Better than LKH: Codex Alera by Jim Butcher

I'm not sticking strictly to 'urban' fantasy books, or even those set in modern times. FYI. Basically, this is just me telling you about fantasy novels/series that are *way* better than anything LKH has ever written. So, you know, *everything* else that's ever been written.

What? I'm not bitter. Stop shaking your head at me!

For today's entertainment, I present to you the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher.

Codex Alera is a six book series that is complete, so if you pick it up you at least know that you can read it from beginning to end without the gnawing, desperate need for *more*, *right now* that has to wait to be fulfilled for a year or two until the next book comes out. Not that that's not it's own brand of fun, mind you, but it's also insanity inducing. The series is more along the lines of high fantasy than anything else.

Okay, so Codex Alera is set on a world called Carna, where several races live in less than harmonious fashion. The Alerans are the main power on Carna and are essentially human but for the fact that each and every one of them has access to great powers through their relationships with elemental creatures known as Furies.

Furies live in everything and can be manipulated into different forms and uses. They've been categorised by the Alerans based on what elements they live in, so you have six different types: earth, wood, fire, air, water, and metal. Some of the furies are tiny and can't be seen, it takes a gathering up of a lot of this type in order to effect any change on the environment. Others are larger and can manifest themselves in various forms. They can cause real damage, when they put their minds to it, or when they're used to do so by an Aleran controlling them. There are also things called the Great Furies which, as only makes sense, are very old, very big, very powerful furies. Most people don't realize that they even exist, though they swear by them. It's more of a cultural habit than anything else.

The story starts in the Calderon Valley, a small and peaceful section of Alera along the border between Alera and their barbarian neighbors the Marat. Tavi is a small for his age apprentice shepherd who has been raised in the Valley by his Aunt Isana and Uncle Bernard (brother and sister, not a couple). He is quick and clever, though still very much a young man who does stupid things to impress girls, and Tavi is the only Aleran *ever* to not have any furies at all.

While out trying to recapture his Uncle Bernard's sheep, who were allowed to wander away and get lost while Tavi was off trying to impress that girl, Tavi is sucked into a plot to topple the First Lord of Alera. He finds himself trapped alone but for a scarred and unreliable slave in the land of the Marat, the people who had attacked and slaughtered the Princeps, the heir to the throne of Alera, years before and who look to be willing to repeat the performance on the First Lord.

Tavi has to use his brains to find a way to escape with his life in order to bring help to his family and the other people in the Valley and to ultimately help save the Empire.

This is just the first book and I'm not going to lie, it gets better and better as the series goes on.

One of my absolutely favorite things about this series is that it features a great variety of people being both good and evil without making one species *evil*. There are good and bad characters in all the different cultures that live on Carna.

I also love that the women are portrayed as being just as strong as the men. Yes, in Aleran society (which is based on and descended from ancient Roman culture), there are expected roles but there are women throughout the series who defy those roles and are working to gain equality with the men.

He shrugged beneath the blanket. “I can’t explain it. We just—we don’t treat our women the same way we do our men.”

“That’s stupid,” said Kitai.

There is some violence, of course, this is a high fantasy swords and armour kind of story after all, but no sexual content. Some characters, over the course of the series, are clearly pairing off and *having* sex, but it's all off screen.

Possible trigger warnings: There is discussion of slavery as it is legal and a large part of the Aleran economy. There is also use of mind control and the fall out from that, the damage that it does to a persons psyche as well as torture. My biggest warning would be that there is mention of rape and intention of certain characters to rape others. Nothing of the sort happens on screen however, and even the references are veiled and non-graphic.

I hate that these are so short but I really don't want to give away plot points and twists.

Books: Women of the Otherworld

Good morning, and welcome to the first in a (maybe, if I can pay attention to the idea long enough) series of posts about 'Series That Are Better Than LKH'.

We'll start with Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series, more often called the Women of the Otherworld, though there are some short stories that focus on the male characters. Which is why I prefer just calling it Otherworld. And it's my blog, so I do what I want.

For proof of my Powers of Randomness, Random Thor!



