“The Crimson Campaign” by Brian McClellan (Orbit)

An excellent middle book – slightly shaky start, but awesome second half & ending

“The hounds at our heels will soon know we are lions.”

Tamas’s invasion of Kez ends in disaster when a Kez counter-offensive leaves him cut off behind enemy lines with only a fraction of his army, no supplies, and no hope of reinforcements. Drastically outnumbered and pursued by the enemy’s best, he must lead his men on a reckless march through northern Kez to safety, and back over the mountains so that he can defend his country from an angry god.

In Adro, Inspector Adamat only wants to rescue his wife. To do so he must track down and confront the evil Lord Vetas. He has questions for Vetas concerning his enigmatic master, but the answers might come too quickly.

With Tamas and his powder cabal presumed dead, Taniel Two-shot finds himself alongside the god-chef Mihali as the last line of defence against Kresimir’s advancing army. Tamas’s generals bicker among themselves, the brigades lose ground every day beneath the Kez onslaught, and Kresimir wants the head of the man who shot him in the eye.

I really enjoyed McClellan’s debut novel, Promise of Blood, and also the short stories he has released set in the same world. I was, therefore, extremely happy to get my hands on an ARC of The Crimson Campaign. Perhaps as a result of reading the handful of short stories (all of which were expertly crafted), I found this novel a bit slow going to begin with. However, after the story settled in, I blitzed through it, and read it well into the wee hours of the morning, unable to put it down. McClellan, I believe, is going to have a long, successful career.

Short Story Reviews: “Forsworn” and “The Face in the Window” by Brian McClellan

A pair of short stories set in the world of McClellan’s Powder Mage fantasy series. McClellan continues to impress and these two stories (which follow previous short stories The Girl of Hrusch Avenue and Hope’s End) do a wonderful job of adding more to the world he’s creating. And heightening my anticipation for The Crimson Campaign…

FORSWORN

Erika ja Leora is a powder mage in northern Kez, a place where that particular sorcery is punishable by death. She is only protected by her family name and her position as heir to a duchy.

When she decides to help a young commoner — a powder mage marked for death, fugitive from the law — she puts her life and family reputation at risk and sets off to deliver her new ward to the safety of Adro while playing cat and mouse with the king’s own mage hunters and their captain, Duke Nikslaus.

Occurs 35 years before the events in Promise of Blood.

This is a great novella. This time, we’re in Kez, and we learn about their strict censure of powder mages – lowborn mages are executed, but highborn mages can forswear their gifts and live (branded). It is set a long while before the novel, as is mentioned above, and it’s only at the end that McClellan connects it with Tamas and his revolution. I really liked the way he wrote all of the characters. The story is very well-paced, and the fight scenes are expertly done. The author continues to impress, the more of his work I read.

Very highly recommended.

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THE FACE IN THE WINDOW

Taking place two years before the events in Promise of Blood, “The Face in the Window” relates the story of Taniel’s trip to Fatrasta and his first meeting with a mysterious girl named Ka-poel.

Published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies issue #140.

The author announced this rather suddenly on his website and via Twitter, just as I was finishing Forsworn. Naturally, I went straight to Amazon and bought it… It’s a great story, too, one that has a slow build to a sudden, appropriate ending. It was great to read of Taniel’s first meeting with Ka-poel (my favourite character from Promise of Blood, probably). It’s set in the muggy, oppressive, dragon-infested swamps, and Taniel attaches himself to a regiment who end up devastated by their enemies. With Ka-poel’s help, he seeks revenge on the Privileged who murdered his company.

Much shorter than Forsworn, McClellan nevertheless offers a satisfying story. You don’t have to have read Promise of Blood, but you will probably get a bit more out of “The Face in the Window” if you have.

*

Brian McClellan’s Promise of Blood is published in the UK and US by Orbit Books. The next novel in the series, The Crimson Campaign is due to be published in May 2014. I can’t wait!

Short Story Reviews, Flintlock Fantasy Edition: “Hope’s End” by Brian McClellan & “The Penitent Damned” by Django Wexler

Two new short stories from the new wave of flintlock fantasy authors

HOPE’S END by Brian McClellan

Captain Verundish has two problems. On campaign with the Adran army and far from her homeland, she is helpless when the young daughter she left at home is threatened. To make matters worse, General Tamas has put her lover in command of a Hope’s End — the first charge through a breach straight into the teeth of enemy cannon and sorcery. To save the people she loves, Verundish will have to come up with a deadly solution...

