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Iron Druid Chronicles Volume 1 - Hounded, Hexed, & Hammered (2012)

by Kevin Hearne(Favorite Author)

4.56 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Del Ray/ Bantam

review 1: I had seen these books pop up on the various YA/Supernatural book blogs I read and was always intrigued. Druids have always been one of my favorite magical beings. I used to have tons of research books on them when I was a kid and I always play a Druid in D&D or a Verbena in Mage.So when my friend Gwen suggested them on twitter, it was enough to get me to pick them up. Plus Amazon had a bundle of the first three books and two shorts for $20. I wanted reading material for my business trip to CA anyway (even though I do have tons of books to read).I like the series so far as a whole. It's a cool world, the author has done well with mixing different types of magic and magical beings. He slowly builds more on details of the main character, well paced through all of the books.T... morehe first one, Hounded, was a good intro to a new world. Just enough explanation that the reader doesn't get lost, but not too much that he or she is overwhelmed. I like the background characters as well, they are written interestingly. It focuses mainly on the world and religion of the Druids and the Fae (from where their magic comes from). This version of Druid I can easily see 10 year old me pretending to be as I run around though the woods of northern Wisconsin.Hexed, the second one, expands on the world, bringing in some of the other beings that exist in this version of the world. It also brings in some more depth to some of the back ground characters, making the reader care for them more and be affect by deaths and hardships.The short story, Clan Rathskeller, is a good glimpse at the main character's life before the big upheavals that come from this series of books. Good world building piece.Hammered diverges and at first made me worried that I wouldn't like it, since it involves more travel and major changes in the life that has been built by the Druid. But the stories told by some of the secondary characters give a lot more back ground on the other races and continue with the great world building. I am also not thrilled with how much of the world is changing with this book. I was just starting to enjoy it.Overall, a great series.
review 2: Three and a half stars for Hounded, and this review is for that book only (will update review after I read the other books). Delicious Urban Fantasy done exactly right: great characters (the dog steals the show), solid story, plenty of action (god-stomping action), and the kind of wit that had me chuckling on the bus. Hounded is one of the best series intro books I've read, and Hearne is a fast, fast writer which means that he'll keep your Jones fixed if you get into these. My only nitpick is that the ending came abruptly, almost as if he came up to his target page goal and said, "oops, the end." Otherwise, highly entertaining and excellent all the way through.Three and a half stars for Hexed. Well, I'm not known for tearing through series... in fact, I more often than not will read the first in a series and then wait a really long time to read the following installments. I read Hexed during my workouts and so my progress was very slow. Hexed suffered from the same abrupt ending that Hounded had, and it didn't make me dislike the book at all -- I was plenty entertained throughout -- it's just that the story built up to that delicious climactic tension and then *poof* it was done... I even turned back a page to make sure I hadn't inadvertantly skipped a paragraph or missed something. *BAM* Done, son, and out the door. Still a fun series, still a fun book, and still the sort of brain candy that makes me want more. Oberon rocks this series. I'll dive into Hammered soon... aw, you know: soon enough... eventually. You get the picture. less

Download links for: Iron Druid Chronicles Volume 1 - Hounded, Hexed, & Hammered

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