The Crimson Campaign

This novel is definitely as good as it's predecessor. For me, Promise of Blood was one of my top books of 2015, and this novel makes up for the problems in nearly every way possible. Each story line was fast paced and made me not only suspenseful at each story break, but looikng forward to the next one. I really liked this book because it helped to advance each character in almost every way.

One of the most interesting stories is Tantiel's. After a frustrating beginning where he seems to sit around in a smoke den...for some reason...he finds his way to the front, where he is at war not only with the invading Kez army, but also with the Ardo general staff, whom Tantiel suspects of betraying them as a Kex spy and sabotaging the war effort. In this book Tantiel learns just how much his father's protection meant, even if he did not realize it. It is really cool to see him try, in vain to find the spy, and it is equally cool to see him with new mysterious powers and abilities after his confrontation with the god Kashmir.

Thomas is on the front lines when a trick plan he hopes to make for a quick victory goes horribly wrong, and he and his army find themselves being pursued behind enemy lines. In this part, we see him try to escape being hunter by Kez soldiers, all the while uncovering a plot to bring yet another country against Ardo. I liked how, in this novel we see him work to fight off the desperation of being behind enemy lines, all the while trying to keep his close friends and army together in once piece. I also like how we do get some more backstory on some of the other characters we met before, such as Volara, Tantiel's former fenice. This story was really interesting because it was a race against time, with Thomas' army running out of men and resources against the Kez army.

Adamat is the detective with a mission this book, where he must find his family and defeat Lord Vetas. I have to admit that this is where I have some problems. Remember above when I said that all of the storylines were excellently written? Well, I may have to amend that. For me, the other two stories were A level stories, while this one was the B story. It seemed to plod a bit while Adamat was looking for both his Children and then his wife, and the payoff to finding them was not as good as I expected. Also, there is a scene where Adamat finds out that his oldest son was sold off as a slave to the Kez, and he wants to travel to the country and find him, and his wife flat out says no, saying to give up on him and stay here with his family. This line really does not sit well with me, because after all Faye has been through, she is just going to give up on her first child? No, no that does not work for me at all. There were many other scenes where I found myself asking afterward “Okay, how is this relevant?” I may have to eat my words, (and, secretly, I hope I will) but if this doesn't have anything to do with the next book, I'll be disappointed. As it stands, the story for Adamat was good, but not to the level of Thomas' and Tantiel's.

The writing is also very well done. When action is taking place, it is done excellently. The magic system is improved by having different breeds of Wardens appear from the last book, as well as Tantiel getting new powers. I think that the only reason that I would give the book a lower than perfect rating is that it does take a while to get started. Because of the slow start, and the Adamat B-story vibe, it is close, but I give this book a four out of five. It is a very good story, though, and I'll definitely be reading the next book in the series.