Russell
Prose ⭐⭐⭐ | Dialogue ⭐⭐⭐ | Worldbuilding ⭐⭐⭐ Characters ⭐⭐⭐ | Pacing ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Originality ⭐⭐⭐⭐
With Crimson Campaign, Brian McClellan is clearly getting his feet under him, the pacing issues in Promise of Blood seem to be largely resolved. While many trilogies can sag in the middle book, Campaign instead accelerates, as Tamas finds himself leading his troops through a gripping chase.
Taniel & Adamat each face their separate crucibles, both with much stronger consistency to their characters than in Promise, both largely closing their character arcs to make way for Tamas & Olem to face their in Republic.
As with Promise, I would still like to see stronger dialogue, but the interactions between Gavril and Tamas, and Taniel & Ka-poel made the three men a bit more three dimensional (I wish I could say the same for Pole, but unfortunately the female characters are all still a bit flat).
Overall, this was a reasonably fun read, but not a book I see myself re-visiting.
Prose ⭐⭐⭐ | Dialogue ⭐⭐⭐ | Worldbuilding ⭐⭐⭐ Characters ⭐⭐⭐ | Pacing ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Originality ⭐⭐⭐⭐
With Crimson Campaign, Brian McClellan is clearly getting his feet under him, the pacing issues in Promise of Blood seem to be largely resolved. While many trilogies can sag in the middle book, Campaign instead accelerates, as Tamas finds himself leading his troops through a gripping chase.
Taniel & Adamat each face their separate crucibles, both with much stronger consistency to their characters than in Promise, both largely closing their character arcs to make way for Tamas & Olem to face their in Republic.
As with Promise, I would still like to see stronger dialogue, but the interactions between Gavril and Tamas, and Taniel & Ka-poel made the three men a bit more three dimensional (I wish I could say the same for Pole, but unfortunately the female characters are all still a bit flat).
Overall, this was a reasonably fun read, but not a book I see myself re-visiting.