This is a pretty interesting story. A “Hope’s End” is the first charge against a fortress or other reinforced emplacement. It is pretty much guaranteed death. Tamas likes to select those who bought their commissions to lead these hopeless endeavours. In this case, however, Captain Verundish is in love with the man chosen to lead the next Hope’s End. With trouble back home (her husband is an asshole, and threatening the welfare of her daughter), the story actually opens with her contemplating suicide. Instead, she decides to volunteer to take over the Hope’s End, with the expectation of dying and guaranteeing her daughter’s financial future. Naturally, not all plans go according to plan.

Anyone who was disappointed at the lack of female characters in Promise of Blood will be pleased with Captain Verundish. She’s an interesting character, and I like the way she handles the personal and professional tests she’s presented with. The battle scene is pretty good, too – it’s focused, tightly-plotted, and not over-written. It is followed by an example of how good a leader Tamas is off the battlefield. It’s nice that McClellan has actually paid attention to developing our understanding of why Tamas is such a beloved leader – rather than just telling us that he is, and letting that be the end of it. It’s a good story. (This is set when Tamas’s son, Taniel, is only two years old.)

Well written, this is another good introduction to McClellan’s writing and fantasy world. I really like the way the author has been releasing these short stories to add more to our overall picture and understanding of the pre-coup world. Certainly recommended, and a must-read for fans of the novel. This has only increased my anticipation for The Crimson Campaign…

Also on CR: The Girl of Hrusch Avenue Review, Interview with Brian McClellan, Guest Posts Favourite Novel and Protagonist Ages in Epic Fantasy

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THE PENITENT DAMNED by Django Wexler

Alex is a master thief, with dark magic to give her an edge. When she goes up against Duke Orlanko’s Concordat secret police, though, she may have taken on more than she bargained for...

I read Wexler’s The Thousand Names recently, and thought it was a very interesting start to a new series. In The Penitent Damned, the author takes us far from the location of his novel, and back to a city under control of Duke Orlanko. Alex, the protagonist, has always had special abilities which have given her an edge in her chosen profession. Schooled by a former master-thief, she has taken a job in the city. Frustratingly, to go into much more detail about the story will ruin it (it’s a very short story). We get a glimpse of more of what is going on behind the scenes. We learn just a little bit more about certain events at the end of The Thousand Names, which opens up some intriguing possibilities for the next book in the series. All very cryptic, but I think if you read the novel, and then this short story, you’ll see why I don’t want to go into too much detail. We get to see more magic in action, this time around (which didn’t feature as much in Thousand Names). And it was very cool, giving rise to some good action scenes.

Even if you haven’t read the novel, though, this is a pretty good introduction to Wexler’s writing style and fantasy world. I’d recommend it to anyone who hasn’t yet decided if they want to read The Thousand Names, as well as fans of the novel. Wexler is, I believe, definitely an author to watch. A very satisfactory short story, discussed in a rather unsatisfactory review. Sorry about that.

Also on CR: Interview with Django Wexler, Guest Post on Terry Pratchett

Short Fiction Round-Up: Hillary Jordan, Brian McClellan, Tom Rachman & Frank Cavallo

I’ve been reading a selection of short stories over the past couple of weeks, but I keep forgetting, or getting distracted from posting the reviews. So, to speed things up, I’ve compiled this selection of four reviews. Each is very different to the others, and offers something different. Not all of them were great, but each has something to offer the reader with a couple of hours to spare – either on a commute, or in between longer reads as palate cleansers. I had a lot more to say about one of them, but it is part of a much larger, decade-spanning series.

Reviewed: Frank Cavallo’s Into the Valley of Death, Hillary Jordan’s Aftermirth, Brian McClellan’s The Girl of Hrusch Avenue, and Tom Rachman’s The Bathtub Spy

Interview with BRIAN McCLELLAN

Brian McClellan’s debut fantasy, Promise of Blood, has caused quite a splash in the SFF community. It blends fast-paced story-telling with a new and interesting world, and a plethora of interesting and engaging characters. Brian has already featured on Civilian Reader a few of times already. He has written two guest posts – on his favourite novel, and also Protagonist Ages in Epic Fantasy – and I have reviewed the novel already, too. He was kind enough to take some time to answer my questions about his fiction, writing practices, and more…

“Promise of Blood” by Brian McClellan (Orbit)

One of 2013’s most Hotly-Tipped Fantasy Debuts

“The Age of Kings is dead. And I have killed it.”

