HOUNDED
Book 1 of 'The Iron Druid Chronicles'
ISBN - 978-0-345-52247-4
FIRST PUBLISHED - 2011
PAGES - 304
BINDING - Paperback
GENRE - Urban Fantasy
AUTHOR - Kevin Hearne
BEST-SELLERS - debut
SYNOPSIS - Atticus O'Sullivan, last of the druids, leaves peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty years old - when in actuality, he's twenty-one centuries old. Not to mention: He draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields and even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.
Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he's hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power - plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a sexy bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good old-fashioned luck of the Irish - to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil.
EXCERPT - When we got to the park, Oberon was ready to kill just about anything that moved. He'd been trying to intimidate Flidais's stags and found that they were not scared of him in the least, and it was practically making him rabid. I had overheard snatches of their conversation as we rode along in Flidais's chariot:
<If you were not under the goddess's protection, I would have you for supper,> he told them.
<Maybe if you had two score friends or so,> they taunted him. <A single puppy would never trouble us.> Oh ho!
<You would not be so bold if the goddess were not here.>
<Is that so? She leaves us alone for long periods of time, staked to a small area. Try to take us then and see what happens, runt.>
Oberon growled at them and bared his teeth, and I told him to hush, doing my best to hide my amusement. Oh, was he ever mad. Calling a giant like him a runt? They really knew how to push a dog's buttons.
FL Speak - Read the synopsis?? Looks like another Stephenie Meyer novel right? Wrong!! This is an amazing urban fantasy book! I admit, reading about werewolves and vampires made me think twice before picking this up, but boy am so glad I picked it up.
From now on, substitute "never judge a book by its cover" with "never judge a genre by one book".
Our druid, Atticus lives in Arizona, runs a shop {which includes making love potions Hogwarts style}, is friends with werewolves and vampires and owns a cool sword.
And now the rest. In all happy tales, a villain has to be there. Presenting Aenghus Og, a Celtic god hell bent on hunting down the Druid for the sword. Atticus has eluded the crafty God for over 21 centuries, but looks like he's running out of places to hide {obviously since in 2100 years, you can live in almost everywhere on this world}.
And yes, Atticus owns a great greyhound and that dog is funny! Atticus can talk to his dog and yes, the dog talks back! For me, the dog, Oberon is the ultimate star!! Hilarious lines, this book is a right mixture of comic timing, one liners, action and thrill. When witches kidnap his dog and his friend, everyone knows why the Druid is rightfully feared.
Fantastic action, myth, folklore, magic all blends into one awesome tale, Hounded is the beginning of what promises to be one memorable ride! The reference to the mighty Thor as a prick makes me laugh every single time. In the meantime, he finds an apprentice for himself, makes love to a goddess, desecrates faes sent against time while managing time to make tea for his customers in the shop.
Kevin Hearne has started a laugh-out-loud urban fantasy tale and we are all in for the rest of the ride.
The only drawback I could find was that it ended in only 289 pages :(
My Rating - 4.5 stars
PRICE - INR 324/- [Flipkart Price]
Book 1 of 'The Iron Druid Chronicles'
ISBN - 978-0-345-52247-4
FIRST PUBLISHED - 2011
PAGES - 304
BINDING - Paperback
GENRE - Urban Fantasy
AUTHOR - Kevin Hearne
BEST-SELLERS - debut
SYNOPSIS - Atticus O'Sullivan, last of the druids, leaves peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty years old - when in actuality, he's twenty-one centuries old. Not to mention: He draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields and even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.
Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he's hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power - plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a sexy bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good old-fashioned luck of the Irish - to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil.
EXCERPT - When we got to the park, Oberon was ready to kill just about anything that moved. He'd been trying to intimidate Flidais's stags and found that they were not scared of him in the least, and it was practically making him rabid. I had overheard snatches of their conversation as we rode along in Flidais's chariot:
<If you were not under the goddess's protection, I would have you for supper,> he told them.
<Maybe if you had two score friends or so,> they taunted him. <A single puppy would never trouble us.> Oh ho!
<You would not be so bold if the goddess were not here.>
<Is that so? She leaves us alone for long periods of time, staked to a small area. Try to take us then and see what happens, runt.>
Oberon growled at them and bared his teeth, and I told him to hush, doing my best to hide my amusement. Oh, was he ever mad. Calling a giant like him a runt? They really knew how to push a dog's buttons.
FL Speak - Read the synopsis?? Looks like another Stephenie Meyer novel right? Wrong!! This is an amazing urban fantasy book! I admit, reading about werewolves and vampires made me think twice before picking this up, but boy am so glad I picked it up.
From now on, substitute "never judge a book by its cover" with "never judge a genre by one book".
Our druid, Atticus lives in Arizona, runs a shop {which includes making love potions Hogwarts style}, is friends with werewolves and vampires and owns a cool sword.
