Michael Britt's Reviews > The Crimson Campaign

Actual rating: 4.75/5

This book was soooooo close to becoming a 5 star book for me. There were just a few minor problems I had with it. Things that could be explained in the third novel, so I decided to give McClellan the benefit of the doubt. But I'll get to that later.

I think I've said this a few times, during my updates, but I can't believe this is the same writer from Promise of Blood. I felt very "meh" about it and was nervous to continue it. But PoB showed so much potential that I had a hard time justifying not going on. And boy am I glad I gave this one a chance. He fixed one of the biggest issues I had from Promise of Blood: I just didn't care about any of the characters. Ok, that's not completely true. I cared about Tamas and Ka-Poel, but I couldn't have cared less about Adamat or Taniel. Adamat felt very flat, and Taniel felt too angsty. Adamat had some great character development here. I felt like he actually cares about his family in this one. Taniel I was nervous about, in the beginning. He started out more angsty that before, but quickly became the awesome character that I wanted him to be in the first book. He gets pretty savage quite a few times and I loved every minute of it. Ka-Poel, once again, was a bad ass. She's probably my favorite character in the series. He intensity and being mute just give her such a strong feeling of mystery and I can't help but love her. Tamas was also a really great character, once again, to follow. We got to see more of him in battle and it was everything I could've hoped for. I also loved what he did with Vlora. She was a character I disliked in the first book and didn't really care about her. But McClellan put in a really great scene with her and I felt a twang of pity for her. I can see myself rooting for her depending on what he does with her in the next book. We also got a whole slew of fun side characters.

The plot was also way more interesting this go round. I really didn't care much about what was happening during the last book, but I was so enthralled in everything that was happening that I had a hard time putting this book down to eat. And believe me, this book will make you hungry.

Now, onto what I disliked about this book. It's actually a problem I had with the last book, too. I love the magic system (makes me want to eat gunpowder) but I don't like how there doesn't seem to be any kind of repercussions to the people who use the magic. Sure, if a Priveledged touched the Else without gloves on, bad things happen and I like that touch. But there doesn't seem to be any consequences for Powder Mages using their magic. There is something called going "Powder Blind" (I think that's the term) but Taniel seems to use so much powder without any consequences. Like I said in the beginning, there might be a reason for that, and it's kind of hinted at, but it still bugs me a bit. Other than that, I really don't have any other problems with this book.

I actually would recommend this series, even though I didnt enjoy the first book, based solely on this book alone. If the third, and final, book is anywhere between Promise of Blood and Crimson Campaign, in terms of quality, then this will turn out to be an awesome trilogy.