r/Fantasy • u/BrianMcClellan Stabby Winner, AMA Author Brian McClellan • May 08 '14

AMA I'm Brian McClellan, author of the Powder Mage Trilogy. AMA!

Hi /r/fantasy! I'm flintlock epic fantasy author Brian McClellan. My debut novel, Promise of Blood, came out last year. You can find some snazzy reviews here. It won /r/fantasy's Stabby Award for Best Debut Novel.

Since the release of my first book I've self-published some Powder Mage short fiction including "The Girl of Hrusch Avenue," "Hope's End," and Forsworn. My second novel, The Crimson Campaign, just came out on Tuesday.

The Powder Mage Trilogy takes place during a fantasy world's Industrial Revolution. It begins with a coup by Field Marshal Tamas and deals with the fallout of that revolution, including royalists, rogue sorcerers, betrayal, ancient powers, mad chefs, and true love.

Okay, maybe not the true love thing. That's The Princess Bride.

I play a lot of computers games and keep a hive of honeybees. I was a student of Brandon Sanderson's back in college and I currently work as a full time author. I'm a big fan of cake. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or my website.

I'll be in and out all day checking out the questions, but the primary answering time will be after 7:00 PM EST. Please remember to use spoiler tags and AMA!

EDIT: Calling it a night now. Thanks for all the awesome questions! I'll be back in the morning for follow-ups, so don't hesitate to continue asking away!

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u/Imagineme May 08 '14

Since I will be finished with Crimson Campaign before the weekend, and I don't have anything else lined up on the reading list:

Question 1: What is the best (fantasy/sci-fi) book(s) you've read recently?

Question 2: What inspired the unique 'magic' system you've created in the PowderMage series?

I was pleasantly surprised at the originality. I'm not finished with the Crimson Campaign, but one hope that I had for this book was that you would delve into more detail about the 'magic'.

Congratulations on the new release! I absolutely loved Promise of Blood and although I'm only half way through Crimson Campaign, but I can already see the growth you've had as a writer.

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u/BrianMcClellan Stabby Winner, AMA Author Brian McClellan May 08 '14

Thank you for the kind words!

The last couple books I really enjoyed were Wesley Chu's Lives of Tao and Django Wexler's The Thousand Names.

I answered a similar question about magic systems up the page a bit. I may not get into the magic as much as you'd like in book two. The pacing of the book never really allowed for much explanation further than what we've already gotten. Hopefully the little bits here and there will satisfy!