Promise of Blood

A really fun and fast paced story. Magic is fun(at many points I was sure I was in a Brandon Sanderson Mistborn novel) and the characters are great. A really solid first novel.But beware that this book is NOT self-contained. It ends with alot of stuff hanging so don't expect a self-contained story, but enjoy the fact that it's a trilogy. :)One thing the author needs to work on is the timeline in his stories, it was horribly wrong in this one. As an exemple, it takes characters hours to travel in the city, and yet they seem to teleport instantly to the far and remote South Pike mountain. This happens alot in the book.Getting the second book is a given.

Holy. That was awesome. Great start to a career, interesting characters, interesting places, and a mystery that seems to have started to come together. I need the next volume soon please.

The king is dead and Field Marshall Tamas must hold the country together after his coup. But his intentions for liberating the people are tainted with personal revenge. The king was preparing to sign a treaty that would leave Adros as a vassal to Kez, the nation that executed Tamas' wife. Tamas enlists the help of his son Taniel and the retired investigator Adamat, both of which will be tested as much as Tamas.The three POV characters, Tamas, Taniel and Adamat, are all fully developed with conflicting motives as the plot unfolds. Tamas, as mentioned, may have other motives for his coup. To call Taniel's relationship with Tamas strained would be generous, though he will do most anything to win his approval. Adamat's loyalty is tested when he is blackmailed while working for Tamas. The world is pretty detailed, with flintlock weapons and early steam power technology existing alongside magic. The magic systems are interesting, especially the powder mages. Only one remains unexplained, the magic used by Ka-Poel which no one else has seen before.

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.

