But every once in a while the whole Privileged thing with special gloves and each finger linked to a different element just made me wince and want to say 'really?'. The thing to do is swallow it whole (which I managed) and enjoy the book (which I really did). I wouldn't say Promise of Blood had a highly structured magic system, excepting that the different disciplines were clearly distinct - certainly we're not talking Dungeons & Dragons rulebook magic here. Brandon Sanderson (who I've not yet read) is famed for them. I understand many readers love highly structured 'magic systems'. And for some reason every time someone mentioned Fatrasta my mind filled with images of over-weight Rastafarians. I) (trivial) One of the countries mentioned several times was called Fatrasta. Promise of Blood held it's head up among that lot and wasn't overshadowed. I've read some excellent books of late, including Blood Song, Fool's Assassin, and The Name of the Wind. McClellan's real forte though is in building tension and intrigue, slowly raising the tempo while wrapping the various threads around each other in satisfying ways. When I did get to hold onto it for any period I found the book highly readable. I half-thought the cover might have an adaptive camouflage mode. I've never had a book that's such an escape artist. Actually it wasn't really, the main trouble for me was that when I did put it down the bugger vanished. This book took me a while to read - so you might take that to mean it's easily put down.

In a rich, distinctive world that mixes magic with technology, who could stand against mages that control gunpowder and bullets? No modern educated man believes that sort of thing. Just old peasant legends about the gods waking to walk the earth. Now, as attacks batter them from within and without, the credulous are whispering about omens of death and destruction. 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 it also provoked war with the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics, and the greedy to scramble for money and power by Tamas's supposed allies: the Church, workers unions, and mercenary forces. It's a bloody business overthrowing a king.įield Marshal Tamas' coup against his king sent corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brought bread to the starving.

Promise of blood by brian mcclellan