The Infernal Battalion

For those of you who've followed the series so far, the last book ended on a pretty major cliffhanger. Well, maybe cliffhanger isn't the best word for it. The story didn't end abruptly or challenge the characters with a ridiculous life-or-death situation for the sake of suspense. Because really, when do those types of cliffhangers ever not work out for the protagonists? Instead, Wexler ends book 4 with the natural culmination of a major character arc. We're left wondering: what will Janus do next?

The Infernal Battalion addresses this right from page one. The interludes that are normally reserved for villain POVs kick off with none other than—you guessed it—Janus. This perspective comes as a long-awaited treat, since readers have been left guessing at Janus's true intentions for the entire series thus far.

The satisfaction of seeing things from Janus's perspective shouldn't come as much of a surprise. One of Wexler's greatest strengths throughout this series is his characters. Even on the surface, the characters are fascinating: the female soldier who disguises herself as a man to join the army, then slowly works her way up through the ranks; the chivalrous general who must come to terms with his worldview being somewhat outdated; the mysterious genius with unknown motives; the reluctant queen who's secretly immortal.

Going further, all of these main characters have an enormous depth to them, a complexity that includes conflicting hopes and dreams, significant flaws, and constant growth. And that's not just limited to the POV characters. Few series can juggle such an expansive cast of side characters while making them all distinct and interesting. Even better, many of these amazing characters are women with real agency in the story who never feel as though they are cardboard cutouts of the stereotypical “strong female character.”

For those of you who enjoy audiobooks, Richard Poe does a stellar job with this series. He's somewhat underrated, but he was a perfect fit for The Shadow Campaigns. He pulls off both male and female voices convincingly and has enough range that different characters never run together. It's obvious that he reads the books prior to narrating them and uses this knowledge to add the appropriate nuances. Also, there's just something about his voice that complements military fantasy perfectly.

The biggest question for incoming readers is likely: does Wexler pull it off? Does the buildup of the last four books come to a satisfying conclusion? Yes, and hell yes.

Executive Summary: While not quite as good as the last two books, Mr. Wexler finished this series quite well. It's easily one of the best fantasy series of the last several years. I highly recommend you pick it up.Audiobook: Richard Poe once again does a good job here. The issues with his volume I've had in the past seem to be resolved. I'm not sure if that's his doing, or just improvements to the recording process or both. He's still a bit on the quiet side, but nothing like I remember from the earlier books. Audio is definitely a good option here.Full ReviewFor the last few years, the new books in this series have been coming out every summer. And every year when I look at my top reads, the most recent entry has been near the top. Last year we were deprived of another entry, but that just starts out 2018 on a strong note.I thought the first book ([b:The Thousand Names 15810910 The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1) Django Wexler https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1355441268s/15810910.jpg 21536059] in this series was good, but a bit heavy on the military action (and rather light on the magic). I enjoyed book 2 more than the first, but it was a bit overly heavy on the politics. Of course that didn't stop me from writing possibly my all time favorite (and one of my best liked)reviews.However it was [b:The Price of Valor 23435269 The Price of Valor (The Shadow Campaigns, #3) Django Wexler https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1423008261s/23435269.jpg 42905071] where this series really started to shine for me. Mr. Wexler found what I feel was the perfect balance of military battles, political intrigue and an interesting magical system that made it one of my top reads of 2015. I don't give 5 star ratings to books likely, so that fact that the final 3 books of this 5-book series have gotten one should tell you how much I liked it.The characters are fantastic. This is especially true of Winter. I think the main reason I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the last two, was that her story felt like it took a little longer to get going. Luckily Marcus and Recinia's chapters more than made up for it. I found myself listening a bit longer each day just so I could squeeze in an extra chapter here or there.I'm not a huge military fan, but the way Mr. Wexler writes these battles make it more than apparent how much he is. I'm not going to rush out and start reading books about the Napoleonic wars, but maybe if they demons granting magical abilities, I just might have.Overall I thought this was a fantastic series, and I'm glad a friend got my little side reads group to pick up the first one 5 years ago. It's a shame that Mr. Wexler isn't better known at this point, but I think he's been writing some of the best fantasy books of the last few years. If you haven't given this series a look yet, I highly recommend you do.

A satisfying ending to an outstanding series. A few of my questions were wrapped up, fingers crossed for some more stories in this world.