Promise of Blood (Powder Mage, #1) in The Sword and Laser

Feb 19, 2016 Silvana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fyeahfantasy, reading-with-friends, dick-lit, series-and-trilogies-i-completed, military-fantasy, 2025-fantasy

What a great book. Exhilarating to read; the action-packed narrative will keep you on your toes and unable to divert your eyes and stop reading even for just one moment. Seriously.

Interesting magic system: The powder mages were basically gunpowder-benders - they could manipulate gunpowder and bullets in any way possible, control direction, blow things till Kingdom come, 'float' bullets into various angles and kill their enemies within miles and miles away. Sounds awesome? Well, in this book we What a great book. Exhilarating to read; the action-packed narrative will keep you on your toes and unable to divert your eyes and stop reading even for just one moment. Seriously.

Interesting magic system: The powder mages were basically gunpowder-benders - they could manipulate gunpowder and bullets in any way possible, control direction, blow things till Kingdom come, 'float' bullets into various angles and kill their enemies within miles and miles away. Sounds awesome? Well, in this book we are given a number of other sorcerers: Privilegeds and Knacked. Privilegeds are Avatars - not four but five elements (inc. aether.). Knacked are people with specialized minor but useful magical 'knack', or capability, e.g. extremely good memory, don't need any sleep, etc. And Wardens. And Bone-eye sorcerers.

The story is started with a retelling of the French Revolution. We've even got the barricades and all. Then the worldbuilding starts. Gods and sorcerers. A nation on the brink of chaos and war with its powerful neighbour. A traitor in the new council. An investigator tasked to find out who he/she was. A powder mage general with an idea of how the country should be ruled. A mutual hatred between powder mages and Privileged. A young but talented powder mage who was tasked to kill his best friend, who happened to be a Privilegeds. A former laundress who wanted to protect her former masters' child from being used as political pawn. A bunch of very mysterious and super-powerful privilegeds which fights could destroy cities. A mysterious mute sorceress who could do lots of nasty stuff with her voodoo skills. Different factions with their own political interests. Mercenaries. Assassin guild. And gods returning in the mortal world. Yes, definitely a lot to take there but somehow the writer is able to weave all these plots and characters into a very enjoyable book.

I did not give five stars because:
1. There was a romantic subplot that felt cheesy for me. Taniel and Kapoel seem like to be set up as romantic partners later but I don't think Taniel is good enough for her, really.
2.Nila does not click with me yet, but I will be looking forward to see her character development in later books.
3. Too many superlatives. Everyone is the bestest in their fields, or has hidden OPness like Kapoel.
4. I don't like some of the female characters' description like their chests or something like that. Some stuff just make this book should be shelved (by me) as dick-lits.

Question I still don't know the answer: Could Privilegeds bend blood and air from a man's (including mages) body?

It is yet another book that you could lose sleep for. Don't say I didn't warn you. ...more

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Dec 22, 2016 mina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

After reading (and infatuated with) Django Wexler's Shadow Campaigns series, I think the series has set a high bar of fun and quality for military fantasy fiction (not that I read military fantasy before and after this series, so my judgment is obviously biased here). But then another Goodreads fellow member seems really like the Powder Mage series, I think this series deserves a try, although I am already turned off by the cover. Boy, I am glad I tried this one. I like this series in a differen ...more

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Oct 04, 2014 Charlotte marked it as shelved

Shelves: bookskype

Didn't really get into this one before my bookclub met and then had no desire to continue. ...more

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Oct 06, 2018 Udayan rated it really liked it

Badass war fantasy reminiscent of Brent Weeks at his very best. Gripping, layered and full of interesting / flawed characters. Have to read the other books soon.

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