The Infernal Battalion is the fifth and final book in the high fantasy Shadow Campaigns series by Django Wexler. Released 9th January by Berkley publishing on their Ace imprint, it's 480 pages (over 2500 pages for the series) and available in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audiobook formats.

This is immersive campaign fantasy in a classic style. It provides political action, campaigning, skulduggery, questing, magic and everything for the 'doorstop fantasy' nerd. I have followed the progress of the series and world building since the beginning, and will say right away that I believe that this final book would suffer greatly by attempting to read it as a standalone. There's way too much backstory and context necessary to be read by itself.

Mr. Wexler does a superb job of maintaining detail oriented plot progression (i.e., character focused) and balancing it against the panoply of a huge world-sized political commentary. In my opinion the focus remains balanced and the characters have a vital role in plot progression without being overshadowed by or lost inside the wider world-campaign. The pace of this last book might be slightly more rushed than the previous books in the series. Going over my review notes, there were a couple of times I felt that the author wanted closure and was pushing a bit to get there. Then again, after over 2500 (!!) pages, who could possibly blame him?

One thing I admire about this series very much is the strength of the female characters. They are emphatically not there to swoon and cling helplessly to the legs of their captors/saviors. They're real, flawed, strong, and (mostly) intelligent.

I enjoyed the series very much and thought this last volume did a good job of wrapping up the disparate plot threads. It wasn't too perfect or happy-happy. It was mostly complete.

The language is about average for a doorstop fantasy. There are a fair number of curse words used and some sexual content. I don't imagine it would offend the majority of readers.

I'll miss looking forward to each new book as it's published.

Four stars, and four strong stars for the completed series.

If you’ve read the previous four books of this series (the Shadow Campaigns), this book wraps it up quite satisfactorily (in not too neatly!) If you start with this one, Wexler has included enough reflections to get all the backstory and bring you up to date painlessly — it isn’t so repetitive as to make the progress tedious.

Tension builds throughout and the relationships started in the past develop reasonably, considering that a mere year has past since the start of the adventure. Even knowing that reading all five books means a commitment of some serious reading time, I recommend this series (or this book alone) for both the story and the great use of the English language.

Out of all five novels in this series this one had me most conflicted. There were portions where I wanted to scream at the characters to warn them of the dangers they were walking into. There were also portions where I just wanted to skip pages to breeze through some dry parts. And there there was the ending leaving me desperately hoping for more as I had too many unanswered questions, let me explain.

Marcus has been deployed with the army to halt Janus's army. These portions are very action oriented with a lot of battles and bloodshed. I found the battles more gory than any of the other previous battles in previous novels and I'm not sure why. There's one scene in the cutters tent that I found particularly disturbing.

Raesinia is trying to obtain more troops to help out in the war before she joins the war. Overall I found these parts too political and kind of boring. I wish they could have been shortened. Winter is the true hope for peace so she's trying to make her way to Vordan. There was some scenes that could have been shortened without losing much but overall they were good.

The epilogue really had me wishing more was written. Although a satisfactory conclusion was given for everyone I wanted to learn more about the communities destroyed and lives lost. Also, how does an empire continue after all that death.

In summary, this was a great epic fantasy novel but it was the weakest out of the five (so 4.5 stars instead of five).

Thanks to Ace Books and Netgalley for this ARC.

The Infernal Battalion is the fifth and final book in Django Wexler’s series, The Shadow Campaigns. And when it comes to a series finale, I’m looking for any final mysteries to be resolved, plot threads to come together, characters to fully and finally embrace who they are, and a big showdown to be fought. In The Infernal Battalion Django Wexler delivers that and more.

As was discussed in my interview with Wexler, it’s hard to discuss book five in a series without spoiling the previous books. So I’m going to use the rule we set in that interview: I won’t go into spoilery specifics about the previous books that you can’t see in those books’ summaries. So if you’ve read books one through four, you can definitely read this review without worry. If you haven’t read the previous books, read this review at your own caution. But honestly, the fact that I’ve stuck with a series for five books should be a vote of confidence. Go pick up The Thousand Names and get reading. This review will be here when you’re done with the previous four books.