Flintlock has been a bit hit and miss for me, but I really enjoyed Promise of Blood and flew through the book.It starts with a dead king and continues with the aftermath of the revolution. The pacing is great. There are no slow chapters and no dull moments. The writing is functional and pleasant. The book is told from the point of view of three main characters, Tamas, Taniel, Adamat, and one minor character, Nila. I found Taniel's chapters the most compelling, mostly because of Ka-Poel.The world building is intricate, and I especially enjoyed the unique magic systems (yes, there are several). It did not surprise me to find out that McClellan was a student of Sanderson.The characters are well developed and I can't wait to dive into the next book and find out more about their journey.I recommend this one to all flintlock fans.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a copy of Promise of Blood from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. So, here's the bare truth of it: I think I only got about a chapter and a half in before I felt the need to go out and buy a copy of my very own. From the intro alone, I just knew I had to own this book and add it to my personal fantasy library, and even now that I'm done, I do not regret that decision one bit! While it is true that the novel is not without its flaws, it is nonetheless an amazingly solid debut. Mark my words, I have a feeling that Brian McClellan is going to be a new author to watch.About the book:You have to understand, I love stories that begin by thrusting you into the thick of things, which was why I was completely smitten with Promise of Blood right from the start. The book is aptly named, because it begins with blood, and lots of it. The kingdom of Adro has been badly run for years, and the king has decided to settle its debts by practically selling his people's freedom to the neighboring nation of Kez. Furious with the decision, Field Marshal Tamas leads a coup to take the throne, rounding up the king and all the influential nobles of the land for the guillotine. The mass executions that follow last for days.But no revolution happens without serious repercussions. During his takeover, Tamas also wipes out the king's entire royal cabal of Privileged, a group of sorcerers who are loyal to the monarchy. They are also bitter rivals of the Marked, also known as the powder mages, the order to which Tamas himself belongs. To a one, the words on the dying lips of every Privileged was the same: "You can't break Kresmir's Promise." Invoking Kresimir, the name of the one god of the Nine Nations, is an ill omen perhaps, but it could mean something more. Though not a superstitious or overly religious man, Tamas nonetheless hires the services of retired police inspector Adamat to investigate these mysterious last words.His troubles do not end here. An assassination attempt not long after the coup makes Tamas realize that one of his co-conspirators has betrayed him. Furthermore, relations with King Ipille of Kez are still shaky. Tamas' estranged son Taniel, also a powerful powder mage in his own right, is disturbed when he discovers Ipille's army at their door, preparing for war. The question is, is the Kez simply taking advantage of the political turmoil in Adro to invade? Or is this a sign of something bigger, more sinister, and much, much worse? My thoughts:As you can see, Promise of Blood encompasses an epic scope of events, including war, politics, and religion amongst other things. It is a complex, well-constructed and thought-out world, with every aspect of life considered, which really helped to immerse me into the story. The setting is reminiscent of late 18th-century France, thanks to the image of the uniform on the cover as well as the book's theme of revolution and the symbol of the guillotine. The industrial age is in full swing, with talk of steam-powered printing presses (when they're not exploding for our hapless characters) and other technologies associated with the era. This setting and its ambiance alone sets the book apart for me, makes it special and something else.At the same time, I felt really comfortable reading this. There are a lot of original ideas in the book, but also a familiarity to them that made me feel right at home. In a way, it was like reading an amalgamation of some of my favorite epic fantasies: a magic system that's as creative as anything by Brandon Sanderson, backstabbing and political scheming that reminds me of A Song of Ice and Fire, and a religion with gods that bring to mind Jacqueline Carey and her Kushiel books. All of these can potentially be built upon and filled out a little more, of course, which I'm sure will be throughout the course of the Powder Mage trilogy, but I'm also intrigued and quite happy with what's been established for now.The magic system could definitely do with a little more praise from me, though. Here, Sanderson's influence is really apparent, which is not surprising given how Brian McClellan is a former student of his. The world of Promise of Blood is home to many types of magic users, not the least are the Marked, powder mages who ingest or snort black powder into their system to reach a state called "powder trance", giving them greater strength, sharper senses, and enabling them to do things like ignite nearby sources of powder or guide bullets to their targets. Then there are the Privileged, who are more your traditional of type mages, manipulating the elements to hurl fireballs and create shields, etc. Then there are the Knacked, who are only in possession of a single "talent", but are able to do that one thing really, REALLY well. Characters who are Marked, Privileged, and Knacked alike are central to the book's story, since so often their abilities are the main driving force. I find that powder mage sorcery is explained pretty well, but wish there were more details provided for the other classes of magic users too. What's up with those white gloves with the red and gold runes the Privileged wear, for example, and why exactly do they have to wear them in order to do magic? Knacked magic is also somewhat unclear, as despite their having only one talent, what I read makes it seem like anything might be possible with them.I feel a similar way about the character development. Some, like Tamas, are written really well. He's a completely fleshed-out and multilayered person, at various times making it difficult for me to make up my mind about him. Some of his decisions, like the coup, are motivated by his well-intentioned desires to do right by the Adran people, but I also have to question how much of him is driven by raw emotion and pure hatred for the Kez, especially at the beginning. In the aftermath of all the executions, I admit I did wonder for a brief moment if the author is setting Tamas up to become a misguided villain. Getting to know his character was one helluva ride.However, my favorite character had to be Adamat. His role in the book provided a bit of mystery to the story, and I always looked forward to returning to his sections. I thought his character and others were given varying degrees of attention when it comes to development, though. I felt more connected to many of them towards the beginning of the novel, only to find myself questioning more and more their perspectives as I progressed. For example, one blackmailed character went on with his work seemingly clearheaded enough, even when presented with the severed finger of his son, while I imagine a family man like him would probably be freaking out like any parent, or at least be feeling a bit more distracted.Also, the female presence in this book could have been more efficiently presented. A story not having enough of a female perspective isn't actually something I mind, quite honestly not something that would normally occur to me at all, and I probably wouldn't even have noticed here if not for Nila, the royalist laundress who gets caught up in the consequences of the coup. Nila's character is introduced early on in the beginning, but her sections come up sporadically, and once she disappeared for so long that it took me a while to remember who she was. I'm hoping I'll get to see more of her in the second book. Same goes for other female characters like Vlora and Ko-poel, both of whom I found very interesting but underutilized and deserving of more focus.I want to point that out that none of these weaker points were major enough to take away from my overall enjoyment, though. As with a lot of debut novels, there's a certain raw quality to the writing and storytelling, which becomes slightly more noticeable in the later stages of the book, but it didn't really bother me at all -- mainly because I was so enraptured by the magic and the plot. A lot of great fantasy books have been written over the years, and despite being new on the scene, Brian McClellan has definitely written a novel that can stand on the shelf next to any of them.

