A War in Crimson Embers

The Crimson Empire, Book 3

By: Alex Marshall

Narrated by: Angèle Masters

Length: 25 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

General Ji-Hyeon has vanished into the legendary First Dark, leaving her lover Sullen alone to carry out the grim commands of a dead goddess. The barbarian Maroto is held captive by a demonic army hell-bent on the extermination of the Crimson Empire, and only his protégé Purna believes he can be saved.

Zosia must rally her comrades and old enemies one last time for what will prove the greatest battle of her many legends...if anyone lives to tell it.

Five heroes. No hope. A war against devils.

The Crimson Empire Trilogy:

A Crown for Cold Silver
A Blade of Black Steel
A War in Crimson Embers

By the same author, writing as Jesse Bullington:

The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart
The Enterprise of Death
The Folly of the World

©2017 Alex Marshall (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A rollicking, obscene, subversive, and zany epic fantasy ride." (B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog)

Fantastic end to a wonderful trilogy

An excellent story with wonderful characters you never want to leave. This series is underrated and, for me, was stands along side some of the best fantasy fiction out there.

Great series!

I really enjoyed this book, Wrapped up
The series perfectly and am keeping these on rotation to read again

SOOOOO, is there more?

I fell in love with these characters. I know there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, but I'd love for the old gang to have to get back together again to continue the story!

Series Fades As It Goes

The Crimson Empire series starts off gangbusters with A Blade Of Black Steel, and by the end of that book I felt I was off to a great series. The story continues well into the second book, but began to fade about halfway into it. Unfortunately, The Crimson Empire, the third book, continues to loose steam with nothing much happening through a majority of the book. The weird high school romantic angle of two of the main characters becomes ridiculous. Fortunately, the writing recovers enough to bring in the final battle and a decent end to the series.

Overall, this series seems to be somewhat of missed opportunity to capitalize on a interesting world and promising beginning. The narration by Angèle Masters is the saving grace of this story. She was excellent throughout and makes this audiobook series worth a listen.

Great narration, good characters, mediocre craft

As the title says, the narrator is excellent, and some of the characters are phenomenal, turning tired tropes on their respective heads, and breathing life into an otherwise predictable world. That's the downfall though; the rest of the story, and the craft by which it is assembled, isn't poor--but it isn't that good either. Overall worth it for a fun time with a new take on some interesting characters.


(Minor Spoilers ahead)


You know what's not exciting or interesting? When characters do really dangerous stuff over and over and almost die, over and over...but then don't. Oh sure, some tertiary characters bite it, but how many times can you hear a character say something like: "And john knew he was dead, then, and it was a good/bad/silly way to go out", but then they miraculously survive before you want to pluck your eyes/ears out? Also, when someone has been stabbed/shot/broken, they don't get up, run across a battlefield and fight 40 more people while humming about how wonderful the song will be.

Marshall could have taken some GRRM lessons here, the thrill wears off after a few chapters. Then there's the pipe smoking, which was interesting at first but gets a little tired. And of course that everyone seems to be bisexual or bi-curious, which I guess is possible (and I might even prefer a world where its the norm) but seems somehow to make it harder to believe in some of the characters. Then again, maybe that's part of the world construction. All that said, I still think the book is worth it for the characters, some of whom are just so wonderful I'm still hanging out with them in my mind.

The Ending Nearly Ruins the Entire Trilogy.

The 3rd book kinda gets away from Marshall. Including the ending that leaves so many loose threads in one character's story one can only hope there is another book to clear it up.

Dark, compelling yet hilarious

I truly love this series. I think the irreverent humour is absolutely fantastic and the grim storyline is very well done. I hope he write more in this world.

Some of the best grimdark out there

I read this book because I ran out of Abercrombie's First Law World to read, and it did not disappoint. If you like Abercrombie's style but want to see it done with a few twists, read this series. if you don't know who Abercrombie is, read First Law Trilogy and then read this series.

Chock full of washed up old villains trying to do wrong right, a system of creepy ass devil magic, an ecosystem of insects and arachnids that get you high if they don't kill you, and a grim cynical political economy about how religion manages to get wrong even what it gets right, this series is a bittersweet, fun, trope-defying heartbreak from start to finish.

Awesome b

One of the best fantasy novels I’ve listened to and I listen to A LOT!

A great ending to a richy dark but fun series!

Wonderfully narrated with plenty of larger than life.characters! Very fun banter and full of witty lines!

The unique setting of a demon encroached world, where the populace drown their sorrow by ingesting narcotics bugs was a hoot to be in too.

And although over for now, I do hope for more...