Earthsea and 9 more epic sci-fi and fantasy series to read in lockdown

7. The Powder Mage Trilogy by Brian McClellan

Sometimes, you just need something that’s a little bit different. Enter Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage Trilogy, a flintlock fantasy war story that has some really inventive magic. At the start of the tale, Tamas, the field marshal of the armies of Adro and one of the main protagonists, stages a bloody coup that kills his king and most of the king’s spell casters. Powder Mage takes strong inspiration from the French Revolution period of history, with the ensuing civil war caused by Tamas’s actions just as horrible and brutal as the real thing.

The world of this series is unique and the characters compelling, but the biggest draw of Powder Mage is its magic system. This is a series very much in the vein of Brandon Sanderson (who was one of Brian McClellan’s mentors), with several well-defined magic systems that only get more deeply developed as it goes on. The titular powder mages are able to sense the presence of nearby gunpowder, make it explode through will alone, consume it to gain enhanced strength or senses, and generally do a bunch of other cool stuff with it that gives them a huge edge on the battlefield. Then there’s the Priveleged, who command the elements in a more familiar magical fashion. Before Tamas’s coup, they were considered the most powerful magic-useres in Adro. After…

The first Powder Mage book, Promise of Blood, is well titled. It details a civil war that starts bloody and grows into something ever more terrible. It’s the perfect sort of read if you want a fantasy war story with a really in-depth magic system.

Since finishing the Powder Mage Trilogy, McClellan has gone on to write a follow-up trilogy that finished last year: Gods of Blood and Powder. It’s set 10 years after the conclusion of Powder Mage and takes place on another continent. All told, that’s six books of epic magic battles and morally ambiguous choices.