I am halfway through his first book "Promise of Blood" and its quite promising. I haven't read a lot of novels in the last few years, but flintlock fantasy is certainly engaging. Thus I am going to shamelessly plug the series and I compare this favourably with Brandon Sanderson (McClellan was a student of Sanderson's). I will give a brief overview but won't spoil the plot. However my analysis on the capabilities of the magic system might potentially spoil things for you.
The novel starts off with an coup and the King of the nation of Andra is overthrown. You see he was a bad king. He had accumulated lots of debt and was going to a sign a deal with the neighbouring country of Kez to forgive the debt. BTW, the price would have made Andra a virtual colony of Kez. Despite his um financial talents or lack thereoff Andra as a country is more open compared to Kez. They have trade unions (Warriors of labour), more industry (there are printing press, steel making and coal production), and they let powder mages form their own school. Their university has a chemistry and physics department. In a way, Andra for me conjures up images of Europe during the early stages of the industrial revolution.
Kez on the other hand outnumbers Andra at least 5 to 1 in terms of soldiers. Reminds me of Russia around the time of the Crimean conflict, but I suspect that's purely because they are large, have mainly an agricultural based economy.
So Tamas who has overthrown the king must now hold things together, combat remnants of royalist power and guard against an invasion from Kez. His son Taniel has his own duties, whilst the other main POV character is Adamat, an ex police officer who Tamas hires to investigate cases for him.
Oh did I mention there are darker powers who want to bring back a God who used to rule them all. Surely no rational man can believe that right...
So lets go through the magical system. Before I go on, I love how McClellan does not use BS no limits fallacies with anti-magic. Many authors are guilty of this, from R Scott Bakker, Terry Goodkind, Dungeons and Dragons, Melanie Rawn and even Robert Jordan. Essentially when you magic system A, and some guy has anti-magic plot device B, the latter always negates the former no matter how strong the former is. Here anti-magic devices work against magic, but its not an absolute. Bullets enchanted to pass through magical shields won't work against really strong shields, the equivalent of anti-magic fields won't negate a powerful sorceror's magic etc. Here McClellan is taking up Sanderson's rule of "magic like science" and as opposed to "magic as a macguffin."
Andra sorcerors recognise 3 major types, a few minor ones they discovered across the world from witches and shamans. There is clearly ones they are unaware of, such s they Dynize bone-eyes. More on that later. The three types are Privileged, Marked and Knacked.
Lets start with Knacked. These are just people with special skills, like for example never needing to sleep (good for being bodyguards), perfect memory, and an assortment of odd skills. Some of them are superior to Privileged in a particular aspect. For example one of the characters has the ability to seemingly create or duplicate food which allows them to supply the army.
There does seem to be a genetic inheritance with this, as one character mentions his father and family had similar ability.
The Privileged were the high sorcerors before being overthrown by the coup in Andra. Privileged still make up an important part of Kez's forces. These are one of the variation of the stock standard fantasy sorcerors (not the D & D type). Think Trudi Canavan magic with a tinge of Wheel of Time one power. They throw up shields, ward things, shoot out fireballs and lightning etc. They do have some compulsion spells. They tap the true source the Force the Warp the Else and wield the five "elements" - fire, air, water, earth and aether. And yes, the characters in a world with physics and chemistry departments do realise that fire isn't an element and the term is used because they don't have another way to describe it.
Their power is said to have been weakening since the advent of gunpowder. Now they can be further divided into
"Regular" Privileged - the term regular is just what I used. As described above. Inheritance appears to be very weak. A Privilege can sire many children and only one turns out to have the power. Historically they had a important place in society. Its said that the first kings of the nine were given royal Cabal of Privilege to protect him. The range of their magic is said to be at best half a mile. Their shields are strong enough to stop bullets sometimes (see magical interactions below).
Magebreaker - A Privilege who gives up their magical power to negate magic. Its not clear that they negate other forms of magic (see magical interactions below). They are rare, because no matter people want to give up the use of their magic. .
Predii - The early sorcerors who have survived for centuries. Now these guys are badass. They can shape shift, cast spells in the shifted form and are damn hard to kill. They can survive bullets through their bodies, pierced with a fucking sword and a fall from a cliff. Historically they were supposed to be the ones who summoned a god and went to war with the Royal Cabals and eventually defeated because they were heavily outnumbered. Note this "history" was recounted by one of the characters about events hundreds of years ago which "modern" characters might disbelieve, so take it with a grain of salt until further information is revealed. It is also unclear how much more powerful the Royal Cabals were in those days compared to the Privilege now.
