The Sunday Teardown – The Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher – Part 1
January 30, 2017
Normally, I want this segment to be a weekly jump into the things that I am reading at this moment. I want them to be about how I enjoy a specific thing, or try to uncover some hidden gem that maybe hasn’t gotten enough press yet. I wanted this to be roughly a thousand words on something I enjoyed. Now? Now this is turning into me running through the nitty-gritty of a novel that I might actually obsess over. Sometimes there’s just no accounting for a force of nature.
Jim Butcher, The Longshot himself, has delighted millions with the Harry Dresden series of books since the dawn of the Aughts. And then, in 2004, he did something completely different…
The Furies of Calderon
by Jim Butcher (@longshotauthor)
For all the incredible, wonderful things which I will delve into with this series, nothing is as disarmingly amazing as the following statement: This book was written on a bet.
I am not kidding. Codex Alara, a series of six novels, were made on the back of Jim being challenged to create a book based on a lame idea. He countered that he could write a bestseller based on two ‘lame’ idea of the challengers choosing. The challenger in question picked ‘Pokemon’ and ‘The Lost Roman Legion’.
Thus was born the love of a world written over a decade ago by a man out to prove a point. He has, since the conclusion of the series, stated that he has no definitive plans to return to the world. I would be thrilled beyond measure to return to such a richly crafted, tightly paced, extraordinarily well written landscape.
HERE THERE BE SPOILERS
It will be impossible for me to dive into what I enjoy so very much about this novel without spoilers. I hate doing spoilers, quite frankly. If you can’t sell a book without keeping it wrapped in some mystery, then you’re doing it wrong. However, this book came out in 2004. My wife teaches students born AFTER this book was written. I believe the spoiler period is over.
The first fifteen pages of this book sold me on the series. This simple fact, alone, is a testament to just how good Jim Butcher is at writing. In those first pages, several important things happen: You are introduced to two of the series most central characters (Amara and Fidelias). They meet the books central protagonist (the rogue legion), and are then thrown into a web of lies, action, and conspiracy which take four books to iron out.
Amara is betrayed, nearly assassinated, forced to believe her teacher is dead, finds out her teacher is one of the primary conspirators, flees from certain doom, and is then forced to take refuge in a remote hinterland which is home of the remainder of the series primary characters. She contacts the central power throughout the first four books, her boss, who forces her onward.
Catch your breath yet? Seriously, this is a book we are discussing, one I have read dozens of times, and my heart is still thumping in my chest. I’m pumped, wanting to read more. Your first few pages will make or break you. You have such a narrow window to capture the interest and attention of your readers. It’s fractional. Seriously, check the reader metrics. As of March 2016, you have, AT BEST, about two chapters to claim a reader as your own. Even that is pushing it. Realistically, you have one chapter. That’s it. Maybe ~1200 – 1500 words. That is approximately 2% of any finished novel. That is all that any author really has to sell themselves.
To witness how amazingly well Jim hijacks the imagination of his readers so thoroughly in the opening salvo of an entirely alien world, one he is required to build from the ground up, and see him proceed to maintain that pace throughout the novel is nothing short of watching a master at work.
This review has already turned into a multi-part journey, as I’ve reached something like nine hundred words just on the first tiny sliver of the novel, and I have so much more that I wish to discuss. So for now, I will leave this up here.
