Subject: Shameless fangirl plut
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Posted on: 2011-12-23 05:20:00 UTC

Alera is a world with highly practical and tribal not!humans who occasionally have giant badgers and feathered mini-T-rexes for soul-bonded companions, abominable snowmen, giant wolf-men summoning eldritch abominations, Zerg, and a Lost Roman Legion with Pokémon.

It also has tons of highly competent, intelligent, charismatic, deadly characters, and a central hero who is the illustration that you can do Standard High Fantasy Tropes and still do them entertainingly, interestingly, well, and without falling into complete Stu-dom traps. Sure, the big solutions are helped along by having magical nukes to drop, but it is always about brains with the power, and the lovely thing is that people are shown to be charismatic and clever, not just stated to be, and in situations which flow naturally.

I love both Dresden and Alera, though Alera far more, but a guy who works at the gaming and sci-fi/fantasy store I frequent prefers Dresden. That said, he described the last Alera book as virtually flawless. It's a fantastic series, all told.

Also, it was written practically on a dare.

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