|
|
Title | The Penitent Damned
| |
Author | Django Wexler
| |
Cover Art | ---
| |
Publisher | 2013
| |
First Printing | 2013
| |
Notes | Free eBook
|
|
|
|
Title | The Thousand Names
| |
Author | Django Wexler
| |
Cover Art | Steve Stone
| |
Publisher | Del Rey - 2013
| |
First Printing | Roc - 2013
|
|
|
|
Title | The Shadow Throne
| |
Author | Django Wexler
| |
Cover Art | Paul Youll
| |
Publisher | Roc - 2014
| |
First Printing | Roc - 2014
|
|
|
|
Title | The Shadow of Elysium
| |
Author | Django Wexler
| |
Cover Art | ---
| |
Publisher | 2015
| |
First Printing | 2015
| |
Notes | Ebook Only
|
|
|
|
Title | The Price of Valour
| |
Author | Django Wexler
| |
Cover Art | Steve Stone
| |
Publisher | DelRey - 2015
| |
First Printing | Roc - 2015
|
|
|
|
Title | The Guns of Empire
| |
Author | Django Wexler
| |
Cover Art | Paul Youll
| |
Publisher | Roc - 2016
| |
First Printing | Roc - 2016
|
|
|
|
Title | The Infernal Battalion
| |
Author | Django Wexler
| |
Cover Art | Paul Youll
| |
Publisher | Ace - 2018
| |
First Printing | Ace - 2018
|
| |
|
Category | Flintlock/Gunpower/Military Fantasy
| |
Warnings | None
| |
Main Characters | Marcus d'Ivoire, Janus bet Vhalnich, Winter Ihernglass, Bobby Forester, Jennifer Alhunt, Fitz Warus, Feor, Alex, Duke Orlanko, Raesinia, Sothe, Jane Verity, Abraham
| |
Main Elements | Demons
| |
Website | djangowexler.com
|
|
 The Penitent Damned
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...
The Thousand Names
In the desert colony of Khandar, a dark a mysterious magic is about to be unleashed...
Senior Captain Marcus d'Ivoire is resigned to serving out his days in a remote outpost, when a rebellion leaves him in charge of a demoralized force in a hostile land.
Among his troops is Winter Ihernglass, newly promoted to sergeant. But as well as having to rise to the challenge she hides a secret...
Their fates rest in the hands of an enigmatic new Colonel who is following his own mysterious and supernatural agenda...
The Shadow Throne
Anyone can plot a coup or fire an assassin's bullet. But in a world of muskets and magic, it takes considerably more to seize the throne.
The ailing King of Vordan lies on his deathbead. When he dies, his daughter, Raesinia Orboan, will become the first queen regnant in centuries - and a ripe target for the ambitious men who seek to control her. The most dangerous of these is Duke Orlanko, Minister of Information and master of the secret police. Having meticulously silenced his adversaries through intimidation, imprisonment, and execution, Orlanko is the most feared man in the kingdom.
And he knows an arcane secret that puts Raesinia completely as his mercy.
Exposure would mean ruin, but Raesinia is determined to find a way to break herself - and her country - out of Orlanko's iron grip. She finds unlikely allies in the returning war hero Janus bet Vhalnich, fresh from a brilliant campaign in the colony of Khandar, and his loyal deputies, Captain Marcus D'Ivoire and Lieutenant Winter Ihernglass.
As Marcus and Winter struggle to find their places in the home they thought they would never see again, they help Janus and Raesinia set in motion events that could free Vordan from Orlanko's influence - at the price of throwing the nation into chaos. But with the people suffering under the Duke's tyranny, they intend to protect the kingdom with every power they command, earthly or otherwise.
The Shadow of Elysium
The wagons travel north across the mountains, carrying cargo of great value: Hamveltai glass and porcelain; Deslandai jewelry in heavy iron strongboxes; fine cloth from the cities of the Old Coast. And Abraham.
Bound and tied, guarded day and night, Abraham has been stolen from his village, from the arms of the man he loved. He is being sent to the fortress-city of Elysium to serve a dark and ancient order, the Priests of the Black. They have discovered the secret he kept all his life: that inside him dwells a demon which allows him to heal…and to kill.
But Abraham is not alone. A young woman named Alex, similarly possessed, rides with him. And as a bond grows between them, they begin to wonder if they can turn the demons that have damned them into their salvation.
The Price of Valour
In the wake of the King's death, war has come to Vordan.
The new queen, Raesinia, is nearly powerless as the government tightens its grip and assassins threaten her life. Together with Marcus D'Ivoirs, she sets out to turn the tide of history.
But as all the powers of the continent rise against Vordan, Janus bet Vhalnich and Winter Ihernglass face a bloody battle against enemies not just armed with muskets and cannon, but dark priests of an ancient order, wielding forbidden magic.
