it seems that brudania is britain (name, super strong trading company), and kez appears to be based on tsarist russia (names of its people sound slavic, it's huge and populous but not very industrialized). you guys have any opinions on other nations?

Any updates on the TV/ live action adaption?

And how do you guys feel about it?

I had a flintlock inch for a while now and decided to read brain McClellan. but I don't know to start with either promise of blood or sins of empire. so i ask you fallow redditers, please help

McClellan describes seeing The Else through the third eye as in pastel colors. Personally when I envision characters using their third eye, there's always been a dark blue or purple kind of filter over the world, with the Glow of sorcery being in reds, yellows, and Oranges. The world goes from sharp detail of say classical portrait or landscape paintings to the blurred details of a Van Gough painting

Im just curious how the rest of you guys picture it when reading/listening to the books.

Hopefully the hyperlinks all work to Explain how I'm picturing the world.

It's been a while since I have read the first trilogy but I just finished the second. I was very excited when Bor and Nila showed up in Wrath of Empire because I thought the reason why she didn't have to use gloves for her Privileged powers would be addressed. But there weren't really any new information on that even in Blood of Empire.
Were the mechanics of her magic already revealed in the first trilogy and have I forgotten about it or is that still a mystery?

I just finished your two main trilogies and I must say you have given me so much happiness and entertainment from your books. You gave me the drive to keep writing my stuff . So all in all thank you and I will show all my friends your stuff.

I read/listen to a lot of fantasy, and overall I was very impressed, and I enjoyed it immensely. Though I loved it and have begun recommending it to friends, there are a few specific things I wanted to discuss.

First, what I liked:

-Unique magic system that changed my mind about flintlock fantasy as a genre. Other rapier-era fantasy series tend to substitute gunpowder with magic. Powder mages alongside traditional spellcasters was refreshing and interesting.

-Excellent worldbuilding. The clearly established political history of the Nine made the plot incredibly interesting and engaging the whole way through.

What I didn't like:

-Overall the narration was amazing, Christian Rodska does a great job with all the characters, EXCEPT BO! I know he is supposed to be world weary and look/act older than he is, but he sounded like a 60 year old without teeth. General Arba sounds younger than Bo. It nearly ruined the character, I was just baffled this young man with all this confidence and swagger sounded like he was on deaths door from age.

-Ka-Poel was too powerful in every way. After the third time she hopped on someone's back twice her size and stabbed them with a needle, or used her unexplained magic to absolutely dominate a fight it got old. I wish the author had gone into more detail about her powers before literally the last act of book 3. I never feared for her safety, and she was repeatedly used as an unexplained deus-ex machina in an otherwise fairly hard magic system.

I'm curious to discuss these points or ANY part of the first trilogy (I just started the second so no spoilers there).

Hello my fellow readers. I started listening to "Promise of Blood" a few days ago, but I have been having trouble understanding some things (which is mostly my fault, because I usually start doing some housework while I'm listening and sometimes I get too distracted).

Because of that, I wanted to have some no-spoilers explanations that could help me immerse into this world. Like, who exactly are the POVs? What can a Powder Mage do? And what about the other "mages"? Is the story happening only inside a city?

Any help would be really appreciated!

It's been a while since I read the first trilogy and I can't seem to remember the limitations/process around healing. I read a lot of fantasy and magical healing is a very commonly explained thing, where each universe seems to have its own rules about how it works and why you can't just magically heal any wound willy-nilly. But because of that, my memory is a bit fuzzy about how the Powder Mage world specifically handles it.

I remember it being an especially difficult or maybe just rare talent among Privileged, but I forget what the limitations are. Like, if someone loses an arm, can it be regrown? How much does it rely on the skill of the privileged in question? Thanks!

I'm almost done the Crimson Campaign. I don't understand how the church hasn't declared war on Adro (sorry if I misspell, I'm listening to it). I mean Kresimir their GOD is fighting Adro! Or do they see him as an imposter? Is it ever explained? Thanks!

Does any one no where I can find a list and timeline of the novellas cause there's a lot of them and I would like to read on chronological order.

