Words are inadequate

I just finished "Mist".

It's kind of an epistolary/documentary yarn (minor spoiler: some of the narrative viewpoints die) and tends to get bogged down in the minutiae of how the Second Commonwealth creates a new battalion from scratch in a blinding hurry, in anticipation of a second friendly visit by the Sea People. Normally a Commonwealth battalion takes at least 20 years to work up: they manage it in only about 4, give or take. A lot of what we learn is tangentially relevant later; the way focuses and banners work, the way groups of minor, slightly witchy folks can sum up into a power as great as a sorcerer or a god via tradition and organization ...

And then the shit hits the fan, the Sea People come back for Round Two, and it starts raining salvos of level five Hot Red shot, each in the 50 kiloton range (going by a previous book).

And you suddenly get an idea for why so much of the terrain in the Commonwealth universe is the magical equivalent of post-nuclear wasteland: converted into energy terms we're familiar with, the Second Battle Below the Edge involves energetic discharges on the same scale as a full-up Soviet invasion through the Fulda Gap in the mid-80s (one that goes nuclear).

It's clearly laying the ground for the next couple of books: what's interesting is that this one's about ordinary soldiers, rather than high-end Independents. And it begins to become clear why everyone is so terrified of Laurel showing up (given that Laurel created the graul and invented the banners and focii and led an entire army group of graul) ...