Avail Yourself The Crimson Campaign (Powder Mage, #2) Authored By Brian McClellan Displayed As Copy

of Blood/
The Crimson Campaign/

ed along with book three sitelinkhere I'm loving this series, This one was even better than the first, and definitely sets up the third really well, I was a little skeptical about this new "Flintlock Fantasy" trend, but if this is typical of the subgenre, I'm sold, When invasion looms Tamas's invasion of Kez ends in disaster when a Kez counteroffensive leaves him cut off behind enemy lines with only a fraction of his army, no supplies, and no hope of reinforcements.
Drastically outnumbered and pursued by the enemy's best, he must lead his men on a reckless march through northern Kez to safety, and back over the mountains so that he can defend his country from an angry god, Kresimir.


But the threats are closer to home, . .
In Adro, Inspector Adamat only wants to rescue his wife, To do so he must track down and confront the evil Lord Vetas, He has questions for Vetas concerning his enigmatic master, but the answers will lead Adamat on a darker journey,

Who will lead the charge
Tamas's generals bicker among themselves, the brigades lose ground every day beneath the Kez onslaught, and Kresimir wants the head of the man who shot him in the eye.
With Tamas and his powder cabal presumed dead, Taniel Twoshot finds himself as the last line of defense against Kresimir's advancing army.


In a rich, distinctive world that mixes magic with technology, who could stand against mages that control gunpowder and bullets .
stars

“The hounds at our heels will soon know we are lions, ”

The Crimson Campaign was better in almost every way compared to its predecessor, All those problems I had with the character development Thats gone, Those problems with the pace Thats totally gone, I wasn't bored and remained almostlocked in throughout this entire book, which is absolutely incredible because I have the attention span of a goldfish, so I am amazed.


One of the most important parts of a book to me are the characters, something I think this book excelled at.
Were still following T Double Tamas Taniel, Adamat and Nila as they deal with the revolution thats now become an allout war, and I found all their POVs, besides Nilas, to bex as engaging as before.
The stakes have been raised as everything feels a lot more personal and intense, with many unexpected twists that delightfully came out of nowhere and kept me on my toes.
And I mean it, there were LITERALLY two giant stakes raised and maannn, this book did not mess around, Speaking of which, this brings up something else,

For a novel called Promise of Blood, bookhad an unsatisfyingly pathetic amount of actual bloodshed, For me, anyway. But from the getgo, The Crimson Campaign felt more gruesome and brutal and YES THANK YOU, I have been satiated.
So, no complaints there.

I really like the way T Double has been developed, especially Tamas, In this novel, we get a little more insight into what drives him and it made me realize how special Tamas is and that how McClellan has not created a onedimensional leader AT ALL.
And my dear sniper Taniel had his own amazing arc that surprisingly got emotional at timeswhich I loveand had some of the best action scenes of this entire series thus far.


I need to make a special mention to a certain nonPOV character, Olem! I really enjoyed his steady presence in PoB and loved him the same here.
My precious little cigarette addict is so cute and adorable and has some of the best and funniest lines in this series that I absolutely live for Tamas POV just so that I can get more of him!

But if Im being honest, the main reason hes a favourite is totally because the audiobook narrator does such an amazing job with his voice that I just want to listen to him talk ALL day, whoops.


But really, the great character development also extended to so many others, creating a full cast of colourful and interesting characters, increasing this books enjoyment factor for me by heaps and loads.


I dont want to vandalize this great book, but I had a few issues:

Nilas character is still totally pointless and lacking of focus and depth to me.
Her screen time has increased only a little since the last book, but I still find her useless for the most part.
It was only until the very end of her POV that something actually interesting happened and I have high hopes for her in book, but I hate that it tookbooks for her storyline to become meaningful.


Weve still been given zero explanations on how the magic system works, I ignored this in PoB because I thought that with time, things would become clearer, But it hasnt and theres only one book left and Im worried that by the end of it all, well still be left in the dark and that really makes me sad because I just want to know the rules and how things work okay

But besides that, I had a blast reading this.
It was fun, it was thrilling and it was filled with action and excitement, Im already started sitelinkThe Autumn Republic, which has been fantastic so far, and I am super stoked to be finishing this series! Actual .
/

This book was soooooo close to becoming astar book for me, There were just a few minor problems I had with it, Things that could be explained in the third novel, so I decided to give McClellan the benefit of the doubt, But I'll get to that later,

