The Autumn Republic: The Powder Mage Trilogy, Book 3

Struggling with enemy kings and gods, the new Republic of Adro fights its hardest battles against its own people in this sharp and moving conclusion to McClellan’s French Revolution–inspired fantasy. Field Marshal Tamas, returning from behind enemy lines with new allies (acquired in 2013’s The Crimson Campaign), rushes to reunite his divided army, which was split by treason and is still facing the overwhelming forces of an invading monarch. He finds himself again surrounded when a foreign nobleman occupies the capital, Adopest, to run for the new post of First Minister. Magic clashes with divinity as Tamas’s son, Taniel Two-shot, and Taniel’s shaman companion struggle to keep a vengeful god under restraint. And Nila, a former laundress, faces the results of using her new power to slay invading soldiers. McClellan is unafraid to show tragic consequences and he wisely resists tying up his plot into a too-neat conclusion, allowing some character deaths and glimpses of the unending work of nation-building. While not as epic as some series, McClellan’s work will please fantasy readers with a historical bent and a taste for the bittersweet. Agent: Caitlin Blasdell, Liza Dawson Associates. (Feb.)