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You just said you want Tavi to rely on his wits and yet your tired of his making alliances? That is one example of him using his wits. He uses his brain to find solutions that others would never have because they have always used furies to find a solution.

Also the lack of defenses at Alera Imperia. Im going to go on the idea that Alera Imperia was a trap the whole time. Sextus' might have been the only one who knew but I say he knew exactly what was going to happen.

 

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Sorry I should clarify, what I meant was that I was tired of all of Tavi's alliances working out perfectly, or at least really well the way that the Canim and Marat had.

 

Dont forget the one with the canim last only so long as Varg and Tavi have a common enemy. They are not allies. They are respected enemies who are equals.

 

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I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the "alliance" with the Canim is superficial at best. It was born out of desperation. Seems to me that Tavi is basically bringing in a incredibly large armed force that can most likely outfight the whole of Alera at the best of times. Not even counting it's condition now.

Let's say they defeat the vord in Alera, what then? Then Tavi has several HUNDRED THOUSAND armed enemies in the middle of his empire. It's been made clear that the Canim are just as animalistic as their apperance in their instincts. They will want to follow their insticts to attack the wounded people so to speak.

Quite frankly I want to see how Butcher ends the series just so I can see how the canim are dealt with.

 

John, I dont think they will turn that fast. As long as Varg, Nasuag and Tavi get along there wont be a full out war.

 

Yeah, I'm expecting the Canim and Alerans to become semi-allies or at least not to go back to war with each other. I do really look forward to seeing how it is dealt with though.

 

elvin, I think Jim Butcher has spent long enough emphasizing how furycrafting (at least external furycrafting), is no substitute for wit.

I want to see Tavi manifest a fury, or better yet, a Great fury, in the last book.

While furies ain't a substitute for wit, they would certainly make a good companion. Nothing is going to change this fact. Nor the one that Tavi will never be able to destroy his enemies, especially one as vast as the Vord, as efficiently and quickly as having powerful furies of his own, in addition to his brains and his allies/subordinates.

 

Great Fury my arse. If he does get furies, I want them to be his own, not the manifestations of volcanoes or oceans or ridiculous shit like that.

Judging by how his furies have worked so far, he's been wielding his like a city-dweller - that is, bringing together fragments of elements in order to use them, instead of depending on one anthropomorphised chunk of them like Bernard, Amara and Isana do.

 

The way he's been wielding his furies right now is effective because it does not involve destroying a large number of foes.

The fight against Navaris, the one against the Vord queen, the Grey Tower battle- they all do not require "anthromorphised" shit to deal with.

But they will help against the Vord. The heaviest damage inflicted to the Vord involves the throwing around of massive furycrafting- Aquitaine's Knights Aeris throwing lightning down over at Calderon, the combined High Lord's attack at Ceres, and of course, Gaius' last stand at Alera Imperia.

I haven't forgotten about Tavi's successes against the Canim, but those were less to do with his furies, but more to do with his strategies and the furies of his men. Moreover, the Canes can be bargained with and stuff like morale affects them, neither of much applies to the Vord.

Powerful furies may not be that important when Tavi has to deal with the senior Vord Queen, but eliminating her endless legions of minions will require more than his subtle internal furycrafting.

I'd agree with you anyday if his enemies were anything but the Vord, like the Canes or the other Aleran High Lords.

 

All of which were pretty much ineffective. The threat of the Vord is at the point where no amount of Furycrafting can create a win against them. Victory through military might is not how this story is going to end. The key to defeating the Vord will not be "more power", but rather some deus ex machina. It's a fantasy staple. My money is on something to do with the Wax Forest.

 

Or more behind-enemy-lines stuff, assassinating the Queens, since for whatever reason they've stopped multiplying. Bernard and Amara will probably be involved in some way.

The assorted High Lords plus the First Lord, for all their power, got utterly spanked by the Vord. If any amount of raw power was going to do the trick, they would have been able to do it. The only way for pure firepower to win the day is if Tavi takes a page out of crappy independent!Harry fics and clocks in at around five hundred times the power of the First Lord - possibly by collecting Great Furies like poke'mon.

I'd rather leave that to the inevitable super!Tavi fanfics, instead of seeing it as canon.

 

I say Sextus' last stand did a number on them. Theres just so many of the damned things its not easy to tell. Im saying that it comes down to the canim and the legions holding them off while Tavi leads a small team after Invida and the Queen. Tavi, Isana, Racous, or Attis beats the shit out of Invida(all 4 want revenge for Septimus) and Tavi ends up killing the queen.

Either of the high lords against the high lady would be one hell of a fury crafting battle. Invida would wipe the floor with Isana and unless Tavi starts to manifest some major furies and learns to use them in battle at an insane pace she wipes the floor with Tavi too.

 

Yeah, Sextus probably knocked a fairly large chunk out of their numbers. The problem is that they can grow them back. I have no idea how quickly they can replace their numbers, don't know for sure if it's ever mentioned, but I'm betting it's pretty quick. My guess is that by the time Tavi gets back to Alera, the numbers of the Vord will be about back to normal. Don't forget, I'm pretty sure it mentioned the trip's going to take longer since they're on large, slow ice ships instead of regular ones.

 

At the end when the legions are retreating one of the scouts tells Ehren that there is only "half a tithe of there original numbers left" after Sextus does his thing.

 

Which A) cost Sextus his life and thus is not a piece of Furycrafting that can be regularly performed and B) half the numbers is still far too many for a military victory, especially given their growth rate.

 

Well, technically a tithe is a tenth of the original. So half a tithe would mean half of a tenth. One twentieth of the Vord was left. Around five percent. Which, granted, is still large--but no longer impossible for military action.

 

That was what I'm afraid of. I'll take Tavi throwing around the power of a Great Fury anyday over reading about yet another "Bernard and Amara going on a lame quest and surviving through absurd odds" subplot.

I honestly think the scenes with Bernard and Amara are the worst in books 3, 4, and 5. Maybe not so much in Book 4, as Gaius and his kickass-ery was with them. Plus it had Amara getting manipulated the hell out of by Gaius.

 

Just finished it and... damn.

While everyone here is arguing a bow wrapped ending I don't see it happening. Notice the arguments constantly placed throughout the books concerning the legions. They went soft because they didn't have a constant enemy. I foresee the last book being a struggle between the main queen, the Canim, and the power struggle between Aquitane and Tavi. But remember there is still one more queen in Canim, who fortunately cannot make other queens. This will most likely be the new constant threat Alera will face, and it will require the combined strength of the Marat, the Canim, the Ice People, and Alerans to defeat. I mean consider the fact that there are enough Vord there to fill the country.

Overall I found the book enjoyable with the sections of Amara and Bernard. Bernard to a backseat to Amara, and overall I found her storyline crappy. Max got gimped in this book to the overall comic relief, while Crassus got upgraded to all around do-gooder.

Edit:
Have some more to add after thinking about it.

I agree with what has been said concerning the writing in this book not being up to par. I think the problem was you have half the book devoted to Tavi and this new Canim land, yet we never really see the Canim land. I was hoping for some political intrigue between the Canim lands, some in fighting, some cooler scenes between Canim. But instead all we see is a tiny port and one city, because everything else is destroyed. It could have gone a lot better. The Vord could of still destroyed everything but he could have taken his time in doing so. Make one more book, or if not have more time pass. The book was too fast paced. We learned nothing of the Ice Men, and a resolution was achieved pretty quickly (even though it's only a light one). After one rousing speech and one battle, all of Alera was united and ready, and by the time Tavi gets to Canim everything is dead. It was all too quick paced, and very unlike Butcher.