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  • Blood of Empire

  • Written by: Brian McClellan
  • Narrated by: John Telfer
  • Length: 20 hrs and 40 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (95 ratings)

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Blood of Empire

Written by: Brian McClellan
Narrated by: John Telfer
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Publisher's Summary

As the final battle approaches, a sellsword, a spy, and a general must find unlikely and dangerous allies in order to turn the tides of war in this epic fantasy tale of magic and gunpowder by acclaimed author Brian McClellan.

The Dynize have unlocked the Landfall Godstone, and Michel Bravis is tasked with returning to Greenfire Depths to do whatever he can to prevent them from using its power: from sewing dissension among the enemy ranks to rallying the Palo population. 

Ben Styke's invasion of Dynize is curtailed when a storm scatters his fleet. Coming ashore with just 20 lancers, he is forced to rely on brains rather than brawn - gaining new allies in a strange land on the cusp of its own internal violence. 

Bereft of her sorcery and physically and emotionally broken, Lady Vlora Flint now marches on Landfall at the head of an Adran army seeking vengeance against those who have conspired against her. While allied politicians seek to undo her from within, she faces insurmountable odds and Dynize's greatest general. 

Continue the epic fantasy series by the author whose debut novel Brandon Sanderson called "just plain awesome!"

Gods of Blood and Powder

Sins of Empire
Wrath of Empire
Blood of Empire

For more from Brian McClellan, check out:

Powder Mage
Promise of Blood
The Crimson Campaign
The Autumn Republic

©2019 Brian McClellan (P)2019 Hachette Audio

What listeners say about Blood of Empire

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

I would recommend reading the paper book

The change in narrator changes everything, surprisingy. All of a sudden, everyone is from the British upper classes. No character is recognizable.

Sometimes narrators have to change, but it would have been nice if Mr. Telfer had bothered to listen to the other books. Some names are pronounced very differently; it's super weird.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fun series

From start to finish this story has been an amazingly fun journey. Humour, adventure, political strife, gods, mages, love and conquest.

There's nothing missing and it still keeps you wanting more!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Quite a ride!

I enjoyed this series a lot but it is best to read the Powder Mage Trilogy first to make the most sense of it. I would agree with other reviewers that it would have been best to continue with the original narrator but John Tefler did a pretty good job.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good Ending

I enjoyed this book and it really tied together nicely with the rest of the series. My only real complaint is that they switched to a different voice actor and that really threw me off at first. Other than a few voices though by the end I was fine with him. If you enjoyed the rest of the series it's nice to know how this Empire series ends.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

alright ending

Good ending, not the best. I was hoping for a bit more action to finish it off, as with the first trilogy. when Stykes story got political it dragged for the first time a series for me. And Blood magic isn't a "showy" as Privileged / Powder Mages and Armies.
Was a little disappointed at the narrator switch at first but John does fine.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

loved it

what a great conclusion to this trilogy!!! I hope we get a third gunpowder mage series :)

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  • James
  • 2020-03-17

The Narrator...

The print and ebook copies of this book has been out for a few months now so I will not be reviewing the actual content of the story; lots of other people can do that much better than I. I wish to review the narrator.

First of all Christian Rodska is ill and is undergoing chemotherapy. Brian McClellan delayed the audiobook’s release in the hopes he could still do it. Obviously it didn’t work out and John Telfer had to fill it. He has a different take on a lot of the characters. Ben Stykes for instance doesn’t have the angst in his voice like the previous narrator had. Yes it’s different.

If you can get past that I think John Telfer did a great job. He is not as skilled and possess the range of Rodska but he is a professional and performed well. He reminds me a little bit of Simon Vance so if you enjoy Vance you will probably enjoy Telfer.

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83 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2020-06-25

Name pronunciation changes

First, I'm saddened to hear Mr Rodska is fighting cancer and wish him all the best. He is a wonderful narrator and one of the first people to get me to prefer the audio book to reading it myself.

That being said, I do think they found a decent replacement. I'm only on chapter two, so I'm still getting used to him. However, I feel I'm going to be annoyed for the entire book by the new narrator's decision to pronounce Taniel as Tanielle. It's grating to my ears every time he says it, and almost seems like a completely different character before I realize who he's talking about.

Those unfortunately aren't the only names he has changed, in just the prologue and first chapter alone. He's changed the way Ka-Poel is pronounced, as well as Sedial. I understand there are differences in the way certain words are pronounced, but could he not have stuck with the very well established (over the last 100 hours of audio!) pronunciations of the character's names? I'm not looking forward to hearing how he's decided to change up the rest of our beloved character's names.

It feels pretty to complain about this, but it just doesn't make sense to me - character's voices obviously couldn't be the same with a different narrator, you'd think he would at least try to keep their names.

