sister and brother ..."

In her heart-to-heart with Amara, Issana....

“I know that,” Isana spat. More words struggled to flow from her mouth, but she shook her head and stopped them. It was a struggle, so intense was the tide of hatred in her heart. “That isn’t all that I blame him for.” She closed her eyes. “There are other reasons.”
“And they are?” Amara asked.
“My own.”

Since we are all pretty much assuming that her sisters husband was Gaius' son, she may also hate him for potentially finding out and taking Tavi away to become his replacement. I don't think she wants that job for Tavi, after all it's pretty stressful running the world and everyone wanting to kill you. I'm sure that will be part of the "my own", though maybe there are some exciting other things we don't even have an inkling of yet.

Andrea wrote: "I thought when they called her Countess that they were married...but apparently not. ..."

Depends on what chapter you've reached. O, should I have spoilered that? :)

Andrea wrote: "Since we are all pretty much assuming that her sisters husband was Gaius' son, she may also hate him for potentially finding out and taking Tavi away to become his replacement. I don't think she wa..."

Ch 16 confirmed what we were already pretty sure of, that Fade is Araris Valerian, swordsman extraordinaire and Capt Miles's brother. Presumably he was in Calderon to protect Gaius's son, failed, and now tries to protect Gaius's grandson.

I think Isana's hatred of Gaius has other reasons, e.g. perhaps the First Lord forbade is son to marry Isana's sister, a mere freewoman.

My favorite line so far goes to Kitai: "I wanted a horse." The Marat are my kind of romantics. :)

G33z3r wrote: "Isana has blown my theory of Tavi's dual royal/Marat heritage, which I thought would explain his lack of Furies. The Royal part still holds, but unless Isana's sister was Marat.... Isana really hat..."

Keep reading!

Kivrin wrote: "G33z3r wrote: "Isana has blown my theory of Tavi's dual royal/Marat heritage,...
Keep reading! "

Ah, so. (view spoiler)[So, Isana finally admits (to no one but the empty air) that Tavi is her son. Why the subterfuge? She doesn't say. (Did Bernard not notice her pregnancy?) She also has a legionare's ring on a chain around her neck, which, as Bernard explained to Amara a few chapters before, is a token of an officially forbidden marriage to a legionares. So, I'm still guessing Tavi's dad is Princeps Septimus; but as Isana is not a Marat, I still have no theory on why Tavi has no furies. Unless I'm wrong about Princeps Septimus, and dad was a Marat; no, a Marat wouldn't account for a legionare ring. Or, Isana is a Marat, used her watercrafting to disguise herself as Aleran, and the "Bernard is her brother" thing is a lie, too; ah, but Marat can't used furies, so no. Maybe in addition to Septimus, Isana has a Marat lover. But then Tavi's not an heir to the First Lord. So, Tavi is not Marat.

Therefore, Tavi will eventually be the best furycrafter ever. QED. :) (hide spoiler)]

This novel, unsurprisingly, continues the style of its predecessor: multiple storylines in parallel with constant crisis in all, tons of cliffhangers and desperate, last-second escapes from inevitable death from out of the blue. The action is so non-stop it's almost exhausting.

Agree that the Amara/Bernard romance was incredibly dull. I like them both, just could not care less about their romance.

I found the reveal about Fade/Araris kind of a let down. All the mystery is gone, and with it all my interest in the character, he's now your garden-variety powerful swordsman trope.

I noticed those disappearing wounds too. I've read a lot of Butcher (I do love his writing despite me dragging him through the mud here) and he's always this bad at continuity.

Elizabeth wrote: "I found the reveal about Fade/Araris kind of a let down. All the mystery is gone, and with it all my interest in the character, he's now your garden-variety powerful swordsman trope...."

I think an author aught to reveal a few mysteries from time to time, especially in a long series, while tossing in a few new ones, just to keep things honest. After the ending of Furies of Calderon it was pretty clear to the reader already that Fade was Araris, so I didn't see any harm in making it explicit. I think he still owes us a good "why" story.


Elizabeth wrote: "Agree that the Amara/Bernard romance was incredibly dull. I like them both, just could not care less about their romance...."

I was OK with the hot passion / cold logic part of Amara's conflict. (It's just another example of Butcher never allowing a straight line between any two plot points, no matter how insignificant.) The eye-rolling part for me was the "we're all gonna die as soon as the pod people attack, so let's get married and whip up a honeymoon suite among the troops" chapter 35.


Elizabeth wrote: "I do love his writing despite me dragging him through the mud here..."

Despite his cataloged flaws, Butcher pushes through with relentless action, perpetual peril, and unremitting cliffhangers.

G33z3r wrote: "The eye-rolling part for me was the "we're all gonna die as soon as the pod people attack, so let's get married and whip up a honeymoon suite among the troops" chapter 35. "

Yep, that's where I am right now so I know what Kivrin meant by "Keep reading!"

Must admit I did an eye roll of my own. "We're all going to die, we're all exhausted and wounded, an attack will come at any moment...oh look a curtained off niche, let's expend even more energy so we'll be even more tired". I always thought that to be a paranormal romance trope :) And I eye-roll paranormal romances a lot. I mean I get the idea that "we might not ever get another chance" part to it, but at the same time you're kind of guaranteeing you'll be too tired to fight the next day...plus you've got an entire legion on the other side of that curtain wishing they could be with their wives and not a cave full of other men...

