As the cover indicates, Promise of Blood is the first of the Powder Mage Trilogy, and it is the debut novel from author Brian McClellan. This book is part of a growing fantasy sub-genre called flintlock fantasy, expertly explained here. "Magic and muskets" is the name of the game, particularly in this story.
Magic users in Promise of Blood are generally divided into three broad categories. There are the Privileged, who are traditional sorcerers, wielding elemental magic of fire, earth, air, water, and aether to great effect. With the development of gunpowder, a threat to the primacy of Privileged has arisen in the form of the Powder Mages. These magic users may snort gunpowder to enter a "powder trance", enhancing reflexes, focus, etc. Powder Mages can also ignite gunpowder mentally and use the released energy in many interesting ways, including to divert bullets in flight to increase accuracy or deflect attacks. The final group are the Knacked, who are born with a greatly enhanced passive ability, such as possessing an eidetic memory or having no need for sleep. Knacked also possess the Third Eye, or the ability to sense magical auras. I could describe these groups in greater detail, but I'll leave that to Mr. McClellan.
The setting for this story is the kingdom of Adro, one of nine kingdoms established by a group of powerful beings or gods millennia ago. The book opens with a military coup overthrowing the corrupt king of Adro, whose frivolous spending had him on the brink of essentially selling his kingdom to his neighbor the Kez to pay off his debts. The coup is led by Field Marshal Tamas, a Powder Mage, who rounds up and executes the king and his nobles for their poor handling of the kingdom. He replaces them with a ruling council of his co-conspirators, who begin to manage affairs of state. This regicide does not sit well with Adro's neighbors, particularly Kez, who quickly begin to cause trouble for the new government.
Woven into all of the politics and war is a mystery concerning something called "Kresimir's promise." The king's Royal Cabal of Privileged are killed defending their sovereign, and each repeats the same phrase with his/her dying breath: "Don't break Kresimir's promise." Kresimir was the leader of those powerful beings that set up the kingdoms, beings which many (including Tamas) believe to be myths. Tamas hires a Knacked named Adamat to investigate this mystery, which threatens grave repercussions as it unravels.
I hope I've whetted your interest for the story, because it is presented marvelously. As it unfolds, it of course becomes more and more complicated, but this complexity makes sense and never gets out of hand, in my opinion. McClellan's characters are deep, with interesting backstories and complex motivations driving their decisions. The story includes plenty of action to spice things up, with everything from pitched battles down to individual fights, both magical and mundane. The plot twists were the right mix of reasonable and unexpected; I think I guessed maybe 50% of them.
I'm excited to read more of this trilogy. The second novel, The Crimson Campaign, is available now, and so are many short stories and novellas set in the same world. All are available at the author's website, brianmcclellan.com. Happy reading!
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