Blood of Empire ★★★★☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Blood of Empire
Series: Gods of Blood and Powder #3
Author: Brian McClellan
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Flintlock Fantasy
Pages: 549
Words: 190.5K

Synopsis:

From the Publisher

The Dynize have unlocked the Landfall Godstone, and Michel Bravis is tasked with returning to Greenfire Depths to do whatever he can to prevent them from using its power; from sewing dissension among the enemy ranks to rallying the Palo population.

Ben Styke's invasion of Dynize is curtailed when a storm scatters his fleet. Coming ashore with just twenty lancers, he is forced to rely on brains rather than brawn - gaining new allies in a strange land on the cusp of its own internal violence.

Bereft of her sorcery and physically and emotionally broken, Lady Vlora Flint now marches on Landfall at the head of an Adran army seeking vengeance against those who have conspired against her. While allied politicians seek to undo her from within, she faces insurmountable odds and Dynize's greatest general.

My Thoughts:

This was a good wrapup to the trilogy. Overall, I was satisfied with how the story proceeded and how it ended each storyline of Michael, Vlora, Ben Stykes and Ka-Poel.

I'd like to talk about Vlora first, as I focused on her in the previous review and kind of ruined the whole review even though I enjoyed the book tremendously. Vlora is a bitch, plain and simple. I'm sorry to use such language, but once she lost her powder mage powers and had to rely on others, it became very evident that she was a bully and one of those people who had to do everything themselves. When neither of those things was possible anymore, my annoyance with her as a character went down to almost zero. But she is everything that I still dislike about main characters in a book. If McClellan writes any more in the Powder Mage universe and she's featured, I'll probably skip it.

Ben Stykes was a character and I mean that in the best way possible. He's a jerk sometimes but he has some moments of personal growth that allows him to grow as a person. Having to take care of an adopted daughter made him grow up psychologically and emotionally. Becoming the defacto dad of a 10year old girl was probably the best thing that could have happened to him. I identified with his struggle of getting older, as near the end of the book he realizes he just can't do what he used to be able to. With my job and my diabetes, I don't recover nearly as quickly from falls as I use to, and muscles and stuff get hurt a LOT easier than they used to. I'm not an invalid by any means, but seeing Ben struggle just made me grin, because I'm experiencing it myself.

I would have enjoyed seeing a bit more of Ka-Poel and Taniel together. Taniel is almost absent from this except for a bare couple of scenes and while Ka-Poel does play a part, she's more of an ancillary to Styke's whole storyline.

While I haven't talked about him, I liked Michel Bravis' storyline the best. From the first book until the end, he's an ordinary person (he's not a powdermage like Vlora, not a blood sorceress like Ka-Poel, not a ultra-badass like Stykes) who is doing his best and doing it well. He can't snap his fingers and make things happen, so just like you or me, he has to figure out alternatives. He was the most relatable and I enjoyed my time reading about him.

Overall, this trilogy was a great sequel to the original Powder Mage trilogy and I enjoyed my time spent on it. I saw that McClellan is starting another Epic Fantasy series but that it doesn't appear to be in the Powder Mage universe. I hope he sticks to a trilogy with it and once it is complete, I'll be reading it unless I hear abysmal reviews.

★★★★☆

• All My "Powder Mage" Reviews

Wrath of Empire ★★★★✬

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Wrath of Empire
Series: Gods of Blood and Powder #2
Author: Brian McClellan
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Flintlock Fantasy
Pages: 533
Words: 190K

Synopsis:

After the invasion of Fatrasta and the capital city of Landfall, thousands of refugees seek the safety of Lady Flint's soldiers as she prepares for another war to prevent the return of Gods walking the world.

In the capital, Blackhat spy Michel Bravis must infiltrate the invading Dynize to find a person named Mara. Succeeding in this mission could mean winning the war.

Meanwhile, the Mad Lancers led by Mad Ben Styke are building their own army. They are sent on a mission to find and destroy the third Godstone, led by the bloodmage Ka-poel. But what they find may not be what they're looking for.

My Thoughts:

McClellan tells a fantastic story and I really enjoyed this book.

Unfortunately, this really could have been a 5star book for me, except for one minor thing. Namely Vlora Flint. Oh my goodness, I am really disliking her. Her guilt issues are driving me batty, right alongside her inability to take any advice. She'll ask all her comrades for advice and before they've even started, she's already dismissing them or telling them why their advice is wrong. It wasn't just once, but multiple times that this happened. Really got under my skin.

Other than that, this was just one long enjoyable read.

