Literature Analysis: Spring Semester #2

The Furies of Calderon
             -by Jim Butcher

Okay, so, the book I read is called the Furies of Calderon and it is by the author, Jim Butcher. The book is like 800 pages so I'm just going to hit the main points of it in a summary. The book takes place in the kingdom of Alera. The people there control these things called furies. There are furies for the elements earth, water, air, fire, wood, and metal. Air furies can help their "crafter" fly. Fire furies can help to light lamps. They are also very destructive. Metal furies are bound to powerful warriors usually. Water crafters have water furies and they can drown people on land, stay hydrated, and een tell if people are lying. Earth crafters can ride the earth and use it as transportation as well as destruction. One boy in this book, Tavi, is a fifteen year old who doesn't have any furies to protect him from the dangers in the world. People think he is really weird for not having any furies.  A tribe called the Marat come from their territory into Alera to take over the various cities and cause the Gauis, like a king, to fall so someone else can take over. Garrison, a major city in Alera, is one of the first locations the Marat attack. They also capture Tavi and is forced to do a serious challenge or they would eat him. :(  For me, this book was pretty suspenseful and I really enjoyed it. I would love to read more books in this series. The genre is Fantasy which is my kind of genre.

Characters:
Tavi is a fifteen year old boy who isn't very strong. He is a fast runner and is able to out run his enemies. He also has some feelings for a girl named Amara.

Amara: A cursor, or a messanger of the king. She is an air crafter and helps Tavi throughout the novel get to safety and saves him from multiple attacks.

Bernard: Tavi's uncle who is an Earth crafter. He seems kind of angry or stressed out on the outside of his personality. He plays a major fighting role with the battle of the people and the Marat.

Isana: Tavi's aunt who is a water crafter. She is very powerful and used her water abilities to bring Bernard back to life once. She almost died in the process. She uses any source of water to her advantage such as water dripping from the roof. I enjoyed her character the most.


Every character in this book plays a different role leading up to the climax which was a war at a castle-like town. They all have various emotions or problems which make each character unique in this novel. In this book, I would like to meet Isana, the water crafter because I admire her courage and strong will to fight for what she believes in. Hey, that could be a theme for this novel. :D I am so smart... haha

When I read books for these literatuyre analysis' I can never find any foreshadowing or symbolism or anything like that that I have learned about in class. There either isn't anything of the sort in the novel, or I am just very bad at finding those sort of things. I aboslutely loved this book and would love to read more by this author. I will actually be starting another series by him and will be reading it next. I hope it turns out good! :)