HARD MAGIC eARC available NOW!

http://www.webscription.net/p-1363-hard-magic-book-i-of-the-grimnoir-chronicles-arc.aspx 

SQUEEEEeeeee! That link will take you to Baen’s Webscriptions. The Electronic Advanced Reader Copy has just been posted for download.

For those of you that don’t know, an eARC is something distinctly Baen. On books where this is a lot of demand, they will release a super early electronic version to read off your computer or to download to your Nook or Kindle. You guys want to know how early this is? I just got my PDF printouts to check for errors and typos TODAY.

eARCs are more expensive ($15) than a standard Baen eBook ($6), but you get it several months early. So if you’ve been itching to read the rest of The Grimnoir Chronicles: Hard Magic, now is your chance to get an early peek.

Oh, and of course you totally have to post here to let me know what you think of it. Try to avoid spoilers for everybody else.  🙂

EDIT: Once you read it, please post honest reviews on the Baen Webscriptions page and also anywhere else, blogs, tell your friends, graffiti, etc.  Thanks!

My front yard, HARD MAGIC reviews, autographed copies, upcoming signings, and the ARC
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52 thoughts on “HARD MAGIC eARC available NOW!”

  1. sh*t sh*t sh*t sh*t! I don’t have money this week. Argh!! I’ve been waiting for this one for a oloooong time now, damn it.

  2. NOOOOO!!!!
    I just ordered my autographed copy…must hold out until pre-ordered one arrives from Amazon…must not succumb to temptation…

  3. Larry, I’ve been waiting what seems like FOREVER to download this. Purchasing it now and I’m definitely starting reading it tonight. I’ll let you know what I think, but based on your previous books it’ll be awesome.

  4. WOOT!

    I bought the ARC two weeks ago before i realized it wasn’t actally available yet.

    Now I have something new to read. I had been re-reading all my Niven Ringworld books, but ‘rishing’ gets a little old after a while, you know?

    1. Amazon sold more electronic editions of books last year than paper.

      Methinks dead tree editions are just about to become a specialty market.

  5. Hah, great ending to a prefect story. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that fast before. About 2 1/2 hours.

    I loved the blurbs at the start of each chapter I think they added a lot of flavor, lots of show little tell.

    The book had some really great mental images, right before Sullivan left the airship in the final scene was my favorite. Everyone loves multi-tasking carnage.

    The only thing bad thing I can say about it was that it was not long enough, we need more!

    Any hints as to what the next Grimnoir will be about?

    1. Dark Ocean begins in February 1933. A magical assassin tries to kill President Elect Roosevelt. It is pinned on the Grimnoir. And then it gets a whole lot worse. 🙂

      1. How many Grimnoir books are you planning on doing?
        Because you managed to pack in just about everything I love into one book. And I still don’t know how you did it? You even had zombie Germans, I mean come on it’s like your reading my mind.

  6. Bought and downloaded and on the Nook, but as I’m reading Legacy of Gird for the very first time, I figure I’m kinda committed to finishing the last quarter of that.

    Someday, possibly as early as next week, I may actually get to sleep again. Yay!

  7. OK gang: to cut to the chase, here’s the end:

    Colonel Mustard, in the Conservatory, with the Lead Pipe.

    (evil grin)

  8. I just finished the book! Honestly, just as good as the Monster Hunter novels if not better. Hope you’re working hard on the next one Mr. Correia! Can you have one of the characters, maybe Heinrich use a Stg44 in the next one?

  9. Larry, I’ve read your other books and liked them a lot, but Hard Magic is really, really good. Easily your best work to date and I’m only 3/4 through it.

    Thanks for writing.

      1. I will definitely be posting some great reviews around, just about done with it after a several hour break to go to the range with a buddy. I wasn’t sure if anything could top the Monster Hunter series, but this is just as good if not better!

        The worst part about the book is …. HOW LONG I HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE NEXT. Talk about torture! 🙂

      2. Quick recommendation blurb up on webscriptions, I’m going to let the book sit for a week in the back of my head then re-read it before posting a review or two on FB. (Now, if only Amazon would let me post a review for a book that hadn’t been released yet …)

  10. So how does GC stack up to MH? Also, do the liberal diatribes regularly smashed by Larry on here have to be truly heartfelt or can they just be quality acting?

    1. GC is a totally different world. More of an alternative-history/fantasy/noir/pulp, or maybe an urban fantasy written in the ’30s if they’d had urban fantasy. 🙂

      As for the diatribes, I get plenty of real ones. I don’t need you guys sending any fake ones my way. 🙂

  11. Wow, that was better than the Monster Hunter books, and I’m a big fan of those… I’ll be buying at least one of these in DTF too. Great work, keep it up!

  12. Ermmm, you had Sullivan use the word “gunsel” to refer to a gunman.

    This usage is incorrect. The word gunsel = the word catamite.

    I assume your character was not referring to an passive position preferring homosexual?

    Orson Wells used the word correctly in his movie, The Maltese Falcon. Everyone, including the Hollywood censors, made the same mistake you just did, and assumes it meant “gunman”.

