Warbound, the third book in Larry Correia’s Grimnoir Chronicles, is currently up for a Hugo, and rightly so. Given the remarkable diversity of this year’s nominees in various categories—among others, the entirety of The Wheel of Time series, essays and blog posts, and of course, some Tor.com entries—it makes perfect sense to me that that a magic-infused, high-stakes, and genre-mixing-in-the-1930s tale like this one is a contender for Best Novel. And why not? It’s the bee’s knees.
Like The Return of the King or A Memory of Light (though resembling neither), Warbound isn’t a stand-alone story; it’s the culmination of everything leading up to it: in this case, the three books of the Grimnoir Chronicles. This one in particular demonstrates what seem to be the strong points in Correia’s wheelhouse: every goddamn thing.
Seriously, genre fusion is clearly his talent—the blending of epic, global events with fast-paced battles and thoughtful character development, which he somehow manages to not make a thousand pages long. Warbound has contrasting story elements that sound absurd but turn out not to be. I’m not kidding, this series has pirates, ninjas, and zombies, yet none of them are quite like you’ve seen before. And somehow they fit into the same setting.
When you go see big summer blockbusters—your high-action, big-budgeted Transformers and Godzillas—you certainly expect to have fun. And maybe that’s all. You know they’ll be entertaining, but not great. You lower the bar. The CGI might be impressive and the sets amazing, but the acting (even with big names) may be subpar, the characters two-dimensional, and the plot riddled with holes.
With that in mind, the novels of Larry Correia are just like those high-action, big-budgeted films… if they were driven by (1) the smart writers that Hollywood seldom employs and (2) plots that have actually been thought through and masterfully rendered. They’re cinematically paced and they come with all the fixin’s: explosions, helicopters, chase scenes, people on fire, robots, monsters, gun fights, doomsday devices, and one-liners. But those one-liners are witty, the stories are compelling, and the characters engaging. It’d be like the Expendables movies turning out to be amazing rather than just goofy fun. Would that even be allowed?
The Grimnoir Chronicles are an admixture of alternate history, pulp noir, and hardboiled, urban fantasy with just a dash of steampunk. The backdrop is straightforward: back in the mid-1800s, supernatural forces inexplicably appeared on Earth and infused a relatively small percentage of the population with varying degrees of magical power. Most of them are Passives, able to exert minor abilities only reactively. The remainder are Actives, whose greater abilities can be utilized on command, and who are appropriately capable of exceptional heroism or villainy.
In some ways, Actives are like the X-Men. People possessing these powers are feared, marginalized, and at times, lauded. Unlike the X-Men, each Active has a very specific power from a fairly-fixed list. For example, some are Brutes (possessing great strength and toughness), Travelers (able to teleport short distances), or Mouths (able to influence with the power of their voice alone). There are about thirty such powers and all manner of cultural nicknames for them. Cracklers, who are sometimes called Edisons, can harness and control electricity, while the much-desired Healer has the opposite powers of the much-maligned Pale Horse.
Chief among the protagonists is Jake Sullivan, a World War I vet, ex-con, and private-eye (I did say this was pulp noir) who just happens to be a Gravity Spiker, aka Heavy—meaning he’s an Active with the ability to manipulate gravity locally and to deadly effect. He’s our tough-talking, cigarette-smoking, tough-as-nails hero, but he seldom upstages the remaining cast of heroes, anti-heroes, and villains, who come and go, one by one, throughout the series. And each of them manages to steal their chosen scenes on their own good time.
As you’d expect, the presence of nature-defying magic changes the climate of world events to some extent, but not drastically History as we know it continues to run its general course, and there are some pointed deviations. The series takes place in the era of the gumshoe, the mobster, and the speakeasy. The First World War is full of accounts of Active soldiers like Sullivan using their powers in the war effort, and by second book, FDR is in office pushing legislation to get to get all magic-using citizens registered (and controlled). Of course, criminals with magic are a definite problem, but every faction—and military force—has its own Actives so things balance out. One such organization, though, is a real problem: the Japanese Imperium, governed by Okubo Tokugawa, aka the Chairman. He’s a nigh-immortal wizard, the first and most powerful Active.
