In Blood Song an Imperial scribe travels with the most reviled enemy of his people on his journey to meet his fate. To the Empire he is the enemy soldier called Hopekiller, but Vaelin Al Sorna is far from the hateful enemy the scribe expects. Although he finds some elements of Vaelin's life to fantastic to be believed, the scribe is still absorbed in the tale. At age ten Vaelin was given to the Sixth Order, the brutal warrior arm of the Church, by his father without any explanation. Under the harsh conditions of the Order the boys of his year are first rivals, then friends, and eventually Brothers in more than just name. Some of them have secrets, and by the time they are full Brothers leading missions against the Dark Vaelin begins to suspect that one of them may have gone over to the Dark themselves.

The locations of the Godstones are now known and the various battles to control them are underway; however, only the Dynize know how to use them and their leader has plans to do just that. The conflict now spans multiple continents and the main PoV characters are spread across the lands, each doing their part to destroy the stones before they can be used. Easier said than done. Michel is headed back to Landfall to do what he can, Mad Ben Styke is across the ocean planning to attack the stone within the Dynize capital with the Mad Lancers, and Lady Vlora Flint must find a way to stop the Dynize army, despite the fact that she is physically broken and no longer has her Powder Mage abilities. If they don't succeed then a new God will be born and the Dynize will dictate the fate of the world.

In the land of Baroken it is the Wizard Lord's duty to protect the land, people, and magical ler. Since hunting down rogue wizards is one of their most important duties they are gifted with a set of talismans, ler that have been bound to an object, to ensure they have the most power. It was not long until the wizards of the Council of Immortals realized that those talismans would make it very difficult to deal with a rogue Wizard Lord, a Dark Lord. They created a second set of talismans that would be linked to those of the Wizard Lord and given to talented individuals who would act as a team to take down Dark Lords. The talismans of The Chosen as they are called enhance their natural abilities with specific magics according to their role in the team but they also bear a curse. When one of the Chosen dies the Wizard Lord loses the power of his linked talisman so should he kill all of the Chosen he is no more powerful than other members of the Council. They think they have covered every possibility. They are wrong.

Jonas is an experienced assassin who was taught the trade by his parents, who are recently deceased having driven their RV off a cliff. Jonas knows that it likely wasn't an accident, but he is not able to come up with any leads as to who might have killed them. That fact puts revenge out of reach for the moment, so he continues his life pulling off elaborate kill jobs, each one more ostentatious than the one before. Jonas is a special kind of assassin, he kills with his mind by telekinetically creating a hole in the brain of his victims. But even with all his power and money, he is depressed and his personal Artificial Intelligence knows it. So the A.I. schemes to bring a young woman named Maddie into his life, and then things really start to spiral out of control.

Things really start to get complicated in book two of the series and we now know the stakes are much higher than originally thought. Yes there are countries at war with each other, but the real fight is taking place at a different level. There is a second conflict going on within the war between those who seek to control the Godstones and those who want to destroy them. What makes this complicated is those two factions don't perfectly align with the national war that is underway. The real conflict is pretty much the PoV characters against everyone else when it comes to the Godstones and the bigger war is just muddying up the landscape. Mad Ben Styke, General Vlora Flint, Taniel Two-Shot, and Michel all have interesting storylines, but their lives are on the line every step of the way. 

Ten years after the end of the first trilogy, we can finally return to Brian McClellan's intriguing world of powder mages, privileged, and blood sorcerers. The nation of Fatrasta is new on the scene, but the problems facing it are not. Despite the order being kept by the secret police, known as the Black Hats, dissent is everywhere. The oppressed Palo that live within the capital city of Landfall are treated as second class citizens, so they retaliate by stirring up a lot of trouble. This conflict is the centerpiece for our three new PoV characters. General Vlora Flint, leader of the Riflejack Mercenary Company, who is hired by the local government to capture the insurgent leader, Mama Palo, and bring her to justice. Mad Ben Styke, a former war hero and killing machine who is let out of prison by a mysterious person who tasks him with getting close to Lady Flint and awaiting further instruction. And finally, Michel Bravis, an under cover agent who has infiltrated the Black Hats and struggles a bit with remembering which side he is actually on.

In the Free States people love their Capes, the superheroes that defend them. With a few very notable exceptions Capes have a short life expectancy so they established the Academy where kids interested in becoming Capes can train. They also learn how to market themselves and take advantage of any vid and merchandising deals that come their way on the off chance they survive long enough to retire. Damian's father doesn't have a cool villain name like Cemetery Sally or Crimson Death and a body count of one isn't impressive for a necromancer, also called Crows. He only made headlines because he went mad and killed his wife in front of their five year old son Damian. Crows are the most hated Powers for obvious reasons and there has never been a Crow Cape or even one at the Academy and no one wants him there now. Half of his classmates are too frightened to get near him and the other half think they should kill him now before he starts murdering people. But Damian is determined to stay in the hopes that learning control will prevent him from going insane like every other Crow. If not he hopes they can stop him before he does too much damage. As Damian says at the beginning, it's a shame they couldn't do either.

Earth's two main governing factions have gone in different directions now that interstellar travel is a reality. One has decided to focus on Alpha Centauri and the other, The Republic, has decided to focus on New Eden. The main difference being that Alpha Centauri is uninhabited while New Eden is controlled by a sentient species known as the Zodarks. Of course, attempting to take New Eden from the Zodarks has blow back potential for all humans because the Zodarks are clearly technologically superior to us. If they ever discover where Earth is located then there is no way we could defend ourselves from the inevitable attack. The Republic's fleet is still rather small, but they are going all in on New Eden. Basically, they are gambling humanity's future against the ability to mine the precious resources that New Eden contains, which will quickly advance their military power if acquired.

Three thousand years from now Earth is mostly desert and is little more than a quaint tourist destination for history buffs. Humans have spread out across the stars colonizing as they went with varied success and even survived first contact with an alien race and the war that followed. That means there are a lot of historic relics just waiting to be found by antiquarian Alex Benedict and his pilot Chase Kolpath. In addition to brokering deals for his wealthy clients Alex spends chasing down rumors of lost colonies, missing ships, and even people for profit. This doesn't make him popular with museums and those who feel he's nothing more than a graverobber. In the eight book series Alex and Chase have dealt with a wide variety of puzzles and frequently narrowly avoid dying because there is always someone who would prefer that those unsolved mysteries remain unsolved.

​​​​​​​As the title suggests, this book is set in a timeframe when humanity first discovers faster than light travel and is finally able to expand out into the stars. At the time of this discovery, Earth is ruled by three governments that have an agreement to partner when it comes to space exploration. However, that agreement is coming to an end and it doesn't look like all parties are eager to renew. This is especially true for the Republic who feel they can gain an advantage among the stars by going their own way. The other governments have their sights set on Alpha Centauri, but the Republic has secretly discovered a habitable world in another system and they plan to grab it for themselves. This world is dubbed New Eden and its discovery contains an even bigger secret. The images obtained by the probe clearly show some sort of mineshaft, likely from long ago, and The Republic fully expects to discover ancient proof of sentient life upon their arrival. I think we all know where this is going....