Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan

Field Marshal Tamas' coup against his king sent corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brought bread to the starving. But it also provoked war with 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 is relying heavily on his few remaining powder mages, including the embittered Taniel, a brilliant marksman who also happens to be his estranged son, and Adamat, a retired police inspector whose loyalty is being tested by blackmail.
Now, as attacks batter them from within and without, the credulous are whispering about omens of death and destruction. Just old peasant legends about the gods waking to walk the earth. No modern educated man believes that sort of thing. But they should... @goodreads 

MY REVIEW:

4 STARS 

When I first started the book things were just thrown at me left and right. My poor little brain couldn't keep up with all of the people and what was going on, but my peeps in the book group said it gets better. And guess what? It did, I started to learn some of the people and what was going on. Now make no mistake, I am still a little confused about things but I always am in books and that's okay.

This book is told through 3 different POV's. We have Tamas, who decided to (lets just say) take everyone out and try to make things better - ish. We have Adamat, who is a retired cop that is hired to look into some things. Then we have Taniel, he is Tamas son and he's awesome!

Taniel is a powder mage and they can do a lot of things with gun powder involving magic. Taniel can shoot for lonnnnnnnnnnnnngggg distances as well. I'm not going to try to explain all of these things as I will get confused.

There are different people with all kinds of different powers in the book. And after a bunch of people are executed, the shite hits the fan and there is war and all kinds of stuff going on. It was such fun!

My favorite character was Taniel because he was just too cool. But there are other people that work with some of the people in the book that I loved as well. Ka-poel works with Taniel and she's beyond bad to the bone. I'm sure we will learn more about her in other books.

Taniel found his father's command post just out of range of the royalist barricades. The empty streets were full of rubbish, the passing stones damp from a brief rain the night before. The city smells threatened to overcome his senses, enhanced from the near-constant powder trance he'd been in for two weeks. The world smelled of sh•t and fear, of empty piss pots and distrust.

Ka-poel was at his side. Even after all this, she was still mystified by the sight of the city-so many buildings, each one so tall on every side. She didn't like it. Too many people, she had indicated with a series of gestures. Too many buildings. Taniel sympathized. His real talent as a powder mage was being able to float a bullet for miles-to make long shots across the widest battlefield. What good was that when his view was obstructed on all sides?

We have Olem who is a guard to Tamas and I like Tamas too. I have to add that I love Tamas dogs as well =)

I like Adamat and his guard, Sousmith. It seems someone is always coming after Adamat and his big ole family even though he hid them away.

This book has so much magic involved with gunpowder and different things. It's really hard to explain but it was fun reading about one or the other that had magic, snorting the powder. I can't even imagine. Lol

Great book once I figured out who was who and what was going on for the most part. FIN

GOODREADS REVIEW:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1496334344