Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan

After reading Uncanny Collateral, I decided to try the very first novel written by Brian McClellan. This is definitely a freshmen novel plagued with editing errors and some pacing problems, but they do not overshadow the end result.

The theme of the novel is a revolution started by a man who snorts gunpowder to power up. I will be the first to admit that the premise of Marked, Knacked, and Priviledged intrigued me in a watch-the-train-wreck kind of way. The story is broken into three threads that eventually weave together for a "conclusion" setting up for the second in the trilogy.

Tamas is the head of a coup to overthrow the monarchy of Adro. His story is very militaristic and focused on the politics of a revolution--and the most uninteresting thread to me.

In the inevitable chaos of the death of the nobility, a traitor emerges in the ranks of the council responsible for the coup. A retired Knacked investigator is set on the trail. Adamat's story is definitely a mini detective novel inside a military novel.

The final thread belongs to Taniel, Tamas's son and front line soldier. His story falls somewhere in between military and detective novel. He is sent to hunt down the last Priviledged left alive, but instead ends up on the front lines of the Battle for Shouldercrown--fighting a god.

The divergence of three story lines made the novel drag out a bit too much and made for some slow, uninterested reading through the middle. However, by the last several chapters, the threads were being woven together and I couldn't put the book down.  So at least it all ended on a high note.

The entire story is rife with tension and aggression. There is nothing pretty about this one, which is not my usual reading style, but I know there is a group of readers out there that will find this novel very worth of the read.