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A review by peterkeep
In the Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan
5.0
First and foremost, I am a very big fan of Brian McClellan. Part of that is probably because I read and enjoyed his debut, Promise of Blood, soon after it came out, and have got to feel like I discovered his books before other people or something silly like that. Obviously that's not even really true (since his debut was extremely popular). He's also a nice guy that I've gotten to interact with a bit. So let's get that out of the way.
But yah, this book rules.
I was excited to see what Brian would do outside of the Powder Mage world, and he really brought it. I think he does a great job here or keeping this book similar enough to his Powder Mage books that it feels like he's created a kind of identity for himself as an author: we can know what to expect from him!
1. There is a cool magic system that allows for not only neat action-y/fight scenes, but also has a real influence on the way that society has evolved to incorporate that magic.
2. There is a mix of industrialization behind the magic and some more pure sorcery, and those two things have interesting conflicts with each other.
3. The plot is fast paced and action-oriented with a mix of military battle stuff and also some cool intriguing investigation type stuff. He seems to balance the mystery/investigator/detective stuff with the military and politics stuff really well.
4. He writes a big brute with some great character depth into the story.
This book checks all of those boxes, and honestly he might have done all 4 of these things better than ever here.
The story itself is super: a public assassination forces a failed prodigy to come home and take over the responsibility that he left and investigate the death, while a seemingly stable source of industrialized magic starts to mysteriously disappear, and local city politics bleed into larger-scale conflicts away from home. But the subplots with other characters are done really well too: an investigator that is trying to balance allegiances to her family that has kept her in the margins and her closest friend, an engineer trying to save the magic from dying, and a military man with a debt to pay.
Without spoiling anything, I want to end this by saying that it's fun to see Brian trying new things as well. From the review so far, it might seem like this is just another Powder Mage book set in a new world with glass magic instead of gunpowder magic. And like, it is in the ways I mentioned.
But it's also clear that Brian is trying new stuff, has different kinds of characters that exist in a different kind of society with different kinds of norms. There is one specific instance of a fight between a man and a woman that stems from a lack of communication, and Brian wraps it up in about 2 pages because these characters value communication! They stop, figure out their own issues and sort them out quickly, and then talk to each other. The immediate conflict is resolved, even if there are deep-seeded issues to work out. I loved seeing this: he is writing a very mature cast of characters where the big conflicts aren't petty squabbles.
He also has some really cool new things in this book that he's not done much of before that I am not mentioning...it was a ton of fun to read the build up to some of the reveals he has and then be completely surprised at the direction the books took.
So yah, this book is comfortable for those who have read Brian McClellan's stuff before, but super fresh and exciting.
I'll be a release-day reader for any other books in this series.
But yah, this book rules.
I was excited to see what Brian would do outside of the Powder Mage world, and he really brought it. I think he does a great job here or keeping this book similar enough to his Powder Mage books that it feels like he's created a kind of identity for himself as an author: we can know what to expect from him!
1. There is a cool magic system that allows for not only neat action-y/fight scenes, but also has a real influence on the way that society has evolved to incorporate that magic.
2. There is a mix of industrialization behind the magic and some more pure sorcery, and those two things have interesting conflicts with each other.
3. The plot is fast paced and action-oriented with a mix of military battle stuff and also some cool intriguing investigation type stuff. He seems to balance the mystery/investigator/detective stuff with the military and politics stuff really well.
4. He writes a big brute with some great character depth into the story.
This book checks all of those boxes, and honestly he might have done all 4 of these things better than ever here.
The story itself is super: a public assassination forces a failed prodigy to come home and take over the responsibility that he left and investigate the death, while a seemingly stable source of industrialized magic starts to mysteriously disappear, and local city politics bleed into larger-scale conflicts away from home. But the subplots with other characters are done really well too: an investigator that is trying to balance allegiances to her family that has kept her in the margins and her closest friend, an engineer trying to save the magic from dying, and a military man with a debt to pay.
Without spoiling anything, I want to end this by saying that it's fun to see Brian trying new things as well. From the review so far, it might seem like this is just another Powder Mage book set in a new world with glass magic instead of gunpowder magic. And like, it is in the ways I mentioned.
But it's also clear that Brian is trying new stuff, has different kinds of characters that exist in a different kind of society with different kinds of norms. There is one specific instance of a fight between a man and a woman that stems from a lack of communication, and Brian wraps it up in about 2 pages because these characters value communication! They stop, figure out their own issues and sort them out quickly, and then talk to each other. The immediate conflict is resolved, even if there are deep-seeded issues to work out. I loved seeing this: he is writing a very mature cast of characters where the big conflicts aren't petty squabbles.
He also has some really cool new things in this book that he's not done much of before that I am not mentioning...it was a ton of fun to read the build up to some of the reveals he has and then be completely surprised at the direction the books took.
So yah, this book is comfortable for those who have read Brian McClellan's stuff before, but super fresh and exciting.
I'll be a release-day reader for any other books in this series.