The Power Mage trilogy is set of books that I've had on my to-read list for a while. Given that I managed to finish Promise of Blood in a week, I would say it was certainly a great read, and there's a lot to like about it.

The setting was one of the things that first brought the series to my attention. Having not read any 'flintlock' fantasy before, and also having a historical interest in the Napoleonic period, I was quite drawn to the backdrop of revolutionary and early-industrial warfare and politics, and I was very intrigued as to how the fantasy genre would fit into this kind of premise. Brian McClellan implements this very well, and I felt he balanced all the various aspects of Adro and its society solidly, weaving together the various branches of the military, the church, the nobles, the merchants, the underground and the people to form quite a vivid and convincing world. Both the battle scenes as well as the clandestine operations are dramatically portrayed, and the direct prose keeps the storytelling focussed and easy to follow.

I noticed that many people seemed to have issues around the pacing. This didn't really impact my enjoyment of the book, as I thought the ebb and flow of the plot was relatively organic, and the movement between the different POVs not only provided good coverage of the overall direction of the story, but also kept me engaged with the various events that were happening on both a micro and macro level. There were a few occasions where the occurrence of multiple perspectives within the same chapter was a little disconcerting, but I did not feel like the progression of the plot stumbled as a result.

The main element of Promise of Blood which did not quite work for me was the magic systems, or rather the magic systems. Like most others have expressed, the concept of powder mages and the way that their abilities work is ingenious and cleverly thought out, and I enjoyed seeing Tamas and Taniel bring their skills to bear the various scenarios, as well as the different talents exhibited amongst the powder mages. However, the magic of the Privileged was rather less satisfactory to me, especially as it was never clear what any of them was really capable of doing or how their magic worked beyond the twiddling of some fingers. I'm not sure whether this is due to the fact that the reader never gets the viewpoint of a Privileged, or whether this remains something to be fleshed out in the remaining books, but the result is that it feels like McClellan couldn't quite decide whether it should be a 'hard' or a 'soft' system and it doesn't really work as either. Similarly, the Knacked also feel a bit like skills that the author wanted certain characters to have, but didn't quite fit within the other forms of magic, so were lumped into a catchall without any real definition. Combine this with the power of potential deities and you are left with quite the confusing conglomeration.

All in all, it must be noted that this is the first novel in trilogy, and a debut novel no less. With this in mind, I found Promise of Blood a very compelling read and was thoroughly impressed with what Brian McClellan has brought to the table. Now to see what the next course entails. ( )

The audio was brilliantly read and was invaluable as the synch'd companion to the ebook.

My meager vocabulary probably can't compete with any of the superlatives already written. It was just plain, freaking fantastic. Epic fantasy at its best. On to Book 2!

Some stories are just like that - good plot, interesting world, intense characters but... all is done through so many little buggery things that I end up with very mixed feelings overall. There is no clear line between “bad” and “good” writing/storytelling for me here. All of it tightly woven together. ( )

This series has an interesting premise, being of the 'flintlock fantasy' sub genre. This opening volume opens starts just before the main action occurs - a retired policeman called Adamat who is still an investigator is summoned at night to a mysterious meeting at the King's palace and discovers that a coup has just taken place. The twist is that the King had a royal cabal of wizards, called Privileged, to protect him - and they have been slaughtered by magicians of another type, the Powder Mages who give the series its overall title.

Field Marshal Tamas, a Powder Mage and leader of a cadre of same, has launched the coup, with the aid of co-conspirators - one is a woman in charge of a crack troop of mercenaries, one a representative of all the unionised labour in the city, one the ex-King's accountant, one the head of the religious establishment and so on - because the King had run up huge debts and planned to settle them by, in effect, selling the country to their arch enemies the Kez. Given the repressive nature of the Kez regime, they felt they had no alternative but to depose the King. Ruthlessly, Tamas has the entire royal family and most of the nobility guillotined the next day, but no one objects.

The story is told mainly from the viewpoints of Tamas, his son Teniel - a crack shot but also an addict to gunpowder (which the Powder Mages ingest to manipulate bullets and gunpowder) - and the investigator Adamat. A minor viewpoint is a young woman who worked as a laundress for one of the executed nobles and tries to save his young son though she later discovers that Tamas has sent the children to be brought up and educated to be ordinary people as he is not ruthless enough to execute them also.

Tamas is trying to prepare for the war with Kez which is inevitable while keeping the various factions in the city onside, pending an eventual change to a democracy with a president as figurehead. In the meantime he is the only person with enough respect and credibility among the people and the various interest groups to prevent the country falling into chaos, and to be able to defend against Kez. He tasks Adamat with various lines of enquiry, unaware that an enemy within has kidnapped Adamat's family and is forcing him to disclose information and place Tamas in danger. The ex-laundress and her young charge also fall into the hands of this enemy.

Another complication is that the legendary god Kresimir might really be returning - one character is leading an initiative to do so - and if he returns he will probably destroy everything. And a brother of his is also present but as a human incarnation with a great gift involving food. Plus Taniel's "savage" servant girl Ka-Poel is really a hugely powerful mage in her own right who works through the manipulation of wax dolls.

I found the presence of the two main magical systems at the start - and then others such as Ka-Poel's - a bit hard to accept at first but gradually they became clearer though there was a rather clunky scene where someone at the university library explains the difference between them to Adamat - a man who has a Knack (yet another semi-magical ability, in his case perfect recall, as well as the ability to 'open the third eye' and see other types of magician and what they are doing). It also transpires that long ago there were even stronger magicians who are long lived and a few of whom still exist in secret. Some of these soon begin to cause mayhem and general complications to the complex political situation including the rumoured reality of Kresimir.

This is a page turning read with plenty of action - violent action at that - a big cast, and big stakes. The problem I found with it, and which reminded me of Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy, is that the roles for women are minimal. Disappointingly, near the start of the story the woman we have been told runs a crack unit of mercenaries faints when she sees a soldier of the King's pulled apart by the mob during a failed rescue attempt. Taniel's ex-fiance is a Powder Mage in the army but has very little to do in the story. Ka-Poel is a mute and her character has to be conveyed by hand gestures and body language -she is quirky, but remains frustratingly opaque. The setting is also quite misogynistic and racist, with people routinely talking about her as if she is not there and repeatedly calling her a savage. And the ex-laundress is a rather irritating character of the type who decides to do something drastic based on emotion rather than knowing the facts.

There are a few odd loose ends in this story also which remain unexplained so far in book 2 which I am already reading (why so many lions on the mountain and everything to do with the behaviour of those animals, for example) and I do wonder if those will ever be resolved or are just throw-away extra perils added to heighten the stakes for that segment of the book.

With the reservations above, this isn't a keeper for me but a fairly enjoyable page turning action based read, and I am awarding it 3 stars.



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I loved the beginning of the book. I thought there were a few plot problems but the action was non stop (more than making up for the plot problems). I also loved the concept of a gunpowder Mage. I am looking forward to the next one. ( )