Promise of Blood

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Call Number: Fantasy
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fantasy	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"Field Marshal Tamas' coup against his king sent corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brought bread to the starving. But it also provoked war with the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics, and greedy scrambling for money and power by Tamas's supposed allies: the Church, workers unions, and mercenary forces. 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. Now, 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.."-- Provided by publisher.
""PROMISE OF BLOOD puts the epic back in fantasy! A novel that opens in the aftermath of a bloody coup, it's a thrilling look at politics, kingdoms, and the retribution that falls swiftly on broken promises." --Provided by the publisher"-- Provided by publisher.

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Great world-building fantasy-political drama. submitted by eknapp on May 30, 2014, 3:43pm A grand fantasy-adventure-political coup thriller with a couple twists. First the setting is more post-Renaissance than medieval: gunpowder, unions, populism, guillotines, fashionable agnosticism. Very French Revolution. Second, God ("Kresimir"), it turns out, is real; he created the world 1400 years earlier, he likes his monarchies, and if he comes back to find them toppled, he'll likely wipe the world clean and start over. Drama!

There are three magical classes in McClellan's world. The Privileged are just supercharged battle wizards. Ridiculously powerful fire-and-lightning-slinging dynamos. Powder mages have an affinity for gunpowder; they can sense it, detonate it with their brains, get high off of it ("battle trance"), and use it to guide bullets over long distances. The Privileged hate and fear powder mages for being the only real check on their power. The Knacked are the weakest but most interesting of the three: they each have one strong niche ability, like never needing sleep or being able to detect lies or magically pick locks.

Promise of Blood opens immediately after the overthrow of a corrupt king by a company of powder mages. They establish a series of kangaroo courts, execute pretty much the entire noble class, then try to save what's left amidst all the instability and chaos they've created. Complications arise with a series of assassination attempts, a massive invading army, a traitor on the newly installed ruling council, and a plot to summon Kresimir for the first time in 14 centuries to destroy the world. McClellan does not think small.

The author's prose is workmanlike, not remotely poetic, but serviceable. His world-building was stellar, with a great many interesting power factions: church, national union, organized crime, sorcerer cabal, army, mercenaries, royal accountancy, "powder mages", nobility, merchants, good stuff. It's no Tolkien but it's a lot of fun to read.