Great series. I was so enthralled with this first book that I could hardly bear to wait to finish all three. Jim Butcher is an amazing storyteller. I ended up searching for and reading everything else I could find that Jim Butcher has written. The good news is that he's still alive and writing in Kansas City. There are a number of you tube videos of his book signings. He also continues to actively engage with his fans through his website.

Jim Butcher is a master at creating protagonists that you can identify with, and who you want to see succeed. There is always great interaction between the people in the stories, very realistic conversations, too. This novel adds more worthy characters to the fantastic saga.

Tavi is a young man who lacks the magic of his people. Studying to be a Cursor, he also has to serve the First Lord who sposored his studies at the academy as a page. He also has to endure the taunts and attacks of the other students who have talent and resent his position. But even more evil is brewing. Tavi has become the focus of an ancient enemy that he inadvertantly awoke in the first book. This enemy has attacked both his home in calderon, but also the capital where he now lives. Jim Butcher is an author who has no qualms about writing gritty fantasy, where main characters die or have horrible things happen to them. You have to know that when you read his books. Academ's Fury is no different than his other books. People die. Horrible things happen to people who did nothing to deserve them. This is a book that was hard to read at times as you did want to see what was happening to the innocent and those characters that you really liked.