 So around a year ago. I read the promise of blood which is the first book in the powder mage trilogy and I thought it was Decent, you know, I I didn't particularly like it, but there were parts of it I liked but overall it would just it sort of fell flat for me I didn't get the hype, but I just read the Crimson campaign Which is the sequel after people were you know nagging at me about it and tell him Oh, just no keep reading it gets better and now honestly, I get it. I I get the hype. This is a really good series This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long In a lot of ways this book is kind of a perfect sequel because it keeps all of the stuff that I really liked about the first one Or most of it anyways, and it fixes most of the problems I had Yeah, I know that's not a whole lot of detail there, but you know, this is just the intro So let's keep going. This book starts up right after the last one ended So Taniel has apparently killed Kressamir, but the Kez are still going to war with Adro So Tamas is Leading the fight against them. Taniel is kind of in a drug-induced stupor at the beginning and Atomat his family is still they've still been kidnapped So he's got to go rescue him and just like the last book the plot mostly just follows these three characters And they're all kind of doing their own thing so that their storylines are somewhat disconnected But they are also more connected than they were in the last book because there is some sort of big conspiracy within Adro That they all see different faces of they do they see different aspects of it and interact with the conspiracy in different ways So they don't feel like just separate stories within the same book They do feel like one story and I think that's a very good thing I think that's a very big improvement from the first book because in the first one Yeah, the three plot lines did feel kind of disconnected at times another thing that I think is really really great is that the pacing in this sort of a Seasaws I guess like man, I don't know if that's a good word for it But it sort of goes back and forth like when one story is Kind of slowed down and it needs you know It's taken time to just catch its breath The other ones are going more fast-paced and have more stuff happening and it goes back and forth like this so that There's never really a point where things aren't happening like there's always something happening in at least one plot line But at the same time it never feels like things are going too quick or that there's not enough time to really figure out What's going on it? There's always moments of calm and there's always moments where stuff is going on and you're at the edge of your seat So I I think that's actually a really impressive feat that Brian McClellan was able to pull off with this book So the pacing in this is just about perfect. You can get through it pretty quickly even though It's a really long book at least I got through it fairly quickly. Let's get a little more specific though So Tomas's story follows him Actually after a battle at the beginning of the book goes wrong and He's winds up stranded in Kez with a couple thousand soldiers And so he winds up having to sort of go around them while being pursued by them and that's Basically his plot line throughout the whole book It's a a little more complicated than that at the end but for the most part is pretty simple and straightforward and I Did like it, but I never really I Feel like there was a missed opportunity with Tomas's military genius or his supposed military genius at least and I'll get a little more into this in the spoiler section But I just never really got the feeling that he was this genius that he'd been built up as Adamat's story is more complicated because again, he's trying to rescue his family He's trying to find out where they are and then he has to save them and that's Requires him to go around and do a bunch of Well side quests, I guess is one way of putting it So that he has all the allies and the resources that he needs to do it and while I don't think that would be great on its Own all the development that Adamat goes through Makes it work really well because in the last book. I don't think he had all that much personality Beyond just being you know smart, but in this one. We really do feel for him. We feel how How much he loves his family? How much he loves his wife? How much he loves his kids and we don't want anything bad to happen to them, so There's a lot of tension whenever he's doing anything really and that makes this plotline work really really well and then of course there's Taniel and his is In some ways it's the weakest but in other ways It's definitely the strongest because at the beginning I liked it because it gives some give some insight into the political situation in adro, which I think has been kind of neglected in these books to be honest and The end is really good for some of the same reasons but also just because we're really seeing More up close and personal we're getting a more up close and personal look at Cressimir and what's going on with the Kez and Taniel is also just you know doing cool shit. He's being a badass, so that's cool, but there is a dip in the middle and That part I mean like I said it didn't bother me too much because even when his storyline isn't great Then Adamat and Tomas is are really good But it still does go on for a while where his when the his parts of the chapters come up I just I wasn't bored necessarily, but I wasn't that interested in him Seeing the conspiracy because like I said there is a conspiracy in adro and Tomas suspects pretty early on that There are people in the general staff of the army that are that are traitors But he doesn't do a whole lot of investigating. It's mostly just I think people are traitors and then he continues fighting and it's It could have been done a lot better but what saves