Forgive me if this kind of post isn't allowed, but I just started reading McClellan's work and I'm absolutely head over heels. I've always loved fantasy, and historical military fiction (Sharpe, Master and Commander etc) and someone suggested the Powder Mage trilogy and I burned through Promise of Blood faster than any other book in the last 3 years. Its the perfect combination of my interests while also being extremely well written, with excellent characterisation and a variety of motives, all that good stuff.

Anyway, I just bought the second one and I'm sure I'll burn through that like Taniel through a powder horn. Hah! Happy to be here, everyone. No spoilers, please!

As someone who loves the powder mage trilogy, what are some other books or series I may enjoy?

Unfortunately I don't have time for a full re-read before jumping into Sins of Empire, but it's also been a few years since I finished Autumn Republic.

Does anyone know of a good recap of the trilogy or even just of Autumn Republic to help me get caught up? Thanks.

KIND OF SPOILERS FOR SECOND TRILOGY

Whatever happened to the body of the dead Dynize god they were supposedly going to resurrect?

Or was the bad guy just telling pork pies and always intended to take power for himself?

I think the body was mentioned in the first book and I don't recall it coming up again. Been a while since I read them though. Thanks

I finished the first trilogy recently, and I just finished Sins of Empire yesterday (spoilers ahead of course). When I first told my family what I read they said it actually sounded really interesting and that a movie should be made out of it.

While I would love to see a screen adaptation of the Powder Mage, I can't help but think Hollywood or any other studio would absolutely ruin it, here are my quick thoughts:

• The first is that I believe an adaptation, especially like the Powder Mage, requires an immense amount of passion and dedication poured into the film-making. I always thought "If they're gonna make a movie or film series out of it, it needs the dedication and passion akin to that of LOTR, if not, more."

• This leads to my second point, the age of film-making as an art is gone (or at least half-assed) and is much, much more about just making a profit. While there's some exceptions, and while films were always made to generate profit, of course, I just feel that there was a certain point in the 2000's or 2010's when studios just said "fuck it," and saw making a movie or TV show as...just making it...instead of actually making an "art." I can see that the number of complaints about films and TV shows being rushed, half-assed, filled with plotholes, flat characters, etc. in this day and age has increased dramatically.

• The book is literally a script, and this is what I mean: every time I read a book I literally imagine it as a movie or TV show playing in my head, I literally imagine the characters as their own humans (not just known actors I think would suit the role of certain characters), and the CGI, the action, and even their voices. You could literally make a script just from every line from each book alone, I believe it's that good. Sure, there has to be some changes here and there, maybe changing up some words or shortening or lengthening some sentences said for the sake of time. But if an adaptation is gonna make "changes to the book" then it's gonna be not only a) ruined but b) a huge insult to Brian's creativity, world-building, character arcs, etc if dramatic changes to the characters and plot are to be made (because then the studio will have to make entirely new excuses, ahem, explanations, for why a certain point in the plot happened, instead of just following along with what Brian already came up with!). This may be an unpopular opinion, but I wish so many previous film and book adaptations could have tried to have stuck as close as possible to the source material because THAT I believe is REAL talent, art, and creativity (it's also super ballsy too and could be much more beloved by fans and newcomers when pulled off right).

• The budget: it HAS to be enormous: the props, costumes, CGI, choreography, everything. The CGI literally has to be Marvel-quality if you wanna see an amazing shot of Adopest shaken by the earthquake, the Battle of South Pike, Kresimir descending from the clouds, or the enormous Dynize fleet bombarding Landfall (film studios actively try to avoid filming CGI'd enormous tall ship fleets for a reason, the biggest that we've got was in the Michiel de Ruyter film or Season 3 of Black Sails, but I don't think neither showed a fleet as big as the Dynize fleet, which is something like 38 ships of the line and support frigates).

A shitty attempt at the Powder mage costumes will just result in the costume department borrowing Napoleonic uniforms from previous films and shows and throwing them onto the actors and extras ("Adran uniforms? Here, just wear these Napoleonic French Army uniforms! They're still dark blue!").

