Jim Butcher, Academ's Fury

Book Two of the Codex Alera series, in which young Tavi, the one man without any control over the elemental spirits known as furies on which his whole Romanesque civilisation is built, is studying at the Academy and acting as a page to his patron the First Lord. When the First Lord collapses on the eve of an important festival, Tavi and some of his friends have to try to keep that secret. Meanwhile, the alien Vord are menacing his native Calderon, and his aunt Isana is in the capital, trying to get help and getting entangled in politics while his uncle Bernard and his beloved Amara fight the Vord hand to mandible. Then there are the Cani -- menacing nine-foot wolf-creatures -- to reckon with, not to mention the young female Marat, Kitai, with whom Tavi shares an unusual bond.

Fast-moving and engaging. I am a little uncomfortable with the way that the availability of magical healing allows gruesome injuries to happen over and over to the same people with no lasting consequences; it has a -- literally -- cheapening effect.