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Promise of Blood
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
The Age of Kings is dead . . . and I have killed it. It's a bloody business overthrowing a king... 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 the greedy to scramble for money and power by Tamas's 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... 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... In a rich, distinctive world that mixes magic with technology, who could stand against mages that control gunpowder and bullets? PROMISE OF BLOOD is the start of a new epic fantasy series from Brian McClellan. Winner of the David Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Debut Fantasy.
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TracyReadsBooks
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Pickpick

This first book in a fantasy trilogy featuring mages, gods, mercenaries, regicide, blackmail, betrayal, and epic battles more than lives up to its title. French Revolution with wizards indeed. It‘s a fast-paced story told from multiple POVs (easy to distinguish) which starts fast & only occasionally gets bogged down in lengthy descriptions. Interesting magic system, great characters, entertaining story. I enjoyed this one more than I expected to.

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TracyReadsBooks
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Decided I needed to work on my TBR pile so I randomly grabbed a book and came up with this one. One blurb described it as the French Revolution with wizards and it is very much that. It is also surprisingly fun—10 chapters or so in and I‘m really enjoying it.

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PuddleJumper
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Political, military, magical fantasy with guns … This is the first in the Powder Mage trilogy which is a flintlock fantasy. I love the magical system, it was something new and I really liked how it worked.

The characters are complex, it deals with the realities of war, prejudice, and relationships and characters develop organically which I enjoy.

#AdventRecommends @emilyrose_x

emilyrose_x Ooh that looks like an exciting book! And I love your graphic 😍 2y
19 likes1 stack add1 comment
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PuddleJumper
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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#AlphabetGame #LetterP

Gundpoweder fantasy! I love this series

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Thank you for playing! 2y
16 likes1 comment
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BookMaven9
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Pickpick

My first flintlock fantasy and I‘m so excited to read the next one. I think Ive found another favorite author.

Power mage, gods, and inspector and lots of cool magic!!!

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BookMaven9
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Squeezing in some reading and sunshine before the rain comes back tomorrow

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TurnerofPages
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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I can't wait to start devouring these little gems!!

4 likes1 stack add
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TurnerofPages
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan

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Therewillbebooks
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Pickpick

If I‘m being honest, (and I usually am) the cover is what drew me to this one. A haggard soldier, beaten and bloodied sitting on a throne, musket in hand. It looks cool and I like that sort of thing. Can‘t say that I‘m disappointed either. Fast-paced and enthralling. Looking forward to the next one.

#fantasy #historicalfantasy #septemberreads

Ruthiella Sometimes you CAN judge a book by its cover! 😀 4y
29 likes1 comment
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Therewillbebooks
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Got a good #libraryhaul! I have other stuff that I should be reading but the mood struck me and I got a bit carried away. I regret nothing.

#bookhaul #library #podcast

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Deifio
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Andrew65 I like the look of these! 4y
Deifio @Andrew65 I love the cover art and the books themselves are really cool. There's also a sequel trilogy out, bit I haven't read that yet 4y
20 likes1 stack add2 comments
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PaulaNovotna
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Pickpick

I really enjoyed the Promise of Blood... a lot! It felt like a cross between Mistborn and Draconis Memoria which are some of my favourite fantasy series. The story was fast paced with many POV's being told. The magic system is fun, fitting it's surroundings; getting high on gunpowder just sounds crazy and pretty epic at the same time.

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annkuch13
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Have a messy #shelfie

Twainy I have so many of those books 💕 5y
38 likes1 comment
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GrilledCheeseSamurai
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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#FebruaryFeels #WarIsHell

Fantastic flintlock/military/fantasy!

I mean...they snort gunpowder like cocain to gain special abilities like bending bullets or sniping from impossible distances. That's pretty badass.

The characters are engaging & the action is ri-friggen-diculous! There's also a 2nd trilogy after this one that is already complete called, God's of Blood & Powder. Haven't read it yet - waiting for the 3rd book to drop in TPB.

@Eggs

EchoLogical My husband just started the second trilogy and. I‘m over here like “you‘re welcome” because I convinced him to start the first. 😎 Lol 5y
GrilledCheeseSamurai @EchoLogical Haha! Well done. 👏👏 I'm really excited for the 2nd trilogy. It'll be a summer read for me this year. ❤️ 5y
Eggs Unequivocally badass 📚👏🏻 5y
See All 7 Comments
Chrys Did you get the #sfmbc package I sent? 5y
GrilledCheeseSamurai @Chrys I certainly did! I didn't make a specific post about it but I'm pretty certain I tagged you thanking you somewhere a few weeks back! I'm so sorry if you didn't see it! So to make up for it - thanks again so much! ❤️🤘❤️ 5y
Chrys No problem, I don‘t see anything in my tags, don‘t know what happened. Just glad it made it and you‘re welcome 5y
AJackets There is another series in progress called The Midnight Front and it is a stack rec at my job. Essentially it is world war 2 as seen from a group of trained mages.... Pretty sweet! 5y
76 likes5 stack adds7 comments
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Rambo_Reads
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Beach reads 🌞😎🏖

TrishB Great pic 👍🏻 5y
Deifio I'm reading the third book in the series at the moment. Hope you like the first book and continue on! I'm really enjoying the series 💖 5y
Rambo_Reads @Deifio yup really liked the first one - defo will continue with it 👍 5y
14 likes3 comments
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Rambo_Reads
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Pickpick

The book that's been fuelling my roadtrip! I've never really got the whole magic with guns thing before but there's so much more going on here.