The Guns of Empire
As the roar of the guns subsides and the smoke of battle clears, the country of Vordan is offered a fragile peace…
After their shattering defeats at the hands of brilliant general Janus bet Vhalnich, the opposing powers have called all sides to the negotiating table, in hopes of securing an end to the war. Queen Raesinia of Vordan is anxious to see the return of peace, but Janus insists that any peace with the implacable Sworn Church of Elysium is doomed to fail. For their Priests of the Black, there can be no truce with heretics and demons they seek to destroy, and the war is to the death.
Soldiers Marcus d’Ivoire and Winter Ihernglass find themselves caught between their general and their queen. Now, each must decide which leader truly commands their loyalty—and what price they might pay for final victory.
And in the depths of Elysium, a malign force is rising—and defeating it might mean making sacrifices beyond anything they have ever imagined.
The Infernal Battalion
Military might and arcane power clash in Django Wexler’s thrilling new Shadow Campaigns novel.
The Beast, the ancient demon imprisoned beneath the fortress-city of Elysium for a thousand years, has been loosed on the world. It absorbs mind after mind, spreading like a plague through the north. The fell army it has raised threatens the heart of Vordan, and it is under the command of the Beast’s greatest prize: legendary general Janus bet Vhalnich.
As Queen Raesinia Orboan and soldiers Marcus D’Ivoire and Winter Ihernglass grapple with the aftermath of a hard-fought military campaign, they soon discover a betrayal they never could have foreseen. The news arrives like a thunderbolt: Janus has declared himself the rightful Emperor of Vordan. Chaos grips the city as officers and regiments are forced to declare for queen or emperor.
Raesinia must struggle to keep her country under control and risks becoming everything she fought against. Marcus must take the field against his old commander, a man who has seemed an unbeatable strategist. And as Winter recovers from her injuries and mourns her losses, she knows the demon she carries inside her might be the only thing standing between the Beast and the destruction of everything in its path...
Now normally I'm more into swords and sorcery than guns and powder but having enjoyed Rogues of Black Fury I thought I would give this fantasy genre another try...
And I couldn't put the darn thing down. Now if you're looking for something super fast paced with non-stop action then this might not be for you, but I liked my books to take their time. I don't mean drag along till you fall asleep, but to pause now and then so we actually get to appreciate the characters and the world in which they are exist.
And the characters really drive this story. We see the world through the eyes of a handful of characters, each one being privy to different knowledge so that on the whole the reader knows more than any one character but at the same time, doesn't know what they do not. It was easy to get attached to Winter, Marcus, Janus and so many others, to want to know more about their past, present, future and their internal demons. In fact, so much so that the moment I finished the book I was right away looking to see if the sequel had already been published!
Also, the military aspect, rather than taking away from the the story for a non-military book reader, I found added to it. Wexler has a way of describing the day to day functioning of the army in a way that is fascinating and never boring. The mechanics of moving several thousand men around while keeping them fed and alive is no small task.
The world building was good too. While not something terribly unique, was just an alternate Europe/Middle East, still made you want to read to find out what made it subtely different from our world. The magic system too was barely hinted at, there is a lot more to learn, but it *is* there, and the tease of it was better than outright battles between magic wielders. The reader is left wondering who is the wizard, or if there even is one. I'll admit I figured out a few of the twists before they were officially revealed but the hints were there for those who looked for them.
Finally, Wexler has done something which I thought was impossible. See, my imagination is incapable of visualizing a battle scene. I can't even begin to count the number of books where there's a big battle going on, and I'm picturing something when an something happens, and it shatters the moment because clearly I had envisioned the scene wrong and something impossible just happened. I'd gotten used to that and just accepted it. But in The Thousand Names I could really picture the battles they were so well described. The imagery of an entire battalion in a square, bayonets bristling, a mad calvalry of desert raiders bearing down on them, was clear in my mind.
The Penitent Damned - May 2015
At only 20 pages long, it was a very short, but welcome return to the world of the Shadow Campaigns. Though a prequel to The Thousand Names, I'd suggest reading it afterwards since it gives some spoilers to the first book in the series (and in fact there is nothing about it that places it at any particular moment in the timeline). We are introduced to a couple new characters, and we get to meet another who was only mentioned in The Thousand Names. It just makes me all the more eager to get my hands on The Shadow Throne!
The Shadow Throne - July 2015
The Price of Valour - July 2015
I ended up reading these books back to back. In The Shadow Throne we returns from the land of desert nomads to the civilized capital city of Vordan. But civilized doesn't mean safe, on the contrary, political intrigues and ambitions of power are in the forefront. Duke Orlanko intends to rule through Princess Raesinia, a girl with a secret he can control, after all he's the head of the Concordat and all secrets are his...
So we go from big battles in the first book, to what is best described in my mind as a game of thrones. What goes on in the shadows, behind the scenes. The manipulations, the assassins, a battle of minds rather than brawn.