And now the rest. In all happy tales, a villain has to be there. Presenting Aenghus Og, a Celtic god hell bent on hunting down the Druid for the sword. Atticus has eluded the crafty God for over 21 centuries, but looks like he's running out of places to hide {obviously since in 2100 years, you can live in almost everywhere on this world}.
And yes, Atticus owns a great greyhound and that dog is funny! Atticus can talk to his dog and yes, the dog talks back! For me, the dog, Oberon is the ultimate star!! Hilarious lines, this book is a right mixture of comic timing, one liners, action and thrill. When witches kidnap his dog and his friend, everyone knows why the Druid is rightfully feared.
Fantastic action, myth, folklore, magic all blends into one awesome tale, Hounded is the beginning of what promises to be one memorable ride! The reference to the mighty Thor as a prick makes me laugh every single time. In the meantime, he finds an apprentice for himself, makes love to a goddess, desecrates faes sent against time while managing time to make tea for his customers in the shop.
Kevin Hearne has started a laugh-out-loud urban fantasy tale and we are all in for the rest of the ride.
The only drawback I could find was that it ended in only 289 pages :(
My Rating - 4.5 stars
PRICE - INR 324/- [Flipkart Price]
why do you always keep reading those cheap books?? most of the books you are like all the light reading / fan fiction etc etc. read some literature instead!! or I think you can't handle good literature!! pick up some classics, or some contemporary literature.... I think this is onw reason why serious readers don't read this blog... this blog features too much contents, too much reviews but not much substance!!!!
ReplyDeletetypos:
ReplyDeletemost of the books you read are like
hey anonymous, thank u for ur comment & we'll surely keep your suggestions in mind. however, there ARE quite a few reviews of books based on literary fiction as well as literature- do search for them here. if there is any book in particular that you'd like us to review, please let us know.
ReplyDeletethis is basically a platform to share our opinions about books that we read in general- or the ones we try to read for a change. it's just a medium of exchanging our views about what we all seem to love- books. :)
@FL- this sounds really cute! i think i'd like to read this. a guy called atticus for a hero has got to be good! great review! :)
ReplyDelete@anonymous
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments and we hope to improve.
But before that, what are you calling cheap?? Fantasy?? It will take more than 2 lifetimes for you to understand one i suppose but then again, you have a closed mind, so that wouldn't probably help.
You are into literature...nice...I am not too good with that. Maybe you can help us be better.
Almost all my reviews are fantasy. Its because I love fantasy. And there are a million people who loves fantasy more than I do. My reviews are for them if they stumble upon this blog. They will understand.
We have other contributors here reviewing thrillers, classic, and everything else. Maybe you can read those too and drop a comment :)
Much appreciated.
P.S| if you call fantasy light reading then I don't know where you bumped your head :P
ReplyDeletesorry for that. Fantasy, my dears, is anything but a light read
@arp
ReplyDeletebelieve me girl, this book is addictive
@FL_I totally agree with what you said. It takes a lot of courage to pick up a fantasy and finish it. I didn't know fantasy had so much before you told me.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous_with all respect to you,if you had been brave enough to voice your opinions and be so confident about your views,I believe you would have come up with your name and email address so that we could make our voice heard to you as well.
ReplyDeleteThis group was made to cater to and share the love of books. So we do not discriminate genres calling them "cheap" and stuff. All books are important for us and we count that in literature. Just because it does not feature in any History of literature book doesn't mean it is not literature. I am my self a literature student and I strongly believe that its time everyone starts changing their opinions and accept fantasy and sci-fi as part of the so-called "proper literature." And btw please do go through our reviewed sections. The "proper literature" stuff and classics have also being reviewed.And we support constructive criticism and not plain hatred. We are not doing business here,so we don't care if we get a million page views or followers. We want to create a space for book-lovers and we are happily doing it. Thank you!!
@ anonymous - write your name next time and if u can't,then how about keeping your comments to yourself.
ReplyDeleteMr Indias are not welcome here.
regards,
Pulkit
I agree with FL in his view that Fiction is anything but a light read. Percy Jackson series has done much good to many world wide readers as they get to know Mythology better. And if we follow Anonymous's view then somewhere even Iliad comes under genre of fantasy, but is it?? I personally read all kind of books but fiction always is a method to relax my mind and broaden my perspective. And as some of my very good friends would say : A book is what you interpret it!!
ReplyDeleteOh and i wud definitely try to follow the iron druid chronicles. I have almost no knowledge about Celtic Mythology, and that's a shame!! Thanks for the brilliant review FL.
ReplyDeleteFL ... I need this book .. please send if u can (and are enerous enough ) . I sure can and do not want to break my promise fr not buying a new book fr 2 mnth atleast..
ReplyDelete