“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 Promise of Blood 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.