Pin It

Widgets

Spellbound

Posted by Steve the Bookstore Guy On Wednesday, November 02, 2011

If you are a fan of Larry Correia's work, you've had a sweet year. MONSTER HUNTER ALPHA. DEAD SIX. HARD MAGIC. Yeah...that's some good reading. You know from my reviews that I have liked all of these books. But of all of them, HARD MAGIC is the one that grabbed my attention. It marked the start of a terrific Alternate History Urban Fantasy Dieselpunk Science Fiction Fantasy novel. For the sake of having a usable category, I call it Urban Fantasy.

Anyway...

The second book in the Grimnoir Chronicles, SPELLBOUND, is out, and it has everything good from the first book plus even more awesomeness. This is my favorite series by Correia. Period. Look, I love his other works, but this alternate take on 1930's USA is freaking great.

Following up on the crazy events on book 1 (in other words, go buy book one now and stop reading this review), all (mostly) of the main characters are back. No one really believes that Faye is as powerful as she is, or that she accomplished what she did in the first book. All of the main people in the government are pointing fingers at the Grimnoir knights and saying how dangerous they are (think Mutant Registration Act from X-Men), and they seem to be proven right when the President of the US is nearly assassinated. The crime is pinned on the knights, and things go from bad to worse.

Here is what impresses me about Larry Correia: he is always trying to get better. His books sell well and entertain a huge number of people. But even he knows that he had issues in his early books. There would be pacing problems here and there, and often the female characters needed a bit more depth. The mark of a good author is when that author looks at the fair critiques of his work and busts his butt to improve in those areas. Correia exemplifies this trait, and all you have to do is look at the insane difference in quality between MONSTER HUNTER INTERNATIONAL and SPELLBOUND. Night and day, people. Night and day. And it's not like MONSTER HUNTER INTERNATIONAL was a bad book. I thought it was great.

What I noticed in SPELLBOUND was how Correia was able to better control and juggle a large cast of characters. Even a step further; not just juggle them, but let them grow before the readers' eyes. Both Faye and Sullivan are freaking awesome. The side characters have enough detail to carry the scenes from their PoV, but not so much to take away from the studs of the show.

I also feel like Correia's plotting is better. He's good at having a very defined focus for what he wants to accomplish in the novel. As a result, I never really felt like this book was the middle book in a series or purely setup. It has a life--and a vibrant one at that--of its own.

Do I even need to mention the action? I mean, really? The day Larry Correia stops writing awesome action sequences is the day I will recommend Dan Brown as the greatest ever (never going to happen). We've got giant monsters and freaking robots in SPELLBOUND. And a samurai. And more demons. Yeah.

Now. There is one thing I want Correia to work on. He isn't bad at it by any means, but when so many things are going right in a novel, even little things tend to stand out. I need more tragedy. When Correia puts it in, he does it pretty well (just look at the very end of ALPHA). But I feel like we don't get it enough. There are a few good scenes in SPELLBOUND, but I feel like they came juuuuuuuuuust short. It's like the difference between hitting a Triple vs a Home Run in a baseball game. Or a long pass play in football (American version) that goes for 60 yards...only to have the receiver tackled at the 1 yard line. Still great plays, but maaaaaannnn was it almost unbelievable. I don't want it to seem like I'm bashing Correia here. I'm not. His emotionally charged scenes are pretty good, but Correia is right on the edge of absolutely killing it.

So, should you be reading this series? Well duh. In my opinion, the Grimnoir Chronicles has the best story, best characters and best writing of all of Larry Correia's novels. SPELLBOUND is Larry Correia's best book in his best series. I loved it.

Recommended Age: 15 and up.
Language: Yup, but less than, say, DEAD SIX or MHA
Violence: Of course. I'd be a bit worried if there wasn't any.
Sex: Nope.

6 comments

  1. Nick Sharps Said,

    Tragedy! You hit the nail on the head. I couldn't put it into words but I'd say that's my one real critique too. I was expecting some more angst from Sulli. Not a lot of angst mind you. But some. And who else is excited to see Sulli's expedition force?!

    Posted on November 2, 2011 at 8:58 AM

     
  2. William Said,

    Today it finally dawned upon me, continuing to read your reviews will eventually drain my life savings, especially considering that those savings are not worth much of anything to begin with. Right after being lured into Pinborough's "The Dog-Faced Gods"-series, the next series is already peeking round the corner, desperately waiting to be admitted to my book collection, which, by the way, is already too large for my one chamber student apartment. But, time and time again, one of you writes a review that just leaves me longing for the good stuff, like an addict craving for the object of his desires. Now I'll just have to find out if I can get my hands on a copy of "Hard Magic" here in the Netherlands; it'll probably take some effort.

    So, again, thank you for job well done :-). It's always nice to discover new writers and new series.

    Posted on November 2, 2011 at 3:16 PM

     
  3. Elitist Book Reviews: Emptying Readers' Life Savings Since 2009...

    Posted on November 2, 2011 at 3:53 PM

     
  4. dany chandra Said,

    Excellent blog of Spellbound book that useful for reading....
    online Book of Ra

    Posted on November 5, 2011 at 6:11 AM

     
  5. Michael Said,

    I'm right there with William: you guys are killing any hopes I might have had of retiring with wealth. My checking account hates you.

    First, it was Larry Correia's MHI series. Now, Sarah Pinborough (which is taking forever to arrive through Amazon) and Jonathan Maberry's Joe Ledger series (freaking incredible!). And then on to Grimnoir?

    Seriously, stop with the awesome.

    Posted on November 15, 2011 at 3:40 PM

     
  6. BigFire Said,

    My only problem with Spellbound (and it's a minor one) is that the villain of this book isn't as good as Chairman and his dragon Madi from the first book. At the end of book 1, at least you can understand the reason for Chairman's action. The villain in this book is in it for power's own sake, and isn't as interesting.

    Posted on November 22, 2011 at 10:08 PM

     

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.