Field Marshal Tamas’s coup against his king sends corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brings bread to the starving. But it also provokes war in the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics and greedy scrambling for money and power by Tamas’s supposed allies: the Church, workers’ unions and mercenary forces.

Stretched to his limit, Tamas relies heavily on his few remaining powder mages, including the embittered Taniel, a brilliant marksman who also happens to be Tamas’s estranged son, and Adamat, a retired police inspector whose loyalty will be tested to its limit.

Now, amid the chaos, a whispered rumour is spreading. A rumour about omens of death and destruction. Just old peasant legends about the gods returning to walk the earth. No modern educated man believes that sort of thing...

But perhaps they should.

I’ve been looking forward to this novel for a good long while. When I was finally able to get my mitts on a copy, I tore into it, and blitzed through it far quicker than I normally do for a 500+ page novel. Bottom line, while there are a few niggles, Promise of Blood is a lot of fun, and the start of something potentially fantastic.

The novel has three main character perspectives, through which we learn basically everything we need. And that, actually is something I’ll deal with quickly: we get a lot of information, world-building, history and so forth. There is a near-blizzard of new names and terms near the start, but McClellan has done a good job of working them into the story appropriately. That being said, “Centestershire” made me grumble…

The first main character is that old fella on the cover: Field Marshall Tamas. In his 60s, he is the leader of the army and also the mastermind of the coup to topple King Manhouch. He struggles a bit with the demands of leadership. Enormity of the coup weighs heavy on him. Over the course of the novel he will have to face multiple attempts on his life, nefarious Privileged (mages) with truly evil ways of dampening a Powder Mage’s abilities, and plots within plots. Oh, and someone who could be a god…

An old acquaintance of Tamas, investigator Adamat is called in by the Field Marshall to look in to the peculiar mystery that was stirred up by the last words of the Royal Cabal of Privileged. He heads out to learn what he can, but quickly discovers someone has been systematically destroying references to the mysterious “Kresimir’s Promise”. On top of that, and further adding to his problems, he’s in debt to some unsavoury people. People who are entirely comfortable with exerting pressure in sensitive physical and psychological places…

“Did you do this for power?”

“I did this for me,” Tamas said. “And I did this for Adro. So that Manhouch wouldn’t sign us all into slavery to the Kez with the Accords. I did it because those grumbling students of philosophy at the university only play at rebellion. The age of kings is dead, Adamat, and I have killed it.”

And finally, we have Taniel, Tamas’s son. Like his father and ex-betrothed, Taniel is a Powder Mage. I suppose I should mention that I really like this idea – people with ballistic powers based around (you guessed it) the use of gunpowder. It gives them heightened senses, pyro- and tele-kinetic powers (of sorts), and can be generally total badasses in combat. (Just wait until the Field Marshall unleashes his abilities… Whoa.)

Tamas reached out mentally and absorbed the power of the powder blast. He felt the energy course through him, warming his body like a sip of fine spirits. He redirected the power of the blast harmlessly into the floor, cracking a marble tile beneath the king.

Taniel is tasked with hunting down a Privileged who escaped the coup, and stamp out the King’s Royal Cabal once and for all. He accepts the job, if for not other reason than to create more distance between him and his ex-fiancée, Vlora, who is seconded to Tamas’s command. Through his investigation, we see how devastating and destructive battle between two Privileged can be (scenes at the university), and also learn a little more of the world. Like Adamat, his investigation will take him to some far-flung regions of the world McClellan has created.

The story and prose flow very nicely, and I easily sank in to the narrative each time I picked it up (real world commitments precluded me from devouring it in a couple of long, leisurely sittings). The pacing is superb, and I enjoyed hanging out with the characters. I particularly liked Taniel’s “Savage” companion, who is all manner of awesome (and really comes into her own in the second half of the novel). There were a couple of chronological jumps, though, of a week or month, which took me a bit by surprise. Maybe a sign of trying to cram too much into the opening book? I don’t think it really has much of a negative impact on how much I enjoyed the novel, but I did have to pause a couple of times to reorient myself.

I can see Promise of Blood being very popular. There’s a lot of great world-building, and it will certainly be interesting to see more of it unveiled in future books in the series. There are a handful of interesting characters, with three pretty strong key cast members. Their supporting allies, antagonists, and companions are all interesting as well. I do think, though, that book two perhaps needs to expand the core cast a little bit more, adding a bit more variation in the points of view? The plot is good, and fast-paced (if a smidge busy at times), and gripping. It is well-crafted, but I think it could have done with a few tweaks and tucks here and there.

