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.