Crusade, by Taylor Anderson: Book Review
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So, last week I reviewed Into the Storm, the first book in Taylor Anderson’s Destroyermen series. While I did like the novel, I had a few problems with it, and I wasn’t sure if the full series was worth reading. So, instead of just buying the next several books in the series, I decided to just buy the second book, Crusade, to see if it got better, stayed the same, or got worse. Now, I’m happy to report that Crusade is a marked improvement on Into the Storm. Keep in mind, Into the Storm spoilers will follow in this review, so if you wanted to see if the rest of the series was also worth reading, you now have my recommendation. And if you didn’t read my review of Into the Storm, check it out here and see if it’s something you’d be interested in.
Crusade picks up where Into the Storm left off, with Reddy and company trying to build up Baalkpan’s defenses, while trying to learn more about this strange world they’ve become trapped in. They go to seek an Alliance with other Lemurians at Surubaya — ones that Chief Keje and the other Lemurians view as barbarians. Nonetheless, the Walker sets sail, and soon makes a terrifying discovery. The Battle Cruiser Amagi, which they battled with at the beginning of Into the Storm, has followed them into the world of the Lemurians. And she now fights alongside the murderous Grik.
My biggest gripe with Into the Storm was that it had clichéd and uninteresting characters. They weren’t poorly written, just . . . bland. And while the main characters still occupy familiar archetypes, Anderson has managed to flesh them out more in Crusade, while also devoting more time to his other, non-archetypical characters like Gunner’s Mate Dennis Silva, as well as many of the Lemurian characters. We also get the Grik perspective on the Lemurian conflict, which I found very interesting. As the novel progressed, I was at the edge of my seat, desperate to find out whether the characters — be they Silva, Captain Reddy, Nurse Tucker, or Chak — would be able to make it out of whatever situation they were in.
Speaking of perspectives, that’s another one of my issues. Anderson tends to shift perspective on a whim. One minute, we’ll be following one of the human Destroyermen, the next we’re with a Lemurian chief. This can be a little jarring when it happens, though keep in mind, it’s a relatively small problem that doesn’t come up too often. But it still happens more often than it should.
And here’s one extremely minor gripe I had with Crusade: Anderson doesn’t know how to write chapters. The entire roughly eighty-ninety thousand word book is divided into just four or five chapters, and chapter two doesn’t start until you’re halfway through the book. This IS a very minor thing and it doesn't impact the book that much, but it’s still a problem and I’d be remiss if I didn’t point it out.
On the other hand, the world-building is as good as ever, as is the plot. The universe of Crusade feels fleshed out and intriguing, though there was one small thing that I noticed; in the universe of Destroyermen, the dinosaurs were (for whatever reason) never wiped out by the asteroid. So it strikes me as a little odd that the dinosaurs in the novel only make what amount to cameo appearances. It’s not a dealbreaker by any means, but it is a little odd that a novel with “dinosaurs still roam the earth” as one of its main selling points would feature so few dinosaurs.
So, my final recommendation; Crusade and the other Destroyermen novels are well worth the read if you’re looking for a new series to binge. And as I mentioned in my review of Into the Storm, it’s a binge book, which means that it’s a fairly long and fairly cheap series. So if you’re looking for a new series to binge, then go ahead and pick it up.
3/5 stars.