Jaco van Hemert

The first and most obvious worldbuilding element in this first book of the Powder Mage series is the titular powder mages, also known as the Marked. They are interesting because they are the outliers. There is magic in this world, and it is visible through the use of any magic user’s third eye, which shows the presence of sorcery, but also shows the world in a sort of arcane equivalent (which is the parts that get manipulated by the other mages. However, gunpowder is the one part that doesn’t have this arcane equivalent, which makes these powder mages, who control and direct gunpowder, these unnatural and outlying mages.

The abilities these powder mages have are fairly well defined and understood, which I always like. A really cool touch was to have different powder mages have different specialties or talents within the confines of the powder mage abilities – a masterful use of the design – so that some are able to ignite gunpowder from much further away than other powder mages, and others are able to control the trajectory of a bullet at longer distances, or make drastic changes in the trajectory so that they can shoot around corners. These specialties and talents make the whole group of mages seem so much more diverse and real.

The other major magic users, the Privileged, have abilities that do not appear to be explained very much. They seem to have abilities and capabilities that aren’t particularly bound by rules (other than the requirement of the runes on their gloves), or at least not ones that I could figure out. This felt like a bit of a weakness in the worldbuilding to me, especially considering how well-defined the powder mage abilities are. Their power also seems to be fairly generic (perhaps specifically because the bounds are not known, as per Sanderson’s laws). However, the mage-breakers was a really cool inclusion, especially with the way they’re portrayed as having turned the power they had inward – i.e. that it is a choice they make.

The Wardens have a similar worldbuilding weakness as the Privileged, in that they don’t stand out much; they are simply, as I understand it, stronger and more resilient than normal people, for reasons that were not immediately obvious to me.

It should be noted that, while I think the Privileged and Wardens could have been stronger in terms of the worldbuilding, I still very much enjoyed them in the story, particularly around the way they are integrated in society, as I’ll get to below. It is simply the excellence of the powder mages that make them seem a tad deficient in comparison.

Then there’s the fourth type of magic-user, the Knacked. I found these to be perhaps the most interesting type, because they have such hyper-specific abilities. Adamat’s eidetic memory and Olem never needing to sleep just makes them seem so interesting. I suspect it comes down to Sanderson’s law on this again; the more specific and limited an ability becomes, the more interesting it gets. The Knacks that appeared weren’t really used very extensively in terms of solving problems, interestingly.

In terms of culture, I really enjoyed the grouping of mages into cabals, and the way they are treated as a special sort of military unit, but also a different social group. The power differential between cabal members and normal people also create this interesting social interaction, where they are feared and respected simply by identification as such. The Privileged in particular, seem to be immensely powerful, with even powder mages being fearful of them if they get close, creating this situation where powder mages try to snipe them from a distance before they can bring their powers to bear.

The world itself is interesting simply because of the technological level in which this tale of magic happens. It’s not the first to do so, I’m sure, but the interplay between firearms and magic makes for interesting worldbuilding, as you have these incredibly powerful sorcerers who can, despite their power, still be killed by a well-placed bullet. The firearms therefore create this way to address the power differential.

Overall, I really enjoyed the worldbuilding, and the powder mage magic system is really well done. Some of the elements feel as if they could have used more differentiation and explanation, but that might be expanded on in the rest of the series. Either way, I’m interested enough that I will continue the series.

My rating for the worldbuilding in Promise of Blood:

A silver powder keg pin and a Privileged glove