Friday, December 19, 2014

Hounded

Book: Hounded
Series: Iron Druid Chronicles #1
Author: Kevin Hearne


Atticus O'Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty-one years old--when in actuality, he's twenty-one "centuries" old. Not to mention: He draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields an even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.
Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he's hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power--plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good old-fashioned luck of the Irish--to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil.-Goodreads


Review: Oh Hounded, I had such high hopes for you. An urban fantasy series focused on an ancient Druid. It sounds amazing, right? I couldn't wait to dive in. The main issue I had with this was the main character, Atticus O'Sullivan. He's an ancient Druid and almost too perfect. He's powerful (so powerful that I never once believed his life was in jeopardy), he's sex on a stick (I think he kissed 3 different goddesses in this book and slept with one of them) and he's always quick with a comeback (because everyone loves a sharp tongue and humor). Not in his favor: he pulls a weird prank on a paramedic at one point (I didn't find this funny). And just plain weird: he talks to his dog and his inner dialogue is that of a modern man, yet he's been alive for over 2k years. 

lieu of organic world building, there were a lot of information dumps. I was excited about the Celtic focus of this series and was surprised that everything goes in this book. As in everything. We have druids, vampires, werewolves, witches, Greek goddesses and Jesus. I was just a little much. Attitcus also has an elderly Irish neighbor that was cartoonish and ridiculous. 

Overall-didn't care for this. Poor world building, main character is too powerful, mythology needs to be more focused and the humor wasn't a fit for me. I am considering reading the next in the series, maybe Atticus will develop some flaws. 

Grade: 1/5

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