★★★★✬

• All My "Powder Mage" Reviews

Sins of Empire (Gods of Blood and Powder #1) ★★★★✬

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Sins of Empire
Series: Gods of Blood and Powder #1
Author: Brian McClellan
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Flintlock Fantasy
Pages: 507
Words: 177.5K

Synopsis:

Ten years after the Kez-Adran War, General Vlora Flint, now head of the renowned Riflejack Mercenary Company, finds herself hired by the government of the independent colony of Fatrasta. Her mission is to find a dangerous insurgent leader named Mama Palo.

Benjamin "Mad Ben" Styke, former hero of the Fatrastan Revolution and convicted traitor, is released from prison after ten years thanks to the machinations of a mysterious benefactor, who asks him to get into General Flint's good graces and keep an eye on her.

Meanwhile, Agent Michel Brevis of the Blackhats, the Fatrastan government's secret police, is given orders to investigate the origin of a widely circulated political pamphlet titled "Sins of Empire".

Everything comes together as the Dynize Empire, which has been closed to any outsider for the last 100 years, sends a fleet and an army to Landfall, the capital city of Fatrasta, to recapture a magical artifact. An artifact that Taniel and Ka-poel have been seeking. An artifact that can create gods.

My Thoughts:

Man, what a rush! I haven't read a lot of epic fantasy recently (outside of my re-reads of the Wheel of Time and the Mistborn books) and it just felt “good” to slide back into this genre. While McClellan is fully a Flintlock fantasy kind of guy, his books do cross over into the Epic, what with their scope and literal size.

The Powder Mage trilogy was gritty. This toned that down as only one of the three points of view was from a powder mage. The inclusion of the political side of things made it feel more of a stiletto kind of story than a powder horn story. The revelation that the godstone could create gods has set some things into motion that I have no idea where McClellan is going to take it. The final revelation that there are two more of the blasted things makes me wonder why the world isn't overrun by gods. I'm hoping the author has some good explanations for all of that.

I am not a fan of Vlora. I didn't care for her in the original trilogy and nothing here makes her any more likeable. Her poor decision making skills endanger herself and by proxy the entirety of the Riflejacks on several occasions and while she is firm once she makes a decision, we as readers get the full view of her internal vacillating. Bleh. She's no Taniel. That and her irrational dislike of Ka-poel grates, as it was Vlora who betrayed Taniel by sleeping with another man during their engagement. Ka-poel only made a move on Taniel once it was clear Vlora disdained him on all levels. So Vlora's dislike just seems like a seed of bitterness that she's nursing. It's ugly.

I have not read any of the short stories (or the book where they are all collected) that McClellan put out on his website back in the day, so I was a complete stranger to Ben Stykes. He's definitely an interesting character. His “mad” added to his name definitely fits and yet he's quite the sympathetic guy too.

I am looking forward to the rest of this trilogy. Just the fact that it is a trilogy and not some bleeding sprawling forever series is a huge plus in my eyes.

★★★★✬

• All My "Powder Mage" Reviews

God of Night (God Fragments #4) ★★★★☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, Librarything & Bookype by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: God of Night
Series: God Fragments #4
Author: Tom Lloyd
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 421
Words: 145.5K

Synopsis:

When the Cards released the seals on Magic, not only did more magic enter the world, thus stirring up all the creatures that used and fed on magic, and not only did it make mages more powerful, but it also had the side effect of making the god fragments even more powerful. One of the Militant Orders has figured out that if they can bring enough god fragments of their particular deity together, it might just resurrect it. And with a resurrected god on their side, they'll rule the Riven Kingdoms as undisputed masters.

Does anyone think the Cards are just going to sit back and let this happen? Of course not. When they discover that one of their mages of Tempest has the ability to destroy god fragments merely by touching them, they hatch a plan, a daring plan to capture as many of the god fragments as possible and destroy them. Doesn't matter that most god fragments are housed in the Militant Orders most secure locations, nothing is going to stop the Cards.

Using double and triple dealing, backstabbing, betrayals and general kick assery, the Cards manage to destroy the majority of fragments from 3 of the 4 Orders. The last Order is the most powerful however, and it's cache of fragments is located in a duegar stronghold underground and is currently being overrun by magical underground creatures.

Once they've gotten into the Stronghold, the Cards find out that the gods were using a chained creature of magic to siphon power from. Now that the gods fragments are being destroyed and the magic has been released back into the world, this elder god is awakening. The Cards must therefore defeat the final god fragments, which are reassembling into its god AND defeat a creature so powerful that it made gods from mere duegar hundreds of millennia ago.

Tons of people die, the Cards succeed and Lynx is elected the new leader of the Cards because Anatol was one of the people killed. There are still god fragments in the world and the warlord of his people is still alive, so Lynx figures their new mission will be to invade So-Han and kill the warlord. Thus the book and the series ends.

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this but by the end, with some realizations, was glad this was the end of the series.

