Excellent

Yet another trilogy where I am left hanging in anticipation of book 3.

And another author whose name I will search on regularly for new books....

Action, clever magic / mystery, great characters..... well narrated. What's not to like. Ticked all my usual boxes.

If you're a fan of "epic fantasy", whilst not quite as "epic" as a Sanderson or an Abercrombie, it's still up there with the good ones!

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11 people found this helpful

Christian Rodska needs to keep voices consistent!

love the series, my only criticism is that Christian changes accents and how the same character sounds between the books. makes following the characters between stories more difficult than it should be.

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One of the better middle books of a trilogy

Taniel becomes the unlikely hero in this great second book in the trilogy. The development of him as a person, coming out of his father's shadow is rewarding. Also, Tamas' infallibility falters as a series of bad decisions leave him in a tight spot.

Good character development of many of the more peripheral characters and of some of the sideline stories. I found Adamat's quest somewhat boring but I realise that this is the long game and that what happens is critical to the plot

Well narrated with consistent character voices which I find very important.

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Four and a half stars

If you could sum up The Crimson Campaign in three words, what would they be?

Clever, captivating, Ka-Poel

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Crimson Campaign?

I'm not doing spoilers so I'll say
The book has lots of bits like this
“You missed the morning’s festivities,” Bo said to Adamat. “You call torturing a man ‘festivities’?” Adamat asked. “I’m not a good person,” Bo said.”

And I like bits that make me chuckle while driving to work

Which character – as performed by Christian Rodska – was your favourite?

I think his voice for Tamas is spot on.
But ka-poel is very intriguing and is my fave

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes the characters are interesting enough that their personality contains sarcasm and wit.

Any additional comments?

Better than the first book and I'm looking forward to the next.
If you haven't already downloaded the first...
Then go and download it
If you have downloaded the first....
Than you probably won't be reading this, and have already downloaded it anyway ;-)

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Rollicking good fantasy: gunpowder and sorcery

The second book of the trilogy follows the pace and style of book one only moreso. McClellan writes engaging fun plots with OTT violence reminiscent of war novels, with in your face characters and almost comic-book magic. I suspect it's a marmite style, and I loved it, chuckling at some of the excesses.
The setting is akin to Napoleonic wars with different flavours of magic, both tiers of traditional sorcery that accesses a magical dimension as a source, to the 'new' powder mage-ery and the mysteriously powerful bone magic. It's thrown about fairly effectively by the characters in a plot that's got plenty of solid set pieces, drama, and unexpected turns. There's a moderate amount of world-building that plays second fiddle to the plot. We follow four/five main POV characters through the book, and I enjoy each one for differing reasons.
Bought book 3 straight after.
The narrator is well chosen for the material and gives us some excellent voices, although I'm sure a couple have changed from book one!

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A bad day for powder mages...

... but a great day for the reader. Things go from very bad to heck of a lot worse within the first few chapters and Tamas, Taniel and all the others face some very dark times indeed, all wrapped up in superbly written story that balances all its characters and subplots brilliantly,setting up for what promises to be a very explosive finale in Book 3. Christian Rodska also delivers an amazing performance, weaving effortlessly in and out of every characters tone, accent, dialect and vocal mannerisms. Glad to hear he changed the "voice" of Tamas so it no longer has the slurry drooling Churchill-like tone of the first book. A most entertaining listen from start to finish.

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Great stuff

if you love a good war book with fantasy wrapped around its core and fabulous engaging characters these are your books.

now going straight for the next and final book 😊

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Fantastic continuation of the Powdermage trilogy!

If you enjoyed the first book, you will love this one. Full of action and great character moments and even better written than the first! And the narrators performance is up there with the very best, as it is in the first book. Cannot wait to start book 3!

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outstanding

amazing story best middle book in a trilogy I have read greatly looking forward to the conclusive final novel

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1 person found this helpful

Thrilling from start to finish.

As the second book in a trilogy this is one of the best, it follows a few different paths as you see how they intertwine. It is set in both in the army as we see the war with the Kes and also stories in the city. There is so much extra though, infighting in the main army, others fighting running battles behind enemy lines, gods and evil shenanigans in the city.

As usual Christian Rodska is awesome and gives some great accents including a Glaswegian and Liverpudlian so watch out for them.

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