War is still raging between the Adro and Kez, caught in the middle are Tamas, Admat, Taniel Two-Shot and one-time seamstress Nila, among others. The Crimson Campaign is the second installment of Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage Trilogy and as excellent a debut as was A Promise in Blood, he elevated his game with this second novel.
Tamas is not quite the central character he was in A Promise of Blood, as his son Taniel and Adamat take more of a central role. Tamas is entrenched in the land of Kez, behind enemy lines where many people believe him to be dead, especially those who now lead the Adro military, which is, at best, a fractured organization. Although Tamas was a respected figure, there were many who disagreed with him. In his absence, it becomes crystal clear how much his presence held together the military. That absence has allowed for some individuals to rise in the ranks of command who don’t exactly have the same approach or ideology of Tamas. Case in point: the character of General Ket, who comes to be an antagonist for Taniel, but a bit more on her later.
Of the multiple characters McClellan presents for points of view, Taniel is the one who shines through, I would go as far to say that this is “his” book. When Taniel first appears in the novel, he is barely alive, spending most of his time and all of his money in a drug den after waking from a coma. Taniel is suffering effects of PTSD and has a very difficult time adjusting to life after an enormous battle in which it is claimed he killed a god. Unfortunately for him (and much of the military) he is the only powder mage thought to be remaining in Adro. Politician Ricard ‘rescues’ him and Taniel and his companion Ka-Poel eventually resurface in the Adopest military. Now we return to General Ket, the most prominent female authority figure in the novel who poses a challenge to Taniel at every turn. Taniel’s problems with authority come to a head as Ket continually attempts to quell any actions Taniel takes which he feels will further the Adrot cause against the Kez. This despite Taniel’s prowess at killing the magically enhanced soldiers of the Kez who are stronger than the predecessor soldiers from the previous volume.
Adamat continues to seek his kidnapped wife and children from the powerful (for lack of a better term) mob boss Lord Vetas. This plot-line had less of an epic feel to it and more of a thriller feel, the stakes were much more personal for Adamat. As such, I appreciated the contrast between Taniel’s position at the forefront of the Epic side of the story against Adamat’s more intimate personal connection to the war, though both are direct results of the status-quo changing war between the Kez and Adro.
Where A Promise of Blood gave a broad stroke of the military, The Crimson Campaign delves much more into the importance of stability in the military. McClellan also shows how short-sighted leadership can cost a great deal in the long run. Although the gods are a part of the story, these gods are backdrop and merely a part of the story rather than the complete focus. People in the story don’t universally believe the gods have returned, despite a few of them (Taniel, Tamas, Ka-Poel) conversing with the Gods. Rather, they are just one more complication in the larger global conflict; the gods are not the be-all end-all of the story. As such, one can consider The Crimson Campaign a slide from Epic Fantasy along lines of his mentor Brandon Sanderson and into a story more grounded as a Military Fantasy, with a stronger resonance to Glen Cook’s landmark Black Company novels as the story has progressed through two volumes and there’s still a vibe of Abercrombie in the feel of the story at times. These are all good things.
One of the things I appreciate most about what Brian is doing in these novels, in their Epic Fantasy trappings, is focusing the story on characters with life experience. Tom Skerritt…rather Tamas is an older man with a long life behind him, Adamat is a father with a family, Taniel, though young, is not a naïve to the ways of the world and Nila is sheltered, yes, but not an inexperienced youth. If there is a child of destiny to be found, the child is thus is barely more than a plot point (the young heir Nila is sheltering) and there isn’t a sense that he’s a savoir.
I would still like to see more of the ladies at the forefront of the story, to have perhaps Nila take a more active role rather than a reactionary role. Ka-Poel is slowly revealing herself to be more than just a side-kick to Taniel, as Mihali (one of the two gods in the novel) is in awe of her power as a sorcerer from a foreign land. This bodes very well, I think, for the story-arc McClellan potentially has mapped out for take Ka-Poel. One of the bosses, Ket, is a well-defined character with a prominent role in the story though she is primarily a foil for Taniel even if she was extremely well-respected by her subordinates. However, Ket’s role in the military (coupled with Vlora’s role as one of Tamas’s soldiers) is more important than the character herself. It shows that in McClellan’s world, women appear to have (near?) equal footing with men in the military. In other words, while we don’t see quite as many women in prominent roles as point-of-view characters, there’s a sense of balance to the world as a whole and the female characters have leveled up a little bit compared to the previous volume. It appears they are poised to “level-up” once again.
In the end, what McClellan does so well in this novel is utilize harness great storytelling and makes The Crimson Campaign really difficult to put down. It was fun, his pacing was even better in The Crimson Campaign than it was in Promise of Blood. Each chapter break or section-in-a-chapter came to a close at what felt an appropriate and often perfect time which helped to propel a strong, magnetic narrative.
All told, The Crimson Campaign is fine Epic/Military Fantasy novel and this series continues to impress me.
Orbit, May 2014
Hardcover, 608 Pages / ISBN: 978-0-316- 2190-8-2
http://www.brianmcclellan.com / https://www.facebook.com/ThePowderMageTrilogy
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Orbit Books
Since I am reading this now…I probably should not have read this review. Good job, regardless, Rob 🙂
Thanks Paul!