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27 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Mark Hancock
  • 2020-04-01

Excellent, Again...Including Necessitated Narrator Switch

This will be a difficult review to write without giving spoilers, so I will simply say this. Blood of Empire: One of the most satisfying trilogy finales I’ve ever read! There are so very many things I want to shout out about so many different character endings...but I won’t. If you’re on this book, you’re already well & truly devoted to the Powder Mage Universe & a fan. But God this was a great ending. Of this second trilogy, that is. New circumstances for so many could TOTALLY open the door to a wonderful next trilogy (big hopeful hint, hint here Brian McClellan !!)
I’ll end on a note about the narration of John Telfer, who did an admirable job. Over the past 6 novels and several additional novellas in the Powder Mage worlds, there’s been the solid, steady first class narration of Christian Rodska. He’s a force of nature, & I know I’m not alone at being shocked (& initially angered) when I realized Mr Rodska wasn’t reading the finale. After a cursory glance through the news, though, it sounds like Rodska has been undergoing medical treatment. I sincerely hope he gets well & will grace is with his talent again. That said, although having a very different voice & taking a different approach to the characters, Mr Telfer is truly talented & did an admirable job. In fact, by the end of the book, I had a much better opinion of Ben Styke, oddly enough.

Excellent novel AND narration, again! I’m read for the next Powder Mage Trilogy!

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • TJ
  • 2020-05-29

Another great book

Though it was difficult to get used to the new narrator, at first, it soon became apparent that the man is quite talented in his own right. While SOME characters did, indeed, not sound the same—lacking that specific quality which had previously made their personality shine (such as the case with Ben Styke)—others were actually pretty darn close. Often times a change in narrator heralds a train wreck... this was NOT the case in Blood of Empire.

As to the matter of the overall conclusion of this series, it was decent... though there are definitely some unanswered questions that I wish would have been addressed. But, we’ll... c’est la vie.

Side note: I, personally, did not care too much for the portrayal of Boe and Nila’s marriage. The amount of lecherousness involved in it went far beyond what Boe had been engaged in when he was introduced in the first trilogy, and it was especially surprising on Nila’s part, whose innocence in that regard had once been an endearing part of her character. At one point in the Powder Mage trilogy she had even told Boe that she would not sleep with him for having helped her and the boy that she was caring for at the time—despite what appeared to be growing attraction on her part—now, however, in this book the married couple actually make it their goal to sleep with Everyone in the army. Even with the increased libido of a Privileged, it was It’s such a large change of character that it honestly bummed me out. Call me “old fashioned,” I guess... I don’t care.

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10 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Kindle Customer
  • 2020-03-20

A good ending.

This was another great effort by Brian McClellan and a for me a satisfying ending to the series, if in fact it is the end. The only slight drawback is that Mr. Rodska was not able to be the narrator for this one due to health issues.
Mr. Telfer does a serviceable job but the vibe is just a bit off for some characters just enough to be a distraction at times. Not his fault. It's the nature of the beast. That is why I gave him a 4.

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9 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • David
  • 2020-04-08

Great Finish

I thoroughly enjoyed Brian McClellan's trilogy with Blood of Empire tying together all the threads nicely. Well paced, well developed, and just the right amount of anticipation and excitement as the story comes to a close. A word about the change in narrator. As with other reviews that I read, changing narrators can be very off putting, but this was not the case. After a short period of time, I was completely immersed in the story. John Telfer did a great job. McClellan brings the main characters and individual storylines together in a way that was suspenseful and very satisfying. Highly recommend the trilogy.

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5 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • The Chrisenberry's
  • 2020-04-23

Meh...

Not moving. Bad choice changing narrator. Very dissatisfied and unhappy. Hope the next is better.

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Rachel
  • 2020-04-25

The End?

Blood of Empire has a new narrator. John does a great job at storytelling and I enjoyed it. I look forward to more stories.

That being said Christian Rodska had a gravel and gravitas that I still missed, hoping he will recover soon.

Brian Mclellan successfully concludes the plot threads he established in the second powder Mage trilogy.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

These all sound like good things so why 3 stars? Well the biggest one would have to be Ka Sedial. We barely get any time with him over three books. Nearly all his power, actions, and logic are deduced, seen from afar, and basically he's an offpage antagonist. Which does drive the plot but does not make for a compelling listen.

We also do not get a history, breakdown, or limitations on Bone Eyes and blood sorcery. This bothered me in the first trilogy because Ka Pol has tremendous power but she was also alone so it made sense she was figuring things out as she went. However, in this book we went to a nation that views bone eyes as political powerhouses and still nothing.

There are more structural things that bothered me, with just 2 hours on the book I didn't see how there was going to be a satisfying conclusion.

As it stands there are plenty of adventures in this universe to be had, I hope Brian comes back to it.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • kenny
  • 2020-03-22

What happened to the Narrator?

For the final installment we switch narrators? I understand the original narrator is I’ll, and we all wish him a speedy recovery! But perhaps we could have found another narrator to was remotely similar or perhaps one who was able to listen to at least a small clip the previous books. I’m not really sure about the story I can remember all the characters voices and none of them are in this one. Maybe the new guy would be ok if we weren’t 5 books and there was only one charter in the book. As far as the story it’s lost. I don’t know any of these people and the new narrator only has a single voice so they all sound the same. I preordered this boom back in November when it was due out any day then it was delayed until March then it was butchered by the narrator.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Rick Nielsen
  • 2021-07-02

Great voice! Great Book!

For all who did not like the new vocal talent, I though it was a wonderful performance! I get it that it is not the same guy, but still an excellent job. I thought this was the best book Brian has written. I cant wait for the next series!

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1 person found this helpful