Hard Magic The Grimnoir Chronicles Book 1 Book Review
Hard Magic is Book 1 of The Grimnoir Chronicles an urban fantasy trilogy by Larry Correia. It was published by Baen Books on the 3rd of May 2011.
Set in 1932 with magic having recently returned to the world, people with magical abilities known as Actives. Jake Sullivan a Heavy, someone who can manipulate the gravity and density of an object, is a war hero, private investigator and ex-con serving off his sentence by helping the government capture dangerous Actives. His latest assignment has him questioning which side he should be in as he is caught in a war between factions of Actives and a threat that could change the world as they know it…
The Good
I love fantasy and this one isn’t your everyday urban fantasy it’s a fusion of hardboiled private eye with superpowers, gangsters and magic thrown into a fantastical cauldron…
The world building is inventive, offering an alternate history where magical ability has shaped the course of events, magical abilities are weaponised and harnessed by governments, others exploit them for their own gain while society is content with relegating their Active population to second class citizens fit mostly for menial tasks..
The magic is treated like a sci-fi element following laws of physics and momentum unlike soft fantasy where anything can happen. We learn the rules alongside the main characters as they learn aspects of the magic,
It’s a high-octane read with mind-blowing action sequences guns blazing, fists flying, explosions, monsters, zombies…. Would love to see how this book would translate into a TV Series… maybe because I recently watched Reacher but I pictured Jake Sullivan lookkking like Alan Ritchison
The Bad
The book introduces a fair amount of characters in the beginning that initially, it feels confusing trying to keep track of them all, figuring out who is who and how they all intersect.
While the world building is intriguing its not explored as deeply as it could have been and is more intend on describing firearms and setting up for the next action set piece than navigating the society and its geopolitics.
Maybe because over the years I have read a number of fantasy novels and have taken a writing class or two I am not a fan of the device where a novice character is “taught” as an excuse to provide information dumps…
The Ugly
The violence can get visceral and bloody… and there’s some racial and gender tropes no longer land well in this age.
This book series has missed the honour of being one of my favourite books simply because I didn’t read it back in 2011 and the version of me reading it now takes it with an Afrocentric comparison as to why we have few African authors who can unapologetically dabble in Afrocentric fantastical narratives and of those few they usually arent based on the continent…
Final Thoughts
Hard Magic is a wildly entertaining, fast-moving ride packed with creative action. I discovered this book and its author from a book review by Bookstooge.
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