Just Finished Reading Princep's Fury by Jim Butcher

I just finished reading Jim Butcher’s 2008 novel Princep’s Fury, the fifth and next-to-last volume in his Codex Alera fantasy series.  Since a lot has happened over the course of this series, just about anything I have to discuss here in specifics is doomed to spoil the plot in some way, so if you’re planning on reading this series you might want to pass on this article.  On the other hand, if we’re talking about perpetual war with humanity’s existence at stake, not a whole lot has changed since the first volume.  The enemies from one book sometimes become allies in the next, usually due to the wisdom, courage, and perseverance of the main protagonist, a young man name Tavi who by the time of Princep’s Fury has discovered (along with everybody else), that he is really Octavian Gaius, the heir to the throne of First Ruler of Alera now occupied by his grandfather Gaius Sextus.  People on this fantasy planet of Carna are imbued with special supernatural skills called furycrafting in which they can “craft” natural elements such as wind, water, air and fire to serve as extensions to themselves…a planet full of folks with superhero abilities but who still can’t figure out how to get along with each other.  There are nonhumans here as well, usually in a state of war against the humans, most notably the giant wolf-like Canim, the Marat and the Icemen. But they are uniting with the people of Alera against the ultimate foe: the Borg-like Vord who are intent on replacing all other life on this God-forsaken world that no one in his or her right mind would ever want to live on, superhuman abilities or not.  The narrative usually hops back and forth among the three main characters of Tavi, Isana (his mother), and Amara, a young woman serving Gaius Sextus as one of his courier-spies as they struggle to gain alliances and combat the Vord...

These epic fantasy series dominated by war with characters built up by their fighting abilities and courage may appeal to many, but to me they've become one-dimensional and stale.  I much prefer those fantasy stories and series that impart a sense of a special world within this one of ours such as J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, Lev Grossman’s The Magicians (but not the TV adaptation) and Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere.  Still, I’ve stuck with Butcher’s series and only have one more book left: sometimes a tedious series can be redeemed by a novel ending, which I’m hoping awaits me in the final volume, titled First Lord’s Fury…