A review by beaundarrows
Cursor's Fury by Jim Butcher

4.0

Somehow, this one is the best in the series so far. I feel like Butcher has hit his stride, knows his characters and where the story is going. There's definitely a lot of stuff hidden and I look forward to unveiling it.

A suspicion from the previous books has been confirmed.
Spoiler Tavi is Isana's son by Septimus. They were married, but it's unlikely that Gaius approved. Was he even aware at the time? Well, he is now.

The sections focused on Tavi are by far the most interesting. They're also the sections with the most action. Amara's sections always seemed the weakest, even though she and Bernard always seem to be in the middle of some plot or battle.

The ending really threw me for a loop. I'll put some thoughts here, behind a spoiler:

Spoiler Either the nature of Furycrafting is not what I has originally assumed, or I've been led astray by the 'revelation' at the end. I was under the impression that only Alerans could tap into the elemental powers of the world and "befriend" a Fury (or more).
It was revealed that Isana was so terrified of what would happen to Tavi if people discovered he was the Prince's son, that she used her watercraft to block his access to the powers.
Now, either her blokage has been removed, or something else is happening, because he was able to use a furylamp.
The kicker is that so could Kitai, which is why I'm now suspicious. She's Marat. It was made quite clear that her people couldn't use the powers or have Furies.
Having said that, there's also something very peculiar about Kitai - more specifically something about her connection to Tavi.
Does her strange bond to Tavi allow her to access Aleran magic? Now that Tavi can do it, she's able to understand how?
It was a moment very like a particular scene in Belgarath the Sorcerer, actually. Where Poledra-as-wolf says "oh, that's how it's done," as she turns herself ino a snowy owl for the first time.
Here's the scene:
""What I mean, Aleran," she said quietly, "is that all this time you were acting as if it was some kind of monumental task. When it is so simple." She turned her head enough to regard the furylamp and said, firmly, "Off."
The Lamp went out."


I had intended to start a different book after this one. I thought I wanted a bit of a break.

Not anymore.

4 out of 5 stars.