Codex Alera

 Finished! An excellent series and I have so many thoughts on furies!

Reading the last book answered many of the questions I had, for example, Canea wouldn't have a great fury like Alera. It might have great furies but not one like Alera. My final impression is that the series overall was great. I think the unique uses of furycraft peaked at the Elinarch; either in Cursor's Fury or Captain's Fury, the two sorta blended together for me. Nothing in the series made me more excited than the sun magnification used at the Elinarch.

Persistently throughout the series I wondered why Romanic technology existed in the past and furycraft wasn't integrated with it from its inception. There's some statements that the world would change forever after the use of catapults against the Vord, but I can't imagine this historically genocidal society had siege weapons first, then later developed furycraft, then ignored the advantage of combining the two.

Anyway, strong opinions about weak things. Looking for a new series to read and could always use suggestions! As always, I'm looking for well defined, "hard" magic systems, hopefully with creative uses and Codex Alera was a little soft and fuzzy around the edges for me, would love to hear what anyone's got.

Furies in Canea?

 Today I'm not thinking specifically about furies in Canea butt it was thinking about Maximus' worry that furycraft in Canea wouldn't work because of a possible lack of furies. Of course, this isn't an issue and there are furies enough around for normal use; but I was think about the great furies and how, for example, Bernard could call on lesser furies to shape the surface of a great fury's mountain.

This gives me many, many questions, none of which I have answers for. Are great furies like a hive mind or collection of furies, or do lesser furies simply inhabit the surfaces of great furies? Or, perhaps great furies allow the influence of lesser furies. How do lesser furies exist when there are great furies inhabiting the elements that lesser furies would influence? Likewise, are the great furies apart of the fury Alera? Can Alera influence or furycraft in Canea? If lesser furies can influence their element wherever they go, surely a great fury like Alera could as well.

I could keep going but I've yet to finish First Lord's Fury, Hopefully we can answer some or all of those.

Furies in Alera

I've been reading the Codex Alera series, currently in the last part of Cursor's Fury, and I think the furies are really interesting, if not somewhat inconsistent, as best I can tell, and under utilized. In the beginning of Cursor's Fury, Tavi helps build a Romanic siege engine, a catapult, without the use furies. This was to prove that furies weren't used in the past to make cities, instead using good ol' leverage and man power.

I think it's incredible they haven't already got devices like the siege engine in the present because, coupled with he power of furies, they could make weapons of machines or structures an order of magnitude more powerful than either is alone. If a wood crafter helped make a fury crafted catapult then it could be stronger, throw further, and mend itself.

The furies havbe been fleshed out more and more as I've read, I'm interested to see if their use develops.

Welcome!

 Welcome to Not Technically Magic,

This is a space I'll be using to discuss Fantasy and Science Fiction novels, I won't be making full book reviews but instead talking about parts of books or series that got me thinking. 

Most recently these have been what has been called Hard Magic Systems, systems of magic within fiction that have reasonably well defined boundaries. I'm not so much interested in whether or not something is or isn't a hard magic system, as it is more of a spectrum, but instead the particulars of the system.

I just completed the first two King Killer Chronicles books, The Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear last month. I have also just completed the Mistborn Trilogy and the first three of the Mistborn Wax and Wayne Series. Getting ready to dive into another series and looking forward to delving into the technicalities of Sympathy, Naming, Allomancy, Feruchemy, Hemalurgy, and whatever is to come next!