The Infernal Battalion (cover)

By the time you reach the final chapters of book four of the series, The Guns of Empire, you would have seen battles, revolutions, and wars. You might think things seem to have been settling down. Sure, there would be some bumps ahead, but the hard work was largely done, right? But then you reach the end. And that’s when you remember that all of that was just on the surface. All the while, magic has secretly been growing in the background. And now an ancient and powerful demon, the Beast, was unleashed after a millennium of imprisonment. It quickly spreads, taking over the minds and bodies of anyone within reach.

The Infernal Battalion isn’t about the fate of some forts on the periphery of the empire or the success or failure of a political revolution (as much as I really enjoyed those stories earlier in the series). It’s about the fate of all mankind. The tricky part is that only a handful of people know that the real danger isn’t that Janus bet Vhalnich, a legendary general who never seems to lose, has declared himself the rightful emperor of Vordan and is marching on the fledgling republic. It’s something much worse. Queen Raesinia Orboan, General Marcus D’Ivoire, and General Winter Ihernglass—all scarred by the recent revolution and war—must decide how to save their lives, save their republic, and save the world.

Let’s look at those series finale points I listed above, starting with mysteries resolved. Let’s just leave it at yes, mysteries are resolved. Anything more that would ruin the surprise.

So plot threads coming together and character growth. At the end of book four, Raesinia and Marcus are together in Vordan (at least to begin with), but Janus and Winter are each off on their own. So yes, there is a little bit of a Meereenese Knot that Wexler has to undo to get all the necessary players together for the final showdown. While I’m sure some people will complain about how long this takes, I enjoyed it, because it allowed Wexler to focus on each character. We get to see each of them learn that final lesson and reach that last, big stage of growth.

Winter has never sought leadership, but she has always felt the responsibility of being a leader. Losing people under her cuts her deep. In this book, she must decide if she is still willing to do the hard work despite the pain and trauma of loss both past and potential.

Marcus has devoted his whole life to the Vordani army, and although he has led it successfully, it has changed faster than him. He must now decide if he can accept that change and treat all of his soldiers equally, regardless of gender. And that’s on top of wondering, not only whether he has done enough and taught them enough to stand up against the greatest general he’s ever known, but also if he can inspire his soldiers to remain with him and his queen despite the long odds.

Young Queen Raesinia Orboan has always fought back against those who seek to use her as their puppet or push her into a corner. But she will need to learn when it might be better to surrender, to give up some of her power—and personal desires—for the good of her country. Then again, sometimes finance lets her be more powerful than everyone else.

The Infernal Battalion (cover UK)As for Janus—yes, he is finally a POV character in this book—we do learn more about him, but we don’t see the same growth and evolution. But that was fine by me. The series has always been about those in his orbit. To really dig into his character the way we do with the others would, in my opinion, take a little away from his genius.

Now to the big fight. Marcus must pit his army—composed of beaten down and dwindling veterans backed by raw recruits—against Janus’s army—composed of rank after rank of fanatical, fearless zealots. Yes, there are infantry and cavalry charges, muskets and cannons and clever tactics. It wouldn’t be a Shadow Campaigns novel without them. I would say it was over too quickly (because I enjoy them so much), but that big fight isn’t really the big fight. It’s the demon that matters. If Winter can’t beat the Beast, it doesn’t matter if Janus wins. And that fight takes place in a whole other realm fought in an entirely different manner.

Pushing back from a big series should be like pushing back from a big meal. I want to be a little surprised, very satisfied, and have an experience that will make me smile thinking back on it. Wexler provides fantastic fare.

Among my very favorite book series alongside Robert Jackson Bennett's Divine Cities.

The Infernal Battalion is the fifth, and final, book in Django Wexler's Shadow Campaigns series.

Peace came briefly to Vordan, but it is not long before the Beast of Judgement turns an eye to the country in an attempt to claim the Thousands Names, the massive steel tablets bearing the names of legions of demons. It is only Winter's Infernivore, and the Names themselves that stand as true obstacles to the Beast’s complete domination of humanity.

Janus bet Vhalnich, one of the greatest generals of Vordan, has fallen to the Beast's influence, and now leads an army against the Queen, calling himself Emperor of Murnsk and Vordan. As Marcus and the Army of the Republic face off against Janus, Winter fights to get back to Vordan and seeks a way to reach the Beast of Judgement's core host, so she can use Infernivore.

