Hounded

Hounded is the first in the Iron Druid Chronicles. The book was good, but I'm unsure if I'll read anymore. In my opinion it had three "strikes" against it that I tend to avoid when reading fantasy novels. Strike number one was putting God on equal footing with all the other pantheons that a person could worship. Strike number two was having witches. These weren't the witches found in Harry Potter but the real kind that sign oaths in blood. Strike number three was the use of demons. Now there are two connotations of "demon" in a fantasy novel. In some older fantasy novels "demon" simply means an elemental spirit. Although I would prefer them to use a different word, these aren't so bad in my book. The other connotation is what people normally think of when they hear the word "demon." This book used the latter kind. I know that a lot of readers of fantasy do not have my reservations, but I thought I would give people that do fair warning. :)

That being said the book in itself was good. It follows the life of Atticus O'Sullivan, a two thousand year old druid living in Tempe, Arizona. Everyone assumes that he's 21, and one of the first things he tells you is that when he says he's 21 if people want to assume it's years instead of centuries, then he's not going correct him. The prominent pantheon in this book is the Gaelic one which I found interesting. I had never had much experience with the Gaelic gods and it was interesting to read about them. The main plot of the story is that Aenghus Oh, the god of love, wants Atticus' sword Fragarach to take over the rest of the gods and become supreme ruler. Atticus and his allies want to prevent this. There is a pack of werewolves, a Viking vampire, and Atticus' Irish wolfhound to help him. The story is interesting in its execution and since there are several more books to go you know that Atticus doesn't die. Plus he's got a deal with Morrigan, the Gaelic death goddess that she won't "take him". Even if I wasn't thrilled with certain aspects of the book I did like the character of Atticus and was glad that he won in the end.