Hammered: Iron Druid book 3 by Kevin Hearne

I like Hammered much better than Hexed I think it might actually be may favorite of the series to date. We find out more about Atticus and his friends, lot of back story is filled in on his friends.

I do get the feeling though reading this of a RPG (Role Playing Game), Atticus might end up with a truly interesting collection of magical weapons and artifacts if this keeps up.

 One minor quibble I have though, it seems that Kevin Hearne likes to throw sex scenes in more in the fashion I would expect from a TV show or movie than most of the books I read.  It is done for comic effect, or along with violence, not really because of any attachment of the characters involved.

It seems clear that Atticus, despite being over 2000 years old still deals with the opposite sex about as well as a 12-14 year old when feelings are actually involved as opposed to lust.  It is clear that Atticus & Granuaile are in love with each other, but they can't even say the word "love" without it being "pretend".

Makes the characters seem far more shallow in my opinion.  Really, Atticus and Oberon have a deeper relationship than Atticus can handle with women.  And Oberon is a dog!

Kevin Hearne's Offical Website

Kevin Hearn's Offical Website, I found more than a couple of chuckles on his website.

Writer's Grove, Kevin's Blog on his webpage.

Free Short story in pdf format, from the author, set little before Hounded.  I liked it, was very good.

I would like to see Kevin do more short stories or even short short stories, just have them in chronological order IMO.

Hexed book II in the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne

Kevin Hearne's second book in the Iron Druid series Hexed continues the story of Atticus, the last Druid, living in modern Arizona.

I don't like this book as much as the first one, not sure why, I think the pacing is a bit different.  Not bad pacing, just not as smooth a fit with my reading rhythm.

I have already started book three which I am liking much better than Hexed.  Book three reminds me more of book one, but I still recommend reading Hexed
because book three won't make much sense without reading book two first.

***
After more thought and finishing the third book, I realized part of what I didn't like about Hexed was how weak Atticus seemed in this book vs the first one.  In the first book he personally kills two gods, the first one without any real effort.

So the amount of effort and help he needs in the second book to deal with problems that are far less than a god trying to kill him personally just doesn't make sense.

Plus I know a bit about guns, so the whole "steel jacket bullets" just didn't make any sense.  Normally, only older (like WWII) or Com Block military rifle ammunition will have steel jackets.  Or Com Block handgun ammunition.  I think he could have handled that better by just stating since the gun was a steel (iron) weapon they wouldn't work against that enemy.

So I guess it is nitpicking.  But he uses Holy Arrows in the same book, so stone or wood tipped arrows would have worked well IMO and fit with the story.

I do really like Coyote, and am looking forward to seeing more of Coyote in the fourth book based on hints already dropped.

Hounded: The Iron Druid by Kevin Hearne

A great first novel by Kevin Hearne!

If your like me, you have a handful of authors that you love and treasure deeply.  Your always waiting for their next book to come out, save for the few days it takes to read their current masterpiece.

So when I discover a new author, even if they are only okay, it brightens my week.  Since I will have something new to read.  Plus one more author making me wait impatiently wait.

When I find a new author, that is good enough that I say forget sleep.  That is for TV watching!  I get giddy.

Hounded: The Iron Druid is such a novel, even better there are already three books out in this series.  I finished reading Hounded in one sitting.  I immediately ordered the next two books, on my Kindle, and started reading the next book right away.

Though I was tired enough I soon went to bed, I continued reading for another 40 minutes or so on my Blackberry, PDA/Smartphones work better for reading in bed than the Kindle IMO.  The lighted screen works better in the dark for me.  I much prefer the Kindle's Screen though for long periods of reading.

Hounded: The Iron Druid is what I would call light, amusing reading.  I would describe it as a mix of Lois Bujold and Patricia Briggs with a sprinkling of Terry Pratchett.  He adds snippets of Shakespeare, TV shows, movies, & modern slang for comic effect. 

Some of the fight scenes are very amusing, some are so so, Romance he handles more like Bujold does in the Miles books, your not going to find description of sex scenes.  Action stops "before the bedroom" pretty much and resumes afterwords.  Though both women and men get chances to admire hot members of the opposite sex with little or nothing on either in romance scenes and for shapeshifting.

Some people may be offended or more likely annoyed by religious comments, but this is fantasy novel that has a Druid as a central character.  I can't think of any other possible negatives.

If there is something more you would like me to cover in review please post below.  I am trying to balance providing information about the book for people while avoiding spoilers.

I really like this book, will be posting reviews on the next two books soon.  Will also provide some more information on Kevin Hearne in future reviews.