Meanwhile, Queen Raesinia seeks aid from Borel, not so long ago enemy to Vordan. But it is only Winter and her traveling companions who know the full depth of danger they face. To the others, the Beast is a creature out of legend. Janus alone is a dangerous foe. With the Beast's control, he is downright lethal. Not every enemy is an enemy though, and the Vordanai forces find the assistance of a master strategist giving subtle aid. Will all the pieces in this far-flung grand game of chess end up where they need to be for a full checkmate?

I love the Shadow Campaigns series! This is a brilliant series that blends technology with magic, and is military fantasy at its best. Much as I love Game of Thrones, I like this series more. These civilisations are roughly evolved to the equivalent of say, the US Civil War, or the Napoleonic Wars. Cavalry is utilised, and bayonets/muskets, along with cannon. The attention and depth of detail to the battle sequences is breathtaking, and terrifying, painting a very vivid picture. It's clear the author is well-researched in this area, and I felt immersed in the soldiers’ terror of battle, and their courage to stand and fight.

This is a world where demons exist, and those possessed by them have abilities both feared and revered. These demons require a host. Their names are recorded in the Thousand Names, and a person reads the name in a ritual, binding with the demon, and it's not uncommon for death to occur. Each demon offers different gifts, allowing the host to heal, or travel as sand, or never die, among other things.

Throughout this book, and the series as a whole, many different cultures are explored- Vordanai, Haeta, Borelgai, Khandarai. The anthropologist in me appreciates this! Here, again, Wexler has paid attention to detail. Each culture has its own values and personality traits, sometimes bringing characters into serious conflict.

Each chapter follows the perspective of one particular character, and I looked forward to reading each. Usually, in cases where the chapters follow different people, there's always one story thread that's just not as interesting. None of these were boring in the slightest and each had vastly different things going on. Marcus was in the midst of war, right on the front lines. Raesinia’s story focused on more courtly aspects. Winter was on a desperate, headlong flight. Janus’ was the most alien of all, as he navigated working with the Beast.

Ideally, these books should be read in order. There is enough information threaded through the narrative though that, even if you jump in the middle, you'll find footing quick enough. Through this series, Wexler has become one of my favourite authors, and I look forward to his next work!

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Penguin/Random House for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Don’t read this if you haven’t read the previous four books.

In this final volume of the series, Janus, the brilliant general who has repeatedly saved his country . . . becomes its biggest threat.

We start off with my least favorite character, the evil Beast, which is spreading widely, slurping up minds and controlling the bodies of all those it encounters and building a terrifying army of zombie soldiers. At its head? Janus, who was incorporated by the Beast at the end of the previous book, causing the cliff-hanger of all cliff-hangers for those of us who like Janus and Winter best of all the characters we have followed through the previous books. (I confess I couldn’t review it, I was so stunned, and decided to wait to see if the whole series fell into the abyss of grimdark.)

Now Queen Raesiena and Marcus have to figure out how to deal with what seems to be a traitorous backstab to end all betrayals. Vordan, recently recovered from horrific war and revolution, wants peace. But the queen has to face this new threat . . . and while wheeling and dealing with diplomats from other kingdoms, decides to hit the road and talk to the minds behind the diplomatic soap, rather than depending on these not-always-trustworthty middlemen, who have their own agendas as well as their monarchs’.

All along, Janus has been not only brilliant, but enigmatic, his true intent not always clear. So much hinges on Janus, and I think Wexler brings it off. Not just the character building (more later) but how we slowly, finally, get insight into Janus . . . as our heroes appear to be working against him.

Because I read a lot of early modern European history, I am usually unable to engage with historicals-with-magic-tacked-on because there is not enough sense of history, even without the effects of magic worked in at all levels. Patched-together magic layered over Georgette Heyer’s Regency with modern American language and mores can work for me when it’s funny, but otherwise I get mental whiplash and can’t stay in the story.

Wexler’s series has been one of the exceptions. The research resonated all through the inventions, giving me that Easter Egg feel when I not only recognized key points of the French Revolution in the substrate, but even bits of Simon Schama’s Citizens--or thought I did. Therefore, my expectations sometimes worked against me, I discovered in reading this book, such as: if Janus was the Napoleon figure, when was he going to turn on everyone and declare himself emperor?

The cool thing here is that Wexler, like Kate Elliott did in her Spiritwalker universe, took the history and worked from the ground up in rebuilding the world. So it was a mistake to think I could safely predict the equivalent historical milestones in this story arc.

