The Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan

Book 14 started, Book 12 finished

The Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan  

Published by Orbit, 2013

This is an historical fantasy set on an alternate Earth in an equivalent to our late 18th Century.  It is a time of enlightenment where learned men do not believe in gods and where they yearn to live in a system that isn’t headed up by a king.   This book opens on the night of a coup in which a Field Marshall and his cabal have overthrown the king and killed the sorcerers protecting him.

The book has multiple stories going at once – the Field Marshall’s story, his son’s search for a missing sorcerer, an inspector working for the Field Marshall and a laundress whose life was turned upside down by the coup.  All are well written and the transitions between one to the other are often at chapter breaks so they’re not as startling as they can sometimes be by unskilled authors.

The magic system in the book is tiered with different people having an affinity for different types of magic; there are the Privileged who are essentially traditional sorcerers, the Marked who draw their power from gunpowder and are especially skilled with guiding bullets and then the Knacked who have a single talent that can give them an edge over normal people – like the need not to sleep.  The Privileged and the Marked work in opposition to each other which adds to the overall drama in the book.

This book is well done and thoroughly enjoyed it.  However, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, the author or the publisher has chosen to use replacement swearing.  The characters all use the word ‘Pit’ as an expletive which is fine in and of itself, but they use it over and over every page or so.  It became tedious after a while as it was the only expletive used.  

I give the book 4 stars for the quality of the book itself but I have to take away a star for the over use of that single world.  Be more creative with your replacement swearing.

3 Stars.