HARD MAGIC, by Larry Correia
Based on the cover art, I picked up this book anticipating something along the lines of THE DRESDEN FILES or GARRETT, P.I – you know, a hardbitten private investigator solves crimes involving supernatural creatures while dealing with the ever-evolving mess that is his personal and/or love life. (Depending on the skill of the writer in question, the series might eventually degenerate into an endless sequence of werewolf-on-vampire romantic interludes.)
HARD MAGIC is nothing like that.
It is speculative fiction in the purest sense of the word – changing one element of human history or technology and asking “what if?” from the question. In the case of this book, the premise is that in the mid-19th century, humans started developing magical powers for unknown reasons. As one might expect, this played havoc with quite a few different aspects of human society – World War I was bad, but World War I with zombies and fire wizards was much worse.
HARD MAGIC opens at the start of the Great Depression. Despite the Depression, the world is at peace – Nikola Tesla figured out how to use magic to build his fabled teleforce Death Ray, and Tesla’ s “Peace Rays” have made war obsolete…or so claims the government. Jake Sullivan, an ex-con with magical superstrength, is recruited by the Bureau of Investigation (the precursor to the modern FBI) to help bring down dangerous “Actives”, or magically empowered individuals. Jake quickly realizes that the Bureau is in over its head – in HARD MAGIC, Japan has been taken over by magic-using eugenic-minded fascists, led by an ancient wizard who is determined to make humanity stronger to face some unknown enemy…no matter how many people he has to kill in the process.
Meanwhile, an unwanted girl named Faye, feared for her unusual magical power of teleportation, grows up with her adoptive grandfather, who also has the same power. One day when cars full of armed men show up at her grandfather’s farm, Faye quickly realizes that Grandpa has a secret…and a lot of people are willing to kill to get their hands on that secret.
HARD MAGIC is chock-full of action, guns, adventure, and cool magical powers. It’s also a fascinating piece of speculative fiction. How would the use of magical powers shape human history? I especially liked the quotes from historical figures at the start of each chapter, altered slightly to contain the magical perspective. This also helps make the villains particularly villainous – 20th century era eugenics were bad enough, but magic-backed eugenics are even worse. (Also, there seems to be an unwritten law of alternate history fiction that zeppelins must make an appearance, and HARD MAGIC has zeppelins in spades.)
Definitely recommended, and I’ll be reading the sequel later this year.
-JM