"" The Age of Kings is dead . . . and I have killed it."" ![image]()
Since I've been rolling in
high fantasy for a little over a week, I took the
risk of picking up the pre-novellas of
The Powder Mage series. Lo and behold, the novellas captured my attention. After going through all the pre-novellas, six of them,
Promise of Blood was such an intense, action packed opening to a series. It grabs you into it's folds and keeps you running the roller coaster of emotions throughout the book. It has a complex, intriguing magic system, great characters and a clever plot that keeps the readers on their toes up until the very end.
With a story told from multiple POV's; none of which let me down; the book opens with a coup in progress and the nobility getting intimate with a guillotine.
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Ta-da!
“You gorged them on the blood of the nobility,” Mihali said gently. “They drank, but were not filled. They ate of hatred and grew hungrier.”The magic system in the book was the ultimate winner. ""Powder Mages"" snort gunpowder to induce a ""powder trance"" where they become stronger, faster, and they can ignite gunpowder at will and manipulate bullets to travel further and on target. Such a different style and it certainly delivers what the title promises.
BloodWith the promise of war on the horizon, the book does a 180 on our belief system and goes from politics, facts to prophecies, gods and what-not.
“I believed it had been long enough that Kresimir would never return. I believed it was time for change. I thought all of Rozalia’s concerns were foolish, and that Julene was living in the past. I believed we were alone.”
“My people have never been alone. The others may have left. I did not.” ![image]()
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4.5 Promising Stars
This book took me through such an emotional roller coaster it should be illegal! Such in-depth subject with beautiful writing and amazing storyline.
5 ThisIsBloodyBrilliantAndDeservesTheUnicorn Stars!! 
4.5 Stars 
“So you got fired?” 
Good for some light reading but that's about all I can say about this book. 2.5 stars
“But people are still people, however comfortable their surroundings. They lie, they feud, they betray and however much you give them, they always want more.”
“That if the stars in the sky are not fixed, then nothing is fixed. Nothing is eternal, all is temporary and ever-changing.” She turned away from the stars, meeting his gaze. “Nothing is fixed, my lord. No course is so set it cannot be changed.”
“Honour is just a word. You can’t eat it or drink it and yet everywhere I go men talk of it endlessly, and they all tell a different tale of what it actually means. For the Alpirans it’s all about duty, the Renfaelins think it’s the same as courage. In these islands it appears it means killing a son for a crime committed by his father then slaughtering a helpless man when the pantomime fails to go to plan.” 
A handwritten annotation to the letter, in the hand of Callimachus:
“You have my sword. You have my pistol. You have my Privileged and artillery. You have my sixty thousand. Our alliance will cause Ipille to quake and the Kez will pay for their crimes.”
“Let the Kez come,” Tamas roared. “Let them send their greatest generals after us. Let them stack the odds against us. Let them come upon us with all their fury, because these hounds at our heels will soon know we are lions!”
“She had gone to the library in search of hope, but what she'd found instead was a child. It would take her many years to realize that the two were not so different.” 
