Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher

Furies of Calderon, by Jim Butcher, is a solid fantasy novel which has one extra thing going for it - it’s not like other fantasy novels. While I'm a fantasy fan, people who like the genre do have to admit one thing - much of it (by no means all, but much of it) - is written as a Tolkien rip-off. The same medieval societies, the same "fear but respect" magic, the same elves, dwarves, orcs, and other such things. Furies of Calderon is different.

There is no question this is a pure fantasy novel, unlike Butcher's other, more popular series The Dresden Files which takes place in the modern day. This is a world where magic is real. So real, in fact, that everyone has a little of it. Every human has at least a little bit of "fury-craft", the ability to manipulate elemental creatures called Furies. Furies come in six types - earth, air, fire, water, metal, and wood - and humans usually have at least a little ability in 1 or 2 of those types, which allows them to shape items made of those things, or manipulate emotions that are like those things (firecrafting calls up anger, for example), or even have simulacrums of living creatures made of those things - we meet a dog made of stone, for example. Most humans just have enough to make life a little easier - to light lamps, or keep the rain off, or make the field a little easier to plow... but some, mostly nobility, are incredibly powerful and can do things that well qualify as "magic". Everyone in the entire world... except Tavi.

Tavi is 15, and by 15 most students have at least a bit of skill (it seems to start no later than puberty, sometimes earlier) in furycrafting. Tavi can't do it at all. He is seen - at best - as fundamentally disabled - while the crueler folks among his village think he's a freak of nature. Tavi is smart, sensible, and caring, but seems destined to live an abnormal life, and probably alone. He's being raised by his aunt and uncle in a small valley and outside a small village. It’s utterly unimportant, and far removed from the political intrigues of the Roman-like cities and civilization of the Aleran Empire. Or it would be, except that his valley is the border in to the lands of the Marat, a nomadic, almost-human people who have gone to war with Alera before, and seem poised to do so again.

Tavi, his friends (including one newly arrived), and his family must do more than just survive the coming storm of clashes between those loyal to the empire and those who oppose it, and of the marauding Marat - if possible, they have to avert it. If you want to read a fantasy novel with a fully-constructed and realized setting but are a bit bored of the same old thing, you should read Furies of Calderon, the first book in a 6 book cycle called Codex Alera, 4 of which are already published - the 5th will be out in November. - Reviewed by John