Frankly, when Raesinia showed up I was like, but I want to read about the other characters! But she grew on me, grew on me a lot. She's quirky and pragmatic. The Black Order gave her a demon to save her life, and to have a way to blackmail her into submission, she can now no longer die. she has amusing moments of wondering, if she were to be dismembered, would she regrow all her parts starting from her head, or would Sothe have to gather up all her pieces and put them back together.
We also develop Winter's storyline as she is reunited with Jane, her lover from when they were orphans together. But time and experience has had an effect on them and you can't always go back to the way things were.
There were still some fights, not military ones but a revolution of the people...which leads me to the third book, which begins with the consequences of revolution. Sometimes you overthrown one really nasty guy, only to have the power vaccuum suck up some other really nasty guy in his place. Be careful what you wish for.
In the Price of Valour we get the best of both worlds of the first two books. You get your big military battles and strategies, but the political intrigue is going on strong as ever behind the scenes. And suddenly, after three books of being impressed by Vhalnich's ability to come out on top of every situation smelling like roses, is there something more going on there? Does he have supernatural help? And more vexing, what does the guy want? If he wanted the throne he could take it, so there was clearly something else. Is he the good guy we think he is? Or is he the next Orlanko/Black Order? Does he care for the people around him, or are they just pawns he puts in place in the hopes that by having the right one in the right place at the right time they will handle the situations he predicts will arise.
Wexler makes his world real, you believe in it and its people can exist. There is geography, culture, history, and well defined magic that follows set rules. Ok, I had to suspend a bit of disbelief at the outcome of one of the battles in the third book, but I think something will get explained about Vhalnich before the series is done, I think there's something going on there we just don't know yet.
Which leads me to how I like how Wexler teases the reader a little bit. For example in The Thousand Names you know there's supposed to be magic, but you don't know who has it. In fact, as you get decently far into it you begin to wonder if anyone does. The Price of Valour does something else, takes a main character who you've grown to love, and then start to question his motivations. I really hope, even if I have to wait till the final book, to read some chapters from his point of view. I can't imagine what the inside of that guy's head must be like.
To me the characters are what really make these books work, and the characters evolve. They go from hero worship to questioning motives. Making hard choices about where they fit in the world. Ah poor Marcus, left in the city to "babysit" Raesinia, and in the end probably having a far more "exciting" time of things than anyone on the campaign with Vhalnich. A good-guy character like that can easily come off as a caricature but he's definitely one of my favorites. A man so unimaginative, who when running into Winter in a dress, thinks "Ah, Ihernglass is in disguise...don't see how anyone is fooled, he doesn't look like a girl at all", who blushes at the thought of women in the military, who has to grapple with the concept of magic. And Winter, so used to pretending to be a man that even when the opportunity arises to be herself, she finds her fake persona a more comfortable fit. It's not often you find such strong female characters. None of the characters are all knowing, all have to puzzle their way through things.
The only other flintlock/gunpowder fantasy I've read is The Rogues of the Black Fury, so I don't have a lot to compare this to, but Wexler has made me love the genre. I mean reading about a bunch of guys lining up in ordered rows taking pot shots at each other didn't sound all that thrilling, but the strategy behind turns out to be completely engrossing. Hard to imagine that this series is now definitely one of my top 5 favorites.
I don't know how I'll be able to wait till next year for book four. At least there's another short story for me to hunt down and devour in the meantime. There is so much potential as to where the story can go from here that I can't even begin to guess what will happen next.
The Shadow of Elysium - March 2021
The Guns of Empire - April 2021
The Infernal Battalion - May 2021
So I ended up waiting more than a year after all. A book club I was part of got me started on McClellan's Powder Mage trilogy so I ended up finishing that one first. But that gave me an excuse to re-read the first three books of this series when I got back to it, and I must say I loved those as much the second time around as I did the first.
I can't say as much about these last two books that I haven't already said, and also I need to avoid spoilers! Though talking of spoilers, there was one key "twist" to the tale that is revealed in the last book which I figured out part way through the fourth, so that lost a little impact, and there was an invevitable love story that for what it's worth, I felt the characters should be together, they were meant for each other, but I just couldn't get excited about it. And maybe I'd just read too many battles lately, but even those didn't excite me in the last two books as they did in the first two.
But while I sound I didn't love the last two books as much as the first three, and I guess that is kind of true, that didn't mean I didn't enjoy them a lot. And the ending worked well, it wrapped up almost every loose end, and even those which were not completely resolved, are mentioned and not forgotten. After all the world doesn't stop just because the story ends.
If you made me pick between the Shadow Campaigns and the Powder Mage trilogy I wouldn't be able to. They were both excellent and I highly recommend you read them both. Maybe not at the same time as I was doing. I'll be reading these books again some day. When I've forgotten just enough to make it exciting but while I still remember enough to notice the things I missed the first time around.
| 
