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Title | Promise of Blood
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Author | Brian McClellan
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Cover Art | Lauren Panepinto
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Publisher | Orbit - 2013
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First Printing | Orbit - 2013
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Title | The Crimson Campaign
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Author | Brian McClellan
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Cover Art | Lauren Panepinto
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Publisher | Orbit - 2015
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First Printing | Orbit - 2014
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Title | Autumn Republic
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Author | Brian McClellan
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Cover Art | Lauren Panepinto
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Publisher | Orbit - 2016
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First Printing | Orbit - 2015
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Title | In the Field Marshal's Shadow: Stories from the Powder Mage Universe
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Author | Brian McClellan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | 2015
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First Printing | 2015
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Title | Siege of Tilpur
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Author | Brian McClellan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | 2015
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First Printing | 2015
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Title | Forsworn
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Author | Brian McClellan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | 2014
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First Printing | 2014
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Title | Servant of the Crown
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Author | Brian McClellan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | 2014
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First Printing | 2014
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Title | Murder at the Kinnen Hotel
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Author | Brian McClellan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | 2014
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First Printing | 2014
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Title | Ghosts of Tristan Basin
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Author | Brian McClellan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | 2016
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First Printing | 2016
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Category | Gunpowder Fantasy
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Warnings | None
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Main Characters | Tamas, Taniel, Adamat, Borbador, Ka-poel, Olem, Vlora, Nila, Ricard, Mihali, Julene, Erika
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Main Elements | Gods, wizards
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Website | www.brianmcclellan.com
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 Promise of Blood
It's a bloody business, overthrowing a king...
Field Marshal Tamas' coup against the king has sent corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brought bread to the starving. But he knows that the battle is just beginning. Because it also provoked war with the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics, and the greedy scramble for money and power by Tamas' supposed allies: the Church, workers unions, and mercenary forces.
It's up to a few...
Stretched to his limit, Tamas is relying heavily on his few remaining powder mages, including the embittered Taniel, a brilliant marksman who also happens to be his estranged son, and Adamat, a retired police inspector whose loyalty is being tested by blackmail.
But when gods are involved...
As attacks batter them from within and without, the credulous are whispering about omens of death and destruction. Just old peasant legends about the gods waking to walk the earth. No modern educated man believes that sort of thing. But they should...
The Crimson Campaign
When invasion looms...
Tamas' invasion of Kez ends in disaster when a Kez counter-offensive leaves him cutoff behind enemy lines with only a fraction of his army, no supplies, and no hope of reinforcements. Drastically outnumbered and pursued by the enemy's best, he must lead his men on a reckless march through northern Kez to safety, and back over the mountains so that he can defend his country from an angry god, Kresimir.
But the threats are closer to home...
In Adro, Inspector Adamat wants only to rescue his wife. To do so he must track down and confront the evil Lord Vetas. He has questions for Vetas concerning his enigmatic master, but the answers will lead Adamat on a darker journey.
Who will lead the charge?
Tamas' generals bicker among themselves, the brigades lose ground every day beneath the Kez onslaught, and Kresimir wants the head of the man that shot him in the eye. With Tamas and his powder cabal presumed dead, Taniel Two-Shot finds himself as the last line of defense against Kresimir's advancing army
The Autumn Republic
The capital has fallen...
Field Marshal Tamas returns to his beloved country to find that for the first time in history, the capital city of Adro lies in the hands of a foreign invader. His son is missing, his allies are indistinguishable from his foes, and reinforcements are several weeks away.
An army divided...
With the Kez still bearing down upon them and without clear leadership, the Adran army turned against itself. Inspector Adamat, is drawn into the very heart of this new mutiny with promises of finding his kidnapped son.
All hope rests with one...
And Taniel Two-Shot, hunted by men he once thought his friends, must safeguard the only chance Adro has of getting through this war without being destroyed.
In the Field Marshal's Shadow
Five stories from the Powder Mage Universe, including the never-before-published "Green-Eyed Vipers"
- Hope's End
- The Girl of Hrusch Avenue
- Green-Eyed Vipers
- The Face in the Window
- Return to Honor
Siege of Tilpur
It is the height of the Gurlish Wars. Sergeant Tamas, a young infantryman in the Adran Army, struggles to keep his squad alive despite the blundering incompetence of their superior officers. Not only does Tamas have the curse of being an ambitious commoner in an army where rank is purchased rather than earned, he is also a powder mage. His magical ability to manipulate gunpowder is frowned upon by officers and feared by Privileged sorcerers.
When the Adran Army is about to give up on the siege of an enemy fortress, Tamas seizes upon the opportunity to prove his worth as a strategist and mage. But breaking the enemy on his own won’t be easy, no matter how strong he is.
Powder Mage short story first published in the UNBOUND Anthology on December 1st, 2015.
Forsworn
Erika ja Leora is a powder mage in northern Kez, a place where that particular sorcery is punishable by death. She is only protected by her family name and her position as heir to a duchy.
When she decides to help a young commoner—a powder mage marked for death, fugitive from the law—she puts her life and family reputation at risk and sets off to deliver her new ward to the safety of Adro while playing cat and mouse with the king’s own mage hunters and their captain, Duke Nikslaus.
Occurs 35 years before the events in Promise of Blood.