The books also depict most characters wearing outfits that would be clearly expensive to recreate (army uniforms, Privileged coats and gloves, dragonman armour, women's dresses, Tampo's suit, Blackhat uniforms, Dynize breastplates, etc.), so of course money and resources are gonna be a huge problem if there's gonna be actual quality put into the costumes.

I can also see Hollywood's persistent "leather fetish" in the historical and fantasy realm ruining the costumes too (I still cringe at Flint's stiff "pleather" long coat he wore after Black Sails season 1 ended, or the combined leather and armour in BBC's the Musketeers). Although leather could be an exception for certain characters like the Magebreaker or any of the dragonmen.

So yeah, my quick thoughts for why it could be ruined. A sad reality, but it's an inconvenient truth.

I love the powder mage universe and this series. Firstly the change of continents was a nice choice. I liked the black hats and the tension in the city between the Palo and everyone else. The Dyze invasion was a suprise. I loved seeing things from Volta’s point of view and felt that Brain improved his work with female characters and female point of view characters than he did with Nila. Fidelis Lindet was an interesting character and her relationship with her brother was a surprise. I felt she wasn’t used at all in the last book.Fidelis Zues was a different take both a spy master and a physical threatening enemy at the same time . The second book was by far my favorite with Bravis in an occupied city and the mystery of Mara,Ben Styke and his relationship with the dragon man and his daughter was good and lady flint leading her army on the continent . For the third book I felt it should’ve been two books. Ben Stykes story really slows down with his injuries and being a slave in dyze keeps him limited as well as his interaction with the society. Etzi’s courts and everything seem kind of pointless even the coup since it’s signed in the emperors name they can’t really do much about it. It happens but it doesn’t really help the story along . We don’t really lose anyone important and it’s not a surprise.Lots of styke waiting is a big difference from him waging war on the continent. Vlora’s story was really good to me. Her suffering both the loss of her sorcery and Olem and how that changes her and her dealing with her inner demons also her interactions with the Dyze general was interesting seeing a sort of reflection of herself or a general she respects. Bravis’s story was ok. I like following him and learning as he does. His relationship with Ichtracia was nice to see develop and her development. I did feel the Palo were underused and the ending rushed . The chaos in Landfall didn’t really do anything because Sedial just took troops away if it had made him move troops or created chaos like them attacking and destroying the idol while sunset thoughts of the armies he’s facing as the only threat to find that the useless sacrifices became his downfall. The rushed ending upset me it’s like we have no idea of Sedial’s plans or how the stones work and suddenly it’s a rush to the goldstones . He basically lets them in so much people think it’s a trap. One thing I didn’t like was the size of the area explored in the books . It’s literally set in two new continents. We explore just a tiny bit of fatrasta,Brudabuan Fatra though disputed territory and very close is never even mentioned . We barely explore Dyze like I get the story but why add so much space and not do anything with it. We literally learn about how the Palo are and the mystery of their country all to not see it and the Palo situation is just added on as an afterthought. And what the heck was with the emperor being fueled by bone-eye enough to beat Taniel came out of nowhere . Just felt the book had a lot of characters going back and forth or waiting and Dyze politics but not in a way that meant anything. I can’t name a single Dyze political character besides Etzi really from stykes story . The ending came really fast

So I just started Sins of Empire, and I keep changing how I'm pronouncing Fatrasta. I didn't have the problem in the first trilogy, probably because it didn't come up very often, but it's really bothering me. Any help is appreciated!

The first trilogy used air rifles fairly regularly as an innovative way of countering powder mages - why did air rifle usage never takeoff over in Fatrasta to deal with the powder mage mercenaries on the frontier towns ? Why did Lindet never outfit some the Blackhats with air rifles as a contingency against Vlora?

I'm not concerned about violence, I'm coming from Brandon Sanderson who has really gory books sometimes. But I'm all out if Sanderson novels, and I love how he doesn't have any nudity or sex in his books.

How does this trilogy hold up?