The only group who perceives the threat and opposes the Chairman and his goal of world domination is the Grimnoir, a secret society of Actives that has become a shadow of its former self, operating as a skeleton crew. For that reason they’ve got to be tough. In Hard Magic, Book I, American Grimnoir knight Lance Talon puts it simply: “Being Grimnoir means that you hold the line. It’s learning how to fight, how to tail somebody and be a good spy, how to shoot, all the tricks of the trade. It takes a lot of practice and hard work.”
Anyone who knows anything about Larry Correia knows he’s politically assertive, and while the Grimnoir Chronicles certainly get political, they do so contextually, in a world where the magically corrupt try to dominate the world and horrid, extradimensional creatures threaten everyone. Yet amid all the explosions, dismemberments, and gunfire, this is also the surprisingly touching (and often humorous) tale of another protagonist: Sally Faye Vierra, an uneducated young Oklahoma farm girl with the signature gray eyes of a Traveler, the naiveté of a child, and a delightful character arc that, mapped out, would look like a crazy straw.
Honestly, it’s that juxtaposition of what you expect and what you get that I personally enjoy about Correia’s novels. The series is brought to us by Baen Books, a prolific publisher of speculative fiction with a decided emphasis on hard military sci-fi, and it shows. Still, the emphasis never feels heavy-handed. Correia is a real-life firearms instructor, but his writing never talks down to the layperson. Rather, his enthusiasm shows in his characters’ expertise and appreciation for weaponry. In fact, one of the recurring characters is Grimnoir knight John Browning who, like his real world counterpart, is a firearms inventor and pioneer.
All in all, I find there’s a lot to recommend the Grimnoir Chronicles. Here are some of the highlights:
- The heroes aren’t all American. The Grimnoir society is thin but global. Easily my favorite character is Heinrich Koenig, a German Fade (an Active who can pass through solid objects) who grew up in the ashes of the zombie-plagued Berlin. I love this guy. Why the heck isn’t he the main character? He at least deserves a spin-off series.
- Likewise, the villains aren’t all foreign nationals. Some of the worst are homegrown Americans, and some aren’t…well, human at all.
- Morality gets murky. Although we know who the good guys are, the bad guys aren’t always so perfectly defined. And that’s fantastic. Some of the villains possess a sympathetic sense of honor and faith. Even the vilest among them have plausible worldviews. It’s freaky at times. One of Jake Sullivan’s fiercest opponents in Spellbound, Book II, becomes one of the heroes of Book III even though he’s still at odds with the good guys. And he’s got a tetsubo.
- Women play a big part. It’s the 1930s and the sexism of the day is real, but not so much in a society that includes dames who can lift and throw cars or set things on fire with their minds.
- Correia sure beats the hell out of his characters. The good and the bad. It’s as amusing as it is painful to read.
- Magic isn’t just an element dropped in to add flavor to alternate history. The secret of where it came from, why some people possess it, and what it’s final fate will be becomes more central to the plot with each turn of the page.
- Two words: demon ink.
Each chapter opens with a historic transcript, newspaper excerpt, or choice quote from one of the one of the characters that paints a broader picture of the alternate reality. Many of which Larry Correia has posted publicly on his blog.
Case in point:
… And on this momentous day, let us remember the brave sacrifice of Junior Assistant Third Engineer Harold Ernest Crozier of Southampton, who was lost after an ice collision on our maiden voyage. His natural magical gifts, combined with his great moral fortitude, enabled him to control the incoming waters before there was any other loss of life. He was a credit to the Active race. We shall now have a moment of silence for Engineer Crozier.
—Captain Edward J. Smith of the RMS Titanic,
on its fifth anniversary cruise, 1917
These snippets are as fun as they are informative. What did Darwin have to say about magic? Or the Active/baseball player Babe Ruth? How about Abraham Lincoln, or Adolf Hitler?
Oh, that’s right: Hitler. In this version of our past, he’s no problem. The mention is brief, but you learn that he got his comeuppance in 1929. So that settles that!