Rating: Exciting and unpredictable. Interesting world/magic buildingFirst book in the Powder Mage trilogy, a Flintlock Fantasy outing, with lots of action, and well-drawn characters. The magic is complex and interesting, the action and plots drawing you in. Just who the good guys are can sometimes be unclear, which is all to the good.

Fantasy with magic set in a pre-industrial time. Enjoyed the book, but no enough to read the rest of the series.

Very good. Lots of original ideas and not your typical boy saves world story. Highly recommended.

Interesting story. The French Revolution with magic and gods. The plot was interesting however it was hard to tell who is the main character - Tamas or Taniel. Not a bad listen. It passed the time.

This book is non-stop action! It begins awesomely and ends awesomely! Read it!

Trigger warning for attempted rapePromise of Blood started off well but never lived up to my expectations. The pacing and action were pretty good, and the world building was alright. However, Promise of Blood has a serious problem: the characters.Let me back up and explain what this book is actually about. There’s a nation that has been ruled by a single line of monarchs for as long as anyone can remember… until a military leader named Tamas kills the king and ushers in a new regime. It’s reminiscent of the French Revolution, particularly given the changing technologies of the time, the staving peasants, and the corrupt court. However, as each royal mage is killed, they speak the same mysterious words. If the revolution weren’t enough, the gods themselves may be involved.The world building was functional. I liked that the technology was a bit more current (well, if 1800ish is current) than most fantasy novels. However, I don’t think the magic system was really worth naming the series after. There’s three main sorts of magic systems – the super powerful magic used by sorcerers (never clearly defined what exactly they can do); the knacked, who have one skill that’s probably not worth a lot; and the powder mages who snort gunpowder and then can… push bullets with their minds, sense gunpowder and make it explode, plus get increased strength and endurance? Saying it like that makes it sound like it could be interesting in theory, but it’s really not. Maybe it’s just not explored well?For the most part, the book alternates between three main characters (there’s a fourth who gets a few scenes that I’ll talk about later): the aforementioned Tamas; his son Taniel, a solider; and Adamat, a retired police inspector who Tamas is having investigate the mysterious words. Eventually I realized that these three leads have no distinguishing personality characteristics. Their voices sound exactly the same. Thank goodness they were never all in the same scene or I might have gotten really confused.If you haven’t guessed from the “all three of the main characters are men,” this book contained very little in the way of female characters or really diversity of any kind. It’s overwhelmingly straight, white and male; there’s an x-ray function on my ebook that lets me see how many time each character is mentioned – eight out of the top ten most frequently mentioned characters are straight white men. (Spoiler!) Oh, and the one black guy gets shot in the head (End spoiler!). The most mentioned female character was this mysterious magical mute girl who honestly wasn’t that important and didn’t have much of a presence. The most important female character was the villainess.Nila, a laundress, got about four total POV sections. Maybe she’ll become important later in the series, but she was not important in Promise of Blood. One of her first scenes was the attempted rape scene, which was stopped by her eventual love interest. Given that he’s in the book much more than she is, I feel like the scene was included to tell us what a wonderful guy he is, which I find irritating.There’s more I could say about this book and gender dynamics, but I don’t want to go on to long. Moving on to something more positive, I liked the plotting and pacing. I liked the unfolding of mysteries, the involvement of the gods and religion, and the action scenes. The plot’s fairly engaging.Unfortunately, eventually other things about the book bothered me enough that I enjoyed it less and less as I went on. If only the three leads had been at all distinguishable or the female characters had more to do, this would have been a book I enjoyed a lot more. I like the idea of a plot inspired by the French Revolution, but I wouldn’t recommend Promise of Blood if you at all care about female characters.Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

Promising world and magic, with action that moved along briskly, but some rough edges on the delivery. This was the author's debut, so hopefully he'll gain polish with time; I'd love to see this world explored further.

