Promise of Blood: Book 1 in the Powder Mage trilogy

Product Information

Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Adom basically just wants to cook food, but he is still a god. He defeats soldiers sent to kill him with contemptuous ease. vinsentient on It’s No Fun To Be Alone: Communicating With Cryptids in The Shape of Water 3 hours ago Sanderson himself has praised it as a good magical system and I thought it read great. There’s plenty of depth as well, as the novel progresses — and the next two books in the trilogy add a lot to make the magic systems feel even more distinct.

I have mixed feelings about Brian McClellan’s writing. This is the only book I’ve read of his and it being his debut novel, I expect I would find his more recent books better written. There were many times where I was pulled out of the book by the writing. Too many of the scenes felt like a play-by-play, he did this, and then this happened, and then this. Combined with an abundance of passive voice, the writing just felt off. Dark Matter creator Joseph Mallozzi has a new project: adaptating Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage books for television. Deadline reports that Mallozzi is set to write the pilot episode, “with a view to” showrunning the one-hour series. 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. The Verdict? Buy it, Read it, scream at your dad angrily until he caves in and reads it too. It’s what I did. 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 next day, Manhouch, his queen and many of the arrested nobles are executed by guillotine, ending the monarchy in Adro and leading the country on the path to civil war. 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.

A thoroughly satisfying yarn that should keep readers waiting impatiently for further installments. Vanessa Armstrong Horror Film It Follows to Get a Sequel, Reasonably Titled They Follow 5 hours ago deadhedge on The Secret of the Sul’Dam: Subtle Changes to the Way the One Power Works in The Wheel of Time TV Series 1 hour ago 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.

Fantasy Books Of The Year

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. Nila finds herself confronted with soldiers killing her noble employers one night. But she can't let the same happen to their little boy, so she smuggles him out in the hope find a safe place for him and to start a new life of her own.

White, Peter (January 14, 2021). " 'Utopia Falls' Showrunner Joseph Mallozzi To Adapt Fantasy Novels 'Powder Mage' As TV Series With No Equal Entertainment & Frantic Films". Deadline . Retrieved January 15, 2021. In January 2021, Joseph Mallozzi announced that he would be writing and producing a television series based on the books with No Equal Entertainment and Frantic Films. [4] Plot and setting [ edit ] Privileged are powerful sorcerers; being exceedingly rare, they are almost exclusively gathered into "Royal Cabals" in direct service to the Nine Kingdoms' various monarchs; at the outset of Promise of Blood, Tamas has assassinated almost the entirety of Adro's Royal Cabal. 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.It's a bloody business, overthrowing a king. Now, amid the chaos, a whispered rumour is spreading. A rumour about a broken promise, omens of death and the gods returning to walk the earth. 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. 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.

Ultimately some tried and trusted fantasy concepts make there way into the story; near immortal sorcerers who called down the original Gods. a b David Gemmell Legend Awards, 13 June 2014, retrieved 13 June 2014. "Gemmell Awards 2014 - THE WINNERS! - the David Gemmell Legend Awards". Archived from the original on 2014-07-07 . Retrieved 2014-06-14. 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] As for Adamat, his storyline is a great way to get a bit of distance, a little break from all the Army and politics and it reads like an atypical Victorian detective story in all the best ways.A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children. I like my fantasy medieval. I always have, and I suspect I always will. It’s a hard habit to break, to be honest, and I much prefer my characters swinging swords, drawing bows, and charging an enemy line atop a horse. Put a car or a machine gun in your story, and you’re one step towards driving me away.