    1. Actually, Kristopher, it did mean gunman. If you go back and read the Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler or Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett, both of them use gunsel in there for a thug gunman. (though I can see where that would have started, because the person it is used on in the Big Sleep is in fact a boy-toy for a blackmailer)

      1. Gunsel = catamite is correct.

        The usage gunsel=gunman is an incorrect one that made it into the dictionary through popularity by being misused by mystery and detective novelists after watching “The Maltese Falcon”.

        It’s similar to “octopii” as the plural for octopus … an incorrect victorian era invention ( octopus is a GREEK word, it’s greek plural is octopodes ).

        The usage is mentioned in dictionaries not because it is correct, but because it is popular.

        If someone in the 1930s called someone else a “gunsel”, there would be a fight, immediately if the target was fully literate, or after a trip to the dictionary if not.

      2. And what I was able to research indicated that Hammett himself used it to get past his publisher’s censor. No publisher at the time would allow mention of a prison bitch.

        That usage survived ( or was abetted by ) Wells in his movie adaption.

    1. I could only go by what I got from the writers of the time. Incorrect usage transition or not. Red Harvest was published in ’29. So in this case, it is Octopi. 🙂

      1. Or worst case scenario, this is alternative history. That usage was popularzied in the 1920s by a famous writer that did not exist on this planet. So there. :p

      2. That’s the advantage of being an alternate history fiction writer. Everything works out exactly the way you want it to.

  13. I am resisting ordering this on my Kindle. There’s just something about reading a good book, and actually holding it in your hands that can’t be replaced.

    Maybe the Kindle will make a good paperweight.

  14. Hey Larry, downloaded Hard Magic from Baen.com on Saturday morning. Finished it that day. Good job man. I totally didn’t see the ending. I like how you made it hard to distinguish the good versus bad guys and vice versa. I’m also impressed that you didn’t wimp out on what happened to the Pale Horse. You didn’t go all love and sweet forgiveness.

    I think this is your best book yet. Of the three of yours I’ve read, ranking from best to worst (sorry man they’re not all equally good) I’d rank this first, MHI just a nose behind and MHV the last.

    I don’t want to swell your ego too much but I want to tell you that you’ve been an inspiration to me. Last year after I bought MHI from my local barnes and nobles I looked you up on the internet and got linked to your ‘Welcome back Mr. Nightcrawler’ thread. Reading how you got started self publishing helped convince me to write my own book. My book is now in the top 100 paid for Sci-Fi on the Amazon Kindle store.

    I’m glad that you’re continuing to write great stuff (this must be true if I’m willing to pay $15 for an pre-edited digital copy). I’m probably not the only guy that you helped inspire to self-publish.

    1. Jack, that is awesome. Thank you. And I’m really excited for your success. You can plug your stuff here if you want. What’s the title?

      1. Thank’s Larry.

        The book is called ‘Year of the Dead’. It’s about Zombies and Vampires attacking Salt Lake City, Utah. I didn’t have the guts like you did to go all in and actually spend the money to print books. It’s just for sale by digital download. Amazon ranks book sales every hour on the hour so my ranking changes. As of right now today at 4:46 PM my book is the 49th best selling in the Sci-Fi section of the Amazon Kindle store.

        http://www.amazon.com/Year-Dead-Sustainable-Earth-ebook/dp/B004A1596A/

        For anyone that’s interested, I’ve got half the book posted for free on JackJLee.com.

  15. We all know how much your followers love the Monster Hunter series, and to hear a lot of them saying that this is ‘as good, if not better,’ is definitely a tribute to how awesome this book is. I loved it as well and can’t wait to read the next one.

  16. I just finished the book. It is pretty freaking awesome, now all I need to do is wait for the next one to come out………

  17. as i usually do i started this one in the morning got caught up with where I left off and COULD Not put it down. Thanks Larry for another pleasant monday spent reading instead of working!!! Very good book. Hopefully you are working on a sequel.

  18. Excellent Read. The Monster Hunter books are good reads, but this takes the craft to a different level. Truly an original concept and well written. Great story, good character development — the whole nine. I also REALLY appreciated that fact that the book is internally consistent. When I read fiction I like to “fall” into the authors universe — so for me there is nothing worse than an author that creates a really interesting universe and then breaks that universes rules. Again, excellent read. I plan to post a similar review on Baen and Amazon. Simply stated — this book should be read.

  19. i really dont know where to report errors and stuff…
    found this witch might be an error:
    “valuable asset, one which Inot prepared to lose.”
    Inot?

  20. Larry,

    Finally finished it today (was reading another book when the Arc came out). Awesome! I love Faye and Sullivan, I hope the next one comes out super quick :-).

    Found a 50-60 typoes / grammar issues but i’m assuming the editors found most of those already since this is an advance copy. You write pretty cleanly if this is unedited stuff!

    I’m not sure which I like better now, MHI or Grimnoir, keep ’em both coming and i’ll keep buying them!

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