Most books that contain magic have fairly similar styles of magic so it was rather refreshing to see something different in Hard Magic, book one of the Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia. It tells the story of Jake Sullivan, a former military man turned criminal turned private investigator working for the government. When he is asked to help track down and apprehend a former contact of his, a woman named Delilah, Sullivan ends up heading into some rather unusual territory. As a man with active magic he is usually able to hold his own in a fight but the people he ends up fighting are stronger than the average magic user. Alongside Sullivan’s story is Faye Vierra, a young active magical who had been adopted by an older active magical. When her adoptive family’s farm is attacked and the old man who adopted her killed Faye decides to find out who killed him and why. Eventually, both of them end up getting drawn into the mystery surrounding a group of active magicals known as the Grimnoir Society as they struggle to figure out what is actually going on and in the process potentially stop an almost world destroying attack.
This book was great when it came to intriguing and unfamiliar types of magic. Some of what was present in the story were pretty familiar such as Faye being able to teleport. We see that all the time in fiction along with similar types such as telekinesis or healing both of which were also present in this story. What was rather new for me was the type of magic present in Jake Sullivan and his friend Delilah. They both exhibit similar but slightly different types. Delilah seemed to be able to increase her own strength almost exponentially which made her rather dangerous in a fight. Sullivan was somewhat able to do the same thing but not by increasing his own strength. He instead was able to control and change gravity in a localized setting which enable increased strength at times. I can honestly admit that I don’t think I have ever come across that type of magic before so I was really fascinated by how it was utilized over the course of the book. If you think about it that can have so many different and varies uses in an ever more varied amount of situations. It created some really interesting layers for the story that I greatly enjoyed. Unique magic is always a big draw for me. What also drew my attention, though at times it was also confusing, was how the appearance of magic altered history. This book is set in an alternate 1932 where magic had first appeared in the mid 1800’s. Since magic was present it created alterations in many of the more familiar events that had occurred. I found it interesting how things had changed due to the presence of magic but I was also frustrated as it did not always explain some of the differences and I had to piece it together from context clues over the course of the book. There was one thing that I did not like about the book though and that was that it seriously needed to be proofread. I noticed numerous rather distracting grammar and spelling mistakes throughout the entire book, some of which were repeated, and I struggled to figure out what was meant at times because of them. Despite that the book itself was still pretty good and I am happy to give it three out of five stars.
This book was a pretty good fantasy novel and if you enjoy fantasy novels that take place in a more realistic setting such as an alternate version of the United States then this book may just be for you. However, if you tend to get frustrated easily by a lack of details or explanation than you may not enjoy this very much. It also may not hold much appeal for readers who prefer genres other than fantasy. In terms of age range this is primarily aimed at adult readers. However, outside of some violence and references to potentially mature content I don’t see too many problems with readers in the young adult age range reading it, provided they are older teens and not younger teens. It is not explicit though so you don’t need to worry about that being present. If you take all of this into account and it still sounds interesting I hope you consider trying it. As always feel free to share your thoughts about the book in the comments.