Warbound is the third and final book in The Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia. It opens a few months after the end of the previous book, Spellbound, with Faye now in Europe trying to find the Grimnoir elder that had trained Whisper in hopes of learning more about her unusual abilities. At the same time Sullivan is working on getting a group together to go after the pathfinder, a group containing grimnoir knights, a former Iron Guard member, and a few random others. While this is going on Francis is confronting Roosevelt in the white house about the registration and containment of all actives in the U.S. As each one works on unraveling their own mystery and associated problems they all worry that they will ultimately be too late to stop the pathfinder and the mysterious enemy that had so worried the Chairman before his death.
This one was more diverse in some ways than the previous two books as we see more different but simultaneous storylines. Each narrator has a different series of events going on and they are way more loosely connected than was exhibited in the previous books. While you would think this spreads the story thin on any one storyline it doesn’t feel like it did that. Each one still feels fully developed and fleshed out. I rather enjoyed seeing how they each end up going their own way with only minimal interaction for the majority of the book. It created a different feel, at least somewhat, in comparison to the first two books. One of the things I really liked about this book is also how it continues developing the rather unique system of magic that it contains. The additions that pop up throughout this one were rather surprising in many ways but also made some great additions to the lore of this particular world. I can’t say too much about this without massive spoilers but the new developments for some of the characters powers were rather incredible and definitely intriguing to me. The plot was also interesting as some of it was heavily foreshadowed before but parts of it were also new so it was overall relatively complex which I rather liked. While it was a rather circuitous path to the ending I didn’t feel like any of the twists and turns were unneeded but they were sometimes surprising. The tension created by some of them was also rather intense at times as well. I did feel like some parts of it had a slightly faster pace than others though but it wasn’t enough to throw off the story very much and I think it had more to do with the amount of time passing than anything. If you have read the previous two books in the series than there are parts of this book that will probably make you upset but I don’t necessarily want to provide too many specifics, just know that I also felt rather upset as well when you get to the right spot. Overall, a good ending to a rather interesting series so I am happy giving it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
This was a fine example of a fantasy novel and if you enjoy fantasy novels based in a realistic world with some minor alternate history than you might consider trying this series out. Make sure you read the previous books though as you will be lost without having that background knowledge. I don’t think this particular series would hold a lot of appeal to readers who don’t enjoy fantasy stories. This series is predominantly aimed at an adult audience and I would mostly agree with that. There is considerable violence and at times it can be graphic as well as some minor mature references sprinkled throughout so younger readers should probably not read this. At best it should only be older teens or young adults and nobody younger than that because of this. It is however still a good book and I hope you will consider trying it if it sounds like something you would enjoy. Remember to share your thoughts in the comments if you do.