it is that Taniel goes through a lot of really really good character development and His is actually a lot better than Adamats because Adamats is you know, he's a fairly simple character overall And he's likable. Don't get me wrong. It's just there's not all that much to him And I think Tomas is kind of the same I'll get to him a little bit more in a minute, but I think Taniel of the three is definitely the most relatable and Definitely the most nuanced see in the last one He was definitely having some issues with addiction like he was becoming addicted to gunpowder and becoming dependent on it And he also seemed to be suffering from a little bit of depression and at the beginning of this one He is getting that even worse and he also seems to have some mild PTSD thrown on top of that because hey He saw a God and he thinks he killed him You find out pretty early on that Cressimir is still alive, but he thinks he killed a God and he saw some nasty shit So at the very beginning of the book, he's been on a Bender for like a week and a half I think and When you see him in this drug den you're thinking wow, he has fallen really far I want to see how he'll build himself back up how he'll get back to being normal but it just sort of goes away after that like his His addiction doesn't seem to bother him in the slightest and that's uh, I Mean that was disappointing. I would have liked to see him actually have to overcome that but I mean I Guess they just didn't want it to be a focus of the story But if they didn't want it to be a focus then they probably shouldn't have brought it up in the first place There's also the fact that he's kind of scared shitless by all this stuff that's happening around him But he is still rising to the occasion. You know, he's still doing what needs to be done so I did You know, he's still a really nice relatable character and you know You do see him actually be a badass in this one like in the first one I never really got that impression that he was a badass at least not until Near the end like at the very end when he actually shoots Cressam here that was pretty cool But beyond that I didn't really get it whereas in this one you see him go into the fray and fuck some shit up So yeah, okay He definitely is a badass here other than all that the only part of his personality that I didn't really like and I'm not even sure I'd call this part of his personality is his relationship with Kapol who is the Savage quote-unquote girl that follows him around and has all that weird magic and shit and I mean Don't get me wrong. I buy them as friends and I definitely feel that Kapol Has romantic feelings towards him even though she never talks like you can definitely tell just through her actions I I just didn't really buy him Being into her it was I just thought that was weird not to mention that when she's pursuing him throughout this book It and I mean I get it I get that that's a common thing in Fantasy especially like a man is just not interested in a woman or he's trying to convince himself that he's not but she's still pursuing him and Going after him until eventually his willpower breaks down and he admits like okay. I'm totally into her but Kapol's actions border on sexual harassment at times Like like for real because there's a point where she gets on a horse That like they're both gonna ride on a horse and she gets on and forces him to go behind her So he has to put his arms around her and she sort of like leans back against his chest and stuff And I'm like Daniel you need to contact HR because she needs to have a stern talking to that's just kind of Like come on girl You're not supposed to do that and then there's the matter of the laundress from the first book Who I don't even think I mentioned in my first review just because she's Kind of a side character in that book and in this one She has a little bit more of a role But she does still feel kind of pointless until like near the end where they're they're clearly building her up as You know some sort of person that's gonna become really important later But also, I don't know exactly how and there's not a whole lot of foreshadowing to that effect. So most of her focus in this book as well as in the last one just feels more like She's Viewing events from a different angle, which don't get me wrong. That's fine. It's just that she's not a particularly interesting complex character, so I just Yeah, I don't know. I just don't have much many strong feelings about her But all the fun stuff from the first book is still here, you know, the magic is still really cool I fucking love the powder mages, especially like that's just a really neat unique type of magic that I have not seen anywhere else All the other types of magic beyond powder mages is also cool and you know the world building is kind of fun But like I said, I do wish they would go a little bit more into detail about the politics in adro and the politics in other countries surrounding adro because you know adro is Forming a new form of government. They're Transitioning from a monarchy into a republic and like I'd like to know okay Where did they get that idea because like in the real world like the French Revolution? which this is pretty clearly based off of republics had existed for thousands of years before that and I just I mean I just feel like there's an opportunity missed there Like you could have gone into some more history of the world and you could have had some more infighting between the Factions that still wanted a republic, but they wanted it to be slightly different or something I just I just feel like there's a missed opportunity there But you know, it's it's still a good world building overall or still good world building overall I don't feel like re-recording that whole take so we're just gonna stick with that There's also the matter of the pros in this book now a little over a week ago I saw