As a reminder, my Sunday book reviews are with the idea that you are in the airport and about to leave on a trip and need something to keep you entertained or informed while travelling. I link to Kindle versions (could just as easily be Nook or whatever is popular in your home country) so you can just buy and download them if you decided to give them a try. I prefer not to travel with paper copies of books if I can avoid it for weight and clutter reasons.
Larry Correia is famous for his Monster Hunter International series (and political cause reasons that have nothing to do with enjoying his books). I enjoy the Monster Hunter series, but I actually prefer the Grimnoir series instead.
These books are set in a fictional period after WWI. The world is essentially a derivative of our world, except that an event in the past triggered the ability for some humans to use magic. Exactly what the source of magic is for the world is a mystery at the start of the series and it is slowly revealed through the trilogy.
The series pits a secret society called Grimnoir that tries to stop and fight against improper use of magic. The main foe in the series is the Prime Minister of Imperial Japan and his agents. The Japanese have a more advanced understanding of how to use runes to augment the innate magic of their agents and they are more technologically and magically advanced in their weapons of war.
WWI was ended through the use of ‘Tesla” beam weapons which for all intents and purposes can be thought of as being a nuclear death ray. So there is somewhat of a standoff between imperial Japan and the rest of the world powers because of fear that the Tesla weapons will be used again. They were used to end WWI and the devastation is still scarring Europe.
Although the point of view switches between several more characters, then two main characters are “Heavy” Jake Sullivan and Faye Vierra. Jake is a hard boiled P.I. in full noir tradition. Jake is a very interesting character in that he is a physically large character, and his magical ability (localized gravity control to make things heavier or lighter) typically goes with slower thinking people but not true for him as he is as smart as he is large. Although the cliché of the hard boiled detective with an unbreakable code of honor is the foundation for his role in the books, he becomes more complex as the books continue.
Faye is a little bit of a Mary Sue character as her abilities grow and evolve as the series goes on as needed by the plot. Overall the magic system in the series is reasonably consistent, but the heroes are able to break previously established rules and their powers scale higher as the series progresses.
Mr. Correia is also a gun enthusiast and occasionally the narration gets slightly derailed as he details out the latest hardware one of the characters is using. This is nowhere near as constant as happens in his Monster Hunter International series, but it is a little distracting when it does happen.
With the above caveats in mind, this series is just about epitomizes what is needed to meet “entertain you on a flight”. The action is pretty much non-stop, well written and fun. The characters are not exactly multidimensional, but they are fun and easy to identify and they certainly do move the story along. The villains are interesting and have their own motivations that are not “be pure evil”. The source of the magic is the world is slowly revealed and opens up the final quest in the book. The ending is satisfying and I stayed up late a few times to finish the book that I had started.
I give the series a very good rating for pure entertainment value and I think pretty anyone looking for a fun read will enjoy it.
I originally “read” the books by listening via Audible.com and I found the narration good and entertaining.
Hard Magic – Book 1
Spellbound – Book 2
Warbound – Book 3