The book took a while to grow on me. At the beginning, I had problems telling all the characters apart, since many had similar names and they were all introduced fairly quickly. That has gotten better over the course of the book.

Still, there are some parts of the book that were just a bit... weird. Sometimes the motivations of people weren't very clear. It was never so bad as to be unbelievable, but it was... well, weird.

I was hovering between 3 and 4 stars for this one, but decided on four in the end, as the book really did get better over time. I'll read the second part of the series next, and hope that it keeps getting better.

I was more entertained than I expected or wanted to be. I like swords in fantasy, guns not so much. It wasn't like I didn't have warning I mean it's pretty much built into the title "powder mage". A friend recommended the book to me and I thank them for that, it was a good book, lots of action and a fast paced story. The characters I didn't like as much except for Mihali, Ka-Poel and Adamat I didn't find them that interesting, and the only main characters I really liked were Adamat and Olem . I did like it well enough to get the next book and I'm going to start on that now.

The king is dead and Field Marshall Tamas must hold the country together after his coup. But his intentions for liberating the people are tainted with personal revenge. The king was preparing to sign a treaty that would leave Adros as a vassal to Kez, the nation that executed Tamas' wife. Tamas enlists the help of his son Taniel and the retired investigator Adamat, both of which will be tested as much as Tamas.The three POV characters, Tamas, Taniel and Adamat, are all fully developed with conflicting motives as the plot unfolds. Tamas, as mentioned, may have other motives for his coup. To call Taniel's relationship with Tamas strained would be generous, though he will do most anything to win his approval. Adamat's loyalty is tested when he is blackmailed while working for Tamas. The world is pretty detailed, with flintlock weapons and early steam power technology existing alongside magic. The magic systems are interesting, especially the powder mages. Only one remains unexplained, the magic used by Ka-Poel which no one else has seen before.

I went into Promise of Blood with reservations. I've had mixed results reading "flintlock" fantasy in the past. For whatever reason I can do guns in a modern, urban fantasy setting and I love magic with swords in medieval-style worlds but put guns in my quasi-medieval fantasy and I tend to lose interest. I needn't have worried. Brian McClellan works his gunpowder magic quite well into the fantasy world he has created and I enjoyed the heck out of this book."The age of kings is dead, Adamat, and I have killed it."Field Marshall Tamas has just overthrown the highly corrupt monarchy of Adro. Through extreme self-indulgence and an utter disregard for his people, the old king had brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy, the citizens are starving in the streets, and was about to sell what was left to the enemy nation of Kez to fund his lavish lifestyle. To finish the coup, Tamas sent most of the aristocracy to the guillotine and has been hunting the royal cabal of Privileged mages. With their dying breath every single cabal member utters the same peculiar phrase: "You can’t break Kresimir’s Promise." Unsure of what this means Tamas hires a private investigator to uncover the mystery behind the saying. What no one expects is how the coup is only the first in a series of events that will have divine repercussions. Magic, muskets and mayhem! Revolution has never been so glorious. Promise of Blood uses the French Revolution as its backdrop and turns it into a fun, if bloody, fantasy story with a lot going for it. Good characters, clever dialogue with a sly wit, interesting world building with its own mythology, tons of action, an intriguing plot and an inventive magic system. Basically all of my favorite things.The magic system is inventive and divided into three tiers: Privileged, Powder Mages and Knacked. Each has its own benefits, with Privileged being the most familiar as your typical fantasy genre sorcerers. A Knacked has a single special power that may or may not sound useful on the surface but tend to give its wielder an edge, such as not needing sleep. Powder Mages gain supernatural abilities by ingesting gun powder, hence the name, and it reminded me strongly of the magic system in the Mistborn books. Turns out that McClellan was a student of Sanderson and I can see the influence of his teaching in this respect. It didn't detract from the story for me at all.There are three primary point of view characters - Field Marshall Tamas, his son Taniel and Inspector Adamat. Both Tamas and Taniel are strong Powder Mages and have a complicated relationship. As his superior Tamas struggles to treat his son like any other soldier and Taniel strives desperately for his father's approval though he kind of hates himself for it. Taniel also suffers from gun powder addiction, which will be interesting to see how it plays out in the rest of the series. Inspector Adamat is a Knacked and a retired police officer who ends up in a tricky personal situation that will test his loyalty. There is a pretty great supporting cast as well. I can't wait to learn more about Ka-poel, with her voodoo-bordering magic, just how much trouble Jolene stirs up, more of Olem's sly wit and all the rest.The book is not without some flaws, though they are quite minor and didn't hinder my enjoyment of the story for the most part. The most annoying thing was towards the end of my book I found some glaring editing mistakes, characters being called by the wrong name and the like, that was particularly jarring. I hope this was fixed in subsequent publications.Promise of Blood is definitely the start of something bigger. The story ends with many dangling plot threads. I'll be moving on to the second book very soon.