I think I've said this a few times, during my updates, but I can't believe this is the same writer from Promise of Blood.
I felt very "meh" about it and was nervous to continue it, But PoB showed so much potential that I had a hard time justifying not going on, And boy am I glad I gave this one a chance, He fixed one of the biggest issues I had from Promise of Blood: I just didn't care about any of the characters.
Ok, that's not completely true, I cared about Tamas and KaPoel, but I couldn't have cared less about Adamat or Taniel, Adamat felt very flat, and Taniel felt too angsty, Adamat had some great character development here, I felt like he actually cares about his family in this one, Taniel I was nervous about, in the beginning, He started out more angsty that before, but quickly became the awesome character that I wanted him to be in the first book.
He gets pretty savage quite a few times and I loved every minute of it, KaPoel, once again, was a bad ass, She's probably my favorite character in the series, He intensity and being mute just give her such a strong feeling of mystery and I can't help but love her, Tamas was also a really great character, once again, to follow, We got to see more of him in battle and it was everything I could've hoped for, I also loved what he did with Vlora, She was a character I disliked in the first book and didn't really care about her, But McClellan put in a really great scene with her and I felt a twang of pity for her, I can see myself rooting for her depending on what he does with her in the next book, We also got a whole slew of fun side characters,

The plot was also way more interesting this go round, I really didn't care much about what was happening during the last book, but I was so enthralled in everything that was happening that I had a hard time putting this book down to eat.
And believe me, this book will make you hungry,

Now, onto what I disliked about this book, It's actually a problem I had with the last book, too, I love the magic system makes me want to eat gunpowder but I don't like how there doesn't seem to be any kind of repercussions to the people who use the magic.
Sure, if a Priveledged touched the Else without gloves on, bad things happen and I like that touch, But there doesn't seem to be any consequences for Powder Mages using their magic, There is something called going "Powder Blind" I think that's the term but Taniel seems to use so much powder without any consequences.
Like I said in the beginning, there might be a reason for that, and it's kind of hinted at, but it still bugs me a bit.
Other than that, I really don't have any other problems with this book,

I actually would recommend this series, even though I didnt enjoy the first book, based solely on this book alone.
If the third, and final, book is anywhere between Promise of Blood and Crimson Campaign, in terms of quality, then this will turn out to be an awesome trilogy.
Well! It's been a few days since I finished The Crimson Campaign and my opinion hasn't changed, This was definitely better than the first book, More action, more magic, and above all else more gritty determination by our lead characters, Brian McClellan is putting the flintlock fantasy genre on the map,

The multiple POV's are done extremely well, Taniel and Kapoel are by far my favorites, Adamant came in second, with Tamas following in third,

Adro's war with the Kez is in full swing, but there is still a struggle for power in Adro's capital city of Adopest that may be effecting the war effort.
Oh, and let's not forget the fact that there are gods walking around causing their own mischief, I have no idea how this is going to end, but I am pretty sure it's going to be a bloody journey.


Brian McClellan has created an extraordinary world in The Powder Mage trilogy, One that has been truly entertaining to read, I am looking forward to reading book,

I probably should have written a review for this before plunging into the last book of the trilogy, but it could not be helped I had to know how it would all work out.




Definitely better than Promise of Blood and a great action packed freeforall,

“One man always makes a difference, Sometimes its a small one, Other times, he tips a war, ”

Im not huge on loving military campaigns and since this hadcharacter PoVs with military type campaigns I should have been totally bored with this story and yet I wasnt.


Tamas is behind enemy lines cut off from the world and thought dead trying to get his smaller portion of the army back home to meet up with the main body.
He is totally outnumbered by the Kez and in completely hostile territory but he shows us every step of the way why he is such a great military leader and how he became the man he is today.

“Let the Kez come,” Tamas roared, “Let them send their greatest generals after us, Let them stack the odds against us, Let them come upon us with all their fury, because these hounds at our heels will soon know we are lions!”

Taniel on the other hand has just recovered from the coma he suffered at the end of Promise of Blood and with KaPoles help they are off to kill a god.
If only they can find him and figure out how to kill him, I will say the KaPole is really a fun and amazing character, Sure her magic is still pretty mysterious to me and I want to know more about how it works, But while we get some hints there is

always an air of mystery to it, Im not sure how I feel about the burgeoning relationship between her and Taniel, I like Vlora and have this semihope that they work things out, But Im torn since I really like KaPole too and whatever magic she has wrapped Taniel up in seems to be changing him into something.
more.

The final PoV was Adamats, He is trying to find where his family is being held and rescue them, He decides that he will need some major help if he is going to be able to save them, Bo seems like just the thing since he is one of the only privileged in the city,

“You missed the mornings festivities,” Bo said to Adamat
“You call torturing a man festivities” Adamat asked,
“Im not a good person,” Bo said, ”

Bo might not be a good person but he is definitely one of my favorite people in this series.
His wry humor and interesting flexible morality just does something for me, He isnt a good man but if he is your friend he is the BEST man, He and Adamat as a team go very well together,

I really enjoy the blend of the war with the politics and a few of the Gods just wandering around.
Adam reborn is probably one of my favorite gods in a book, I loved his approach to trying to help and yet not trying to be too involved or overly godly,

“God' is a funny word, it implies omnipotence and omniscience, Let me assure, I am neither, ”

Overall, I found the pacing in this book to be better than the last and the coherence of the overall story seemed to be better than in Promise of Blood.


This has been a really good fantasy series thus far and I was so excited to carry on with the series that I finished the last book before every writing this review.
So I can say that it carries on in a great way and finishes spectacularly,

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