Just Finished Reading First Lord's Fury by Jim Butcher

First Lord's Fury, from 2009, is the final volume in Jim Butcher's six-part fantasy series titled Codex Alera.  On this fantasy world the continual war going on there is boiling down to the final confrontation between the Vord...which I maintain is a ripoff from the Borg in Star Trek: the Next Generation...and the alliance of humans, Marat, Canim and Icemen on this conflict-ravaged planet.  The central figures in this saga are Tavi, by now known as Gaius Octavian, his mother Isana and Countess Amara as they struggle to kill the Vord Queen, who controls all of the entities amassed against them.  A subplot is the developing relationship between Tavi and Kitai, a young Marat woman he has been involved with for years, as they plan their future together in the midst of the surrounding uncertainty and carnage.  Humans on this world possess the ability, called furycrafting, to bond with elements from nature like wind, fire and air to give themselves superhuman powers.  No way am I going to tell how it all ends...but here again we have a series where the protagonist, a generally honest, brave and unassuming soul, finds himself not only in the center of everything going on around him, but turns out to be "the one" upon whom the world's fate hinges...yawn, another one of those stories.  I'm glad I finished the series, which seemed to leave an opening for a follow-up in case the author decides to resume it...but it wasn't one of my favorite fantasy series by a long shot.  Still, if you're into near-constant fighting and warfare you'll probably like it...