Hounded-Kevin Hearne

Hounded
Kevin Hearne
Del Rey, May 3 2011, $7.99
ISBN 9780345522474

Atticus O'Sullivan the Druid has lived for over two millennia and in that time he has made friends like Van Gogh and Galileo but also has alienated essences who want him dead. Some are extremely powerful, but perhaps his most persistent and strongest enemy is the Celtic God Aenghus Og. The Druid stole a magic sword from the God who vowed to hunt him down, kill him, and retrieve the sword. Over the centuries, Og has located Atticus, but his attempts to kill his adversary have failed.

O’Sullivan plays soccer while he also owns and operates Third Eye Books and Herbs store (hiding his Celtic heritage behind eastern beliefs) in Tempe Arizona. He has kept a low profile so that his sworn foes will not easily find him. Og locates him again and sends his nastiest minion to take care of him with instructions not to come back alive without his sword and O’Sullivan’s corpse. The Druid’s faithful Irish wolfhound Oberon is acceptable collateral damage.

This is a super urban fantasy in which the Hearne’s mythos comes across as possible due to reasonable explanations interwoven into the fast-paced plot. Readers rather quickly anticipate an OK Corral showdown between the Druid and the God once Og locates the rodent who desiccated his deity. Sub-genre fans will appreciate Kevin Hearne’s humorous tale of the “Mouse That Roared” against the superpower.

Harriet Klausner