I hope Warbound gets the Hugo—if for no other reason than maybe it’ll someday catch Hollywood’s eye so that Guillermo del Toro can make the film. But if not, Larry Correia will keep doing what he does: blowing things up with style. He’s as stubborn as his protagonists, and in the end, no, Correia absolutely isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Maybe that’s because he’s not tea—he’s Red Bull mixed with Pop Rocks and shaken real hard. But if you figure he’s all fights, big-muscled brutes, and gung-ho firepower—a reputation well earned, to be sure—you’ll still be surprised.
And while this recommendation may seem like an afterthought, believe me when I tell you that the audio books for the Grimnoir Chronicles are preposterously awesome. Narrated by Bronson Pinchot—yes, him!—they turn the already gratifying series into the cat’s pajamas, bordering on radio drama, with all the grunts, raspy voices, and stylish lingo. And hot-damn can that guy do accents! Seriously, don’t be a sap, piker, or wack: at least go listen to the sample for Hard Magic on Audiobook.
Jeff LaSala usually minds his own beeswax and sometimes writes a fantasy novel, a bit of cyberpunk skulduggery, or slice of D&D baloney. That yarn about him being on the lam? Horsefeathers! Everything’s on the up and up.
I’m very thankful for the Hugo nomination leading me to this wonderful series.
Meh. I think it doesn’t belong on the Hugo shortlist; _The Golem and the Jinni_ would have been a *much* better choice. Especially in regards to character development.
Of course, if you like to see the guns given as much loving attention as actual characters, _The Golem and the Jinni_ is going to fall short of Correia’s standard, no doubt about it.
I thought the final book lost a lot of emotional punch by dividing the characters so much.
The characters’ relationships was important in the first two books so taking that away so that we only get solo viewpoints, not interactions, made the book less emotionally involving.
And, yes, I loved Sally although she was so ridiculously powerful she tettered into superhero/nonhuman status, and your unnamed bad/good guy who did the right thing even though it clashed with his duty to his country was a great character.
Yeah, this year’s Hugos are tough for me, seeing as how two of my favorite modern SF/F authors – Correia and Brandon Sanderson – are going head to head. I’ve hugely enjoyed everything I’ve read of Larry’s – Grimnoir included; he did a masterful job of world-building there – and Brandon did a wonderful job of concluding Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, which is my all-time favorite fantasy series. (Of Brandon’s own work, my favorite of his is The Alloy of Law…which also, come to think of it, covers some of the same steampunk/urban fantasy ground as Warbound.)
Of the two – Warbound and A Memory of Light – I’d have to give AMoL the Hugo nod, out of respect for/tribute to RJ, who should IMHO already have won one. As for Correia, given his skill and popularity as a writer, he’ll have plenty of opportunities for a Hugo win of his own in the future, no matter how much he irritates the politically correct, would-be gatekeepers of SFWA.
And it’s good to see a Tor editor giving Correia some love, since if it hadn’t been for “Sad Puppies,” most of the perpetually outraged would instead have been throwing a fit over Tor’s getting the entire Wheel of Time on the Hugo ballot and not just AMoL. Just sayin’. ;)
Clearly this is a taste thing, and a great thing about the Hugos is that fan voting allows for mass taste to be a factor, but like @2, I really don’t think this should have been nominated. It’s an exciting beach book, but all of the other four nominees have meaty philosophical content and much more complex characters. I can think of quite a few SF/F books from 2013 that were more deserving of this spot. But we’re all entitled to our own votes, which is still kind of awesome.
Warbound is certainly an “idea book” and one that deals with meaty philosophical content. The characters are also complex. We shouldn’t lose sight of that just because Correia is really good at structuring a plot, writing action scenes, etc. (I’ve been reading a lot of books by really talented newcomers lately. They’re writing great stuff and the future is bright, but one of the biggest things that stuck out to me about the Grimnoir series is that Correia is a real pro. He has a lot of technical skill.) (I think The Wheel of Time has long been not given its full due for the same reason. Mass appeal, great action, easy to read, therefor it must not be of serious literary merit. But while the two are in a certain tension with each other, they are not mutually exclusive. Something can be both pop (or pulp) and literary, and very good at both.)
