Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan

Brian G Turner

Brian G Turner

Fantasist & Futurist
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Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan has been showing a lot on the chronicles advertising for me.

Something about it (the colours, the cover?) looked intriguing, so I thought I'd check it out on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/035650199X/?tag=brite-21
'The Age of Kings is dead. And I have killed it.'

Field Marshal Tamas's coup against his king sends corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brings bread to the starving. But it also provokes war in the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics and greedy scrambling for money and power by Tamas's supposed allies: the Church, workers' unions and mercenary forces.

Stretched to his limit, Tamas relies heavily on his few remaining powder mages, including the embittered Taniel, a brilliant marksman who also happens to be Tamas's estranged son, and Adamat, a retired police inspector whose loyalty will be tested to its limit.

Now, amid the chaos, a whispered rumour is spreading. A rumour about omens of death and destruction. Just old peasant legends about the gods returning to walk the earth. No modern educated man believes that sort of thing . . .

But perhaps they should.
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I'm especially caught by the use of the words "workers unions" - which suggests the potential for some intelligent social exploration, something I see very little of normally.

Also, it appears to have gunpowder and muskets in this fantasy, which is additionally interesting and very much against the norm.

I'm not a fan of the post-mediaeval, but the terms this book describes itself in really capture my attention as something different.

Am seriously tempted to buy it and see.

Debut author, too.
 
Actually it does look rather interesting, also tempted...

There's an intelligent first review on that Amazon link which has pretty much sealed the deal for me.
 
Thanks! I think it will.

I'd always referred to it as "Muskets and Magic," but I think I like Flintlock Fantasy better.
 
To balance things out, Chris Evans' Iron Elves trilogy is a mixture of native American spiritualism and elves in Napoleonic-style battles
 
Brian, while you're here, could I ask how the map for the city came about? I noticed that show on the Amazon preview and looked very impressive. Is this something you worked on directly, or delegated to someone on your behalf?
 
I said:
Brian, while you're here, could I ask how the map for the city came about? I noticed that show on the Amazon preview and looked very impressive. Is this something you worked on directly, or delegated to someone on your behalf?
Click to expand...

I did the first iteration of the map as a loose sketch. My wife helped me turn it into something a little more legible, and then I sent it over to Isaac Stewart. Isaac did three maps and chapter header symbols for the book.

In addition to being a talented artist, Isaac is an old friend and beta-reader of mine. He's also done work on Brandon Sanderson's maps and interior art.

I couldn't be happier with how any of the artwork turned out.
 
I'm about a 1/3 of the way through atm. It's getting very interesting :D The style isn't my usual cup of tea, but the whole powder thing and the getting shot of the king is keeping me going (I love a good revolution, me). Also good to see an older person taking centre stage*. Looking forward to where the father/son relationship is going.


* I say older, I mean I reckon he's roughly the same age as me, so barely even middle aged, right?
 
It does indeed sound interesting. And as well as being a departure from medieval swords (l like the idea of a 'later' fantasy), it's also only 560 pages long! Which seems reasonably digestible. I always feel that fantasy novelists do themselves a disfavor if the first book you can try out to see if you like their style is a thousand page tome.
 
Kissmequick said:
I'm about a 1/3 of the way through atm. It's getting very interesting :D The style isn't my usual cup of tea, but the whole powder thing and the getting shot of the king is keeping me going (I love a good revolution, me). Also good to see an older person taking centre stage*. Looking forward to where the father/son relationship is going.


* I say older, I mean I reckon he's roughly the same age as me, so barely even middle aged, right?
Click to expand...

Thanks! I hope you continue to enjoy! I wrote the book with the hope of appealing both to the standard doorstop epic fantasy crowd as well as readers that might not usually be into that kind of thing. In terms of grit/and or style, was aiming for half way between Abercrombie and Sanderson.
 
Interesting i hope this is good read since its rare to see post-medevil fantasy books these days, not much gun,power type fantasy. Most of this type of fantasy is still stuck in earlier historical times inspired fantasy worlds.

I could use another good,gritty fantasy of Abercrombie type.
 
Sounds quite good. It doesn't release for a week in Canada. I have too many right now I need to read but I am putting it on my list of to buy.

Edit: Also love the cover art. Looks great.
 
Well I took the plunge and bought on hardback, only half a dozen chapters in so far but happy I did. Its good to be back to a book that's enjoyable to read, unlike Forge of Darkness which preceded it!
 
It does sound interesting.

I took a quick preview look on Amazon. And I'm a little concerned about the map. It looks like the main map might have been chopped off in the Kindle edition. I was wondering if Brian is still knocking about and if there is a downloadable map as, even if I'm wrong about it being chopped off, I still find it easier to work with printed copies of maps when reading ebooks.
 
Thanks for that Ursa. There's actually two maps on that page; the Adro map and if you click the map it switches to the city map. Of course it may only be the Kindle preview that is chopping it off, but I always find maps a pain in ebooks. It's the only real downside to them from my point of view.

Though it'll likely be a while before I can get around to looking at this book, so no doubt when I do I'll have to start looking all over again! :eek:
 
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