Friday, March 1, 2013

From the Stacks: Hammered by Kevin Hearne

Well, here I am, back to revisiting the first author/series I covered in my From the Stacks posts here on the blog. I absolutely adore the work of Kevin Hearne and The Iron Druid Chronicles have some of the best novels in them that I can remember reading. Now I've finally gotten around to the third book, Hammered, and that has only reinforced how much I love this series.


Summary:

"Thor, the Norse god of thunder, is worse than a blowhard and a bully-he's ruined countless lives and killed scores of innocents. After centuries, Viking vampire Leif Helgarson is ready to get his vengeance, and he's asked his friend Atticus O'Sullivan, the last of the Druids, to help take down this Norse nightmare.

One survival strategy has worked for Atticus for more than two thousand years: stay away from the guy with the lightning bolts. But things are heating up in Atticus's home base of Tempe, Arizona. There's a vampire turf war brewing, and Russian demon hunters who call themselves the Hammers of God are running rampant. Despite multiple warnings and portents of dire consequences, Atticus and Leif journey to the Norse plane of Asgard, where they team up with a werewolf, a sorcerer, and an army of frost giants for an epic showdown against vicious Valkyries, angry gods, and the hammer-wielding Thunder Thug himself."

My Thoughts:

This is the part where I squee and jump up and down like the crazy fan-girl I am. Seriously. I have loved every second of reading these books and I can't help but fly through them. They only take me a couple hours of serious reading time, and I'm always sad when I reach the end, because it means the adventure is over. However, this is only book three, and I still have the fourth and fifth books on my bookshelves just waiting for me. Also, the sixth book will be out in June. After that I will have to wait longer for the books because starting with book seven they will be released in hardcover first, and while I am super-excited for Kevin Hearne because that is huge and amazing news for an author, it sucks for fans who like to have completely matching sets. I will have to have all of my books in paperback, which means I will have to wait longer to have more awesome adventures with Atticus.

Anyway, I should probably talk about Hammered here or it won't be much of a review. When reading these books I always have so many nerdy moments that make me feel great, because honestly Atticus is a geek and always has awesome pop culture references. In Hammered that includes a conversation where Atticus starts off having a Shakespeare quote contest and that devolves into Atticus using lolcat speech. Hilarious. Also, I just have to say...Atticus sat down in a bar and had a few drinks with Jesus Christ. Sure, in the past we've seen the Morrigan and Bacchus and numerous other deities and in this book we also have Thor and Odin and basically all the Norse bigwigs, but I did not see Jesus Christ coming. It was quite amusing and I marked quite a few quotes I enjoyed immensely.

As usual, Oberon was witty and laugh out loud amusing. He is seriously one of my favorite characters. Granuaile continues to refer to Atticus as sensei, which is just fun, and come on...I know I'm not the only one who wants the two of them to end up together, not just in a master-apprentice way.

There was a huge battle in Asgard towards the end of the book, and I totally admit that I cried at one of the main deaths within that scene. And at the end I had a complete OMG shocker/sad-face moment with the Widow MacDonagh. I really can't wait to dive into the next book, which is on schedule for next month so yay. Hammered clearly gets a 5/5 for me. It is great writing and characters who feel so real and events that make me laugh and cry. Pure amazingness.

Hammered at Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hammered-kevin-hearne/1101001933?ean=9780345522481

Hammered at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hammered-Iron-Druid-Chronicles-Three/dp/0345522486/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357834034&sr=1-1&keywords=Hammered

Other Readings:

This week I received a copy of Terra by Gretchen Powell, which I won from a giveaway, and I'm excited to jump into it. Other exciting to-reads for me include Quintessence by David Walton and Timepiece by Myra McEntire.

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