First Lord’s Fury brings Jim Butcher’s Roman-inspired fantasy epic The Codex Alera to a spectacular conclusion. Gaius Octavian returns to Alera, from the Canim lands across the sea, and is ready to do battle with the Vord. It’s fitting that the final battle takes place in the Calderon Valley, where it all began.

The book is action-packed as usual, and there’s plenty of character development all around. Fidelias’s secret becomes known to Tavi and his entourage, and Attis Aquitaine even changes dramatically (for the better). Octavian’s extensive furycrafting skills are thoroughly put to the test as well.

In short, First Lord’s Fury is just about everything you could want for the end of The Codex Alera.

It’s always sad to reach the end of such a compelling series, but there is some good news. Jim Butcher has mentioned in passing that he “isn’t ruling out the possibility of returning to [Alera] at some point in the future, but he doesn’t have any immediate plans at this stage.”[Source] So we might eventually see something set in the Alera universe again, whether it is set in the same stage in history or not. (I would really like to see more books centered around Octavian, especially since he clearly has solid “what’s next” plans in the epilogue.) In the meantime, the author is planning something like another ten Dresden Files books, so you can still get your Butcher fix…