Holy. That was awesome. Great start to a career, interesting characters, interesting places, and a mystery that seems to have started to come together. I need the next volume soon please.

First books in a series are tricky to judge and I can only imagine they're trickier to write. This one has all kinds of potential. I really enjoyed it, and I'm excited to read the next installment. I have hope that this will be a five star series, but I can't go write that far on this first book.

Not particularly well written. Some interesting bits.

Read it in two sittings... It was just so.. full! So much going on, so many diffent pov.. it was like les mis on crack! uprisings to kill of the nobility, magic, chef gods, war, shooting bullets without guns, gun powder snorting addicts... nothing was ever certain.. and the kicker, the next book is going to keep throwing it in loops.. can't wait.

All interactions between men and women turn into screaming matches. Everyone is an idiot, and it is pretty much non-stop violence. Oh, yes, it's not very interesting.

I had a hard time starting this book for some reason. I don't know, maybe I wasn't in the right head space. It took me a few false starts to get a grip on the world, but once I was there, I really enjoyed everything. Loved the gunpowder take on everything.

This work comes highly rated at Amazon, and even at LibraryThing it is rated on average higher than I found it. It is listed as a debut novel and as such I would note that the writer gives us grief over having several point of view characters and using them to jump about the story timeline. There is a mystery and some characters seem to know what is buried deep within that mystery, while others seem to be foolishly blind to not only the mystery but where the various clues point. As well as the time it takes to gather one clue, or a hundred clues, sometimes each taking a day, while other times it takes weeks to uncover one clue, and weeks to uncover 100. And only one man able to do so effectively within a kingdom that is much like France in 1780, where the nobles abuse power terribly for the most part forcing a revolution.Using that as a guide, the first glaring error of logic and suspension of disbelief comes at the first chapter when we discover the coup against the ruler whose guards have all disappeared, and his most powerful guards, sorcerers of near godlike powers, taken completely by surprise by a much smaller group of magus who are not nearly as powerful. Not ever really explained. Further, the main protagonist seems to be a very old man, perhaps as powerful as an Otto Bismarck as a politician, but when Otto was in his seventies asking him to carry nearly all the actions on his shoulders instead of delegating would be hard to fathom.And that is the crux of things. If one view could have been our primary, a trusted lieutenant, of which there are several to the character McClellan has chosen as his main, this would no doubt be stronger. If the clues had been all in once place instead of suggesting having to travel across a kingdom. If such foolish sequences as the hunt had been given logic, then this could have been a much tighter, stronger fantasy. As such, there are cliches combined with novelty and novelty let down by ill thought device.Once the price comes down to earth for the rest of the series, or the library has these, I could consider getting the books to see how things finish. At full price, I can't justify it.

