Larry Correia is the author of the Monster Hunter urban fantasy book series. I’ve enjoyed these books for years and also enjoy his comical Tom Stranger audiobook series. So recently I looked around and decided I should check out some of his other writing.
Back in 2011 Correia wrote an urban fantasy, alternate history book called Hard Magic – Book I of the Grimnoir Chronicles. In this alternate reality magic starts appearing on Earth in the 19th century and by the time of the story, the 1930s, there are various magical powers that have become part of everyday life and corporate policy. For instance, dirigibles and blimps do not disappear from the airs because magical practitioners called “Torches” have the ability to prevent fires from destroying the explosive hydrogen filled balloons with their powers.
There are humans called “Healers” with the power to heal disease and injury by a laying on of hands. And alternatively, there can be an individual called a “Pale Horse” who has the power to cause disease and even horribly painful death with just a touch of his hand. And there are dozens of other powers out there. “Brutes” are able to increase their strength tremendously and toughen themselves to withstand enormous punishment. Some can walk through walls, some teleport from place to place and some can control gravity and density and even the weather.
The outlines of history are similar to the actual history. World War One occurred and the rise of the Japanese Empire is happening but each of these things included large-scale use of magical power. Historical figures like Teddy Roosevelt and Black Jack Pershing exist but they are involved in the magical events. Nikola Tesla is a “Cog” which is an individual whose intellect has a magical quality to it and in this world, he invents magical doomsday devices such as the Geo-Tel which can destroy everything within a thousand-mile radius at the push of a button.
The book has a couple of main characters. Faye Vierra is a teenager living on her adoptive grandfather’s dairy ranch. She is a “Traveller.” Grandpa was able to teach her how to safely use her power because he also is a “Traveller.” What she doesn’t know is that he is a retired member of the Grimnoir Society, an order of magically gifted individuals who pledge to use their power to protect society from the misuse of magic. When evil men show up Grandpa sends Faye off with a dangerous device that he tells her to give to Black Jack Pershing.
The other main character is Jake Sullivan. Jake is a Gravity Spiker. He can change the force of gravity. He can make it stronger of weaker and even change its direction. Jake is getting out of prison for a justifiable homicide that was declared murder. Jake has agreed to a parole condition under which he will assist the FBI and local law enforcement with super strong magical individuals like brutes in exchange for a shortened sentence. But during one of these operations he finds out that there are magical agents working outside the law but not against it. And it leads back to Pershing.
The story knits together a cast of characters inside the Grimnoir Society that are working to prevent the capture by the Japanese Imperium of a Geo-Tel device. A shadowy leader, the Chairman, is a powerful, almost godlike leader whose forces are bent on world domination and the destruction of the United States.
Correia crafts an enjoyable narrative with a full range of engaging characters moving across the country and the world pursuing their varying interests and racing against time to retrieve the pieces of the Geo-Tel before the Imperium can unleash Armageddon. I highly recommend the book and am looking forward to the arrival of the sequel Spellbound.