The Autumn Republic by Brian McClellan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It’s the conclusion to the Powder Mage Trilogy and so things generally move fast once we get past the first few chapters that catch us up to where everyone has ended up since the end of book 2. Each chapter definitely left me wanting to continue reading. For that reason I forbade myself from reading at night because I knew I’d end up reading too late into the night.

As before, we have a split between Adamat’s story being a detective story and the others involved in a military story – although they constantly cross paths in this volume. The explanation of the overarching plot that we didn’t know about (Xanatos Gambit type stuff) as well as the origins of the gods comes a little rushed and slightly info dump-y near the end rather than fitting in a little more organically, but it doesn’t ruin the story, just keeps it from being a 5-star story.

In the end McClellan delivers on a story that ties up most (if not all) of the loose ends and gives an ending that falls somewhere between a “happy” and a realistic ending. Overall, I liked it and I’m intrigued enough to see what he does with this universe to move on to the next series set in this universe. It will be interesting to see if he sets it AFTER the events of this series or has it happening concurrently.



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