Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #1) in Vampires, Weres and Fae!

May 01, 2011 Yodamom rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite

(Audio) A Druid, a dog and several twisted gods, who could ask for more ? I loved this story, the characters and the world created. I found it to have a perfect mix of humor, adventure, magic and danger. If you love the Harry Dresden novels you will love this series.

6 likes · Like · see review

Mar 12, 2011 Melindeeloo rated it really liked it

Shelves: witches-wizards-mages-sorcerers, urban-fantasy, pif-keli-2020-oct, pif-keli-xtra

A healthy helping of supernatural creatures, and Celtic gods/goddesses, along with a 21(centuries) old druid and his dog, kicks the Iron Druid Chronicles series off to a good start.

Atticus has been successfully lying low in Arizona, but now his enemies have finally found him. This time though Atticus is not eager to move on and decides to make his stand. He has both allies and enemies among the gods of his Irish birthplace - all of them having agendas, both hidden and not - and a team of kick-b A healthy helping of supernatural creatures, and Celtic gods/goddesses, along with a 21(centuries) old druid and his dog, kicks the Iron Druid Chronicles series off to a good start.

Atticus has been successfully lying low in Arizona, but now his enemies have finally found him. This time though Atticus is not eager to move on and decides to make his stand. He has both allies and enemies among the gods of his Irish birthplace - all of them having agendas, both hidden and not - and a team of kick-butt supernatural lawyers to smooth things for him in the mortal world. But even still, the upcoming battle is one he may not survive.

I really enjoyed Hounded, but the story is more talk than action to start out while author Kevin Hearne does all of the setup for Atticus, his relationships with Morrigan, the goddess of Battle, and Flidais, the goddess of the hunt, and the explanation of how Atticus came to possess a magical sword sought after by another of the Irish gods. Not too worry, once all the exposition is out of the way there is plenty of action to be had.

The protagonist Atticus Sullivan is compared to Harry Dresden in the marketing materials for Hounded, but is probably a bit wilier - though he hides it - and doesn't have Harry's sense of chivalry. So while Atticus is still basically a decent guy who mows his elderly neighbors lawn, he has a strong sense of self preservation which allows his morals to be a bit more flexible, but I still found Atticus likable and think that Harry's fans will like Atticus too.

Even with all the other lofty personages in the story, one of my favorite characters though was Atticus' wolfhound companion Oberon, who speaks to Atticus mentally and Oberon's doggy-eye view of the world is pretty humorous even to those of us who are not hugely pet-centric. I also got a real kick out of Atticus' highly paid lawyers, werewolf Hal and vampire Leif, who manage the fallout in the human world even as Atticus' enemies' minions are throwing mundane legal obstacles in Atticus' way.

I was lucky enough to get this as an ARC for free through Amazon's Vine and I am glad I had a chance to read Hounded and I will definitely be adding this series to my must buy list. I loved all of the mythological characters that Hearne mentioned and the ones he wove into the Hounded and I am excited, because it looks like while Hearne focused on the Irish gods here, Atticus will be taking on the Norse ones in the next book. Fortunately, there's not a long wait for more of the Iron Druid, books two and three - Hexed and Hammered are following quickly, with one being released in May and the other in June 2011. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review