I’m conflicted in my Campbell vote along these lines. Full Fathom Five had me giddy over the worldbuilding and the Big Ideas and how smart everything was, but it was also rather dull. The Lives of Tao, on the other hand, was pure fun, but not as deep.
Quite right. I found some real depth in the Grimnoir books. They’re almost disguised because of the high action and fast-paced plotting. They just sort of come out of nowhere. Correia’s just concise about it, which I envy.
I’ll echo mutantalbinocrocodile and say that it is interesting how tastes vary so greatly. I didn’t like Warbound at all, but clearly other people do and that is a fine thing.
Now with the caveat that I’m only about 2/3 through the third book, it’s possible he’ll pull a save, but right now, I can’t say I’m loving the series. It’s painted with very broad strokes, repetition, and perhaps just a bit too much period prejudice (I don’t need all the Japanese ethnic slurs). The plotting is great, the dialog and writing less so.
Does every character need to remind the reader that being Healed still hurts? Does Fay need to remind herself not to be so violent every single opportunity she has? Perhaps this should be the job of the editor (Baen Books), but it leaves me feeling like I’m reading The Phantom comic strips, where every time his alter ego of Mr. Walker is mentioned, there’s a footnote for “The Ghost Who Walks.”
I don’t know that there’s anything here that GRRMartin’s Wild Cards didn’t do first — although admittedly just as cartoony. On the other hand, Ancillary Justice made me think, wonder, and just plain fascinated me (it had flaws too, but smaller in my mind).
I can’t comment on the Hugo race because I haven’t read enough of the books, but thanks for reigniting my interest in this series. I’ve been listening to his other series and enjoying it, but I made the mistake of getting sucked into some of the online battles when I looked him up after the Hugo nomination. Even though I think some of what he says is taken out of context and blown out of proportion, the negativity of it all just dampened my enthusiasm for his books. It’s that whole debate of whether you can or should separate the author from the art. I had other options to get to first (like The Golem and the Jinni) so I pushed him to the back burner. Thanks for reminding me of why I like his books so much and why I was interested in starting this series.
Absolutely agree with @6 that ideas can be disguised under easier-to-read prose and that this is a major risk for WoT, given that uncovering its deep structure is really hard unless you’ve been reading it long-term–but I’m just not finding the ideas in the Correia. @10’s “cartoony” is more what I’m seeing.
FWIW I didn’t actually like Ancillary Justice much either, ironically, for sort of the opposite reason–I felt like it was only ideas that weren’t being explored through the medium of character. Doing my best to spoiler-avoid, but I felt that Parasite explored the concept of persistence of identity much more effectively, even though it felt less “artful”.
mutantalbinocrocodile@12:I liked both Ancillary Justice and Parasite and liked their explorations of identity. They were coming at it from different ends I think and I ended up liking AJ a bit more. As you said, difficult to reference here. If you want to talk more about it, we could go over to the Hugo spoiler thread.
I’m not sure if I’d call Warbound Hugo-worthy, but I greatly enjoyed it (and more than I’ve enjoyed some other Hugo winners). Correia writes action amazingly well, the characters are interesting, and he does a good job of actually taking his premise somewhere and having the mechanics he sets up matter to the results. Particularly there’s something with Faye that starts out feeling like your normal heroine trope, but then gets stood on its head.
That said, his dialog and internal monologue can end up a bit simplistic. His characters are unique, but they aren’t that deep. When he tries to dig into deeper themes his prose can’t quite keep up.
He brings everything to the level of what you’d call good characters and depth… for an amazing action movie. The depth isn’t enough to carry the story on its own, but it’s very tasty icing on an inventive action-adventure cake.
I read the trilogy and found myself a bit surprised: I had thought that Correia disliked “preachy message fiction”. And yet it has a fair bit of message, particularly in the second book — the main antagonist embodies a collectivist philosophy, while the suicide-bomber dupe is a fairly perfect straw man for anti-capitalism. The portrayal of FDR is more than a bit on the preachy side as well.
So why doesn’t this preaching make puppies sad?
