The Crimson Campaign (Powder Mage Trilogy, #2)

by Brian McClellan

'The hounds at our heels will soon know we are lions.'

Tamas's invasion of Kez ends in disaster when a Kez counter-offensive 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.

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 might come too quickly.

With Tamas and his powder cabal presumed dead, Taniel Two-shot finds himself alongside the god Mihali as the last line of defence against Kresimir's advancing army. 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.

• ISBN10: 031621907X
• ISBN13: 9780316219075
• Publish Date: 20 January 2015 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Orbit
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 640
• Language: English

Reviews

[Ashley]

It dragged a little in the middle, but the last 150 pages were excellent.

[ross91]

This series is cool: there are some great characters (especially Ka-poel), some exciting action scenes and a great concept. I find it hard to love it though. Don't know exactly why... maybe 'cause sometimes it reminds me of Mistborn a lot (which I loved so much) and other times the writing style and the plot development resemble The Riyria Chronicles (from which I've only read the first book and I didn't quite liked it... too predictable and old-style imo).
My favorite parts were the ones with Taniel's POV, the Tamas ones were sometimes enjoyable, sometimes boring, while the Adamat ones I felt they were a missed opportunity: I love when there's politics in fantasy books, but here it was not well developed and t seemed forced at times.
With that said, I still enjoyed a lot. This book has some great concepts and ideas and the series is, after all, interesting.
I just wished it were more awesome.