Thursday, September 25, 2014

Book Review: The Crimson Campaign by Brian McClellan

For my review of Promise of Blood, click here.

The Crimson Campaign is the second book in Brian McClellan's Powder Mage trilogy. It starts where its predecessor left off. I won't give away any spoilers, but things were not resolved as neatly as they appeared to be at the end of book 1. If anything, they've gotten even worse.

In this book, McClellan continues to do well all the things he did well in the first book. The pacing is great. The characters are likeable and interesting. The magic system remains fascinating. This one has much more of a military angle to it, though. In the first one, there was some of that with Tamas and Taniel, but their stories are now mostly based around the military action.

That gives McClellan the perfect opportunity to show off his fantastic magic system in action. In addition to action, there are many twists and turns to the plot. I mentioned that I took a while to connect with the characters in the first book, but I started this book connected with them. And that connection only grew deeper.

McClellan is rapidly turning into one of my favorite epic fantasy authors. I love the alternative setting. It recalls a lot of the great things about epic fantasy, but it feels new and fresh. Great read.

Rating: 9.5/10

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