Another thing to note is that the Privileges of Kez can create Wardens. The process involves magic which allows Wardens to survive shit loads of damage and their heart is surrounded by thick sorcerous bone to make them hard to kill. It also apparently involves some type of conditioning which the Andrans describe as torture. The process of their creation leaves them deformed so you can't miss them. Created to kill Powder Mages.
The Marked
So called Powder Mages. While anyone can use a gun, Powder Mages can make the bullets travel with sufficient force to pierce rock or steel. They can also make bullets curl around corners. The other thing they can do is ignite gunpowder from a distance, making them potentially capable of exploding an enemy's weapons before they can use it. The range of their attacks is said to be twice the length of a Privilege one, so at least 1 mile.
McClellan also takes a leaf out of Brandon Sanderson's magical system. Powder Mages can ingest gunpower and get high, er I mean go into a Powder trance. While in a Powder Trance they can
a. Run down a horse
b. Become physically stronger
c. Shoot better
d. Calm their nerves
The inheritance is also genetic, and according to Tamas its more stronger compared to say a Privilege inheritance of abilities.
Bone-eyes
Not much is known about their magic. So far it appears to be subtle. They can cast wards like the Privilege. They also can use the equivalent of voodoo dolls on people. And they can enchant bullets.
The Dynize people are described as coming from an empire that has not opened its borders. My impression is that while they have guns, they most probably got them from elsewhere. One of them is described as white with orange hair, which makes me think of Celtic people. But before that I got a strong native American analogue vibe, although on reflection that was purely because some of them also live in a land mass which Kez tried to colonise but failed when their own colony revolted (with a weak parallel to US history). Plus the Dynize has numerous tribes (which is also parallel somewhat to Celtic history as well as Native American history).
Magical interactions
Since this is a vs board, is magic user x faces off with magic user y, who will win? Well my totally detailed analysis tries to give information on that.
Powder mages vs bullets - they can stop gunpowder propelled bullets. However guns are invented which use air to propel them which the Marked cannot directly affect since there is no gunpowder to ignite.
Privilege magic vs Powder Mages
At the start a Powder Mage is considered to have the advantage in long range combat, but are less effective against Privilege mages at close range. Other interactions of note
a. Powder Mages can sense magic from Privilege (some of the Knacked can do this too). Its not so easy for them to detect other Powder Mages.
b. Privilege Mages can sense who has the potential via dowsing. They can also track each other by sensing for their presence in the Else, (but presence can be hidden). They don't seem to be able to do this on Powder mages, so since the time when Powder Mages were purged, people with talent have learnt to hide themselves
c. Privilege can shield themselves against bullets at least for a time. The Predii managed to shield bullets, but a Powder Mage enhanced bullet (the ones that can pierce rock and steel) broke through.
d. Privilege mages are allergic to gunpowder (not a severe anaphylatic reaction, but definitely can give them hay fever like symptoms). The reaction of the Predii to gunpowder is unknown (as of how far I have read).
e. Its said that all living, dead and elemental (presumably they mean non living) thing shows up in the Else where a Privilege mage can sense it. All things except gunpowder. Hmm.
f. Powder Mages also seem to be able to dismantle Privilege wards by being in their presence given time. Doesn't seem to apply to wards cast by Dynize Bone-eyes.
Magebreakers - The Magebreaker hired by Tamas gave us his magic because he wasn't very strong and was not allowed to train. They process seems to involve willing away the auras of magic. He still needs to tap into the Else like regular Privilege sorcerors. Without tapping into the Else our Magebreaker can negate auras up to six inches from him. By tapping into the Else he can negate Privilege magic up to 10 feet from him. Can weaken a Predii's attack, but not strong enough to stop it completely. In fact they can still be killed easily enough by a Predii even if they are within the range of his negatory powers. Before that any other Privilege was negated by the Magebreaker.
Bone-eyes vs other magic
a. Their wards aren't unravelled by a Powder mage's presence
b. The can enchant bullets to pass through a Privilege shields. This isn't a no limits fallacy, as Privilege can combine their power and make stronger shields.
c. Their voodoo doll equivalent works on Predii, and its hinted even a Predii was reluctant to go against them.
Vs gods - haven't gotten up to that bit yet but... historically Andra and Kez once had Privileges combine their powers to defeat another foe whose palace was protected by a young god. So its doable. Wonder what would happen if you shoot a god?
So anyone else read this new author? Because if you like Brandon Sanderson, you will most probably enjoy this guy.
