Review copy provided by the publisher—Tor.com—in exchange for an honest review.

War Cry by Brian McClellan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

War Cry was good but in my opinion it would’ve worked so much better as a full novel.

Teado, a Changer, a shape-shifting military asset used for military purposes. He and his platoon have been stranded on the Bavares high plains for years. Desperate, he and his platoon jumped at the chance for a super risky resupply mission. This was a very quick read, not only the length of the novella is short, the story itself was very fast-paced and action-oriented; it took me approximately one hour to finish the book in one sitting.

Told in first person present tense, McClellan’s prose was very easy to follow, engaging, and simple. The actions, magic, and a bit of the world-building were well-written but due to the short length of the novella, I found it super hard to care about the characters’ predicament; there was simply not enough room for characterizations and development. I honestly think War Cry would’ve worked so much better as a full novel instead of a novella. The story itself felt like being put to read a novel starting from the last section of a full novel rather than having a feel of a self-contained start to finish story.

Overall though, I did had a good time and War Cry serves really well as a good short escapism experience, especially when you’re in need of a quick war and action-oriented story that you can finish in one or two lunch break.

You can order the book HERE!

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