Legends long hidden may rue the day when Old Gods return and Field Marshal Tamas’s coup against a failing, rotten and self-indulgent royalty balances on a knife edge. Tamas must rely on his friends and alienated son Taniel if his people and the Nine Nations are to survive. After the royalist uprising, Tamas and his council prepare to receive a delegation from Kez. Manhouch had been preparing to sign accords with Kez, effectively turning Adro into a vassal state in exchange for gold to pay off his mounting debts. Tamas is aware that Adro is in a precarious position and cannot currently afford to go to war with Kez again, but his restraint dissolves when the leader of the delegation is revealed to be Duke Nikslaus, the Kez Privileged who personally executed Tamas's wife, Erika. Tamas throws Nikslaus into the ocean and, fully aware that the Kez intentionally sought to provoke war with Adro, prepares his army. Regardless, I loved these characters during their trials and tribulations. Tamas now shares in Dalinar Kholin’s title of “most likely older general to inspire me into fictional military service”. But Tamas is far from perfect — his past grievances with the Kez force his hand at a critical time. A celebration of fantasy that melds modern ideology with classic tropes. More of these dragons, please.

A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children. Mallozzi’s resume leans heavily toward science fiction; he executive produced and wrote for Stargate SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis, and Stargate Universe, created and wrote for the underrated Dark Matter, and is the showrunner for Utopia Falls. But Powder Mage takes him in a new direction—the series, which starts with McClellan’s debut novel, Promise of Blood, is set in a fantastical world where powder mages get their abilities from gunpowder. Reviewing the first book, Tor.com’s Stefan Raets said it “seems to be aimed straight at the same readers who enjoy Brandon Sanderson’s novels.”

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As the city reacts to the coup – the royal family and supporting lords and their families put to the guillotine, the Royalist military’s last stand, the new council in charge – Tamas sends Adamant on a mission to find out what Kresimir’s Promise is, apart from the final words on a dying Privileged’s lips. Adamant gets knee-deep in Adro’s underworld to find out what danger comes the realm’s way. Taniel chases the mystery Privileged through the city, before being retasked with taking out the last Royal Cabal member, his best friend Bo. All the while, Tamas tries to keep his new city and council in one piece, and the mighty Kez nation have smelled blood in the water and are on the way with their immense army. I like badass characters. Tamas and Taniel definitely fit the description as well as Ka-Poel later on. But it felt like the characters were just badass for the sake of badassery. There weren’t many consequences to their actions or it seemed like everyone just forgets their actions—specifically Taniel’s and even Tamas’ at times.

The trilogy primarily takes place in the fictional kingdom of Adro, one of the Nine Kingdoms founded by Kresimir, a semi-mythical figure now worshiped as a deity. At the beginning of Promise of Blood, Field Marshal Tamas has just committed a coup d'etat against Adro's corrupt and ineffective monarchy. The novel then focuses on the efforts of three men and one woman – Tamas, his son Taniel, a soldier, and former police inspector Adamat, as well as the skullery maid Nyla – in the aftermath of the coup, dealing with conspiracies by royalist supporters, war with Adro's neighbors, and an emerging scheme to "summon" Kresimir. Brian McClellan’s magic system also gave a very distinct feel to the world. The Powder Mages feel modern and industrial whereas the Privileged are the typical fantasy sorcerers we’re all used to, which played into the conflict that arose from their differences—as can be seen in the differences between Adro and Kez. Adro being a more industrialized nation than Kez, who shun Powder Mages. Taniel 'Two-Shot', the Field Marshal’s son, nurses his broken heart by going after his dad’s enemies along with a savage red-headed girl whose magic is entirely different and way scarier than anything else you’ll see in the trilogy. Taniel and Ka-Poel’s shenanigans set up some of the most entertaining fights in the novel.Love, betrayal, swords, magic, muskets and Kresimir returned, there is trouble on the horizon for Tamas in book two. I will say this now, Tamas will die; he is going to sacrifice himself to the Kresimir to save the world or his son or both. I just can’t see another out outcome for him. Thankfully we are a while away from that, maybe I should say hopefully… The Powder Mage trilogy is a series of epic fantasy novels written by American author Brian McClellan. It consists of the novels Promise of Blood (2013), The Crimson Campaign (2014) and The Autumn Republic (2015). [1] In 2014, Promise of Blood received the Morningstar Award for Best Fantasy Newcomer. [2] Several short stories and novellas set in the world of The Powder Mage trilogy have been published, as well as an additional trilogy called Gods of Blood and Powder. [3] The novel takes place in the kingdom of Adro, one of the Nine Kingdoms founded by Kresimir, a semi-mythical figure now worshiped, along with his nine siblings, as a deity. Magic users are usually divided into three classes: There is a fairly meagre attempt at intrigue when Tamas survives an assassination attempt by someone in his trusted circle. The biggest problem for me was the character Adamat investigating this attempt didn’t actually give the reader any real detail, so there was no way to actually speculate whom the turncoat may be. Thankfully I didn't find it to be a major plot item so it can be somewhat excused. This can be considered the one weak link in an otherwise good plot and it did lead to a nice fight scene at the end of the story. Privileged are powerful sorcerers; being exceedingly rare, they are almost exclusively gathered into "Royal Cabals" in direct service to the Nine Kingdoms' various monarchs.

