Hounded - Kevin Hearne

   2011; 289 pages.  Book 1 (out of 10) in the “Iron Druid Chronicles” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres: Urban Fantasy; Mythology; Action-Adventure.  Overall Rating: 9½*/10.

 

    Say hello to Atticus O’Sullivan.  He runs a modest occult bookstore in Tempe, Arizona, where he has a side business of selling herbal concoctions at his store, mostly to the same customers who come to his place seeking metaphysical tomes.

 

    Atticus seems like nice young fellow, but he’s hiding a couple of secrets.  First, Atticus is his alias; his real name is Siodhachan O Suileabhain, a fine ancient Celtic appellation.  Yeah, try saying that one ten times real fast.  And although Atticus looks young, he’s actually more than 2,000 years old.  He’s the last living Druid.

 

    He’s made some powerful enemies over the centuries, some of them deities.  The main one is Aenghus Og , the Celtic god of love (among other things) who’s been chasing Atticus for several hundred years now.  Being an occult bookseller is just Atticus’s latest undercover disguise.

 

    Atticus has just been told by the Morrigan (who?) that Aenghus Og has seen through his disguise, and is on his way to kill him.  It’s time for Atticus to flee once more.

 

    Too bad he’s tired of running away.

 

What’s To Like...

    Hounded is the opening book in a 10-volume urban fantasy series called The Iron Druid Chronicles, and is told in the first-person POV, Atticus's.  I presume this is a completed series since Book 10 was published in 2018, and Kevin Hearne's more recent novels are in a different series.  Our protagonist is a modern-day Druid, and we follow his adventures, which mostly consist of magical creatures sent to either kill Atticus, hoodwink him into a trap, or contrive things to where he owes favors to some person, deity, or magical creature.

 

    The tale is set in and around Tempe, Arizona, home to my alma mater, Arizona State University and where I lived for many years.  So the numerous local references resonated with me, and include: Scottsdale Memorial Hospital, Newman Center, the Arizona Republic newspaper, Papago Park, Mill and University Avenues, the Superstition Mountains, and the landmark Irish pub, Rula Bula.  They’re all real, although that last one has since gone out of business.

 

    Magical creatures abound in the story, among them the Fae, an Iron Elemental, the Morrigan, the Tuatha De Danann, Fir Bolgs, demons, the Zoryas, and a slew of Wiccan witches.  Also, some animals, including wolfhounds and stags, are telepathic.

 

    The action starts right away, with Atticus getting mugged by a gang of fairies on page 4.  The supporting characters were a fascinating bunch; Atticus’s bestie is a magic-infused dog named Oberon, and his two lawyers, both extremely competent, are a vampire and a werewolf.  My favorite not-the-protagonist was the widow MacDonagh, Atticus's neighbor, and witness to several strange happenings.  I liked Hieronymus Bosch and former Arizona Diamondback pitcher Randy Johnson getting nods, and I enjoyed learning how to go about paying off favors to vampires: in wineglass quantities of your blood!  

 

    Everything builds to a gory, twisty, and exciting showdown.  Both combatants have tricks up their sleeve.  The final chapter and Epilogue tie up a couple secondary plotlines.  The Acknowledgments section (page 291) and the Wikipedia article about Kevin Hearne (the link is here), are worthwhile reads.  Hounded is both a standalone story and part of a series.

 

Kewlest New Word…

    Sybarite (n.): a person who is self-indulgent in their fondness for sensuous luxury.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5, based on 8,943 ratings and 1,663 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.09*/5, based on 86,257 ratings and 7,468 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Ah, so this is just some vague augury,” I said.

    “No, the augury was quite specific,” the Morrigan replied.  “A mortal doom gathers about you here, and you must fly if you wish to avoid it.”

    “See?  There you go again.  You get this way every year around Samhain,” I said.  “If it isn’t Thor coming to get me, it’s one of the Olympians.  Remember that story last year?  Apollo was offended by my association with the Arizona State Sun Devils—"  (pg. 10)

 

    I would never, ever tire in battle.  I suffered no fatigue at all.  And if I needed it, I could whip up a binding or two against my enemies or summon up a temporary burst of strength that would allow me to wrestle a bear.

    It had been a long, long time since I had felt the need to summon so much power.  But then again, I hadn’t been in a scrap like this since I’d waded into the mosh pit at a Pantera concert.  (pg. 312)

 A nonaggression treaty signed in blood?  Something about that struck me as oxymoronic.  (pg. 285)

    I don’t really have anything major to quibble about in Hounded, hence the high rating.  The cussing is fairly light; I noted just 14 instances in the first 20% of the book, although three of those were f-bombs.

 

    I read Hounded in the paperback format, after being reminded that it was on my TBR shelf by the Kindle format being temporarily discounted a few weeks ago.  Here’s hoping that more e-books in the series are put on sale in the near future.

 

    That’s about it for the nitpicking.  I found Hounded to be well-written, appropriately witty, and with a captivating storyline that kept me turning the pages.  Full disclosure: I’m all about reading any book with Druids in it.

 

    9½ Stars.  One last thing.  In the Acknowledgments section the author gives a nod of appreciation to the Society for Creative Anachronism.  These are the people who like to dress up in medieval fashion and reenact things like jousting tournaments.  They are the reason the Renaissance Fair exists.

 

    My first experience with SCA was many decades ago, when I came across two knights in armor beating the crap out of each other in a swordfight on the lawn of the ASU Hayden Library.  Lords and ladies-in-waiting were watching the combat.  What makes this memorable is that I was under the influence of a hallucinogen at the time.  It was quite the trip.