Spellbound The Grimnoir Chronicles Book 2 Review
Spellbound is Book 2 of The Grimnoir Chronicles an urban fantasy trilogy by Larry Correia. It was published by Baen Books on 1 November 2011.
Following the events of Hard Magic The Grimnoir Chronicles Book 1…. Jake Sullivan, a war hero, former private investigator, ex-con and knight, receives a telephone call from a dead man. This sets him on a mission to hunt a predator that devour all life on Earth….
The Good
Reading a book series that’s already finished has a certain kind of satisfaction that you do not have to wait for an indefinite while for the next read. I loved the first book and was curious where it all led.
Spellbound is no longer world-building, but expanding, the Grimnoir Society isn’t just an interesting concept but an actual organisation with history and internal politics.
Compared to the previous book, following the characters is easier as you already know the key players and their dynamics from before.
Familiar characters return, and new ones are introduced with complex motivations, adding up to a ragtag outfit that could potentially save the world if they don’t kill each other first… Trust is a scarce commodity, making for a story that keeps you guessing as no one plays their cards all at once.
There are magical fights, shootouts, assassinations, explosions, supernatural creatures and some wonderfully ridiculous set pieces that you almost can’t put down the book.
The Bad
Spellbound doesn’t quite have the novelty of Hard Magic where each page was a sense of discovery; it’s more committed to setting the stage for larger conflict, taking the scenic route to the last act that’s packed with so much action that your head will spin, only to end when everything is now ready to begin…
Book 2 definitely suffers from that middle book syndrome where it’s basically an elaborate setup for the final book with a key mystery only teased and never quite elaborated, but you can tell it’s a Chekhov’s mystery that will be important in the conclusion of the series…
The Ugly
As the story progresses, it plays with ideas about persecution, state power, prejudice and what happens when a society decides that an entire group of people needs to be controlled “for their own protection” paving the way for an institutional cruelty that hits close to home in a way that feels uncomfortably systemic and realistic.
The book attempts to explore some sensitive themes on racism and sexism then mostly brushes them away that you have to ask why introduce the dynamics if you are going to largely ignore them… but perhaps I am reading the book 15 years later and things which would have been passable then would be more scrutinised in today’s “woke” culture.
Final Thoughts
Spellbound is a superhero blockbuster sequel to Hard Magic; louder, faster, and more politically charged. Introduced to this book series via a review by Bookstooge.
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