I really think you’re over thinking things here.
Codex is Latin for book, most commonly used to describe hand written manuscripts from the time of the Romans to the Middle Ages
So it’s simply put Book of Alera being the history of the land rather than anything to do with specifically with the Great fury. That was the impression I got since I first read the book especially with the added musings of previous first lords that usually appear in the prologue. Also adds up when you look at the Dresden files which are described as Harry's case files this could quite possibly be Tavi writing his own story as we know he loved history to add to the Codex Alera

 

Spoiler

I was personally thinking that Alera might be Sextus' furies. The physical manifestation of generations of Gaius furies. It would be a damn powerful fury if it has been passed down the first lords line for generations perhaps since Primus, which would be one explaination of why Attis or Kalarus simply didnt challenge Sextus in the first place.

 

Spoiler

Several points coming up

• Not sure who said it.. but I agree with them on Alera being the manifestation of the land itself. Sure there was massive furies in Volcanoes etc, but Alera being .. the spirit of the land or something sounds right to me.
  That being said, I'm pretty sure thats how Gauis was able to pull off the long range fury crafting. Calling up winds, communicating long distance etc.
  -
• Which makes me wonder how effective a leader Aquitaine will be. Sure he's got political power coming out his ass, and he's a Natural leader, but he won't be able to pull off all those hardcore fury crafting that someone in his position should be able to do.
  Which I admit at this point in the story, probably isn't so important as rallying and organizing the people and a defense I suppose..
  -
• On Tavi.. anyone foresee him never being able to externalize his fury crafting? And instead being able to just do internal crafting + Large scale crafting, indirectly through communication with Alera?
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• As for Isana being Mary-sue, I didn't really see that at all. Her fury crafting ability has been increasing since book one, so her being able to manipulate snow doesn't seem like such a huge leap. In book one people were already like "omg you moved a river impossible!" then when she healed.. the sword guy on the boat "omg you healed without water.. impossible!".
  
  Also the only reason she lasted as long as she did against what's his name is because:
  (a) he didn't want to kill her, and wasn't even taking her seriously (he didnt even bother using his normal gear)
  (b) he wanted to know if she was involved in the plot against Septimus, and so allowed her to draw him into conversation.
  -
• Lastly .. Maximus. Was it just me or was he reduced to comic relief in this entry? Like not only that but he's become stupider, but more powerful..

But yes. sexcellent book. Probably one of my favourites in the series along with Captain's fury.
The wait till the last book is going to be brutal...but at least i'll have the next Dresden book out half way through the year to console me

 

By the way, did anyone else catch the mention of the "first Primus"? I'm not sure if that was what was said or anything, but I'm fairly sure, but I can't for the life of me force myself to go back and find it.

Does that mean that there has been more than one Primus? Secondus? It would make since, as it seems apparent that Alera has been there for a long while now, but.. yeah.

 

Alera is said to be thousands of years old (mention of the legions having served as the backbone of Alera for thousands of years) but the house of Gaius has only been in charge for 600. So there must have been other people in charge before the house of Gaius.

 

Rocked my socks.

Spoiler

Kitai and Doroga are my favorite characters. "I thought I had heard someone mention something about a rockslide earlier..." <-- Fucking awesome, along with the line JohnthePyro quoted.

Some pretty awesome development behind Antillus, Aquitaine, Ehren, the Vord and the Canim, not to mention the little sneak-peek we got into the Icemen society. I hope that we get some more of them, they seemed pretty interesting.

For the epic final battle, I'm predicting some Night of the Red Stars on the part of the Alera/Canim side with Knights Aeris having Bloodstones and just raining on the Vord from above. Beyond that, I have no clue. I'm pretty excited.

 

I think we'll probably return to Calderon for the ending of number 6. Something like having to go to where the Vord started from to get rid of them.

 

You arent the only one thinking that.

 

I'm confused about the Vord.

If the croach is so flammable, why don't the Alerans just burn it all? That'd deprive the Vord of their food supply, wouldn't it?

Or has the croach evolved since the first book?

 

Because they'd have to burn all their land. Farmland, forests, everything. The croach spreads everywhere.

 

Spoiler

In point of fact, Isana and the new First Lord discuss that very thing at the end of the book - however, the roads are destroyed, so there's no easy way to quickly get there and back; I think that was the major hang-up.

Just finished the book myself after picking it up today, and I thought it was pretty great. Lots of developments, and I think it warrants a re-readthrough of the whole series to catch a lot of the intricacies I might have missed on the first frantic rush to the end.

I'm somewhat glad that the whole Canim-land excursion is done, actually - as well-done as it was, I'm excited for Tavi to get back to his homeland. Especially with the mysterious new "Alera"...