First off, since this is a 'Better Than LKH' series, it's in the same genre. That being urban fantasy. What, I can hear at least one of you asking (and yes, I'm looking at you, Susanne), is urban fantasy. it's a genre of fantasy writing where most of the action takes place within an urban setting, a city. It is typically set in modern or future times, with the addition of magic or aliens, but it can be set in historical periods as well, provided that the action occurs primarily in a city.

Okay. I'm going to just talk about the first book in the series, and then a little general squee about the overall world and why I love it so.

The first book in the series is called Bitten and it is the story of Elena Michaels. Elena is a writer for a popular newspaper in Toronto. She lives with her boyfriend Philip and is, most of the year, a perfectly normal, relatively happy woman.

What no one else knows is that Elena is on the run from herself and her past. Bitten years ago by the man she loved, Elena is the only female werewolf in the world. Unable to forgive or understand Clay's reasons for changing her, a process that has killed every other woman it was tried on, Elena has left the Pack that sheltered and taught her to control her new instincts to try and live a normal life.

Jeremy, the Pack Alpha, has respected her desires and made certain that the other members of the Pack (Clay, we're looking at you) respect them as well. However, when people start showing up murdered on Pack land, drawing attention to the Pack and endangering the people that Elena knows and loves, she is drawn back to hunt down the threat.

Bitten could almost be a stand alone, in that the Pack in the book are the only supernatural characters that you meet. In fact, as far as they are aware, they are the only supernatural creatures that actually exist. It isn't until the second book, Stolen, that the wider world of this universe begins to be revealed.

Things that I love about this series:

The women are real women. They're not all 'manly tough', 'I can kick every guys ass'. Which, while it can be a little fun on occasion, is not realistic. And to be fair to Elena, she can kick more ass than your average person. What with being a werewolf and the combat training and all, but she has to work at it. The women have realistic issues with trying to find their place in the world and (in some cases) trying to change the cultural stereotypes of their own people that are holding them back. This is especially true in the case of the witches, who we meet in the second book. Paige Winterborne is the daughter of the head of the American Coven and part of her story is her struggle to do what she knows is best for her and for the other women of the Coven, breaking them away from old fashioned notions of what is 'appropriate' for witches (who are all women) to do and allowing them to be full participants in the world.

Men who do shit get called on their shit. And I'm looking at you, again, Clay. I won't tell you what happens between Clay and Elena because it's a major plot point, but unlike in many supernatural romance kind of situations, Elena doesn't go all gooey and doe eyed when Clay acts like a cave man around her. Seriously, I just read a book where the man essentially meets a woman and declares that if there weren't other people around he'd just pin her to the wall right then and there. And rather than kick him in the balls and run away, she melts and thinks that he's the hottest thing. *rolls eyes* And that's when I tossed the book. *sigh* Seriously. To be fair to Clay, that is not something he would ever do. Not just because he's more than aware that Elena can and will hand him his own spleen, but because even he's aware enough to know that that is Just Wrong.

Truth be told, Clay has enough issues on his own - he's the least human-thinking of the entire Pack, for reasons which I shall not disclose! :p Even knowing that, however, and to a point understanding why Clay is not as socialized as the rest of the Pack, he does not get a free pass for his inappropriate behavior. There is a very clear progression of Clay learning what is and is not acceptable and *why*, and you can also see that Clay *wants* to learn these things in order to make the people he cares about most, Elena and Jeremy, happy.

The books are well plotted, well written and the universe building is believable. For all that some of the characters have phenomenal cosmic powers, they are still very human in their flaws. There is some sex in the books, as several of the characters find people that they love and eventually pair off with them but it is not the focus or the driving impetus of the books. It's incidental and natural feeling given the characters and their story arcs. It is also not graphically depicted. There is some violence, but again it is not graphically depicted and it works within the story, being a natural consequence of the choices of the characters and not dictating the movements of the characters to justify the fight sequence or what have you.

Over all, I give the entire series a 4.5/5, just because I like some of the books and the characters that they focus on, less than others. But it's an excellent series and if you enjoy this genre I heartily recommend it.