I love the Dresden books, so I bought this first book of a different series hoping for good writing, albeit in a different genre. I’ve enjoyed plenty of things in the ‘epic fantasy’ genre and I like Butcher’s writing, so I figured I was safe.
I’m about 95% done with the book and even though the finish line is in sight, I just don’t know if I am going to get there. This book is so bad! It’s just awful! There is zero character development, the whole book is just long, tedious fight scene after long, tedious fight scene… it’s all sort of run together for me at this point. I don’t remember who is where or even who is alive and who is dead at this point, nor do I care.
I almost NEVER leave books unfinished… but seriously, each time I pick up my Kindle to read, I have a moment of “oh yeah, it’s THIS book, still” let-down, and then I start reading with this wearied resign…
UGH. I certainly won’t be reading book #2.
Anyone have any recommendations for something to read next? Hopefully something that doesn’t suck? Something that will make me look *forward *to reading time, rather than it being a chore?
You have my permission to STOP READING NOW. It’s OK. You don’t have to finish every book. No one will get upset if you quit now. You certainly gave the book a fair chance.
I recommend you do NOT attempt anything else in the Codex Alera series. If you didn’t like the first book you won’t like the rest.
Now, as for what to read next - what do you like? We know about the Dresden, you like Dresden, but what else? Knowing your interests will make recommendations much easier.
Go figure. I’m quite enjoying the series (midway through book 3 now). There’s more depth to Tavi than most precocious young adults. Harry Potter would have died halfway through the first book.
It doesn’t have the wit of Dresden, to be sure, but as political fantasy series go it’s not bad at all. The characters are likeable and while many are outright jerks, nobody even so much as touches the Idiot Ball, much less clings tightly to it like just about everyone in Wheel of Time, which is what I kept mentally comparing it to. Everyone’s actions are plausible and intelligently considered.
And I concur with Broomstick. You gave it a fair shake. You don’t like it, you don’t like it. It’s a different story than Dresden, not just in characters and plot but in structure. It’s perfectly understandable that it might not appeal when Dresden did.
I’m not a huge fan of the Calderon series. There are some bits I like, such as the Vord, but for the most part I find the series to be a bit of a slog.
I buy every book, though, because Jim Butcher has made it pretty clear that he’s always wanted to write the Calderon series. And I’ll buy every book if that keeps him writing the Dresden series, which I desperately love.
What else do I like… let’s see. Well, I’m anxiously awaiting the next book in the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. I liked the Sookie Stackhouse novels (guilty pleasure, those), um… Really I like such an eclectic mix that it’s a bit hard to just point and say “this is the stuff that I like”… I like SF and fantasy and mysteries. I liked Tom Clancy’s older stuff. At the moment I’m in the mood for fiction, but other times I like to read biographies and books by politicians, etc…
(And I know I don’t HAVE to finish it. That’s what I’m struggling with. Do I finish it just to be tidy? Or do I leave it be and have it slightly nagging at me that I never finished it…)
I too love Dresden, but I just never felt like reading the Codex Alera books. Lucky me, I guess.
I very recently read Ring of Swords by Eleanor Arnason. This is one of the best sf novels I’ve ever read and it’s shocking it isn’t considered a classic already. The story’s pretty hard to describe: essentially, humanity is colonizing the stars when it meets the Hwarhath, who are out there doing pretty much the same. The Hwarhath don’t seem to want much talk and a series of skirmishes ensue. The book begins in a remote world where a biological scientist is annoyed that the diplomatic talks set to happen there will stand in the way of her work. Things get more complicated when she meets Nick Sanders, the first and only human traitor, lover to a Hwarhath leader. In turns I expected the book to be a hard-sf examination of alien biology, then I realized that it was actually going to be military sf, only I was wrong because it was clearly a mix of first contact story with a tale of political intrigue, only it became an anthropological novel, but then it was clearly a tragedy; it ends as a comedy of manners. It’s pretty amazing when you can see the influences of Robert Heinlein, Ursula K. LeGuin, Frank Herbert, Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde collaborating in a single book. It’s got incredible world-building, witty dialogue, excellent characterization and is truly original.
The Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs, starting with Moon Called. The nutshell version is that it’s a story about a were-Coyote who works as an automechanic for a grumpy old fairy, lives next door to the leader of a werewolf pack… sort of the urban fantasy thing Dresden has going, but a different world and author. You might like that one.
Have you read Octavia E. Butler? I’d recommend starting with Wild Seed for her Patternist series. Kindred is a time-travel involved look at slavery in America. I never got into it, but a lot of people seem to have liked it. Xenogensis or Lilith’s Brood starts with Dawn. She wrote a couple others, too, of varying quality.
Ian Banks wrote the Culture series, which vary widely from one to another in my opinion. For that one I’ll direct you to the wiki on it rather than typing oodles of stuff here.
Also The Sky so Big and Black by John Barnes, which is about humans colonizing Mars who are cut off from Earth - sort of (of course I don’t want to give it all away)
And the Retrieval Artist series by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, starting with The Disappeared. It’s a police/detective novel set on the moon and hard scifi.
That’s a pretty divergent list, I’d be surprised if you didn’t find something to like. I’d also be surprised if you like all of it. Happy reading!
I hated George R. R. Martin’s stuff and loved this series. I did find the first book to be slow. But in some ways I like the Furies series better than Dresden. (Although it is a tough choice.)
I don’t know about that. I’ve heard most people who’ve read the series say that the first book is the worst. But yeah; if you don’t like it don’t read it.
As for what else to read; I’ve recently come across fantasy author Brandon Sanderson and think he’s good. I’ve read his first, Elantris, am halfway through his Mistborn trilogy, and Warbreaker is sitting next to me. He’s also the guy picked to finish Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.
For an older fantasy series, I like the Spellsong Cycle by L.E. Modesitt jr. Lots of intrigues, battles, mass destruction and song based magic.
Is there a ton of magic in the Calderon books? I like fantasy that is sparing with the magic (like Martin’s work). I’m afraid that with traditional fantasy Butcher is going to incorporate even more fantastic magic than he does in the Dresden books, which will make it unreadable for me. The power creep in the Dresden books is beginning to bother me.
Eleanor: Everything in the Calderon book (the first one) is magic or battle, or magic+battle. If you enjoy reading 50 pages in a row about what arrow whizzed by who and thudded into what or literally blow-by-blow description of sword fights, combined with who sent what “fury” to do what magical thing, you’ll love it. Oh wait, not everything. There is also a gang rape scene and a part where some adolescents are playing capture the flag in a giant wax tree with giant spiders.
(No offense to those who like the book–to each his own obviously. I have liked plenty of books that even I, critically, would have to say weren’t actually that great, so I’m not the arbiter of taste or anything.)
I’m gonna put my two cents in for Patrick Rothfuss’s Name of the Wind. It’s the first book of a series that appears to have pretensions of epic fantasy (which I’m a fan of, so that doesn’t necessarily count as a black mark to me), but the first book is very human-centered, and it’s great.
I wanted to like the Codex of Alera series. I think Jim Butcher does a great job of setting up his worlds and magic systems, but the lack of character development got to be too much for me. In Dresden, there’s at least enough to get me through, but in the Calderon books the characters seem flat. Also, the female characters in the Calderon books seem to consist at least as much of offensive stereotypes as they do actual characterization. Oh, well.
Have you read any of Robin Hobbs books? I really enjoyed the Farseer, Mad Ship, and Tawny Man trilogies (it’s really more of a nine book series).
Thanks for the suggestions, people, I will be looking them up for sure. (Keep 'em coming!)
Vihaga: yes, there is so little character development in this book! It’s frustrating. Also the fight scenes are so long and drawn out… I get lost and stop caring and start skimming after a while, you know?