Anyway, everyone draws together to a climax that was a real nailbiter, one I couldn’t predict at all, causing me to appreciate yet again that here we have military fantasy at its best, with a whole lot of women in the uniforms.

The character building was as complex and meticulously done as the worldbuilding. Janus, though a Napoleon figure, is not Napoleon. Though Janus and Winter were my favorites, I got attached to minor characters (Sothe!), and delighted in many threads coming to completion. Nobody is one-note, that is, pretty much the same emotion, intent, and motivation all the time.

I also appreciated that Wexler did not cop to the “gay tragic death” rather than letting the gay person get happiness. I relished how the awesome Winter gets poignant but good closure with Jane, and happiness with the excellent Cyte.

In short, a deep sigh of satisfaction, and this goes on the keeper shelf. I look forward to Wexler’s next.

I've thoroughly enjoyed this series and am sorry to see it come to an end. Bernard Cornwell kept Sharpe campaigning for more than 20 books! Of course, each of those books was about 1/4 of the size of a Shadow Campaigns book, so I suppose it comes out about even. If you have enjoyed reading about the military strategy in this series, I do suggest the Sharpe series as a way to continue to get your fix.

I know that Wexler is a tabletop gamer, and I believe that way back in the day I read something about him wanting to do his spin on Waterloo. His Waterloo is this book. In fact, Waterloo is over a bit more than half-way through it and then the book continues! That surprised me; I'd figured that you can't really outdo Waterloo. And I think I was sort of right about that.

The big bad of the series is The Beast, a demon which can possess many bodies at once, and which therefore can be miles ahead of any traditional intelligence and strategy during a battle because of it's semi-hive-mind. The Beast's powers combined with Janus bet Vhalnich's strategic genius is a deadly combination. Although we saw Janus taken by the Beast in the last book, he has managed to hold onto a thread of himself and offers his services to the Beast to keep from being utterly consumed. I would have been surprised if Janus had perished in the last book, but I confess that his survival did seem a bit hand-wavy. I'd also have preferred to see him fighting against the Beast instead of for it.

Several times during the book the idea of what an incredible advantage it is to be able to know what's going on during a battle as it transpires comes up. I'm sure that's a nod to the fact that table-top gamers have this advantage themselves, and it's probably a topic for discussion- what would it be like to try to direct a battle amidst the dust and cannonfire instead of from a birdseye view.

There's a lot more to the book than battles, though. Several of the characters go through anguish as they try to process the responsibility of giving orders that will probably get people they care about killed. This felt a bit late in the game to me, honestly- these people have been fighting for years, so focusing on that in the last book of the series didn't work as well for me.

Winter remains one of my favorite characters, and not just in this series. Her principles and bravery make her someone well worth rooting for. For much of this book, she's trying to make her way back home, which gives the story the opportunity to go back to examining some morale and small unit tactics that we've seen her execute so well before. Wexler can still manage to come up with interesting military problems and scenarios that include the human decision making element as well as the tactics and logistics.

Raesinia is not one of my favorite characters, although she makes herself useful in the end. She goes to try to win some dubious allies over for help against the Beast, and become embroiled in the politics of the ruler whom she visits. I could see the marriage alliance idea coming miles before she could, and that didn't seem very smart of her- after all, her whole life has been about political alliances and she's been raised to expect a marriage of that sort. So she was sort of annoying to me yet again.

The last battle, unfortunately, did not have the suspense of the Waterloo analogue. I think that's partly because the battle is all essentially just a distraction so that Winter and the demon she hosts, Infernivore, can sneak in and attack the Beast. Sothe is used to good effect in this last battle, and I enjoyed Winter's part as well. I do think that Wexler wrote himself a bit into a corner with the Beast's abilities, for it ended up not being an especially intelligent entity for all of its access to information. I was hoping for a bit more demon-on-demon fighting. It didn't quite seem like the Big Boss fight to me; slightly anticlimactic.

But I suppose it's got to be hard to keep raising stakes and ending such a monster of a series. I'm by no means sorry I read it! I liked seeing characters that I've grown quite attached to one last time, and Wexler never disappoints with his battle scenes.

Often it is said that the final book that can either make or break a series, but I’m thrilled to report that The Infernal Battalion is a finale that exceeded my expectations, bringing about a stunning conclusion to The Shadow Campaigns.

