Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Audio review: Hammered (Iron Druid Chronicles #3) by Kevin Hearne


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 plain 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.
Another good audio with Luke Daniels again narrating the book. Luke does an excellent job and I swear I've become to hear Atticus's voice as Luke's voice. He also does an excellent job of the other characterizations as well.

As for the story. Hm... well there were, of course, many moments of levity in which I LOL'd. I also had a few moments of geeky happiness with the Spock/Kirk playing Devil and Angel on Atticus's shoulders. I also had that same moment of geeky-ness when my fave line from The Princess Bride (hint: it was said by someone named Inigo Montoya...) was also said. Yes, I did have quite a few of these moments that ended up putting a smile on my face. Not to mention his moments of levity with Jesus (yes, that Jesus). However...

The battle this whole thing leads up to was, from the beginning, an extremely bad fight. Why it came about made sense, but not how. To fight in Thor's territory was quite stupid for a paranoid druid and I just couldn't figure out why he would go without a better well thought out plan. They had time... all involved were quite long lived so why go through it with such poor planing? Still, I do believe that this will set us up for what is to come in the next novels and at least even Atticus felt that his involvement was unwise... even if the realization came too late. Kind of rounds out his character a bit with him making mistakes of this kind. Still, the questions of their plan still make me wonder...

Even though I was very disappointed in Atticus (especially when it involved Freya) I admit I lost some of my shine to his character. However, in a series I find this interesting because people are neither wholly good or bad but are somewhere in between. Perhaps this will give him a bit more complexity to his character. The next books, I guess, will determine if that pans out that way. I will be reading or listening to them as this one ended with a bit of mystery and I have to know what is next.

24 comments:

  1. I'm curious to try an audiobook, one day I'll have to do it. Hounded is on my TPR pile so I need to read it, maybe this year!

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    1. This is a good one to listen to! Hope you enjoy the books as much as I have. :)

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  2. I read the paperback edition of this book and I really liked it. I was happy to overlook those little nitpicking issues in the hopes that the subsequent books would redeem the series. But I might go for an audiobook for the next three books just to hear Luke Daniels and see what the fuss is all about :D

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    1. I read the first one. I hope you enjoy the audio as much as I have. I really like the pacing in these books.

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  3. This was honestly the worst in the series for me. I thought some things were just too stretched out. However, the next one steps it right back up plus a lot of Native American stuff!

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    1. I agree. I actually had a hard time deciding if it was a 3 or 4 star for me. Still was attention grabbing. I also agree that some of it was too stretched out. So enjoying the next one. :)

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  4. Sounds like this is full of multi dimensional characters.

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  5. My favorite moment from this book was the campfire scene where everyone told why they were all in the fight against Thor. I will admit that I lost some shine to Leif in this book.

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    1. I really enjoyed those stories too. I didn't have much of a shine to Leif because I always knew he had an hidden agenda.

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  6. I read the first book and still have the other two book sitting in my shelf. Thanks for the great review. I'll be sure to read those other books.

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    1. I hope you get to those and enjoy them as much as I have!

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  7. What am I waiting for with this series Melissa? Every time someone writes a review I tell myself to start it. I fail. I'm sorry Atticus lost some of his luster for you in this installment, but like you said, maybe it was necessary to get his character where he needs to go in the next books:)

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    1. You are waiting for more time. :) I'm still very disappointed in him for this book but the second is shining him up again for me. :)

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  8. I loved all the Star Trek stuff and that scene with Jesus was pretty funny. I liked this one but didn't love it as much because it had such a melancholy tone to it. I hated all the goodbyes. Yes, I agree I can't believe he went through with the killing of Thor inspite of all the dire warnings... still I do love this series and I am currently listening to book Four.

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  9. I hate when they mess with gods...I am so weird, lol

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  10. Jesus was AWESOME. So much fun! I have to admit, though, that I found the extended campfire scenes really boring. This has been my least favorite of the three, so I'm glad Felicia says it picks up from here!

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  11. Oh drat. I have the first two books here and sooooo need to get to them. :) Thank you!

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  12. Sounds like a great series, I'm going to have to give it a try

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  13. Yeah, I thought it was kind of dumb of him to get involved in that fight. But still a great book! I really need to get more of these on audio cause I agree that they are great!

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  14. I enjoyed this one because it is a big darker than the others but I also question Atticus' decision-making. At least their are answers in the next one. I feel like this series has taken an interesting turn when it comes to the characters. I'm not sure if I really know them anymore.

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  15. Yup, this is pretty much where the series started going downhill for me too. Then it just went from bad to worse, until I finally decided to give up after the last one. But still, I wouldn't trade those first two books for anything, and I guess this one either since I still thought it pretty good.
    Great review.

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  16. I really love this series, and am looking forward to the next book. And I do agree with the poor planning. So much killings!

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  17. I almost abhor YA but for some reason I keep thinking I want to read this series. Maybe one day....

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