Another inconsistency, they keep pointing out how the rural folk are tend to have more powerful furies...but there seem to be a lot of powerful city folk too. And not only that, up till now people seemed to have one or two furies, but Brencis can do earth, fire and wind. I mean this is different from a world where you can learn to do magic yourself, but you need to bond with an actual fury use your powers...or can people just grab whatever fury happens to be handy in the area? Hmm...maybe yes, what with those furylamps.

Also, perhaps not an inconsistency, but still...we know for example that Isana's Rill is the spirit of the river Rill. So one would assume it resides there and yet she seems to be able to travel around with him. So does that mean once you acquire a fury it kind of glues itself to you and presumably returns to its home when you die? Or does distance not matter when you summon them?

I caught that little tidbit during Tavi's history exam about the "Romantic" period, where you can see Butcher tying this world to one of the challenge he got to use the lost Roman Legion as part of the basis of his story. So we as readers know (or at least those who know how this series came about) that the Roman Legion came to this world, apparently still busy building roads and aqueducts, but likely hadn't yet figured out how to use furies. And that this must have happened long enough ago that people have forgotten their origins. Presumably the Marat and the Canim were already here. Maybe the legions even brought horses to a world populated with non-earth beasts like gargants.

Andrea wrote: "Another inconsistency, they keep pointing out how the rural folk are tend to have more powerful furies...but there seem to be a lot of powerful city folk too. ..."

I noticed that, too. I think it was Tavi quoting some study material on the subject that said the rurals were more powerful. Yet Lady Acquitaine, Lady Placida, Brencis, the First Lord, Killian are all more powerful than any Furycrafter we met in Calderon.


Andrea wrote: "Brencis can do earth, fire and wind...."

Almost like he's a rock group :)

Ahahahaha.

Ok, so in the buddy read of The Stone Sky we had a discussion of using words that were clearly out of place in a fantasy world like Plutonic. A second example of such a word was Spartan...which shows up on page 663 of Academ's Fury (Gauis apparently has a spartan study)

Although, in this case it can be excused, if this world really was settled by the lost Roman Legion, then they could have been aware of the story of Sparta and brought it with them, especially as the Romans had a interest in Greek history. It doesn't even mess with timelines since the battle of Thermopylae predates the lost legion by about 500 years

OK, so Isana has a ring on a chain, same as Amara got from Bernard...so, what legionnaire did she marry? Does she really have a sister? Could she be Tavi's mother? Or is she married to someone else important like Araris? Could that be the personal reason she hates Gaius, because Araris was branded a coward, had to pretend to be a slave, and they couldn't really be together so they could protect Tavi?

Andrea wrote: "Could she be Tavi's mother? ..."

She pretty much says that in the last chapter, doesn't she? Next interesting question is why the secret (and how did she hide the pregnancy?) I assume the legionares she married was Septimus.

G33z3r wrote: "Andrea wrote: "Could she be Tavi's mother? ..."

She pretty much says that in the last chapter, doesn't she? Next interesting question is why the secret (and how did she hide the pregnancy?) I assu..."

Now that I finished the book, that mystery is solved, though I feel like in the previous book, in an Isana POC chapter, she thought of him as her nephew, which is a weird thing to do in your own head if you know he is your son. But I could be wrong and it was only ever what Isana told other characters.

Sounded like "the sister" was supposedly with the legion when everyone was killed otherwise she wouldn't have died there...so if she was pregnant there away from the steadholt I guess that could be kept secret, with only Araris in the know.

Though to keep it secret from Bernard, she would have also have to have had a sister, who was known to be pregnant by some other legionnaire, who did die in the field (along with her husband), and Isana could then pretend her son actually belonged to her sister when she returned carrying the baby and with the newly acquired slave. Not sure this is making sense yet, hopefully Butcher will explain it later.

We don't know yet what got Araris branded as a coward...though he did seem rather cowardly when asked to defend his brother (probably defending Tavi by running off with him and Isana)...I mean was it worth his brother's death to stop him from being recognized?? In fact everyone's potential death, including Tavi's? He was clearly willing to let Tavi fight and die before interfering which makes him a less than dependable secret bodyguard. It was like a PTSD moment really, but we know he's not afraid of fighting per-se due to the previous book. But in that moment I had to wonder if he had actually earned the coward brand!

Andrea wrote: "Presumably the Marat and the Canim were already here. Maybe the legions even brought horses to a world populated with non-earth beasts like gargants."

Now I feel silly for spending ages wondering why Aleran fauna was a weird mixture of Earth and fantasy beasts, despite knowing the "Lost Roman Legion" inspiration.
I guess I thought Butcher strayed further from that than he actually did.

Elizabeth wrote: "Andrea wrote: "Presumably the Marat and the Canim were already here. Maybe the legions even brought horses to a world populated with non-earth beasts like gargants."

Now I feel silly for spending ..."

I find most fantasies do that, how many fantasy worlds have the knights riding into battle with dragons on a Earth horse? Rarely does someone go out of their way to invent all the fauna and flora. But at least in this series there is an excuse, they could have been imported from our world.

My first comment: that was long! Frankly I think it would have been better at 100 pages less.

Second thought is that this was the book equivalent of a summer blockbuster. I actually enjoyed this one more than the first but boy, were there a LOT of the standard tropes in there (starting with the opening scene of Tavi with his nerdy friend being beat up by rich, powerful bullies).

Still, I quite like Tavi, as well as his family. Amara though has yet to grow on me and I could happily do with less of her.

I'm in for the rest of the series but I really hope that the books don't get longer!

Karen wrote: "I'm in for the rest of the series but I really hope that the books don't get longer! ..."

The next 3 look about the same length as Academ's Fury; the final book looks bit longer.