Hard Magic

This book is one of those 101 on how to write. The scenes are immersive, described through the use of multiple senses. The characters are brought to life with plenty of details and introspective dialogs. They are fully fleshed out, with unique personalities, narrated in an accessible language.

The exposition is perfectly paced. The plot evolves evenly throughout the book. It is interesting enough and it makes sense. The characters make sense. The villain is somewhat of a cliché, the ‘well meaning but cruel bad guy' and so are some of the characters, but that doesn't diminish the quality of the story.

The setting captures perfectly the spirit of the beginning of 20th century. It blends magic organically into the world, without being something over the top or downplayed. Major events in history of mankind are slightly changed to take into account the discovery of magic. Hitler for instance was a powerful necromancer, that used the resurrected bodies of his soldiers to keep fighting until their bones are shattered to dust. Tesla was an exceptional ‘cog', a super scientist of sorts, individuals who excel in a field of knowledge. So was Browning, the famous firearms designer, who is also an important character of the book.

Magic by the way is also explained in a very sensible manner, even rational I would say. Most of the magical people have just some minor magical affinity, with only a few developing their powers to a significant amount.

The reason I don't rate this book higher is that the plot in not exceptional/aligned enough to my interests. It is somewhat tame in most aspects (weird, fantastic, intellectual), so much that I would recommend this book to ‘normal' readers. Normal being somewhat averse to fantasy.

What follows is a minor criticism in the grand scheme of things:

- Your enemy is the most powerful human being that ever lived. He is immortal, you tried bombs, electrocution, fire, drowning, decapitation with the sharpest magically enhanced blade. Nothing worked. He haven't even got a scratch, gasped or dropped a sweat. This guy then gets a hold of the most powerful weapon ever created. It is world reaching ray that can destroy the entire US East coast with one single use, seconds after it is activated. He is about to use it for that very same purpose, and following that, he will threat the rest of the world into submission.- One guy has an idea to defeat him. But in order for him to execute his plan he must break an oath of never disobeying his superiors. He goes even further, he kills one of them. But his plan is a success. The enemy is dead, right at the last second where the US would be vaporized. Millions would have died.- You find about about his plan. Well, because he told you. You then decide he is a traitor and kills him as a reward. Never mind that by doing so, you act as judge and executioner. You also just violated the same oath he has taken, which also somewhat includes "don't execute other members of the order whenever you see fit'.- Now, I would call that a very stupid logic reasoning, most people would call it justice. That's besides the point. It is OK for stories to have such divisive characters performing actions that makes us question about its ethics and argue among ourselves. What it is NOT OK is for it to have NO CONSEQUENCE WHATSOEVER! Did any of the characters asked if killing one to save many is the right thing to do? What about cold blooded killing the culprit for said murder?

- This was a lost opportunity for plot and character developing.

Nowadays my reading has real ups and downs. I DNF some, I absolutely adore others, which probably means I tried a bunch of things and took the risks. Or I don't know what's going on, but this one was absolutely fantastic in my opinion.
We had everything. Alternate history '30s, people with superpowers, crazy weapons that could destroy the whole world, steampunk, zombies, a secret society of people who try to save the world no matter what. I swear it had everything.
The two protagonists are a teleporting young girl who grew up on a farm and is every bit a country soul and a hardened veteran who can manipulate gravity. Very different, both cool characters that are a pleasure to read, which is not always the case with multiple POV characters. These ones worked.

I still love stories about gangs of misfits when it's done like it was here. You have to consider that when there are a lot of characters working together they have to be sufficiently different and unique to not make the reader just skim. Of course the easiest way for it is just different functions in the group (which also justifies them being on the team), but that is not nearly enough to make things readable. Take that, Sic of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, where everyone was the same kind of YA shit.
Here we got it. It can be done.

Another thing that could have failed spectacularly (like in Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season) was the fact that as the powers were part of this underground, kind of illegal and troublesome system, they all got their little slang name. Shannon managed to make it a jumbled mess, without rhyme or reason, which made her writing a pain in the ass to read.
Mr. Correia, on the other hand... just made them make sense. Travellers teleport, Cracklers use electricity, Menders heal. You know, in a way that is logical to the normal human brain. It should be common sense to write fantasy concepts in a way that would make sense to people if it was real.

Because of all the elements mixed together I found it hard to guess what was coming. I don't personally need plot twists and crazy stuff to enjoy a book, but this was one of the more surprising reads. Some elements of history connected into our one, but others were changed with the involvements of magic. Hell, chapters started with quotes from famous historical figures, like Einstein or Gandhi, all slightly changed to add in the difference of history and it was so lovely.
Important to point out that you don't need in-depth historical knowledge, though. Sometimes history-based literature assumes you know all the minor battles and political figures of the time period, which can mess you up real good, but here that wasn't an issue, with a high school WW1 education you will be fine.

It was very visual as well. You could see it all, the fight scenes, the powers, it could work very well on film or in any other visual medium. It's probably not going to happen, because who am I kidding, but this is one book where they would have no problem in translating it onto a screen.
Why not? Because the book is realistic. It is not compatible with today. I wouldn't say it is particularly offensive, but we know how things work, so using certain words to describe certain people, even if said in a way that the author obviously doesn't think are right are considered sacrilege and unacceptable.

I am definitely reading the rest of the series, probably even right now, which is something I very rarely do. I would definitely recommend it to many people and I will do it.

Good night and if magic is hard, be harder!

Somewhat like the X-Men, a small percentage of people are born with magic capabilities. Each gifted person has a single talent. In most cases, it is very weak but some few have more natural power. Practice can increase an individuals power. There are more details and twists in how magic works in this series, but I wouldn't want to give spoilers.