Here is why I have mixed feelings. I wanted more Horror from the story. Nothing about this book was genre horror (no gore, no heroes slowly descending into madness, no grimdark, that sort of thing). The lovecraft aesthetic was only skin deep. I hope in future books the author explores the horror of this situation a little more, instead of just using the aesthetic to make cool monsters to fight against. Also, I want more than just monsters. I am a fan of this trope; give me tentacles! Give me mad science experiments! Show me human nature's inner beast, hiding within that Victorian uptight morality! That sort of thing. Demir’s heart fell. No getting that payout, then. Or meeting Slatina for dinner tonight. He would have to move on to the next town, interrupting his life and abandoning his friends and lovers like he’d done dozens of times over the last nine years. The very thought of it made him tired, but it also made him mad. He cast his mental net outward, using his glassdancer sorcery to make note of every windowpane and wine bottle in the cantina.

Book one, In the Shadow of Lightning, is set to release from Tor Books in spring of 2022. This is a World English deal via Caitlin Blasdell at Liza Dawson Associates. This book had 4 POV characters, and each one had their own structure. I'll analyze two of them here. The book begins with Demir's mother's assassination, and he's forced to return home to replace and avenge her. After his disgrace, he's not confident in his abilities to lead, so he recruits his old friends Kizzie and Baby Montego in his campaign of revenge.

My favorite parts of this book were the pacing and the magic. Once again, McClellan has created a fully fleshed out magic system that interacts gracefully with the world, cultures, and economics. It's also just super cool, which, honestly, is also important. As an author, I found myself feeling similar pangs of jealousy as when I read Jade City, wishing I'd come up with it! And for the pacing, this really just kept me engaged throughout with the mysteries, investigations, engineering, and more. I liked how the author included so many different religions as a plotpoint, and I would have liked it if they were further explored to flesh out this world. Similarly, the magic is called 'godglass;' is it related in some way to a god or something likewise supernatural? In the Shadow of Lightning is an incredibly unique and imaginative novel—but I wouldn’t have expected anything less from the author. I was definitely impressed with the world-building and this new magical system based around godglass. If you’re familiar with McClellan’s Powder Mage series, or even his mentor Brandon Sanderson’s work, you’d probably have some idea what it might be like, but at the same time, it’ll also be completely different than anything you’ve ever read. Depending on the type of Godglass, magic users called glassdancers can manifest various abilities by tapping into their power. If you’re thinking this sounds a little like Mistborn’s Allomancy, that thought had occurred to me as well. Demir drew in a deep, ragged breath. He was being petulant now. He’d made his point, but it still took a force of will to keep himself from destroying every piece of glass in the bar and then throwing it all into Morlius’s face. That wasn’t who he was. Demir touched the bookie’s receipt with one finger and pushed it toward Morlius again. The bookie stared at it for several moments before realization dawned in his eyes. He pulled the purse from his belt and set it on the bar. I have read 6 of McClellan's novels, one of his novellas, many of his short stories, and I also sometimes listen to his podcast. I am a fan. Bare that in mind as you read this review.

Brian McClellan burst onto the fantasy landscape almost a decade ago (2013) with Promise of Blood, the first of his Powder Mage saga. With In the Shadow of Lightning, he switches publishers (from Orbit to Tor) and launches a brand-new milieu and series, The Glass Immortals. Magic is powered by glass, but not ordinary glass – Godglass. At the center of the story is Demir Grappo, whose battle “victory” in the prologue leads him to disappear from the Empire. A nine-year gap from prologue to novel sees Demir returning to delve into the murder of his mother. That seems a rather straight-forward set up, but of course this novel being Epic Fantasy and written by Brian McClellan, there’s much more to it. Magic is a finite resource–and it’s running out.Demir Grappo is an outcast–he fled a life of wealth and power, abandoning his responsibilities as a general, a governor, and a son. Now he will live out his days as a grifter, rootless, and alone. But when his mother is brutally murdered, Demir must return from exile to claim his seat at the head of the family and uncover the truth that got her killed: the very power that keeps civilization turning, godglass, is running out.Now, Demir must find allies, old friends and rivals alike, confront the powerful guild-families who are only interested in making the most of the scraps left at the table and uncover the invisible hand that threatens the Empire. A war is coming, a war unlike any other. And Demir and his ragtag group of outcasts are the only thing that stands in the way of the end of life as the world knows it. In the Shadow of Lightning (Glass Immortals, #1) by Brian McClellan – eBook Details If I were to critique Thessa's character arc, I'd say that the slavery story beat from the first half of the story wasn't really continued on to the second half. Her enemies in the first half were different from those in the second half. It made her section feel a bit disjointed, having built up one faction as enemies (the Magna) only to have her fight another faction at the end (the Grent). Thanks to NetGalley & Tor Books for an eARC of this book. The following review is my honest reflection on the text provided. The greater guild-families had tried to push him around when he was a young politician. They hadn’t succeeded then because he could outthink them. They wouldn’t success now because he had proper steel in his spine.”Thessa is the engineer of the story. It's her job to reverse engineer and rebuild a mysterious device with the potential to revolutionize the world's magic system. I liked her as a character, but I have to say she didn't have much of a character arc. She didn't have the dynamism of Demir or the conflicting loyalties of Kizzie. She served as a perspective to flesh out the neat magic system, and was an outsider to the guild politics so we readers used her as an outsider's lens on events. She was the most upstanding 'good' person of the POV characters, so she was easy to root for.