Spellbound

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

???You???re Heavy Jake Sullivan, aren???t you????
???Yep.???
???I was afraid of that.???

Larry Correia delivers another exciting magical alternate history with Spellbound, the second of his GRIMNOIR CHRONICLES. After Jake Sullivan and the gang took care of the German zombies, the Japanese Iron Guard, and Nikola Tesla???s peace ray in Hard Magic, the magicals are needed again to thwart new threats to the country. This is hard to do, though, after they???ve been framed for the attempted assassination of President Roosevelt. Public approval for magicals is low and opposition groups are organizing to march on Washington. FDR decides that magic must be regulated and proposes a new-deal-type law that will require all magicals to register with the government and wear an identification badge.

Meanwhile, after receiving a phone call from Hell, the Grimnoir recognize that there???s a much greater magical threat that the American citizens are unaware of. Only the Grimnoir are equipped to handle it. Frustrated, they must take care of this alien evil while hiding from the government. Fortunately, they do have some really awesome magical powers, an unexpected powerful ally, and a lot of guns.

Once again, I???m surprised to find myself enjoying Larry Correia???s testosterone-pumping, gun-toting, blood-spurting, heads-rolling story, but there???s a lot more here than guns, guts and gore. There???s a large diverse set of likeable and fully-developed fictional and real historical characters, an interesting historical backdrop, plenty of action and suspense, some blood-chilling moments, and a few quirky elements, too, such as an army of robots and a black hole.

There???s also quite a bit of dark humor, which blends perfectly to lighten the mood just a bit when things get scary. I was always entertained by the scenes in which Lance takes over the body of an animal. I also love the adapted quotes at the beginning of the chapters, which put the story in its historical context. For example, one is from the New York Commissioner of Boxing who explains how, after Jack Johnson beat the Great White Hope, they bribed a referee and snuck in a Brute to end Johnson???s career (???Gotta keep the sport pure, y???know????).

Bronson Pinchot???s performance in the audio version of Spellbound is nothing short of brilliant. There???s a large international cast here and Pinchot handles all of those accents with ease. He perfectly captures the excitement, horror, and humor of Spellbound. If you don???t read audiobooks, you might consider starting with this series. It???s a perfect example of how good audio can get.

There???s danger on the horizon, American opinion about magicals is unstable (are they public heroes or public enemies?), and many questions remain about the Power, its motives, and Faye???s ties to it. I???m looking forward to the next GRIMNOIR CHRONICLES book.

I liked this book, it is almost as good as the first one, although the most interesting aspects of the world were already presented in the previous one. What follows is a general rant and the reason why this book doesn't at least deserve a 4 stars for me.

So, I REALLY don't like the whole X-MEN/Avengers vs Government theme. You have people with super powers. Some are good, some are bad. You decide to kill them all. That's about as stupid as it is a shallow plot.

You can use that as a background for your story. Mercy Thompson books does that. The whole werewolves and magical beings coming out into the open, the mass protests and persecuting of harmless people just because their different is briefly mentioned as Mercy goes on about her life.

You can use it as a device for interesting situations, where the protagonists cleverly manipulate the conflict. You can show that by killing the ‘heroes', you ushered an age of darkness for mankind. Or maybe just that criminality has risen. But DO SOMETHING. As an excuse for drama just brings the story closer to and ordinary one. If I want reality, I live it. That's why I read fiction.

Also:

- You have the second and fourth most powerful super human beings on your side. They destroyed the first and third most powerful ones because they were the ‘baddies'. They are as superior in power to a regular super as a human is to an ant. So, the two currently most powerful supers in the world say that they have a greater understanding of the power that fuels all the magic in the world then the rest of the people does. Then, they say that a great evil is coming to destroy the world, something which the formerly number one super also agreed. What do you do? Well, obviously you distrust them, and think they are the ones that are trying to destroy the world.

- All the while the government is trying and succeeding in killing all of your kind. You could try to come out into the open and proclaim how you just saved the world, maybe engage in a crusade to educate the population. But you decide to stay in the shadows, accepting your losses and behaving like the untrustworthy beings everyone else thinks you are, because of your secretive operations that aims to benefit the people that are trying to kill you.

- These point doesn't make necessarily a bad plot. But again, they should be used as a platform for greater things, not just as a cliche. You risk your life to save people, they try to kill you as a reward, you just take it on the chin and move on?

To be fair, in the end the story does present some consequence to attacking the ones that are trying to protect you. But it was mostly about what happens when you let megalomaniac people to be in charge.