Hannah Mathewson’s The Age of Blood and Magic is a contemporary fantasy where the 0.1% have gotten rich on a new resource: Magic.
Billed as “Succession with Vampires”, Hannah Mathewson’s The Age of Blood and Magic actually turns out to be something rather different than what is on the tin. Oh, there are strong elements of Succession, and Vampires do appear, but the “Eat the Rich. Literally” tag isn’t quite what this book is really *about*.
But let’s begin at the beginning. The Age of Blood and Magic posits a world where a century ago, Martin Maddock, entrepreneur, managed to wrest the secrets of magic from a witch, and built a trillion-dollar business. In a feat reminiscent of some Brandon Sandersonian worlds, Magic has been regularized, commodified and made into a product to sell. The Maddocks alone control magic and while they avoid some fields, in all the others, their magic is used, especially but not exclusively, by the rich. This has made the Maddock the most powerful and richest family in the world.
Valentina Maddock is one of the two possible Heirs to Mythos, the company owned by her biological father, Oscar Maddock, descendant of Martin. Oscar begins the book being in a coma, and his situation does not improve. That’s unfortunate because his company is about to launch its potentially most lucrative product yet, to the super rich: Immortality. The cream of the 0.1% are coming to the Maddock estate to party, to be seen, and to buy the newest and greatest spell yet. Valentina and others of the Maddock family are the hosts of this launch party, and are all looking at each other for allies, enemies and advantage.
And then there are the vampires. Oh, there are vampires in the book, and when a magic-wielding family is selling immortality, of course vampires, the urban fantasy immortals par excellence, are going to be interested. Especially when these “House Gothenburg” Vampires have a mysterious but bonafide invitation from Oscar to attend the party, too. And Vampires in general are a new force to the Maddocks and others in terms of magical beings. So they are most indeed a wildcard.
So, we have the biggest product launch of the company and family’s history, we have the rich and powerful, including vampires, gathering at the Maddock estate. And oh, Oscar is in a coma and the succession is absolutely anything but clear. This is the central situation that the novel revolves around, with Valentina as our sole viewpoint character. There are several power blocs and power players within the family besides Valentina. There is her mother, an ex-wife of Oscar’s and a powerful creator of spells. Her half-brother, Jude, who might be the real heir, and has always been a rival to her. Hunter Corcoran, who is the Chief Financial Officer of the Mythos Corporation and is not family but has fingers in a lot of pies.
If that wasn’t enough, Valentina rather early on in the novel is poisoned with a spell that will turn her heart to gold, and kill her, in several days. The Immortality spell is not slated to be ready in time. So who has poisoned her and for what purpose in the games of family succession and power add an additional layer to the proceedings. Valentina has to keep a brave face for the rest of the guests, keep the machinery rolling and find a way to cure herself and determine who did it.
And all that doesn’t even include Lucas, another vampire who winds up at the party and winds up getting close to Valentina on a number of levels. What his relationship is to the above named Gothenburg Vampires isn’t exactly clear, either. It’s made clear he is acting as an independent agent—but for whom?
The descriptions and worldbuilding are well done, and for the most part, I could accept this world of a trillionaire family and the machinations around their latest and most audacious product yet, and of course the question of the future of the corporation and who gets it. There is good integration and depiction of magic here in terms of an applied drug, although that metaphor doesn’t always work (the Fuel spell, for example, works for transportation). This being the decadent rich, of course, there are more mundane drugs used as well, but in this world, spells packaged and sold are far more common in that regard. It’s not quite the world of, say, Cast a Deadly Spell, only the Mythos corporation is doing spells per se, everyone else is just activating them, as a technology. As mentioned above, this is much more of a Brandon Sanderson sort of vibe, or Harry Turtledove in The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump sort of mode. Only people with access to the source of magic, as the Maddocks have, could even possibly make new spells.
A couple of things made this reading experience not all that it could have been, for me, but perhaps may not be dealbreakers for you. First is the matter of the attracted power. The people in the room are 0.1% scions of powerful families, but there don’t seem to be people with money who aren’t part of those aristocratic (for lack of a better world) families who would most certainly want Immortality. There aren’t anyone like Elon Musks or Jeff Bezos explicitly shown here. Also striking is that there is a lack of shown rich political figures as well. The feeling of those invited to this exclusive event feels oddly like a throwback to early 20th century Noble families than anything else. While I am sure the rise of magic and the rise of a trillionaire family distorted and changed history, I am not sure that society would have been that drastically different. The implication of the novel’s worldbuilding throughout is that it is mostly our recognized world, with the Maddock layer and their magic on top. We see Valentina, a few people she knows, members of the Maddock family and key staff. Everyone else is indistinct and not in focus, but given our society, that itself felt artificial. This is a family who own a corporation richer than any in our world. But for all that, and all the guests, the story feels suffocatingly narrow and I couldn’t believe that the indistinct “Guests” wouldn’t be far more active than they are, even to Valentina, who doesn’t “pay attention” to such matters.¹
The other thing that doesn’t work well, and it’s a personal thing, is that this is definitely not a book for people who want someone or something to root for. All of the Maddocks, their circle, the Vampires are all terrible people who have and are willing to do terrible things. That includes Valentina herself. None of them at all. As a result, while reading it, I was hoping for the “Eat the rich, literally” tag line, but it only happens in the climax of the book. It is not foreshadowed well, either, but I suppose the sudden sharp shock of it is part of the point. But I think it all could have been somewhat more polished and better set up than it was.
One last interesting bit to note. In the dedication, the author says “This is a love story”. And I can kind of see it, and you can clearly pick out the pairing from the beginning. Even I, with a relatively thin experience of romance novels, could see the pairing that was presented. I didn’t read it with those protocols, however, and I wonder if I missed something in the novel as a result. In other words, this novel may be best intended for those who want a Succession-like affair with magic, rich people, a sprinkling of vampires, and a love story and don’t mind the unlikeability of any of the characters, the narrator included.
Highlights:
Magic as Technology
Succession with a Trillion Dollar Corporation
Eat the Rich. Well…
Hannah Mathewson: The Age of Blood and Magic, William Morrow, Sept. 15, 2026
¹ To give a cinematic counterexample: The Party that happens in The Devil’s Advocate is as decadent as the party in this book, but we see a number of prominent New Yorkers, and Donald Trump, who doesn’t appear, gets a mention for being unable to attend. That’s the sort of thing I expected out of the Maddock party.