The fights were awesome. Realizing what the Militant Orders were up to was even awesomer. Finding out there was an elder god involved and that the Cards were going to kill it was the awesomest of all! The final massive battle in the Duegar ruins between the Cards, the remaining Militant Order personnel, the magic monsters and the elder god was everything I could have asked for. Magic galore, flintlock fantasy bullets and grenades by the metric ton and a monster so huge and gruesome that it made the monster from the first book look like a teddy bear? How could I not like everything about that? Even the ending was good. Lots of the Cards die. Important Cards die, like Anatole. Lynx becoming the new Master of the Deck slotted in perfectly with the series.

Unfortunately, and this is ALL me, was that I was used to the god fragment bullets and the grenades and bombs, etc. They didn't have the same impact on my as they did in the first book. I also realized, after finishing reading, that Lloyd had worked in some homosexual characters without playing it on a trumpet. I suspect if I were to go back and re-read the other books, I'd be finding more understated circumstances like this. Hence why I'll be done with Lloyd from here on out.

In regards to the series overall, I really enjoyed my time reading each book and short story and thought it was about 100 times better than Lloyd's Twilight Reign series. I'd recommend this wholeheartedly if mercenaries using dead god bodies to power their flintlock guns sounds like your kind of thing.

★★★★☆

• All My "God Fragments" Reviews

Knight of Stars (God Fragments #3) ★★★★☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Knight of Stars
Series: God Fragments #3
Author: Tom Lloyd
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 472
Words: 128K

Synopsis:

The Cards have taken a small, easy job for Toil. All they have to do is bust into a small headquarters which owes a banking consortium some money and hold the place until the banking soldiers can establish control. It is easy as predicted and now everyone can relax in a city made up of islands. Of course, it is also Teshen's old stomping grounds (he's the titular Knight of Stars) and back in the day he was a big to do. He was exiled after a failed coup and him coming back is not something people want.

The islands are also home to the lands most powerful mages, which gives the islands their name, Mage Island (how original huh?). Toil wants to find a source of god fragment bullets as the stunts that were pulled in the previous book means that the main source of god fragments won't be supplying her city. To accomplish this she dangles the marked Cards (those who all got a leaf mark from the magical tree construct) in front of the mages. She also takes up a contract with another mage to have her Marked Cards work on a duegar artifact.

The magical tree artifact from the previous book turned out to be a plug that the duegar used to seal a lot of magic out of the world. With the Cards having activated it, more magic is now available in the world. Do they learn their lesson though? Of course not. They proceed on their merry way and get a bunch of the lesser mages marked and powered up with this new artifact and release even MORE magic. Which has a lot of unintended consequnces. Like stirring up a double handful of the monsters that eat magic from the first book.

After a humongous battle in which they wipe out the monsters but the island is pretty much wiped out too, the Cards are forced to leave the Island as the inhabitants all want to kill them. They take several of the marked mages to be new Cards and return to Toil's home city.

My Thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Not as much as the first book but I think that one, with Lynx as the main character, is simply going to be the high point of the series. I saw on devilreads that Lloyd stated there will be one more book in this series. I'm good with that too. Sometimes a series needs to just tell one story and then be done. I'm glad Lloyd has chosen that route instead of dragging this out forever, even if I am sad that he's not going to be writing more about Lynx.

Each of the books' titles has referred to one specific character within the Cards. First we had Lynx, then Toil and now Teshen. Sadly, neither of the latter hold a candle to Lynx. I'm glad that Toil and Lynx have hooked up simply because it means we get to hear more about Lynx than if he was just one of the main named characters.

I liked that the setting was very different from the previous 2 books. Both of those dealt with Duegar underground areas, while this was out in broad daylight on some tropical like islands. Of course, that doesn't stop the monsters from being totally bad-ass and destroying everything they can. Lloyd can write some seriously awesome monster fight scenes. The Cards are as Black Company-lite as ever and come across as drunk, curmudgeonly and greedy, just like they are. It is fun to be honest.

The reason this gets 4 stars and not 4.5 or 5 is because Lloyd flirts with the idea of same-sex relationships without actually inserting it into the story. That is part of why I'm glad he's ending this when he is. I'm a touch concerned that he'll cross the line and I'll have to stop reading him. This way I can finish the series and he can do whatever the frell he wants to in other stories and both of us, one as writer and one as reader, are happy.

★★★★☆

• Previous "God Fragments" Reviews

Stands a Shadow (Heart of the World #2) ★★★☆☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Stands a Shadow
Series: Heart of the World #2
Author: Col Buchanan
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Flintlock Fantasy
Pages: 481
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

The Empire of Mann begins it conquest of the Free Isles. The Empress goes along because she is pissed off about her son dying. The real ruler of Mann, an old magician, sends along a Mannian “Diplomat” (code for assassin) named Che to make sure the Empress never runs from battle or acts like a coward. He also sends along 2 other Diplomats to take care of the first Diplomat once his job is done.

