Codex Alera - Jim Butcher
Hello guys, after more than a month I'm writing again. I'd some important things going on in my life, I had hard time learning one for one of my exams, but that is now in the past since yesterday so I'm here 100% again.
So, let's get started. I will talk/write you today about new fantasy book series. First of all I've to say than in the chaos of studying in the past month this was something that cleared my mind, relaxed me and made my mood for better. Whenever I had crisis while studying, I took a break and read chapter or two.
When I was deciding what to read, I had in mind to find something or someone who is new to me. I took some time to explore, and decided to give a try to Codex Alera series from Jim Butcher and I was not wrong at all.
It's a set of six books all connected with characters, story line and events. Like every Fantasy novel, this series have protagonist, his name is Tavi. Although the story is based on his life, the significance of life stories of secondary characters is not at all replaced, even as I might see it. This literary work has more than one protagonist. And all this depends on the viewing angle and how you experience the story yourself. This is perhaps the greatest success of this work. Although there are good and bad sides, negative and positive characters, you can find yourself in a situation to ask yourself something. Are good characters are really good, and what is needed to be done and how much to destroy your soul with bad things for the greater good? Are these negative characters really so bad, or they are doing something good for a distant future? In this aspect of his work Jim Butcher has succeed.
When I began to read and was in the middle of the 1st book, I had the impression - man, this is the Roman Empire, Roman culture, little changed, but it is clear that it is there. However, although it is obvious that the author takes over ideas from the history of Old Rome, the rest of his story will make it all work completely authentic.
Some of the things that are obvious with a similar counterpart in that Ancient culture are - All roads from the periphery and its cities lead to the capital (Alera Imperia). Also, the names of characters resemble Latin, such as Gaius, Octavian, Atis. The structure of the military organization and the equipment it uses is almost identical.
All this may seem too much, but believe me it is not. What distinguishes this work is that there is a genius idea - all inhabitants own magic, in fact, all except Tavi, he is denied for magic and considered a stranger. Can you imagine everything, world, in which everyone has the ability to use magic on a smaller or larger scale? I could not even think of it. The magic system itself is well designed and at every moment through all 6 books the series is not illogical.
Another thing that is very important to my critical point is writing style. I met earlier with top-notch works and ideas, but the style of the writer did not suit me, so I gave up. This is not the case, from the first moment and the first sentence, I had the impression that Jim knows what he is doing. The words are not tangled, too long, everything is reduced to such a perfect level. The adds are not particularly rich in descriptions or fine words, but the point of simple expression is quite well achieved. And I liked it very much. Dialogues are a big part of this work and they are written with the same mindset.
Many writers try to explain everything and give it all meaning, but in this case the writer does not explain everything to you. He leaves many things undetected and continues the story without explaining this missed piece, which makes an incredible form of speaking for himself. Likewise, in every character, and especially in Tavi, he places an enormous amount of intelligence and lucidity that you will encounter in a few major characters of any novel.
All this make this series one of the best so far that I've read. Maybe in top 5 for me. So I hope you all will try to read it, an enjoy it as much as I have.