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Rambo_Reads
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Perfect opportunity to show off my new favourite tshirt 😁
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So many cool designs: https://www.thecabinsupplyco.com/

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Rambo_Reads
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Roadtrip reading!

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Rambo_Reads
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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My current library checkouts. Clearly it's all about fantasy at the moment.

#fantasy #yafantasy

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KtheBookwyrm
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
Bailedbailed

Out of the small handful of women mentioned in the first 100 pages, 2 fainted at the sight of a guillotine, one is repeatedly referred to as “the savage” to her face, and another is unable to act logically or be a productive member of a team because “I‘m way better than you idiot, I don‘t even need your help!” despite clearly not having a handle on the situation. Ugh. I expect better.

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KtheBookwyrm
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Started this a couple days ago and I‘m on the fence about it. The story seems interesting enough I suppose but the treatment of women is really starting to grate on my nerves. Nearly 100 pages in at this point and thinking I‘ll need to investigate whether this continues throughout the book.

Grrlbrarian No spoilers generally, but: IMHO it does. That bothered me also 5y
KtheBookwyrm @Grrlbrarian ya, I officially DNF‘d. I found it a little disturbing though that there were so many 4 and 5 star reviews gushing about how great the characters were. I was only able to find 2 reviews on the first page of the goodreads page for this book that were negative, both because of the treatment of women. 5y
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Deifio
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Pickpick

Read it the second time. Couldn't remember part of it to continue with book 2.
My first flintlock fantasy. Lots of good characters! Ka-Poel is amazing!

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Midnightyell
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan

Almost a year to the day since I started the powder mage trilogy, I‘m starting it again, but this time I‘m bringing the book club with me. And I love this opening scene. Hello, Adamat!!

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Vinjii
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Pickpick

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ An amazing magic system and great characters. This has everything #fantasy has to offer. I couldn‘t put it down. Can you kill a god?! 😱

GrilledCheeseSamurai I really liked these too! 👍 7y
Vinjii @GrilledCheeseSamurai Can‘t wait for my Goodreads buddy read group to pick up book 2 👍 7y
44 likes1 stack add2 comments
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GrilledCheeseSamurai
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Pickpick

Promise of Blood is the first book of the Powder Mage trilogy. The whole series is downright bonkers awesome! The author has created a really interesting magic system that incorporates flintlock weaponry and the digestion of gunpowder that gives certain people crazy cool powers.

No wizards with staffs here! This is badassery at its finest.

Melissa_J I love these books! 7y
GrilledCheeseSamurai @Melissa_J Aren't they great!? I haven't read Sins of the Empire yet, which is the start of his new trilogy, but I have it sitting there waiting for me! 👍 7y
Melissa_J It‘s very good, too. The next book is released in Feb/Mar and I can‘t wait to read it. 7y
See All 7 Comments
Maike Amazon keeps recommending this to me, after reading your review I‘ll finally put in on my tbr 😉 7y
GrilledCheeseSamurai @Maike 🙌🙌🙌 hope you like it! 7y
yashiro One of the best books i have ever read (and longest!). I can't wait to start reading the rest of the series! 7y
GrilledCheeseSamurai @yashiro hope you enjoy the rest of the series as much as I did! 👍 7y
55 likes2 stack adds7 comments
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DaisytheFairy
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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I'm looking forward to starting this series soon. #fantasy

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EchoLogical
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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A few books featuring #addiction to various substances... My husband is currently reading the tagged book after I recommended it to him forever ago. The book tells the story of Taniel Two Shot, a powder mage (person consumes gun powder and gains supernatural abilities) who appears to be addicted to the powder and runs the risk of becoming powder blind throughout the book. I def recommend the series.

#anditsaugust @RealLifeReading

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JoRead
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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I bought the first one in the series because I thought the cover was really cool. Of course I liked the blurb but I wouldn't have picked the book if not for that cover 😍
#dontjudge
#JudgedbyItsCover #marchingintoreading @RealLifeReading

Claireluana This is an excellent series! Enjoy! 8y
JoRead @Claireluana That's good to know, thanks! 8y
29 likes2 comments
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JoRead
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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But first, let me take a #shelfie. Most of my prints are still in boxes after the move so this is my only bookcase. Now my ebook shelf, well thats another story.
#day1 l#riotgrams
@bookriot

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Midnightyell
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan

"Get the word around. The arch-diocell took a nasty fall. Find witnesses. The Inspector will be one. Won't you?"
"Yes, sir! Terrible spill. Two flights before we could stop him!"
"Doctor, what could you prescribe for the arch-diocell's condition here?"
"Arsenic."
"Doctor! Something that will just render him unconscious and give him some memory loss."
"Cyanide, then!"
"Doctor!"

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Midnightyell
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
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Next book(s) up are The Powder Mage Trilogy. Any book recommended by both Pat Rothfuss & Brandon Sanderson is a book I need to read.

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GPShipley
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
Pickpick

many characters with all distinct personalities

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WaxEmphatic
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan
Pickpick

This book was just a pile of awesome. It had engaging characters, a cool and unique magic system and a plot that kept me up past my bedtime many nights. The use of gun powder and the balance of magic adds to the plot rather than the other way around which is he mark of a really good system.

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