The Not a Book Club Club discussion

Interesting start. Sort of a French Revolution with magic. The powder mages are interesting. Not realty sure how they work, but it seems like Taniel has some kind of addiction to the gun powder.

I'm looking forward to seeing one of these privileged in action. It appears they have the advantage at close range, while the powder mages have range.

I agree Rob - I did find the beheadings reminded me of the French Revolution. So we have the Powder mages and then the privileged and then we have "The Knacked" - I'm probably spelling everything wrong because I'm listening on Audible - but the Knacked have one special ability plus the "third eye" which lets them detect magic. Then there are the mage breakers - which are like the opposite of privileged and used specifically to counter privileged magic.

I'm not sure if Mccellan was modelling this world on France. But he talks about "the nine" which sounds like nine city states - which sounds more like a broader European setting. The use of "Kronor" as currency sounds very Scandinavian being the Swedish/Scandinavian rendition of "Crowns."

We've seen a bit of what this mystery mage can do. Looks like she's protected by a Royalist general and his men.

I'm enjoying the investigator's story line so far. The destruction of the pages about this mysterious promise gives a sort of conspiracy feeling to the story.

And and don't forget the savage magic or whatever. Seems like there are 4 different types of magic abilities: privileged, powder mage, knacked, and the savages. Not sure if they are distinct or related at this point.

The knacked remind me a bit of the mistings in Mistborn.

All and all, off to a good start.

Yeah Ka-poel is interesting as a character.

Also there is McClellan's website with some nice articles that may help orient some people in the world

http://www.brianmcclellan.com/books/

One of the article on there states he was going for the early 19th century France kind of feel but also borrowing from the whole Industrial Revolution in general. It's definitely a different feel from standard Epic fantasy that's more Medieval in technology.

Alex wrote: "Overall, I think I have warmed up to the story, but the characters haven't grasped me as tightly as I would have hoped. Reserving judgement until I read more. "

The characters development seems a awkward in the beginning to me but the cast seems big enough and interesting enough to get past it. And the setting and situations they are in and what they can do is pretty interesting.

Alex wrote: "Ah, David, now I clicked on your link and see Brent Weeks has coined the term "Flintlock Fantasy" to describe this book.

I like it. Let's go with that."

I hadn't read that - but it sounds good - Though I think this book resembles 19th century Europe a lot more than Black Prism.

I agree it started slow. I wasn't into it very much for the first few chapters as well.

It's getting pretty interesting where I am now though.

Its a great start to this book, nice interesting characters, just enough in the story too draw us in to the plots.

It also appears that sniffing too much powder is addictive and isn't too healthy for you

Alex wrote: "Also, how cool was Adamant going to the bare-knuckle boxing event?"

This was rather cool and adds an interesting layer and depth to his character. But it's also an example of what I mean by "stutter-start" or "awkward" character introduction. Before the fight I was starting to get a feel for the kind of character Adamant was going to be - and then suddenly he's a different(and better) character to what I expected - which is good but it's like the increase in depth happens a moment late and sudden - late and sudden can be good if the author intends to hide certain things to add a twist later on in the plot to surprise us - but this seems to be in the normal course of character development.

Anyway - I'm not griping - The book has the raw feel of a new author who has a great idea for a story - and then develops the detail on the fly at the whim of imagination. It's raw but refreshing at the same time. I felt the same way about Prince of Thorns and Way of Shadows

Really loving this, good female leads.

Nila, the duchess, the only ones I am not sure about are Junelane and rozaline not sure about the spellings.

They seem to be too similar to each other, mind I did like the fight on the moutain top.

Also adamant wife with all the author's comments about her.

Ko poel is very well described and written to make her believable as a non speaker.

Sounds like something suited to a later discussion section.

Rob wrote: "Sounds like something suited to a later discussion section."

Correct rob. Sorry.

No problem. I'm just sensitive to spoilers, and try to make sure people are posting in the right place.

I'm already having to skim my news feed to avoid spoilers there. Lol.

A pretty good start for me. I like that along with the different magic tips present in the story, the world had also developed anti-magic tactics. Air rifles vs powder mages. Mage breakers vs Privileged. This is another thing that was present in the Mistborn trilogy (with the guards who didn't wear metal).

I was surprised that the coup already had to deal with an uprising (80 year old general's faction). But that sets up three good plots: Tamas' coup, the pursuit of the privileged and Adamot's investigation.

Can't wait to keep going.

Reading this with S&L right now. It's really action packed. Things have hardly let up since the story began, and it's a hundred pages in already.

I'm enjoying Taniel and company versus the Privileged so far, it's pretty sweet to see just what the magic can do. At first the whole gunpowder imbibing thing felt like a Mistborn knock-off, but I sort of like how Taniel's sniffing it like a drug.

Between the nonstop action from Taniel's story and the mystery on Adamat's end, I'm hooked by this. Going to borrow the latest one later today so I can dive right in soon as I finish this one; I'm loving what I see.

Glad your liking it. :)

Yea, the Privileged magic is an even better example of that. I dont really care if it's more mystical, personally. I like mystical magic just as mixh as scientific magic.

Oh! I didn't know he was aiming for a scientific approach. He fell pretty far short on that from what I've seen so far. No complaints so far; the story's been really fun.