Showing posts with label Brian McClellan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brian McClellan. Show all posts

Friday, March 25, 2022

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.


★★★★☆




Tuesday, February 15, 2022

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.


★★★★✬




Tuesday, January 04, 2022

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.


★★★★✬