The Privileged are this setting’s elemental sorcerers, men and women capable of touching the Else with their hands, each finger connecting to one of the four elements and the thumb for the aether (which, I’m told, some of the Ancient Greeks were crazy about!).Easy Logistics: Largely subverted. There is quite a bit of discussion regarding the difficulties of feeding and equipping an army on the move, especially in a world like this that is still at a colonial technology level. Tamas is very confused when his food costs drop to almost nothing while the quality and quantity of the food vastly increases. It turns out that Adom, the patron saint of Adro (who is either a god or a privileged so powerful the difference is minor) has taken over cooking duties for the entire army and is producing food out of thin air. Powder Mages are wizards with the ability to metabolize gunpowder and use it as fuel for various magical powers, including telekinesis; they can also manipulate gunpowder, such as causing it to explode spontaneously. Tamas and Taniel are both powder mages. I’m not just mentioning Sins of Empire out of melancholy for by-gone times; rather, I mean to venture into a small comparison. If you came to me, asking which of these two books to get, I would point you to Sins of Empire. The writing is better, the twists and the action more memorable. The beginning of McClellan’s second trilogy is an established writer’s fourth novel, where Promise of Blood is Brian’s debut. I like to think that most writers, as they continue working on the craft, grow in skill, find more and more distinct voices and Brian is an excellent example of that. Adamat, a former police inspector who is now a private investigator, is asked by Tamas to help solve the mystery. Meanwhile, Tamas is busy with purging the country's nobility and struggling to maintain peace during the inevitable civil war. This is an excellent novel, which begins with a promise of blood and delivers through and through. Whether you’re following Tamas’ decisive dealings against internal and external threats alike, Taniel’s chasing around of dangerous targets or Adamat’s investigations, there’s plenty to be loved about this first part of the Powder Mage trilogy.

The main character Tamas is initially comes across as a hard and chiselled personality but as you progress through the story you get that he is a committed man who is trying his best to do the right thing, which sometimes includes hard choices with hard outcomes. There is a realism and quality that I found appealing in Tamas. While the world wasn’t explored as much as I would have liked, I’m impressed with how fantastical the world still feels, even with muskets and early rifles. It doesn’t feel like a world about guns where magic is shoehorned in. It really does feel like guns were simply the natural development of industrialization and that those weapons have significantly affected the world of magic. Like the plot, there’s still plenty to explore in the next books, so there isn’t much for me to expand on here.While sensibly contained to one book, the story does allow for that anticipatory desire to keep reading, following the story into further and more interesting locations. The world surrounding our characters, and the history and mythology preceding them, all combine to create a whole that is utterly compelling.