Is it somehow not preaching? (I’d be interested to know why not, since it certainly seems that way to me.) Is preaching okay when it’s messages Correia approves of? (Correia accuses people on the left of placing politics above fun. I’d be interested to know why, if this is the case, that’s not vile hypocrisy.) Perhaps there’s some other reason I’m not thinking of. (I’d be interested to know what it is.)
I note some use of tropes I found a bit disturbing, as well, especially in book 1. Hard Magic has a big-time Madonna-Whore dichotomy going on, with the Whore eventually getting fridged. (Delilah…what was her last name again?…anyway, Delilah can take a proud place among the many women created to die for the sake of causing man-pain.) Likewise I had some trouble with the American outsider coming in and out-Japaneseing the Japanese.
I will give Correia some props for not having Jake Sullivan end up together with Faye, which at the end of book 1 I would have put down money was going to happen.
@15.
A few points. On preachiness: leaving aside that how artificially message-driven a given work strikes a reader tends to be a function of how much dissonance there is between the ideas in the work and the reader’s worldview, Correia has never said that “message is bad” or has no place in fiction. What he said was, in his opinion, politics, message, “Big Idea”, must all take a backseat to telling an engaging and entertaining the reader. Given the number of fairly liberal/progressive readers who say things like “some of the politics grated a bit, but it was a really fun story”, I’d say he’s managed to stay pretty true to that goal.
Regarding Madonna-Whore Duality: Are we talking about the same book or series? By that duality, there ARE no Madonnas. Faye is cheerfully lusty in her pursuit of her boyfriend and is arguably a more central protagonist than Jake, Whisper is far from asexual (even if it sails mostly over Faye’s head), Hammer has an ongoing sexual tension with Jake (though she comes closer than the other characters). The closest to a traditional nurturing chaste female archetype is probably Jane, and even she doesn’t fit. It’s particularly amusing in light of the final book.
Regarding Fridging: No female is summarily or cheaply dispatched “to cause man-pain”. Without going into spoiler territory, there isn’t a single female protagonist -or- antagonist that doesn’t go down -swinging- in a manner every bit as (or more) heroic than the males who die in the same battles.
Finally, regarding Madi: You missed the point. Madi didn’t “out-Japanese the Japanese”. The Chairman was not just a social darwinist of the highest order, but also a rather savvy manipulator. He used the offensiveness of Madi’s apparent high position as a goad to the pride of the rest of his Iron Guard, and viewed Madi as his most powerful and useful -pawn-, but ultimately only a pawn. Compare and contrast Toru’s experiences with the Chairman.
If Redshirts won a Hugo, I struggle to see how Warbound is defined as not Hugo worthy.
I thought this book was awesome, a real good page turner, much better then Ancillary Justice
@15: What Lysenko said.
Also, David, it’s not “preachy” for Correia to depict the Grimnoir version of FDR as a socialist control-freak tyrant – to use your example – if that’s what FDR actually was. What Correia did with Grimnoir, in part, was take a host of actual historical characters (and a few real-world events, like the Dust Bowl) and adapt their actions to his alternate reality.
For instance: Our FDR threw Japanese into internment camps; Correia’s FDR wants to imprison magic users. And FDR’s attempts to put the arm on Francis’ company in the novels mirrors what the real-life FDR administration did to a whole host of businesses. Similarly, the “anti-capitalist suicide bomber dupe” you speak of was, IIRC, based on a real-life anarchist who also tried unsuccessfully to kill FDR.
From what I’ve seen of the novels, the historical figures Correia “borrowed” all ring true to their real-life counterparts. Except possibly for his version of Adolf Hitler, if only (sadly) because our Hitler wasn’t arrested and summarily executed in 1929.
I’m with you @15. Delilah had such potential. And the Heavy women are some of the rare ones that the order accepts. Glad Faye and Jake were not “coupled.” His end match was a surprise. So was Faye’s fate, but looking back you see all the points leading up to it. It was not a left field reveal.
I’ve not read much alt-history or pulp noir. So I’m glad the Hugo nomination pointed me to these books. They were fun for all the reasons Jeff said. I too would love to see a movie of them, but keeping the heart of the story.
