Kyle’s Reviews > Promise of Blood > Status Update

I really enjoyed those books.

I'm loving it so far. The world is fascinating, and I like the characters. I've been meaning to read it, and it's the Sword and Laser pick for this month, so that was a good excuse.

I love the way he's created a magic centred on black powder. The politics and conflict created by that decision make it much more interesting than your standard muskets and magic world.

I haven't read a ton of other Napoleanic fantasy, but it just makes natural sense to me. The other thing that I thought of is that powder mages will become exponentially more powerful as weapons technology advances. That's an interesting thought.

So far, one of my favorite new things I've read.
I want more series in this vein.

I haven't read much gun powder based fantasy either. I did at one point kid myself that I might be able to write some. McClellan's rivalry between the privileged and powder mages is brilliant because it helps keep the conflict between the old world and new technology feeling fantastical. It also helps meld the enlightenment and fantasy elements together; a blending that could so easily be awkward.

If you're looking for more muskets & magic fantasy after you've run out of Powder Mage, try The Thousand Names bŷ Django Wexler. Where The Powder Mage trilogy is inspired by the French Revolution, The Thousand Names takes its cues from Arthur Wellesly's campaigns in India. It's not quite as good, but it does read a bit like a love letter to Glenn Cook and Bernard Cornwell.

Oh cool! I've heard of Django Wexler before. Have you read His Majesty's Dragon? Alt-history Napoleanic War with dragons. Interesting, but uneven. I stopped partway through the series.

No, I haven't read anything else by Wexler. It sounds like you're saying the delivery of His Majesty's Dragon is too inconsistent to really be worth it? So far The Shadow Campaigns (of which The Thousand Names is book #1) seems promising, but there's only one book to judge it by as yet.

Oh cool! I've heard of Django Wexler before. Have you read His Majesty's Dragon? Alt-history Napoleanic War with dragons. Interesting, but uneven. I stopped partway through the series.

The first book is very solid. Not great, but fun. Kind of Horatio Hornblower with dragons. The next few books drag a bit for me. They leave England, and the dragon takes a bit of a backseat to some of the political stuff. The character is just absent for large chunks of time, and that doesn't make a ton of sense for me.

I also tried to blast through the whole series in one run, and I think I just got tired of it.

I rarely read concurrent books in a series before. I split them up to avoid becoming bogged down.

That would have helped a lot. I think the one I stopped on was about to pick up, but I was just worn out.

Before? I meant to say 'any more.'
I can understand. This was a policy I started when I was reading The Black Company books. They're great, but I still got bogged down. Reading a Sharpe novel between each one really helped.

Hah, yeah, The Black Company is bleak. I could see needing a break. Same with MBotF. I plodded through GotM, and then raced through DG and MoI back to back. Then I bogged down in HoC. Through, I can blast through The Dresden Files in a month or two still. Different series entirely.

I'm holding off (barely) from impulse buying The Crimson Campaign. I'm not sure what's next, but it might be non-fiction.