The Grimnoir Chronicles: Difference between revisions

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''[[It Got Worse]]. Jake found out that not only have the Feds been lying to him, but there was a secret war being waged by opposing forces of magic-users. Worst of all, he had attracted the attention of one side's ruthless leaders-who were of the opinion that Jake was far too dangerous to be permitted to live...''
 
[[The Grimnoir Chronicles]] is an [[Alternate History]] fantasy taking place in the early [[Film Noir|1930s]]. Sometime in the 1800s [[The Magic Comes Back|magic appeared in the world]], giving a small fraction of the population one of a standard set of super-powers, such as [[Playing Withwith Fire|fire]], [[Healing Hands|healing]], and [[Teleport Spam|teleporting]]. Just like his [[Monster Hunter International|other series]], Larry Correia provides some of the best action scenes out there, fueled by pure distilled [[Rule of Cool]]. A gravity-controlling private eye teams up with a guy who can walk through walls to fight a bulletproof samurai. A teleporting ninja with a katana goes up against a teleporting Oklahoma girl with a shotgun. Bullets fly, demons are summoned, and [[Stuff Blowing Up|stuff blows up]].
 
The first in the series is '''Hard Magic''' (released May 3 2011). After Jake Sullivan fails to bring in his former [[Love Interest]] for murder, he makes some inquiries and finds out that things aren't what they seem. He's soon caught up with a [[Magical Society|secret society]] sworn to stop the Japanese Imperium, led by the indestructible [[Big Bad|Chairman Tokugawa]], from taking over the world. At the same time, an [[The Great Depression|Okie]] named Faye witnesses the murder of her adoptive grandfather at the hands of a mysterious one-eyed man. His dying command is for her to protect a strange mechanical device, designed by someone named [[Nikola Tesla|Tesla]].
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* [[Dark Action Girl]]: Toshiko.
* [[Defector From Decadence]]: {{spoiler|Toru}}
* [[Designated Girl Fight]]: Faye vs. Toshiko. Despite this, it's an ''awesome'' fight scene featuring frenetic [[Teleport Spam]] on a [[Battle Amongst the Flames|flaming]] [[Zeppelins Fromfrom Another World|zeppelin]] in the middle of a [[Sky Pirates|pirate attack]] on said [[Zeppelins Fromfrom Another World|zeppelin]]. Did I mention Toshiko is a [[Ninja]]?
* [[Differently-Powered Individual]]: in-universe, supers are variously referred to as Actives, Magicals and more.
* [[Elite Mooks]]: The Iron Guard and Shadow Guard are superpowered, ''very'' highly trained and magically enhanced to boot.
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* [[Evil Counterpart]]: see [[Evil Twin]]. Same applies to Faye and Toshiko.
* [[Evil Twin]]: Not a twin ''per se'', but Jake and his brother ({{spoiler|Madi}}) look similar enough that {{spoiler|Faye shoots him on sight}}.
* [[Fiction 500]]: Cornelius Gould Stuyvesant is the richest man in the world, and owner of [[Zeppelins Fromfrom Another World|United Blimp & Freight]]. {{spoiler|Francis is his grandson, and ends up inheriting the company}}.
* [[Gadgeteer Genius]]: Much of the current technology is produced by Cogs, whose Power is a supernatural aptitude for science.
* [[Genius Bruiser]]: Jake. Exceptionally well-read, brilliant enough to figure out what the Power really is, and a giant hulk of a man.
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* [[Healing Factor]]: Passive Healers. Also, anyone with one or more kanji of healing.
* [[Heavyworlder]]: Apparently, all [[Gravity Master|Spikers/Heavies]] are huge, stocky types.
* [[Hero Withwith Bad Publicity]]: Near the beginning of Book Two, the Grimnoir are framed for an assassination attempt on FDR, and spend the rest of the book dealing with the fallout.
* [[Historical Domain Character]]: John J. "Black Jack" Pershing and John Moses Browning are both Grimnoir knights, and Sullivan has some unpleasant dealings with J. Edgar Hoover.
** In the second book, Buckminister Fuller makes a brief but significant appearance.
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* [[Jerkass]]: Charles. Gould. Stuyvesant.
* [[Living Lie Detector]]: Justices, such as Hammer.
* [[Living Onon Borrowed Time]] / [[The Last Dance]]: After {{spoiler|Delilah is killed, she is accidentally revived by an Imperium necromancer. Rather than being immediately put down, she decides to go out fighting}}.
* [[Little Miss Badass]]: Faye, who may or may not be 18 yet and is pretty small. She irritates everyone trying to fight her by not being where they think she is and, in the final battle, kills around a hundred Imperium marines and wounds the Chairman.
* [[Made of Iron]]: Madi and Rokusaburo in particular, Brutes, Massives and people with [[Power Tattoo|kanji]] of durability in general.
* [[Magic Aa Is Magic A]]: Turns out there are very structured cosmological underpinnings to the seemingly-random magical gifts.
* [[Meta Origin]]: All magic powers (be they innate or the kanji brands) come from [[Cosmic Entity|The Power]].
* [[Mighty Whitey]]: Madi is a villainous example leavened only by the fact that there ''are'' other Caucasians in the Iron Guard, none of whom are on his level or that of the Japanese members.
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* [[One Person, One Power]]: an in-setting rule of thumb to which Chairman Okubo Tokugawa is the sole exception as far as anyone knows. {{spoiler|By the end of the first book however, both Faye and Sullivan have gone some way towards disproving it}}.
* [[Pet the Dog]]: In a very human and even kind moment, the Chairman {{spoiler|consoles Sullivan over Delilah's death and helps him come to terms with it; Sullivan even sincerely thanks him for it. . . right before saying that he still plans on killing him regardless.}}
* [[Playing Withwith Fire]]: Torches. Most Torches are actually employed to ''put out'' fires, especially on zeppelins.
* [[Playing Withwith Syringes]]: Frequent mention is made of the [[Truth in Television|horrific medical experiments carried out by Unit 731]]
* [[Poisonous Person]]: Harkeness is a Pale Horse, an Active so rare they border on mythological status. He can control his power at will, but that doesn't make Stuyvesant any less wary of him.
* [[Power Tattoo]]: The kanji used by the Imperium to enhance their operatives. They are technically brands though as opposed to actual tattoos.
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* [[Un-Equal Rites]]: There are two forms of magic in this world: the innate magic that people are born with, and magic that comes through drawn symbols (kanji). As it turns out, they have the [[Meta Origin|same ultimate source]].
* [[Walking the Earth]]: The Chairman's backstory includes a long period of doing this.
* [[What Happened to Thethe Mouse?]]: In the assault on OCI headquarters, Lance manages to hijack a Siberian tiger. Then everything goes to hell, almost literally. What happened to the tiger is never explained.
* [[Wicked Cultured]]: The Chairman. Madi tries to emulate his mentor in this, but fails miserably.
* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: The Chairman just wants humanity to be strong so we'll be able to fight The Enemy when it arrives. {{spoiler|Harkeness curses the General in order to set up a [[Batman Gambit]] against the Chairman}}
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* [[You Fight Like a Cow]]: Faye ([[Irony|who grew up on a dairy farm]]) spends much of her fight with Toshiko tossing insults at the ninja.
* [[You Killed My Father|You Killed My Adoptive Grandfather]]: Why Faye joins the Grimnoir.
* [[Zeppelins Fromfrom Another World]]: Kind of. Zeppelins play a large role in the story, but it takes place during a time when they really were used in [[Real Life]], though not to the extent they are in the story. It's also justified, as Cracklers and Torches manage to alleviate many of the dangers of the technology.
 
{{reflist}}