 

Spoiler

Whoever leads Attis or Octavian will have a much more capable army if they join forces which in all probability they will. They will have the northern legions which it says in Princep's Fury that the northern Legions are the closest thing to the true legions since they have been fighting the Icemen for centuries. Then Tavi has the First Aleran and Free Aleran Legions. The first Aleran is likely on par with Antillus' legions after having fought the canim for 2+ years and then fighting the vord. The Free Aleran is a question mark however.

But the biggest plus is without Nasaug and the Canim warriors. They are easily worth more than any group of Alerans the same size. Especially in the capable hands of Varg. Isnt Varg several centuries old? So he has tons of experience at leading. Seems to me the best course of action would be to combine the forces in Alera presently and those Octavian is bringing back and putting Varg in charge of the legions with Attis and Racous supporting him.

Also Octavian is bringing back to of the more powerful fury crafters of his generation in Maximus and Crassus. Maximus and Crassus are the sons of the man who is said to be perhaps the best battle crafter in Alera, Antillus Racous. He taught Max so I feel sure he taught his heir.

Another idea I had is the steadholders, Octavian has used local Alerans to help like in Cursor's Fury. A perfect example is Bernard, a powerful fury crafter that wasnt trained as a knight. Surely there are more like him in Alera. Even Sextus' was impressed by Bernard's abilities with furies.


When it comes down to it, I see Octavian, Maximus, Araris, the Canim hunters, and perhaps Crassus, Bernard and Amara hunting down the main queen. Octavian kills Invida and the queen.


One question burning its way through my mind though is where is Aldrick?

 

I lost any desire to see Tavi/Vord Queen when she regurgitated the insectoid creature.

Seriously, this is like Alien in a fantasy setting.

 

I read this last week, and thought it was pretty good. Definitly not the best one (that's Cursors Fury) and not the last (that's Furies of Calderon). I'd put it around third best.

And the only other thought I had was that Doroga is made of awesome.

Spoiler

"As the challenger, Isana has chosen the place and time. She has selected here and now, obviously. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here."

 

Finished it. A worthwhile read, in which Bernard and Amarra once again get sent on yet another improbably difficult mission that they, unfortunately, survive.

It was blatantly obvious from the Amazon summary, but the apocalyptic aspect still got gloomy. Butcher went very festive in enumerating the massacres of Legions, how refugees get shredded up, the near total extinction of the Canim.

I was surprised to see little development of the Vord in terms of motivation. We are at the last book before the end of the series, and they have not progressed beyond the faceless evil typecast.

As I said earlier, Tavi/Vord Queen squicks me out. But Tavi/Alera doesn't.

 

Well, so much for my theory that Nasaug would turn out to be female just like Kitai did... so long, OT3.

 

No, definitely the best Doroga line was

Spoiler

"I thought I heard somebody say something about a rockslide a moment ago...

That had me giggling for hours.

 

Spoiler

Wonder if the crown legion and the grey guard were sent out of the city? I dont know if the Crown Legion would have been but if the Grey Guard is so powerful why would Sextus let them be destroyed for no reason

 

I agree. The "Bernard and Amara going on a quest and survive despite all odds" is starting to get repetitive.

I'm starting to seriously dislike both of them.

Regarding the Vord, there is no development to them because Butcher never intended for it. Right from when he first started to write about them, it was already stated that unlike other enemies of Alera, the Vord exists with the sole purpose to destroy, and nothing else.

I found the book a tad disappointing too, definitely not as good as the previous two. I still feel that while buffed up massively, the Vord still don't make interesting enough an enemy, primarily for what was mentioned above.

Instead of a traditional fantasy with conflicts among various races, this has turned into a various races against an alien invasion scenario.

I also practically had to skim through the Bernard/Amara scenes.

While there are some impressive moments, all in all, the last book better be awesomely good to make up for this.

Does my post warrant a spoiler tag? I don't think there are any in here.

Edit: Does anyone else get the impression that Princep's Fury would make for a really awesome movie, what with the amount of action scenes, both raw brutal fighting and sheer furycrafting.

 

Spoiler

Finally finished it and I'm fairly impressed by it. I thought that there was a lot of good detail added in and it sets up an awesome last book. There were a few things that bugged me but I think they've all been mentioned, namely Max being turned into an idiot and the lack of defenses being used at the capital. I really kind of hope that Tavi never manifests a fury and instead relies on his wits as well as the power he has without manifesting. Oh, and thank god that an alliance wasn't made with the Vord, I'm getting tired of the repetitiveness of Tavi making alliances and Amara and Bernard going on impossible missions and living.