Brent Weeks said this was going to be good. He was right. :)

The idea of the way magic works here is interesting with powder mages being able to ignite gunpowder and channel the energy to fire musket balls much further and more accurately than one could with a musket even being able to bend shots in ways traditional firearms could not. They are not the only magic users but two of the main characters are powder mages.

The characters are formed fairly well and there is a nice twist at the end you suspect if coming and it pays off nicely. Of course, as book one you are left with dangling plot threads and wanting more. But wanting more is just what you want to feel like after a good book right?

Very happy book two is coming in a couple months. :)

I bought the book when it was available crazy cheap. While I had heard of it before I was never interested. But I ended up liking this book a lot. Good writing, nice story, grippingly told.

Found that it dragged a bit occasionally but overall I found it an interesting story.It's the aftermath of a revolution, Field Marshall Tamas has killed the aristocrats and the members of the elite magical corps, he himself is a powder mage, someone who has affinity for gunpowder and in fact uses it like a drug. The complications that ensue are not what he expected. Dude, Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance... it's a military adage and at his level he should have known better.I think the story could possibly have been better if it was told from the point of view of only one character but overall I found it interesting, I want to read the sequel but non-urgently to be honest. Some of the concepts sounded a lot familiar from other series, the gunpowder is a straight riff from the metal-mages from Brandon Sanderson, but it was also interesting to see a magical world with gunpowder.

First impression after just finshing this novel by Brian McClellan was "what a fun read". Anyone who is a fan of epic fantasy needs to pick this one up.

For those who enjoy this genre, you pretty much know what to expect when you start reading a new epic fantasy series, action, intrigue and lots of battles in a good vs. evil type of story. Brian McClellan has included all of that in the Powder Mage series but he doesn't stop there, powerful sorcerers (Privileged), Powder Mages with power over (and from) gunpowder (Marked) and others with many different individual powers (Knacked). Throw in rifles, pistols and the odd assorted God and you have the beginning of a new type of epic fantasy that I might call "weapons and wizardy". Great world building and interesting characters that will keep you entralled all the way through and wanting more.

5 stars for one of the best original stories I have read in some time. All fantasy fans are going to want to read this one.

This is the age of kings and monarchy, where the rich throw lavish parties in the midst of poverty. And then Tamas, the field marshal, staged a coup and guillotined all the nobility until the streets ran with blood. But there is more than the throne and power of the city at stake because there are strange murmurs of a broken promise. Kresimir's Promise. And it seems like gods are soon to be playing in this game.

I have to give this two stars because after 300 pages, I decided it wasn't worth it anymore. I can see how people can really get into this book, but for me, most of it was just going through the motions. I was reading to finish the book, not to see what happened to the characters or because I liked the world or anybody in the book.

I think it's because I don't really care about any of the characters. Tamas is a field marshal, burning with revenge, but still cool headed enough to foresee the necessities of the city in the middle of a coup. Tanis Two Shot is his son, forever waiting for his fathers approval while still the most talented Powder Mage of his years. Adamat is a researcher with a Knack that he never forgets a single detail who is charged to find the meaning of Kresimir's Promise and to find traitors. But I just find myself not really invested in any of these main characters. They are just.... Doing stuff. The most interesting ones are the women, and they are shunted to the side. I'd love to know more about Pole and the escaped Privilege.

Another problem with the book is that there is no clear plot. Essentially, it's just about those three men doing their duties as soldiers and such in this time of change and trouble. But there's not a central goal. It's all over the place and it's like there is no rising action. Just a ton of background information to set the scene. But mind you, I've read 300 pages of this book. That's 50%. So if there still feels like not rising action, there's kind of a problem.

I could finish if I were more bored. But I'm not. So this is going into the unfinished pile.

Two stars. I don't think I would recommend this book.

Brian McClellan has written a rip-roaring zinger of a novel, and I keenly await the next entry in the Powder Mage series. I don't give four- or five- star ratings to novels unless there's something truly exceptional about them, so don't let my three-star rating throw you off - this is a truly enjoyable novel and I recommend it without reservation.