Academ’s Fury follows Calderon’s Fury as book number two in the Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. You know the saying, “you should be careful what you wish for”. Well, Tavi has gotten his wish, and it is proving a bit more of a handful than he would have liked. For one thing, going to an Academy where he is the only one without a fury among obnoxious kids is less than fun. But the upside is that Tavi does meet kids his own age that he likes and he also learns quite a bit.

In addition to his studies, Tavi is also the First Lord’s page and is studying to be a cursor spy. Both are taxing his strength but he is growing in knowledge and hopefully wisdom.

Kitai and her father discover the disappearance of the Vord from the Wax Forest. Dorago looks for the long-time enemies of the Marat and he is worried what their disappearance means. While he is looking he sends Kitai to “watch” (all is revealed in the book). The Vord will include Bernhard, Amare and Isana in our tale.

And then we have the Canim. There is an ambassadorial retinue living at the First Lord’s palace. The ambassador’s name is Varg. Jim likes to make the story lines of the Codex Alera pretty complex. Part of that is probably to keep the reader on their toes, but it is difficult to tell his story without bringing in the various people involved. So too, the Canim.

The ambassador seeks the First Lord’s help, but due to circumstances around the First Lord that is going to prove extremely difficult. In fact, getting help from the First Lord for anyone at all is going to be a challenge in Academ’s Fury. But fear not, Tavi is here. OK! It might not be quite that simple, but Tavi is, after all, the hero of this series and that means that he has to do impossibly heroic deeds.

The problem with so much art on the net is that it is difficult finding just who to credit with it. If you press on the picture above it will take you to one site, and I hope that is the correct one. If not, someone will have to tell me.

While reading these books, I have been trying to place their age group. Sex wise they are pretty safe. I would probably give the books a PG rating for that (only because of how strict the US public is). When it comes to violence I’m having a bit more trouble. How graphic is graphic and where do I draw the line? Well, I don’t really know. There is violence and it is descriptive, but it isn’t what carries the story (at least not in Academ’s Fury). I guess I would say that the reader should not be too young, but it is OK for a teen-ager. But I am ancient, so what do I know?

Anyways, after that struggle, I want to say that Academ’s Fury is fun and fast to read (for a given definition of fast). The book is around 600 pages long and you don’t read that in one go. Butcher’s language flows along its river of words without drowning me in anything unwanted.

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My reviews of books  1 (Furies of Calderoon), 3 (Cursor’s Fury), 4 (Captain’s Fury), 5 (Princep’s Fury) and 6 (First Lord’s Fury)