The little chapter openings really did open the world. And caused me to look up a few items for the real history.
So I enjoyed the story, and it’s a 2nd place for me. But if I had not read the other two books first, the character development would strike me as shallow. Very happy Correia and Baen books included all 3 in the packet. Even if I had already read the first two from the library.
I’ll take my other comments about the Books to the Tor thread: “Let’s Talk about the Hugos”
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/06/hugo-general-discussion-thread
I thought Warbound was great fun, and that’s what I go to first for fiction books. However, I wouldn’t dismiss the moral dilemmas addressed. A big part of the book is about how people deal with differences in personal power and ability. Can we take absolute power to do good? How do we deal with natural differences in individual ability? There’s also a good bit of questioning about where one’s first and best duty belongs. Sure, these aren’t new themes, but, since humanity seems to continuously screw up on these questions, they are themes deserving of continual exploration.
@19:The Japanese internment was certainly a major major mistake by FDR.
However, “socialist control-freak tyrant” is not a factual label but a highly debatable non-objective label. One persons “socialist” is anothers champion of freedom and anothers savior of capitalism. Note that “savior of Capitalism” may be a label that is laudatory for some and exactly wrong for others.
Correia has chosen to place emphasis on aspects of various historical characters that match the points he wishes to make. In many cases these aspects are open to other interpretations.
@20. *** Spoiler ***
Of all the good people Larry’s whacked, Delilah’s death sticks with me still. She had such a hard life and such a hard death, with so little joy in-between. I’d always hoped Larry would give us a little word from her from the Great Beyond, just to reassure that she’d finally gotten to someplace “Good.”
It’s just too bad Larry’s not a good enough author to write characters that affect us.
(Moderator note: whited out spoiler.)
I got a huge kick out of the book(s), and Jeff did a fine job summing up why. It’s not getting my top vote, but it will likely be in the top three on my ballot.
I loved this series so much I’ve read it twice. The first time through I was simply lost in the telling of it. The second time through, I slowed down and savored the subtle hints and twists in plot and character (particularly with Faye) that I might have missed were I not looking for them so closely.
And I completely agree with you about a spin-off series with Heinrich. He was a great side character. I’d also liked to know what ever happened to a certain mind reading “villain” from the first book…
One last thing: I know Correia get’s a lot of praise for his action scenes, but can we please take a moment just to appreciate his sense of humor? Faye with Sullivan, Faye with Cpt Black Jack… and just Faye.
@17. Right there with you, Icey.
@24. Dave, your comment that LC can’t write characters that affect you is directly contradicted by your immediately preceding comment about Delilah – in the same post. What am I missing?
Ratseal, you beat me to it. Given the history, I see lots of damning with faint praise above. Lots of “he did okay with this…but..” and then they fade off or give almost paradoxical statements afterwards.
I guess Hugo awards are good. I know one of my favorite writers, Spider Robinson, has one, and deservedly so. And he was nice enough to respond to something I wrote to him years ago (I’m sure I was the first ever to tell him his books held a place of honor right beside Louis L’Amour’s on my bookshelves. I think it tickled him) But at the same time, to me, as a reader, seeing “Hugo award winner” on a cover doesn’t mean diddly squat to me. I like fast, fun, engaging stories. Give me ERB over ringworld any day. And that’s the thing, isn’t it?
Personal taste will out. I saw one person above go into joygasms over the fact that Larry seemed to have a “message after preaching to not have a message” which showed me that they either hadn’t actually read what Larry wrote, or just didn’t care. Like someone else above said, Larry never said don’t have a message, just don’t let message take over and destroy the story. I almost never not finish a book i’ve bought before, and I’ve bought thousands, but the ones that I didn’t finish failed on one account, they put personal message above a good yarn. What was exciting to them personally was lost on me because I didn’t share those particular feelings and interests. And that is what Larry was taking about.
So, that said, I think Warbound and MHI should be nominated for engaging stories that pull you in, move things along and follow the single greatest essay ever written in my opinion on modern fiction writing…Raymond Chandler’s on how to write Noir. Doesn’t get any better than that.