As this is a review for the fifth and final installment of the series, the usual caveats apply: beware of possible spoilers for the previous books, if you are not already caught up. A great deal has happened to bring us to this point, including the escape of the Beast—the demon of all demons, and a force of unspeakable evil—from its ancient prison beneath Elysium. Its influence spreads the way it feeds, absorbing the minds and controlling the bodies of all those it infects. Now it has amassed an unstoppable army of these drone-like soldiers, and at the head of this infernal host is none other than General Janus bet Vhalnich, whose faculties the Beast had stolen at the end of The Guns of Empire.

But to those who are unaware of Janus’s possession, his actions seemed like the worst kind of betrayal. Vordan has only just emerged from a bloody war, and Queen Raesinia had been looking forward to a period of peace for rebuilding. Instead, she now finds herself under threat from the very same man who won her kingdom its many victories in battle. Janus has declared himself Emperor, and his message to Raesinia is loud and clear: surrender her throne, or else he and his army will destroy anyone who stands in his way.

For readers who have been following The Shadow Campaigns and are familiar with Janus’s military prowess, we know perfectly well what his character is capable of. Perhaps it only makes sense for Vordan’s greatest hope to become its greatest threat, and in retrospect, this crux of the series might have been in development for several books now, under Wexler’s subtle guidance. It made for a gripping premise, one worthy of a grand finale, for not only did the phenomenal battle sequences and action make this the most intense novel of the series, Janus’s apparent betrayal also created a lot of interesting conflicts for our characters. Many of them are unaware that their general is under the control of the Beast, giving rise to a lot of uncertainty and tension—an element of suspense that I felt was missing in the previous book.

As you may recall, in my review of The Guns of Empire, I noted the sporadic pacing of the book, almost like the series seemed to be biding its time, holding itself back for the right moment to unleash its full force. Well, that time has finally come. Wexler is in his element as The Infernal Battalion shifts the focus back to the chaos and violence of the frontlines, making this one an action-packed installment.

However, the true strength of the novel lies in its characters. We’ve seen the cast expand in size and diversity over the course of five books, but the three main protagonists—Winter, Marcus, Raesinia—remain the heart and soul of this series. Individually, they’ve each endured so much, and now that we’ve arrived at the end of this journey, I desperately needed to know what would become of them. Happily, this finale did not disappoint; all three of our stars get their moments to shine, and there were plenty of revelations about them as well, with the surprises coming at us hard and fast. Marcus won my love in this one, as he was in the most unenviable position of having to go up against Janus—his former commanding officer that he greatly admired and considered a friend—knowing that his chances of winning were practically nil. I was also touched by his love and loyalty to Raesinia, even with their romance full of ups and downs. Winter was a joy to follow too, despite her constant guilt-ridden thoughts and self-pity parties, and I think her epic actions in the climax will end up being one of the series’ most memorable moments.

In sum, The Infernal Battalion is the culmination of everything that has been building up throughout The Shadow Campaigns. As a finale, I couldn’t have asked for more; the plot and characters were engaging, the ending was satisfying, and as far as I’m concerned, Django Wexler has written a pitch-perfect conclusion to one of my favorite series. It has been an incredible journey, one that I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone with a love for epic fantasy fiction.

Happy publication day Django Wexler, and congrats on finishing The Shadow Campaigns with your fifth and final installment, The Infernal Battalion. To celebrate I thought I would write a review (possibly thanks to the lovely advanced copy I got from netgalley in exchange for an honest review). The Shadow Campaigns has been a very difficult series for me to holistically rate. It has had both intense highs (with every action scene gripping my heart) and unfortunate lows (I don’t care how realistic it is, the logistics of moving an army through winter is not exciting). It is a series that seems to take two steps forward, one step back, for me and has alternated books I love with books I am neutral on. I wasn’t crazy about the fourth book in the series, The Guns of Empire, but The Infernal Battalion has reignited my love for this series like a demonic manifestation in an oil reservoir. If you are unfamiliar with The Shadow Campaigns, you should go pick up a copy of the first book, The Thousand Names, and come back to this once you have read the first four books. The following will have some mild spoilers, so turn back now.

