battaglie, battaglie, imboscate, battaglie, incursioni, battaglie, un po di magia e battaglie ( )

bordering on a 3. There were things I really liked about the book and I am interested in the next one. But it took me a really long time to get into it, care about the characters, etc. ( )

almost non stop-action of various kinds, memorable characters (the colonel and Winter), some nice, original magic ideas (I loved the idea behind the last magic confrontation), good, fast writing style, good twists (great even, towards the end), never boring, always catchy.
The world is very well shaped - a fantasy mixture of the French colonial wars in Algeria with the French (Napoleon) campaign to Egypt (Khandarai here), with hints of a France similar to that in the Dumas novels (kind of a Richelieu against the interests of the king, in this book only suggested, perhaps developed in the sequels). It is not actually a gunpowder fantasy, but a gunpowder novel with added fantasy elements - and a captivating one at that.
The opposite of many other reviewers here on GR, I absolutely loved the first 2 thirds of the book, which could be summarized as march-battle-march-battle and so on, or manly men doing manly stuff while being soldierly and, well, very manly, and also some women doing... manly stuff? I did not enjoy that much the last third, an Indiana Jones style adventure with a tint of YA for girls - but it compensated with some good twists. So this volume is 2/3 military fantasy and 1/3 adventure fantasy (actually the fantasy elements are quite low, generally).
In the military part, the author proves a very good understanding of tactics (though also some typical civilian misunderstanding of the actual military life, even hilariously wrong - like the trick pulled by Winter on the training field - it could not have worked, since the second officer was NOT in her chain of command) - helped by enemies that oblige to mostly be dumb and tactically ridiculous (which is not a mistake, there were plenty of such examples in wars). The battles themselves are very captivating and exhilarating - great reads, congrats on that! (since battles are very hard to describe realistically, I could only think at Abercrombie as another author that gets those right).
To summarize: a very entertaining read, having no flaws as a fantasy (just a few as a military, but even those only noticeable to actual military readers) - I look forward to read the rest of the series! Also, one of the very few books that provided me with a believable ”strong woman” character that I actually ended up rooting for - congrats on that, too!
Bonus: you could get a taste of the Shadow Campaigns universe with a free story available here:
https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-coolest-fantasy-story-youll-read-this-week-514117561
No gunpowder or military fantasy there, but at least 3 major characters from the books. ( )

This has been on my shelf for a very long time and I finally picked it up.
I mostly enjoyed it a lot too. Really good characters with some twists and turns and hints of a wider world background. I did have some issues but that is more my taste than the book itself. I find battle descriptions pretty boring so there was a bit too much of that for me. But I enjoyed it enough to get the next in the series. ( )

A military flintlock fantasy in a setting similar a Napoleon-era but with a small amount of fantasy elements. The book has two protagonists in the same army as they are going to war. It is filled with a wide variety of characters that give the environment an enjoyable and exciting read. I really enjoyed the book and if you liked any other military-based fantasy books, you will likely enjoy this one too. ( )