Princeps' Fury by Jim Butcher

After bitter fighting, Tavi of Calderon has eventually forged an alliance with Alera's oldest foes, the savage Canim, and he must escort them on their long sea-voyage home. This will strain their fragile accord - but the worst is yet to come. The inhuman Vord have spent the last three years laying waste to the Canim homeland, making it a desolate place indeed. Then the Alerans become stranded there, cut off from their ships. The Canim alliance will be tested as they enter the killing fields together, depending on each other's strengths if they both are to survive. For a thousand years, Alera and her furies have withstood every enemy, and survived every foe. The thousand years are over.

Executive Summary: Princep's fury was more enjoyable than I remember. Like it's predecessors, it's a blend of war, politics, romance, humor and magic that makes for a fun read.Audio book: Kate Reading once again does gives an enjoyable reading. I'm pretty much repeating what I've said for the last 4 books. She's becoming one of my favorite readers now.Full ReviewMy recollection was this book was a step down after [b:Captain's Fury 346087 Captain's Fury (Codex Alera, #4) Jim Butcher https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1315083292s/346087.jpg 6614434]. However I find myself changing my mind on this reread. Unlike that book all of the subplots in this book greatly interested me. There was no slowdown in the middle and this might be the only book where anyone's story was more interesting to me than Tavi's. I think this series shines best when dealing with internal politics of the Alerans followed closely by the interactions with the Canim. This series has large amounts of both. We learn a lot more about the Alerans, and see that people can be just as petty towards their fellow man under even the most dire of circumstances.My least favorite parts have to do with the Vord, but in this book they are still mostly relegated to the setting. In other words they are a looming threat hanging over everything and impacting the interactions between the characters, while not really being on screen all that much.Tavi still has to rely on his ingenuity more than his personal strength to overcome most obstacles which I think is what makes him such a likable character to me. The interplay between him and Max and Kitai are always my favorite scenes.Overall a pretty fun book, although compared to [b:Captain's Fury 346087 Captain's Fury (Codex Alera, #4) Jim Butcher https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1315083292s/346087.jpg 6614434], this ends on a pretty bad cliffhanger such that I jumped right into [b:First Lord's Fury 6316821 First Lord's Fury (Codex Alera, #6) Jim Butcher https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327903582s/6316821.jpg 6502096] immediately.

When I closed this book, I found myself short of breath. Not sure how long I'd been holding my breath, but never been happier that I read quickly. So much happens, yet so much just seemed like a set up for [b:First Lord's Fury 6316821 First Lord's Fury (Codex Alera, #6) Jim Butcher http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255672320s/6316821.jpg 6502096]. But it works, absolutely works. Butcher surprised and wowed me more than once. So looking forward to #6.

I had anticipated a lot of set up for the final book, but this was just as interesting as the rest. It was a bit slower, but still full of action and read very quickly.