The military leader of the Free Isles goes against all expectations and leads an army into the field to confront the Mannian host. Using even more unexpected tactics, his goal is to slay the Empress and stall the army until winter sets in. The Empress is killed by the Diplomat for trying to run from the fight and the Mannian army is divided as the general and a noble vie for control. The leader of the Free Isles succumbs to the pressures he's been under and has a heart attack.

Che realizes his life is over since he killed the Empress and begins a running fight with the other 2 Diplomats. He survives and hooks up with a girl from the Free Isles and is trying to start over. He accidentally reveals that he is from Mann and the girl turns him into the authorities.

Meanwhile, Ash, the Farlander from the previous book, is trying to assassinate the Empress himself. He finds out that Che is an ex-Roshun and has betrayed the Roshun and that they are destroyed. The book ends with Ash asking the surviving Roshun to fight the Empire of Mann while he goes on a quest to bring his dead apprentice back to life.

My Thoughts:

If you divide this book up into 100 parts,not even 1 part would be “magic”. It's definitely Flintlock fantasy, but the magic is so under utilized that I really hesitated to even call it “Fantasy”. It is also very bleak and borders on the Grimdark.

It was written well and at no point was I jarred out of the story. That being said, I also never wanted to “read more” if I had to stop for bedtime or something else.

However, I won't be continuing this series for the following reasons. The nobles of Mann regularly partake in orgies of sex and drugs and while nothing is graphic, there are enough objectionable things mentioned that I want nothing to do with it. “Magicless” fantasy doesn't do it for me. Bleak doesn't do it for me. In general, the whole world and all the characters just leave me feeling very blasé. Blase doesn't do it for me either, in case you were wondering. Add in the fact that it took me 3 years to even search out the sequel to Farlander and that tells me something too.

Now I just have to decide what to replace this series with on my kindle. I've got the Caverns & Creatures series by Robert Bevan or the Dead Enders trilogy by Mike Resnick. Decisions, decisions.

★★★☆☆

• Farlander (Book 1)

Guns of the Dawn ★★★★☆

^{This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission}
 Title: Guns of the Dawn

 Series: ------

 Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky

 Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

 Genre: Fantasy

 Pages: 673

 Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Denland and Lascanne, two countries, allies. Until Denland overthrows its King and begins to make war on Lascanne. Inspired by their King, the people of Lascanne give their all. They sacrifice and sacrifice and things end up with a draft of the women from each household, as all the men have already been taken.

We follow Emily, the middle daughter of a noble family which is now impoverished. A brother-in-law has gone, the only son drafted, food slowly disappearing, bandits appearing, no news from the front. And to make things even better, the man who drove her father to suicide many years ago is in charge of the town. But Emily is a fighter and she does what she can to keep her family together and functioning.

When Emily gets drafted, she is sent to the Front in the swamps. She learns about war, about the leaders of her country and in the process learns a lot about the Denlanders. What she learns shakes the foundations of everything she thought she knew and that knowledge will lead to make a decision that will affect both countries.

My Thoughts:

First, only ONE bug reference. Considering how much time we spend in a swamp, I was expecting a lot more.

If I had any doubts about Tchaikovsky's writing ability [and after 12 books, you'd think I'd have made up my mind. Go figure], this put them to rest. This was really, really, really well written. There were a couple of instances near the beginning of the book where I just didn't like ANY of the characters and I was wondering if I'd have to DNF the book. But what it did was make the characters deeper and fully fleshed out.

Tchaikovsky continues his little fight against authority. If someone is in authority, they're lying bags of excrement and what is Right is actually Wrong. Having read Spiderlight, I saw the whole Denlander/Lascanne thing coming from a mile away. I really hope he doesn't keep this up in future books because it's getting a bit tiresome. Sometimes Right actually is Right. Just accept it.

Emily was a great character to follow. Her romance with Cristain was such a slow burn, it reminded me of an Austen romance. Then when she has feelings for a Warlock, instead of being a love triangle that I hated, I actually liked it. You could totally see this happening in a war. Nothing is clean cut or easy. It's as messy as the mud the soldier wade through day after day. It made sense, it fit with the characters and it never felt forced or drama for drama's sake.

The ending, with Emily having to make a decision about continuing the war against Denland or to put her heroic role away, was great. I didn't know which way she was going to do, whether she would pull the trigger or not, until I read the sentence. Isn't that exactly what we're looking for as readers?

Great book, well written, lots of fun.

★★★★☆