“The course of history is determined not by battles, by sieges, or usurpations, but by the actions of the individual.”
This is the opening line of the novel. Technically, it is part of an extract “From the Writings of Gaius Primus, First Lord of Alera.” Even more technically, of course, there is no such thing as the historical record of one Gaius Primus or Alera. Such is the fundamental nature of fantasy novel mythology. The lot of the writer of a fantasy novel is multi-layered. To really make an impact across a series of connected narratives—usually appearing in big, fat juicy individual volumes easily surpassing 500 pages—one must not just conceive an interesting story but also concoct an accessible mythology. Aspiring hacks looking to cash in on this gig without any real interest in the genre beware: it is not as easy as it may appear.
If a lone Marat was in the Valley, perhaps the Steadholder had gone to hunt it down. But if so, then why would this boy be along? He had no particular skill at crafting, she judged, or he would have used it when the windmanes had been attacking them. He bore no weapons, no equipment. He couldn’t have been hunting the Marat.
The “he” who possesses little skill at fury crafting is named Tavi. And though it may not seem like it from this particular quote, as it turns out, the book is his story. Those Calderon furies of the title refer to another part of the fantasy mythology. For those who may be wondering, Tavi is not merely a different version of the author’s beloved Harry Dresden from his Dresden Files series of books. In fact, Tavi is a rather humorless rascal and not even much of a rascal. But it is his story that needs to be told because the lack of fury crafting skills within this world is like growing up being unable to throw a football in our own reality. Not really, of course, but that is the point.
“Ad hominem is a notoriously weak logical argument. And is usually used to distract the focus of a discussion—to move it from an indefensible point and to attack the opponent.”
Within the context of this quote—and certainly out of context here—this quote seems harmless enough. Merely a power player showing off his knowledge of debate. It is an important bit of information to take note of, however, because over the course of this novel and the rest in the series, the idea of using distraction as a tactic in an overall strategy takes on increasing intense significance. As a general rule, subtlety is not one of the strong points of fantasy novels series such as this which makes the imposition into the narrative framework of Aquitaine’s observation all the more noteworthy.
