Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

  • Home
  • About
    • About CBR
    • FAQ
    • #CannonBookClub
    • Fan Mail
    • AlabamaPink’s Book Reviews
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
  • Team
    • The CBR Team
    • Leaderboard
    • Recent Comments
    • CBR Interviews
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Genres
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • How You Can Donate
    • CBR Merchandise
    • Supporters and Friends of CBR
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Follow Us

Swimming with sharks, jailbreaks, and exploding volcanos: Another day in Alera

Captains Fury by Jim Butcher

October 22, 2019 by kittenkong42 1 Comment

On to the fourth book in the Codex Alera and we are in a situation where Tavi is fighting a holding battle against the Canim invaders, and the realm is doing the same against the forces of High Lord Kalare. Obviously things go wrong…

Tavi is tricked into losing command and facing charges of treason when a Senator in the pay of the Aquitanes is given oversight of his forces. Tavi will not kill Alerans who are just trying to survive behind enemy lines, but luckily he manages to give control of his forces to Crassus, the half-brother of his friend Max, who as heir to a High Lord cannot be easily bypassed. It’s noted by people that if the senator tried to jail Crassus his father would take the senator to pieces in a duel, if there was anything left after Max got there first.

Tavi instead decides to stage a jail break to get the Canim leader out of prison in Alera Imperia in order to ask him to end the war. To this end, he, Araris, Isana, Max, and Kitai head off by boat. Inevitably things go wrong, there’s a sea battle which results in Isana realising she has more power than she thought (particularly when Araris is seriously injured and she uses healing magic greater than any we’ve seen from a High Lord because she didn’t go to all that effort a book ago keeping him alive only to let him die now), and the jail break gets a bit loud too.

But in the end Tavi wins through, gets the Canim forces to stand down, and challenges the Senator to a duel. Luckily he’s been practicing with Araris to learn how to use his emergent magic, unluckily he’s facing a crazy person in the senator’s aide, so he instead uses psychology to do half the work to win the fight. For Tavi, this book is a triumph as he gains new allies in the Canim, learns to use fury craft, and finds out he has a mother. And also Valiar Marcus (revealed as Fidelius) picks a side and resigns from the Aquitanes service via a poisoned arrow through the back of High Lady Invidia Aquitane (spoiler: it unfortunately doesn’t do the job). Sadly, the secondary plotline this time is a drag…

In the B-plot Amara, Bernard, and the First Lord Gaius trek on foot to Kalare to end the war. The slog through the mountains and marshes felt endless and didn’t bring enough character notes to make me care. I still knew at the end that Gaius would do whatever it took to keep Alera and Tavi safe, and that Amara would never believe that sometimes you have to do bad things for the longer term good. I knew that before they set out and it didn’t change after Gaius blew up a volcano – the only change was that Amara resigned as a Cursor.

This is probably the weakest book in the series. Still a good read, but I admit I skipped quickly through the B-plot sections.

Filed Under: Fantasy Tagged With: Codex Alera, Jim Butcher

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

  • Captains Fury by Jim Butcher

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

Share the post "Swimming with sharks, jailbreaks, and exploding volcanos: Another day in Alera"

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • E-mail
  • Tumblr
  • Reddit
10/22/2019 | kittenkong42's CBR11 Review No: 21 |
Rating:
| Tags: Codex Alera, Jim Butcher | Category: Fantasy | 1 Comment

kittenkong42

SF and fantasy fiction fan. Lost my dad and sister to cancer so want to support this cause

CBR11 participantCBR11 LevelsCBR10 participant

Recent Reviews:

  • And Kingdom Hearts just gets more complex…
  • Can I adopt a Murderbot please?
  • The end game for Alera
  • View all reviews by kittenkong42»

Comments

  1. emmalita says

    October 27, 2019 at 4:18 pm

    I read this book and I remember almost none of this. I’m not sure if it’s me or the book.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.



Thirty Three Days of Giving!

Thanks to everyone who donated to support our mission of sticking it to cancer one book at a time! We welcome donations year-round.
Created using the Donation Thermometer plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/donation-thermometer/.$2,000Raised $1,750 towards the $2,000 target.$1,750Raised $1,750 towards the $2,000 target.88%

We raised $1,750 out of our $2,000 goal!

The winner of the donor raffle drawing is elemenopee!

Recent Comments

  • emmalita on A perfect storm of human greed and opportunityTheranos is a good example of how many people can get caught up in the sunk cost fallacy. And yes, this was an excellent book....
  • Jen K on Book Friends are the Best Kind, Book Friends of Long Standing are Even BetterYay! So glad everything made it! Your tree is adorable.
  • narfna on Books about murders that aren’t about murders at allYes, another convert! I'm excited for you to read Trespasser and Witch Elm. I think she also has another one coming in Fall 2020, but...
  • narfna on Book Friends are the Best Kind, Book Friends of Long Standing are Even BetterI am very curious to see what you think about Starless Sea. I have yet to put my thoughts together on it.
  • BlackRaven on Do Tell – Submit Your Best and Worst Books of CBR11!I'm taking a chance that I do not find a better one (or even a worse one, but I somehow doubt I'd find a worse...
See More Recent Comments »

Follow Us

CBR Facebook Page. Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Instagram. CBR on Goodreads CBR on Pinterest.

Support CBR

Give Today. Cannonball Read donates all profits from the site to the American Cancer Society. Help us fight cancer!
Donate Today »

Review Genres

  • Biography/Memoir
  • Book Club
  • Children's
  • Comedy/Humor
  • Cooking/Food
  • Fantasy
  • Fiction
  • Graphic Novel/Comic
  • Health
  • History
  • Horror
  • Mystery
  • News from MsWas
  • Non-Fiction
  • Poetry
  • Religion
  • Romance
  • Science Fiction
  • Short Stories
  • Speculative Fiction
  • Sports
  • Suspense
  • Uncategorized
  • Western
  • Young Adult

Book Ratings


a favorite


a great book


a good book


an ok book


a book
you didn't like

Need Help?

Visit our FAQs to find out how to add stars, select genres, and more. Drop us a line if you can't find your answer.

Shop on Amazon and Support CBR

One of CBR11's #CannonBookClubs will be about Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett to coincide with the BBC Miniseries.
Buy it on Amazon today, get a head start, and help us stick it to cancer, one book at a time!

Shop on Amazon and Support CBR

Buy Original Cannonballer Prisco's book and help CBR!

Ad Partner

© 2019 Cannonball Read | Log in