Overall, this is a satisfying and promising start to a new series. There are a lot of things readers will expect from a debut and the first part of a new series: pieces are still maneuvering on the board, conspiracies are revealed, secrets hinted at and unveiled, and more.

I had a lot of fun reading this – there are some interesting surprises, characters are not sacred to McClellan (lots of sudden deaths), some riveting and blockbuster-esque action scenes, and a satisfying conclusion that leaves things wide open for book two, The Crimson Campaign. I think McClellan’s going to have a successful career as an author, and the more he writes, the more impressive his novels will become. If you’re looking for a fun, original and engrossing new fantasy series, then I would certainly recommend this.

Also on CR: Guest posts by Brian – “My Favourite Novel” and “Protagonist Ages in Epic Fantasy”

Extras: Two Maps of the World, and the cover for book two, out next year from Orbit Books…

Upcoming: “The Crimson Campaign” by Brian McClellan (Orbit)

Despite the first book in Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage trilogy still a few weeks away (I’ll get a review up ASAP), Orbit have unveiled the artwork for its sequel, THE CRIMSON CAMPAIGN:

I really like this, too. McClellan’s debut series may end up having some of the nicest covers in a long while. Or, since Joe Abercrombie’s and Mark Lawrence’s… The Photo-Illustration is by Michael Frost and Gene Mollica, and the design is by the ever-excellent and super-talented Lauren Panepinto.

No synopsis for the novel is available just yet, but The Crimson Campaign will be published by Orbit in February 2014.

Also on CR: Guest Posts by Brian McClellan “My Favorite Novel” & “Protagonist Ages in Epic Fantasy”

Guest Post: “Protagonist Ages in Epic Fantasy” by Brian McClellan

Brian McClellan is the author of the upcoming PROMISE OF BLOOD, the first in the Powder Mage Trilogy (Orbit, April 2013). Here he discusses age conventions in Epic Fantasy…

“Protagonist Ages in Epic Fantasy”

The young farm boy is so common in fiction that it's become a cliché. I grew up reading about farm boys, or some other young, naive laborer, in the works of David Eddings, Tad Williams, Robert Jordan, or William Goldman. My favorite movie as a kid – Star Wars – centered around a farm boy who, like those in the books I liked, yearned for adventure and then was booted out of his home in a twist of fate and became savior of the nation! Or country. Or world. Or galaxy.

You get the point.

So why the young farm boy?

Artwork: Brian McClellan’s “Promise of Blood” (Orbit)

A little while back, Brian McClellan wrote a guest post for me. Ever since then – in fact, a little while before then – I’ve been dying to read his debut novel. My anticipation for the novel was only ratcheted up higher today, when Orbit released the fantastic artwork:

This is fantastic. Can. Not. Wait.

Promise of Blood will be published by Orbit Books in April 2013. Here’s the synopsis:

Field Marshal Tamas’ coup against his king sent corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brought bread to the starving. But it also provoked war with the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics, and greedy scrambling for money and power by Tamas’s supposed allies: the Church, workers unions, and mercenary forces. Stretched to his limit Tamas is relying heavily on his few remaining powder mages, including the embittered Taniel, a brilliant marksman who also happens to be his estranged son, and Adamat, a retired police inspector whose loyalty is being tested by blackmail.

Now, as attacks batter them from within and without, the credulous are whispering about omens of death and destruction. Just old peasant legends about the gods waking to walk the earth. No modern educated man believes that sort of thing. But, the thing is, they should.

My Favourite Novel by Brian McClellan

This is the first installment of a new series of guest posts. It’s pretty self-explanatory what it’s all about. Brian McClellan, the author of the upcoming Promise of Blood (book one in The Powder Mage Trilogy) coming in April 2013 from Orbit Books. Over to Brian…

I often tell people that I don’t have a single favorite novel. I have dozens of favorite novels. Books I’ve read and loved and re-read; with engaging characters and nasty villains and a compelling plot. If I’ve read a 150,000 word novel in less than twenty-four hours, how can I not list it among my favorite books? And of all those, how can I choose which one is my favorite?

If I tell you that I don’t have a favorite novel, I’m lying.

My favorite novel, without question, is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.