Hammered by Kevin Hearne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I found Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid series thanks to Charles de Lint's review in Fantasy and Science Fiction a few months ago. He compared it, in tone, to Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber and, being a lover of that series, I knew I had to give it a try. I sped through the first two books, Hounded and Hexed. I loved the world, I loved the characters... it was just a wonderful series that I couldn't wait to read more of.
And then I hit Hammered.
I'm not sure what it was about it but I had a hard time getting through it. I actually started it sometime last year and it took me several months to decide to pull the ebook back out of the library and give it another try. (Thanks to Amazon keeping track of these kinds of things, I was able to pick back up where I left off.) While there were some scenes that I enjoyed quite a bit - Atticus' meeting with Jesus, his conversations with the Widow MacDonough, his meeting with Morrigan near the end of the book - most of what happened in Asgard, as well as the bits leading up to it (from the time the group gets together for the attack) just didn't keep my attention. And I wish I knew why it wasn't, because it would seem to be things I would love. Maybe it was because I knew that Atticus didn't really want to be taking this journey either, but it didn't seem to bug him as much as I would have thought to.
I'm not ready to give up, though. From the moment Atticus set foot back on Midgard through the very end, I was back to feeling that old love for the series. Particularly when Oberon dropped the bombshell about... well, never mind. I don't want to spoil things. But I will say that I can't wait until I can get my hands on the next one. I'm just waiting for it to either be available through my library's digital media or for the paperback to be waiting for me at the library.
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