I rarely give out five star ratings.

This book is more of what you expect from Brian McClellan. It is well written, it's fun and it continues off where the previous series left off. I was happy when I found out that I could get the entire series in hardcover. ( )

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Title: Sins of Empire
Series: Gods of Blood and Powder #1
Author: Brian McClellan
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Flintlock Fantasy
Pages: 507
Words: 177.5K

Synopsis:

Ten years after the Kez-Adran War, General Vlora Flint, now head of the renowned Riflejack Mercenary Company, finds herself hired by the government of the independent colony of Fatrasta. Her mission is to find a dangerous insurgent leader named Mama Palo.

Benjamin "Mad Ben" Styke, former hero of the Fatrastan Revolution and convicted traitor, is released from prison after ten years thanks to the machinations of a mysterious benefactor, who asks him to get into General Flint's good graces and keep an eye on her.

Meanwhile, Agent Michel Brevis of the Blackhats, the Fatrastan government's secret police, is given orders to investigate the origin of a widely circulated political pamphlet titled "Sins of Empire".

Everything comes together as the Dynize Empire, which has been closed to any outsider for the last 100 years, sends a fleet and an army to Landfall, the capital city of Fatrasta, to recapture a magical artifact. An artifact that Taniel and Ka-poel have been seeking. An artifact that can create gods.

My Thoughts:

Man, what a rush! I haven't read a lot of epic fantasy recently (outside of my re-reads of the Wheel of Time and the Mistborn books) and it just felt “good” to slide back into this genre. While McClellan is fully a Flintlock fantasy kind of guy, his books do cross over into the Epic, what with their scope and literal size.

The Powder Mage trilogy was gritty. This toned that down as only one of the three points of view was from a powder mage. The inclusion of the political side of things made it feel more of a stiletto kind of story than a powder horn story. The revelation that the godstone could create gods has set some things into motion that I have no idea where McClellan is going to take it. The final revelation that there are two more of the blasted things makes me wonder why the world isn't overrun by gods. I'm hoping the author has some good explanations for all of that.

I am not a fan of Vlora. I didn't care for her in the original trilogy and nothing here makes her any more likeable. Her poor decision making skills endanger herself and by proxy the entirety of the Riflejacks on several occasions and while she is firm once she makes a decision, we as readers get the full view of her internal vacillating. Bleh. She's no Taniel. That and her irrational dislike of Ka-poel grates, as it was Vlora who betrayed Taniel by sleeping with another man during their engagement. Ka-poel only made a move on Taniel once it was clear Vlora disdained him on all levels. So Vlora's dislike just seems like a seed of bitterness that she's nursing. It's ugly.

I have not read any of the short stories (or the book where they are all collected) that McClellan put out on his website back in the day, so I was a complete stranger to Ben Stykes. He's definitely an interesting character. His “mad” added to his name definitely fits and yet he's quite the sympathetic guy too.

I am looking forward to the rest of this trilogy. Just the fact that it is a trilogy and not some bleeding sprawling forever series is a huge plus in my eyes.

★★★★✬ ( )

Now it's been a number of years since I last read books in this series and sometimes I was wondering who was who but I did find myself being swept up in the story of war and the aftermath of war and complicated politics that made me want to read more.
The Lady Chancellor holds the city of Landfall together almost by willpower alone, there are factions that want revenge for past hurts and then there's a man who was a war hero and is now in a prisoner camp, damaged and being damaged while trying to keep a friend alive. The police force is in the hands of a man who will brook no excuses and one of the main characters is one of his underlings who isn't all he appears. Into the mix comes a mercenary army and other people who appeared before.
Overall it's very interesting, would probably be a better read closer to reading the rest set in this world but I do want more. ( )

Brian McClellan returns us to his world of magic and gunpowder and sprinkles it with intrigue ten years after the events in The Autumn Republic. While you don't have to read the Powder Mage trilogy to follow what goes on in Sins of Empire, I recommend you do. Not only to know who the returning characters are, but how Privileged and powder magic work are explained in those novels.

The Napoleonic inspired setting has moved to the frontier, where the newly independent Fatrasta is waiting to boil over with a mistreated native population, the unearthing of a powerful artifact, and the sighting of a strangely armored fighter. Where Promise of Blood thrusts the reader straight into the action, Sins of Empire begins with the aforementioned artifact and fighter that only hint of what is coming. A secret police force known as the Blackhats work to prevent action against the Lady Chancellor using shady methods including torture and suppressing the flow of information.

Returning from the first trilogy is Vlora, now commanding her mercenary company the Riflejacks with Olem. Previously she was underdeveloped and mainly there to create tension with the protagonists of the first trilogy, but now she has her own conflicts in the spotlight. Notably balancing her conscience with commanding a mercenary company. Michel, a mid-level Blackhat agent, gives glimpses of how the Fatrastan government operates. He is the most introverted of the POV characters, but his observations and spycraft bring variety to a cast who prefer direct action. The last POV character is Ben Styke, a disgraced veteran who just refuses to be killed. He's easily my favorite, the hardened killer granted a second chance yet
it's hinted that his fall from grace might have been an injustice.

The plot is fairly well paced, constantly feeding information to reader until the twists in the middle and the final act. Here's hoping we learn more about the artifact and the Dynize invaders and bone-eye sorcery. ( )

"But, sir, you look like you've seen a ghost!"

Robson considered the brief vision, his brow furrowing as he let it hand in his mind for a few moments. "No," he sad. "Not a ghost. I've seen God."

It's been rather a while since I read [b:Promise of Blood|15790883|Promise of Blood (Powder Mage, #1)|Brian McClellan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1350337505l/15790883._SY75_.jpg|21512438] and the rest of the Powder Mage books. Long enough that I've forgotten a lot of the details (something about traditional fireball mages versus gunpowder/crack mages and killing a god), but I still remember most of the world building. Combined with fairly intense world building Full Of Proper Nouns, it does make for a rather confusing read from time to time.

Characterwise, it's quite the cast. Mad Ben Styke, decorated war hero thought dead and imprisoned for ten years as a war criminal with a quasi-adapted orphan (Celine) following him around. Michel Brevis, part of the secret police with a penchant for talking to himself and a secret past. Lady Flint, a badass mercenary general and powder mage. Oh, and Taniel and Ka-Poel back again for another run. All of which are about to be thrown together in a plot involving slums built in a crater, an obelisk that whispers to you, and an invading empire of dragon warriors no one has seen or heard of in a century or more.

Like I said. It's a deep story.

It's a continuation of the story from the Powder mage trilogy with enough continuation (in characters in world) from the previous story to make you feel at home while at the same time taking you on a whole new ride.

I look forward to seeing where it goes from here.

It was an unimposing word, and not even that particularly fun to say, but it was bandied about in the newspapers so much that you’d think it was the name of Fatrasta’s new god. As if Fatrasta, a land of bickering immigrants, a twice-stolen nation of industrialized robbery, would ever spawn its own god. Landfall, the capital city of Fatrasta, would chew up a god and spit it out and it would barely make the newspapers.

( )