Hard Magic / Larry Correia

Hard Magic by Larry Correia (book one of the Grimnoir chronicles). 423 p.

A fun adventure in a pretty nifty setting. Magic powers started to appear in humans in the 19th century. By the early 1930s they've spread a lot, but no one really understands much about how they work. Magic-possessing humans have affected history, but it's still recognizable: the Okie migration due to the Dust Bowl still happened, but the Dust Bowl was caused by improper weather manipulation. World War I still happened, but the Kaiser had zombies on his side. Mike Sullivan is a Heavy--or "Gravity Spiker," as he prefers to be called--who was convicted of manslaughter but released from prison early to help out the Feds. He's supposed to help capture Delilah, an old friend of his with her own powers--but she shows up in the company of a whole gang of Actives (people with powers), and Mike finds that the Feds have been lying to him. As he meets more people in Delilah's circle of acquaintances, he learns more about an organization called the Grimnoir, and about the Chairman, an incredibly powerful Active that they are trying to stop.

Since the books is set during the Depression, in addition to the magic--and the magic system is pretty interesting--we get lots of gunbattles. Gangsters and gunsels and Prohibition and tommyguns. Also airships and Tesla Peace Rays and even some pirates. Clearly Correia has set this up as a series, and I'm certainly curious about what we might find out about the magic system in future volumes.

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