For those of you still around, let's talk. I have worried since the end of book one that the finale of this series might be a let down. I feel like almost all protagonists who have a magic power that “cancels other magic” have the same ending - everyone buys time to give them a window to punch the magic villain who is overpowered as all hell. Winter certainly felt like she was going to fall into that category going into The Infernal Battalion, especially given how strong The Beast is. I am happy to say that while there is a little bit of the trope in Battalion, Wexler knew how to make things feel fresh and new. The strength of this series has always been more on its character development and action than its plot, but the ending of the story certainly wasn’t bad.
Speaking of great character development, Battalion completes the character arcs of every character in wonderfully fulfilling ways. The large and colorful cast all get interesting, unexpected, and satisfying endings. I was so worried how Jane’s story was going to end, because I assumed it had to go a certain way, and Wexler subverted my expectations completely and I loved it. Janus’s story is finally revealed in Battalion, and it lived up to my enormous expectations. All the love interests of the various cast panned out in satisfactory ways, and I got to the final pages and just wanted to pull everyone in for a massive team hug.

Additionally, the action in Battalion (something that has always been steller in the series) continues to meet the lofty bar established in The Thousand Names, with some really exciting solo fights as well. Wexler has a real talent for magical combat and one of my major complaints for the series is that there wasn’t more of it because the small snippets had me cheering aloud as I read them. Wexler’s dedication to historical accuracy of large battles is much more fun in a book like Battalion where there are large scale conflicts every few pages, compared to The Guns of Empire - a book that felt like it was mostly about the logistics of not dying to winter. I am super curious to see what Wexler will do next, because with his action scene skills I feel like just writing a story of a giant magical battle tournament would be incredible.

All in all, The Infernal Battalion ends The Shadow Campaigns on a really high note. It is a series with amazing characters and great action that will keep you up at night. While there were occasional pacing problems that really hurt the flow of the series, overall I think it is a fantastic read. Wexler clearly has an incredible talent for writing and historical accuracy, and I cannot wait to see where he goes next.

Rating: The Infernal Battalion - 8.0/10
Rating: The Shadow Campaigns - 7.5/10
-Andrew

I would like to thank the editors for providing this ARC, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

The Infernal Battalion is equally a well-thought out and frustrating finale. This was objectively a very good book, mixing as usual detailed battles, politics, strategies and magic. It just wasn’t a book for me. Though I liked the characters and couldn’t wait to see how things would evolve and wrap up for them, the plot didn’t manage to enthrall me as much as the first three books did.

I strongly believe that this series would have worked so much better with four installments, instead of five. Much to my chagrin, by the end of the 60% of TIB, I was as exhausted (mentally) as the Vordanai Army (physically) was of the never-ending marching, fighting, setting camp, marching, fighting, dying… The beginning of the book wasn’t exactly boring but it felt like a variation of what already happened before in the series and in hindsight, the various campaigns kinda blurred and merged in my mind. Raesinia’s diplomatic tribulations were what saved the first half of the book for me.

The second half was mostly great however! I was ecstatic to see how far the characters have gone since the beginning. TIB was a journey of questioning, self-discovery and accomplishment for the main characters, and though secondary characters mostly stayed true to their personalities, they affected, impressed and inspired me. Heck, my favorite character is probably Sothe (secondary character). What can I say, I have a fondness for efficient, cold-blooded but loyal assassins, for whom fighting is akin to art!

Quote: "But the other side of the balance can be harder to make out. How do you measure what didn’t happen? Friends who didn’t die because of something you did, wars that didn’t start, cities that never burned. That has to count for something, doesn’t it?"


I really loved how the characters grew and I loved how they ended up actually talking to each other. I wholeheartedly appreciated the long-awaited dialogues that actually changed the characters’ mind or the direction of the plot. During the first half, I occasionally yelled at them out loud (much to my husband’s dismay): “you just learned something crucial! Share it with the others, damn you! Here, you have them around! Now or never, dude! … Oh well too late…”. This was the most frustrating aspect of the book (and of the series for that matter) for me.

The most fantastic aspects on the other hand were Wexler’s elegant prose and his perfect mastery of military formations and strategies and of finance. The maneuvers he pulled, be they on the field or in a royal court, were impressive, consistent and decisive to the plot. It was fascinating to learn about the rules of warfare, in the style of the Napoleonic tactics, to see how each formation, each move had its logical, systematic counter-move and that naturally gave some amazing battle sequences.

The “Fantasy” arc was also pretty well explored in this final book! I thoroughly enjoyed seeing more magic and getting explanations regarding the Thousand Names, the lore and the demons. Some occurrences were sadly left unexplained at the end but it was nonetheless great to have magic play such a big role in the finale.

