I powered through the last two books in Butcher’s Codex Alera on my Kindle.  It took my just 3 days to read them all; I guess that is what happens on a rainy weekend with a couple of great books.

If you haven’t read the rest of my reviews for this series, do a search for “Jim Butcher” on the site and you’ll find them.  Butcher isn’t breaking a lot of new ground in this series, but as I’ve said about his writing in numerous other reviews, he makes the story fun.

The final two books are fought against the Vord as they spread quickly and violently throughout the planet.  Old enemies across the world have to ally with each other in order to face a great threat.  Through the destruction, new friendships form and a new way of life emerges.

The only problem I had with the last two books is that the enemy becomes so powerful, no one can overcome it. It ends up being the planet itself that finds a way to destroy it. I think Butcher may have made things a little too desperate and had to resort to a bit of a trick to wrap it all up.  I’ll give Butcher this, though, he setup the possibility for this ending from the first book. So it was a trick, but one that was available to him from the first.

All in all, there aren’t many six or more book series that is really excellent from start to finish.  Stephen King’s Dark Tower is another that springs to mind.

Rating:  4 out of 5