Brian McClellan's The Powder Mage universe

Has anyone taken a look at these books and would like to discuss them? The series comes highly recommended by Brandon Sanderson, so if you like his brand of innovative magic systems and great world building, you will probably enjoy The Powder Mage books.

For those who want an elevator pitch: fantasy setting based off revolutionary-era France with magic users who can control gunpowder with their minds.

Read a preview of the original, and have the full book on my kindle. Haven't gotten around to actually reading it yet (have also skimmed the series page a while ago), though it's certainly interesting.

One would also think that a god would be aware of the possibility of rulers turning out to be selfish assholes who have no business ruling and would have made provisions.

edited 2nd Feb '18 2:05:39 PM by theLibrarian

Huh, the timing on this thread is funny.

I just borrowed the first book from the library and plan to read it after I'm done with New Spring.

Short version: God doesn't give a shit. Kresimir's Promise wasn't intended to ensure the wise rule of the nations, it was just to keep some kings happy. Jerkass Gods is in full effect here.

edited 2nd Feb '18 2:22:15 PM by Discar

Oh, so they thought "Divine right of kings, eh? That oughtta shut them up."

edited 2nd Feb '18 2:43:38 PM by theLibrarian

Awesome books! I love them.

I've read the original trilogy and the first book of the sequel series and enjoyed them.

I've read the first two; going to move onto the third shortly.

I'm enjoying them a lot so far! The characters mostly don't jump out at me except for Tamas himself, and possibly Ka-Poel (who I wish had a bit more focus). Worldbuilding's pretty good.

I found the concept of Kresimir's Promise a little bit like how magic works in Blindsprings - i.e. "What if the corrupt ruling class who always claimed to have a divine right to rule, actually DID have one, but the populace didn't believe them and overthrew them anyway".

I do find some of the gender representation a little... off somehow. It's almost the exact opposite problem to the Mistborn Trilogy by Sanderson - Mistborn had one badass female lead and no female side characters, Promise of Blood had a bunch of female side characters but all the leads are men in varying degrees of grizzledness. Wasn't a huge fan of the way almost every female character had to have had sex (or potentially could later have sex) with a male lead, either. Or the whole 'lol, having magic just makes men horny, because of course it does' thing.

Interesting take on the books. I'll admit that I hadn't noticed until you mentioned it how problematic certain aspects of the books can be. Like, I had the thought in the back of my mind, but now that I sit and think of it - yeah, the women in this book are poorly written and developed in general compared to the men.

Ka-Poel is easily the most powerful character and is integral to the plot, but she is relegated to a pretty secondary role.

Vlora's entire character seems to revolve around her infidelity.

Even Lady Winceslav is eventually revealed to have been making less than wise romantic decisions.

Erika, Tamas' wife, exists only to be fridged. The list goes on.

However, I just finished reading the first book of the follow-up trilogy and I feel that Vlora becomes much more interesting in that one as she is the main character. She gets a lot more character development.

And another positive note is that even if the women could stand to be better written, I appreciate the fact that female soldiers are present at every level of the various armies we encounter across the series. This being primarily a military fantasy series, it's a nice touch.

edited 7th Feb '18 6:55:07 AM by GutstheBerserker