Conclusion
Despite having a few issues with this final book, The Shadow Campaigns series featured one of the greatest military representations and one of the largest female casts I’ve ever read. I genuinely wish I loved it better. If you love Flintlock Fantasy or perhaps historical fiction, I wholeheartedly recommend this series to you. If you look for great, inspiring female characters, then look no more, this series will definitely appeal to you!

Wexler has out=done himself with another great book in this series! Can't wait to see more!

A good ending to an overall fantastic series, but in my opinion, The Infernal Battalion didn't live up to the greatness of its predecessors.

The first thing you should know is that I love this series; there’s no way I'll binge-read a five-book series if I didn’t truly enjoy each installment. However, The Infernal Battalion disappointed me and I’m extremely disheartened to give the last book in this series less than 4-stars—the final volume and an ARC too—but honest I must be. The Shadow Campaigns had been very consistent in quality from the first up to the fourth book, even when the direction of storytelling shifted to politics or actions. This final one, however, is the only book in the series which fell short for me.

Why did this book not live up to the series thus far? As far as I'm concerned, it is packed with more fillers than actual plot progression. Like before, Marcus, Raesinia, and Winter remained as the main POV characters. After the fantastic penultimate book, it saddened me to see how unnecessary Raes and Winter’s POV in the first 65% book become - so many parts could be cut and it would not have mattered to the main plot. Django also introduced a lot of new characters in the last installment of the book, that I felt was unnecessary and unimportant. Raes’s story actually bored me to sleep. Her arc involved dealing with tons of politics that revolve around financial complications and court drama together with plenty of new characters, which I find uninteresting. I wasn't able to bring myself to care about these new characters which were introduced in the FINAL installment of the series. All I want in a concluding volume is to read the continuation and the wrap-up of all the main characters' journeys, of which I've experienced through the eyes of a reader for the past books. Moreover, these new characters didn’t contribute to the main plot and did not even feature in the last third of the book, which brings to my point that they merely feel like filler content.

I guess my high expectations after coming from the incredible penultimate volume, The Gun Empire, added fuel to fire. I have anticipated Infernal Battalion to go full throttle with the main plot up until the ending of the series. I can also tell you that if you’re expecting this final installment to be action-packed like I did, most likely you're going to be disappointed like me. It is a fact that the main climactic actions happened only around the 90%-97% point of the ebook; it’s that short. Sure, there may be minor action sequences here and there for Marcus and Winter throughout the book, but most of them are just not that thrilling and gripping.

That said, the last third is wonderful. Every character we know from the past four books has their own conclusion with no loose ends. Django has always been skilled in establishing his characters, and that remained true here, especially for the females. Winter has become one of the best female characters I’ve ever read in any high fantasy series, and it’s not only her that’s well written; it’s very evident that Django was meticulous in strengthening every female's characterization. I can’t honestly speak the same for the male characters though. By the end of the series, only Janus and Marcus were memorable to me. I'm pretty sure I won’t remember any of the other male characters in a week's time. In fact, I can't even recall Give-Em-Hell’s real name, and he actually did appear in all five books. As for the action scenes, although it was too short for my preferences, overall, it was well written and immersive because of Django’s continuously engaging prose.

While I sound quite negative in my review, I want to state once again that I mostly liked this book and most definitely enjoyed the entire series. Even though I felt let down by the last book, the previous four were fantastic, and I will still recommend this series to anyone who wants to read military fantasy with great, kickass female characters.

Series review:

The Thousand Names: 4/5 Stars
The Shadow Throne: 4.5/5 Stars
The Price of Valor: 4.5/5 Stars
The Guns of Empire: 4.5/5 Stars
The Infernal Battalion: 3/5 Stars

The Shadow Campaigns: 20.5/25 Stars

A satisfying conclusion to the Shadow Campaigns series. Janus bet Valnich, who was taken by the demon known as the Beast, has declared himself emperor and is marching on the capital of Vordan with a mighty army. But the real danger is the Beast, which will consume all of humanity if not stopped, and soon. Only Winter Ihernglass, who controls the demon Infernivore, has a chance of stopping the Beast, but she is far away and in great danger. Much maneuvering, political, military, and demonic, must happen if humanity is to be saved.

Wexler wraps everything up in ways both inevitable and surprising. This series is definitely worth the time.