Servant of the Crown
Captain Tamas is an ambitious young officer in the Adran army. As a commoner, he is one of very few without noble blood to hold a rank. When he challenges the son of a duke over an insult, the subsequent duel lands him in hot water with the nobility and the royal cabal of Privileged sorcerers. Tamas is soon drawn into a conflict that goes to the very highest office in the land, and his only ally is the most unlikely of people; a young noblewoman named Erika, who needs Tamas to teach her how to wield her powers as a powder mage.
Occurs about 35 years before the events in Promise of Blood.
Murder at the Kinne Hotel
Special Detective Constable Adamat may be the most capable young investigator in all of Adopest. He's sharp, thoughtful, and his particular sorcery gives him a flawless memory. A transfer to the First Precinct seems like the perfect opportunity to showcase his abilities and advance his career.
But things work differently in the First Precinct. The murder of a businessman's mistress quickly pulls Adamat into an unexpected world of conspiracy and politics where he's forced to use all his wits to stay one step ahead of unseen enemies and keep his friends—and himself—from the guillotine.
Occurs twenty-two years before the events in Promise of Blood.
Ghosts of the Tristan Basin
Taniel Two-Shot is a powder mage with the Tristan Ghost Irregulars, a band of volunteers who have made a name for themselves fighting in the Fatrastan Revolution. They range through the swamps of the frontier, cutting off enemy supplies and raiding towns while Taniel hunts the Privileged sorcerers that make the Kez armies so powerful.
When a desperate call for help comes from the nearby city of Planth, the Irregulars aren't the only ones to answer and Taniel must deal with another hero of the revolution: Mad Colonel Styke. But not all is well within the young Fatrastan government, and more hangs on the defense of Planth than Taniel and his companions could possibly know.
Occurs eight months before the events of Promise of Blood.
I hadn't planned to start this series when I was still reading The Shadown Campaigns by Django Wexler, two flintlock fantasies at the same time were likely to get mixed up. But it happened anyway and I'm glad I didn't put this one off.
The Powder Mage trilogy is amazing. It has wonderful worldbuilding, a world with magic spread amongst the Knacked (people with a special power like good memory or not needing sleep), the Priviledged (advanced magic users), Magebreakers (who can cancel out Priviledge magic), Wardens (humans transformed by magic into monstrous warriors designed to hunt powders mages), Powder Mages (able to use gunpowder to increase their strength and senses, to ignite powder with their minds and direct the force of the blast). It's the Powder Mages that are the most unique and fascinating, truly melding technology and magic together. And as in any well thought out magic system, there are limits, with Powder Mages becoming powder blind if they use too much, or becoming addicts.
Of course the world is not enough, you need to populate it with interesting characters, and each of the main characters are interesting, and very, very flawed. You sympathize with them all, you want to slap them when they are being stubborn, but they all feel very real and very human. You really care to know what happens to them next, whether it Taniel, son of the Field Marshall Tamas who felt more like a soldier than a son to his father, or Adamat, retired police inspector with a wife and large brood of children.
The plot is important too and this one takes all kinds of twists and turns, mysteries abound for Adamat to investigate (much as he'd rather not get even more involved), battles for Tamas to win, and gods to kill. It also makes sure to add all the other little bits, giving the world a history, the peoples different cultures, and even language quirks such as using "Pit" when swearing.
Only problem with this trilogy is that virtually every character is the "bestest, most powerful, ever" of whatever they happen to be. I won't give away who, but there are at least three of the regular characters who fall into this category, plus a few others that they are pitted against. There's a certain point where the reader wonders how it's possible that this exact moment in history managed to bring about so many "firsts" of their kind. But since you love and care about the characters, and the extra firepower comes in handy (and makes for a more exciting story) you don't really mind.
Also, have to admit these books have the most stunning covers, they guy chosen to model for Field Marshal Tamas is just perfect.
Very highly recommended, and if you like it, you'll be happy to know McClellan not only wrote a bunch of short stories in this world, but is starting another trilogy.
November 2017
Nearly a year later, I finally returned to the world of the Powder Mages with the collection of short stories called In the Field Marshal's Shadow, and it was a wonderful experience returning to these characters. The stories span a periof of 10 years before the start of the trilogy (with a focus on Verundish in Hope's End), to Return to Honour which takes place between the first two books. We see Vlora being discovered by Tamas, and fill in the gap where Taniel meets Ka-poel for the first time. And in The Green-Eyed Viper one learns one should never underestimate Tamas. I have two more of the short stories, both were gotten for free by having signed up for McClellan's mailing list and I look foward to reading those soon, I don't think I can get enough of this series!
June 2020
It was nice to return to the world of the powder mages by way of the collection of five novellas. I waited till I had collected them all so that I could enjoy them all at once. It covers a range of time from when Tamas was young and just starting to work his way up the ranks, to just before the start of the main series. We get to see Tamas, Adamat, Taniel, and most importantly Erika who was not alive by the time the series starts. I don't know if I had a favorite or not, I enjoyed them all, only wish there were more, which is why I'm looking forward to the Gods of Blood and Powder trilogy which appears to feature Stykes, the Mad Lancer, who shows up in The Ghosts of Tristan Basin. If you are a fan of this trilogy I highly recommend getting the novellas and short stories to fill in some of the gaps in the main series.
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