Daniel Greene's review of uncanny collateral, which is also written by Brian Maclellan and in that he complains that Maclellan's writing is a little too straightforward like there's no pizzazz to it. There's no poetry to it and I have to disagree with that I think that the straightforward nature really really works well for a book of this type like it prevents things from getting too confusing or too what's the word off-putting for new readers and Honestly, I just I'm not a big fan of like purple pros in general So that works for me and I think it works great for the action scenes as well because that's just Straightforward, you know, you just know what's going on if you liked the first book then you'll definitely like this one if you are like me and you didn't like the first book then I would still check this one out because I really do feel like it fixes the majority of the problems I had and if you haven't read either of the of the first two books then Well, if you're into more modern non-traditional fantasy or at least fantasy where Certain aspects of the story and some of the characters and the world building aren't really traditional then I would definitely check this one out because you'll probably like this and Now we're gonna go into the spoiler corner So if you don't want to have that happen then you should leave now The only really big spoiler that I want to talk about here is Tomas's battle with Prince beyond about halfway through the book So the thing is that when Tomas got trapped in Kez and he and a couple thousand men had to you know Go around the mountains They were pursued by about two or three times their number in cavalry and the thing is that his men were mostly infantry and he had His entire powder mage cabal with him and no cavalry or artillery or privilege or anything But the people pursuing them also don't seem to have any privilege with them That's a mages if you forgot privileged are like regular, you know fire lightning mages all that And so for a couple of weeks they're on a super hard march through the forests and everything and then they reach a river which has a bridge going across it and This is really the area where Tomas is Strategic genius or tactical genius. Excuse me could have been shown off a lot like he could have come up with some sort of cunning battle plan to destroy the their pursuers and then get them to safety, but He really doesn't now let me explain they reach a river which has a whole bunch of flat land around it so what they do is He sends a bunch of men ahead and has them actually destroy the bridge And then he tells the other men that yeah, it was swept away. So we're stuck here. We have to fight and right off the bat that Just doesn't make any sense Because while it might sound kind of cool on paper to like have to force your men to fight like Offer them no retreat and they'll fight their hardest that is pretty stupid It really doesn't make any sense like one if your men found out about that They probably would have mutinied and to you never ever want to put all of your eggs into one basket like that You want to leave a line of retreat open? That's just stupid and then after that he built has them build up some defenses But only leaves them like halfway finished so that the cavalry will think oh, okay We got him and then they'll just charge in and then they Actually dug a trench around as well Which got hidden by fog and then a bunch of the cavalry fall into it and then the infantry fire at them when they're all confused And you know eventually they do win the battle, but here's the thing Some defenses certainly would be helpful. Yes, but in Napoleonic warfare if there's just Infantry then they're probably going to beat cavalry Because the thing is back then they had these things called this formation called an infantry square And I'll see if I can find some decent pictures of it But basically what it was was that the infantry would get into you know a square And they'd all have their guns with their bayonets pointed out and the thing is that when they were in that formation The horses would not charge at their line It would just ride around them which would allow the infantry to shoot at them until Eventually they shot either the horse or the rider and so they just would not be able to attack them that way But the thing is that if the cavalry was supported by infantry or artillery which were shooting at the squares Then well the soldiers would have had to break out of that formation. Otherwise they'd get killed So in this situation Tomas and his men do have a pretty significant advantage as long as they have time to get into formation They will absolutely decimate all the cavalry that come at them and as far as I'm aware They didn't have any privilege or anything with them And they didn't have any powder mages certainly and Tomas had a bunch of powder mages So they had multiple advantages and Tomas just made this really Unnecessarily complex plan which had a lot of risks to it and it just got a lot of his men killed So what I'm getting at is that he really just does not come across as any sort of genius in this and that's a pretty big Disappointment because I actually was looking forward to reading that sort of thing and again with Faye Like at the very end of the book it reveals that she is a privilege and not only that but she can use magic without using gloves, which is I Mean, I guess that's kind of cool, but it's never really foreshadowed in any way, and I'm not quite sure What it's gonna mean going forward so She's still not that interesting, but that's about everything I don't have much else to add So if you like the powder mage, then definitely check out this next book and If you came this far then be sure to like you know comment and like and subscribe and Check out my patreon page and my discord and you know all all that stuff I'm supposed to say at the end here. Bye