Hounded: The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book One, by Kevin Hearne, is the first story in a series about a Druid in contemporary America. This first book chronicles Atticus O’Sullivan’s first bad step, taking on a pretend ancient Irish god. This pseudo-god has nursed a grudge against our hero for 2100 years – yes 21 centuries – because he lost his favorite magical sword when Atticus picked it up on a battlefield.
It’s not clear why Atticus decided to take the offensive against the rather stupid godling, but although he wins this battle it sets him up for problems down the road.
The best parts of Hounded are Atticus’ dog Oberon and the lovely, well-thought out magic system. This is a first book that sets up for further novels in the series so we meet many characters and establish the overall direction and theme. (I’ll give you a hint, Oberon gets even better in the later books. And I’m a cat person.)
You might find Hounded reminds you of the Harry Dresden novels by Jim Butcher. But the werewolves in Hounded are neither friends nor allies for Atticus. They join together only for common causes, nothing esoteric like generic villain-fighting. Another difference was the amoral motives and actions of Atticus and his vampire and werewolf lawyers. In fact Atticus was more concerned with convenience than ethics until close to the end of the story.
Nonetheless, Hounded was good enough that I got the next two books from the library and as soon as I hit “Post” will go back to read book #3, Hammered: The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book Three
3 Stars plus a bit
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