**edited 12/04/13 
 Academ's Fury and its sequel, Cursor's Fury, are my two favorite books in the Codex Alera series. Academ's Fury was actually the first book I read in the series; if I had started with Furies of Calderon, I don't think I would have been hooked. But Academ's Fury captures the best aspects of a good epic fantasy novel: magic, scary monsters, strong characters, political intrigue, and more. 
 ...And that's all I'm going to post here. 
 The rest of my (rather verbose) review is posted over here at Booklikes. 
 Why? Because I disapprove of GoodReads' new policy of censorship.