Crimson Campaign by Brian McClellan

I’ve just finished reading Crimson Campaign and it is outstanding. It’s a giant leap in terms of story quality, pacing and character development over the already impressive Promise of Blood and will electrify current fans whilst attracting new ones in droves.

Once again we follow the lives of Adamat, Tamaz and Taniel Two-Shot as they defend their homes and homeland from a number of threats, both foreign and domestic. From a basic, what’s going on, point of view I found the stories compelling and engaging and one of the main reasons I was unable to put the book down for long stretches at a time.

Amamat has had his wife and eldest boy kidnapped and must set off on a Liam Neeson style mission to get them back with his goal being to get the truth from the evil Lord Vetas. With his loyal boxer friend SouSmith in tow they’re a formidable pair but they must exist within the framework of an invasion of their lands so their story is more intimate. These two characters give no quarter and personally there is nothing quite so thrilling as a reader as mentally giving a character permission to do whatever the fuck he wants.

Tamat is cut off behind enemy line with 10,000 of his best men but facing a chasing army much larger than his own and therefore a long, hard and hungry march home across mountains and rivers. There is a bit of a Gemmell feel to these scenes, in terms of the grandness and I really loved seeing Tamat acting and planning like the legend we are told he is. He is given a real challange from the very beginning and it never looks like getting any easier for him or his men. There was a real darkness to some of these scenes as Tamat struggled with finding a successful stategy to keep his men alive and ensure that any deaths are not meaningless.

Taniel is in recovery after his and Ka Poel’s battle with Kressimir. Upon waking from his coma he heads for the bars so that he does not have to face the battlefield again so soon. Going through an intense period of emotional torture he no longer knows his place and finds his abilities and strengths moving in directions he cannot understand for reasons he cannot explain. Once again the relationship between Taniel and his ‘savage’ is one the incredibly interesting things about this story. There is a love there but not one that is fostered easily, especially with the nature of their replationship constantly being questioned and judged. When Taniel is finally drawn into the battle to defend his homeland he is basically a one man wrecking crew and has to attack, not only his enemies out on the field, but also those behind his own lines who are trying to sabotage the war. I always find those moments so frustrating when the hero soldier who is doing all the work has to answer to the dickhead politicians who all have their own agendas, none of which involve keeping the men fighting alive. That frustration is always welcome to me as a reader as it tells me I am emotional engaged and that the writer has done his job and brought me into the world they have created.

The magic system is a real draw and constantly surprises. It starts with controlling the flight of a bullet, snorting gunpowder to enter a trance like state that gives the user heightened sense and abilities and igniting other peoples powder to explode like a grenade to more subtle and really creative uses like stealing the force created by someone else’s bullet and putting it behind the swinging of one’s own pistol to increase the power of the blow. I was always looking for more ways this magic could evolve and surprise and it did not disappoint. The conclusion is frenetic and makes me really want to jump straight into Autumn Republic so I can discover how it all ends.

It’s funny what a difference time between books can make in terms of the narrative as I quite enjoyed picking this up and finding that it was only days or weeks since the events of Promise of Blood. I was quickly back in the story and felt like the year between reading the books was more like weeks; there was such a familiarity to the text and the characters. One thing that is certain is that Brian is a young writer with lots of skill and potential and seems to have a talent for delivering high quality writing at top speed.

I cannot wait to get a copy of Autumn Republic and to jump back into the story and find out how it all wraps up. There are some good books coming out this February but this one should be near the top of your list in terms of your reading list.

Brian has just has his birthday so he is offering some of his Novellas as a free download here and the best place to get the new Powder Mage book or any of Brian’s previous works is at his own website here.

This way you request a signed copy and the money goes straight to the man himself. I am sure he will keep some copies of Autumn Republic under the bed for those of us with stretched book budgets can get a copy later but pre-orders can really help so if you can get in early do so.

Brian is published by the fantastic folks at Orbit. You can follow Brian @BrianTMcClellan and Orbit @orbitbooks.