Next year: Skin Games by Jim Butcher. Go with the best I always say.
@23
To the best of my recollection, ‘socialist control-freak tyrant’ is not a label ever applied to FDR in the books. That’s DavidGoldfarb’s and/or WesS’ characterization of his portrayal, which consists of things the real life FDR actually /did/ (modified, of course, to fit the alt reality). Now, there might be a case to be made that Larry has cherry-picked the few SCFT deeds out of a sea of non-SCFT ones, or that the alt-FDR’s deeds were somehow done in a more negative fashion, but I have serious doubts on both of those scores. If anything, the ‘Active-villes’ were far more pleasant (not to mention far less mandatory) than places like Manzanar, and Actives aren’t a race, so alt-FDR’s targeting of them wasn’t racism. Also, other naked power grabs by real-FDR never come up (I don’t think his attempt to pack the Supreme Court appeared, for example, though it might have in the earlier books). So the SCFT label is a case of the shoe fitting.
When ones heroes or icons are revealed to have feet of clay, it’s always tempting to try to retreat into denial by invoking the weasely moral equivocation of the “one man’s terrorist” argument. This temptation should be resisted.
@29:You will note that I was responding to WesS@19 and SCFT was the label he used.
You will also note that I said that FDR’s internment camps were really really bad. I don’t see any instance of “weasely moral equivocation.” in my previous reply.
My take is that as far as “message” fiction goes—which is ultimately a silly debat (how many books have no message at all?)—the Grimnor books are mild on that front. Larry’s writing doesn’t have time to spare on big social messages; he’s too busy storytelling and enacting character opinions through the characters’ POV. Now…Larry’s blog, his real world opinions? That’s a whole other thing. :) Are they related? Sure. That’s fair. But the narrative isn’t all up in your face. It’s thoughtfully entertaining.
@@@@@ 28 – Rickshaw1 –
Already read Skin Games – write faster, d*mn you, Butcher! I won’t add spoilers here but Butcher somehow keeps topping the Big Change in each book. At the end of Changes I was gobsmacked. At the end of Ghost Story I wasn’t too surprised at the denouement (how else could it have gone, after all?) but it was still a surprise. At the end of Cold Case I was all, “Holy sh*t!!”, he did NOT just do that!”. Now, with Games, I was already emotionally wrung out. I just whispered, “damn you Jim Butcher, just, arrrg.”.
Ok, I’ve now read all the Grimnoir books, and I am glad to see the appreciation here. Overall I found them very enjoyable – very reminiscent in my mind of other fantasy noir like Glen Cook’s Garrett PI crossed with Heroes, crossed with Peter Brett’s Painted Man.
To be honest I didn’t like Warbound as much as the previous two, I felt the resolution was rather forced, and a lot of the conflict was either irrelevant or hand waved away. I also don’t think the various powers were quite well thought through enough to start – it came across like he was inventing them as he went along rather than unveiling the world. And every other power seemed to be the extremely rare one of a kind type … for a few chapters anyway.
On the other hand I didn’t find the books to be pushing a particular message – the Plot may have used and abused certain public domain figures, but the history felt logical and real. I did particularly notice a brief aside about Americans having to save the world (again) but I’ve come to expect that from Baen so it doesn’t bother me. I also didn’t find the fondness for particular guns to be overly obtrusive, though being prewarned as such I was definitely more aware of it as I read.
But all three were definitely page turners, and I would happily recommend them.
Hard Boiled was probably the strongest of the three to me. Spellbound was very much setup for later and Warbound fell foul of wrapitupitis.
Everything from the moment Faye left to combat the super-dirigible on her own till the end of the book… possibly the finest example of action writing I’ve ever read. If you didn’t whip through the final 1/3 of this book at break neck speed, fun is not for you. It’s infectious. I found myself actually smiling while reading it. You have to give this series a chance, just for those final chapters. It deserves its nomination!
@27: Ratseal. What you were missing was the sarcasm. I didn’t label it better because I thought the preceding paragraph would make it plain. My bad.
Larry writes some of the best characters of anyone I’ve read in a long time, both unique and believeable. Stephen King in his early books was better…but not for a long time now.