Hammered (Iron Druid Chronicles Series #3)

by Kevin Hearne

Overview

BOOK 3 IN THE IRON DRUID CHRONICLES

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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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780345522481
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/05/2011
Series:	Iron Druid Chronicles Series , #3
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	21,004
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 4.28(h) x 0.92(d)

About the Author

Kevin Hearne is a native of Arizona and really appreciates whoever invented air-conditioning. He graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and now teaches high school English. When he’s not grading essays or writing novels, he tends to his basil plants and paints landscapes with his daughter. He has been known to obsess over fonts, frolic unreservedly with dogs, and stop whatever he’s doing in the rare event of rain to commune with the precipitation. He enjoys hiking, the guilty pleasure of comic books, and living with his wife and daughter in a wee, snug cottage.

Editorial Reviews

When I first discovered urban fantasy at a brick n' mortar Barnes & Noble, the basic concept compelled me like no other: you take some fantastical critters or magical doodads, slap 'em down in a contemporary setting, and then hang on for the ride.

Think of it: The entire world's collected mythology and folklore is waiting to be mined for fictional gold. That's what makes urban fantasy the most exciting genre to read and write for me. The potential for supernatural shenanigans in the present seems infinite. To narrow the focus a bit and keep myself sane, when I sat down to write Hounded, the first book of The Iron Druid Chronicles, I made myself a list of what I wanted to contribute to the genre. I wanted an unusual hero, easily distinguishable from others; I wanted to give man's best friend a voice, and I wanted it to be a big best friend, like an Irish wolfhound; I wanted a little old lady sipping whiskey on her porch, some gratuitous allusions to Shakespeare, and a beautiful, (mostly) normal girl in there with freckles and strawberry lip gloss; and I wanted a whole lot of gods and goddesses trying to survive in a secular world, especially from some pantheons we don't hear about all that often. Also, because they kind of scare me, no leather pants.

The Iron Druid Chronicles follows the adventures of Atticus O'Sullivan, a 2,100-year-old Druid who's discovered that it's the little things in life that make it worth living, and he can continue to enjoy those things so long as he hides from the Irish gods who want to kill him. Unfortunately, once he decides to take a stand, he draws the attention of all sorts of beings who thought the last real Druid had passed from this world long ago.

Part of the great fun of writing a character this old is figuring out where Atticus was during all of history's great events and whether he might have had a hand in them. But the pith, the core of what makes him so interesting to me is how he handles outliving all his friends and loved ones: How does he hang on to his humanity when his lifespan is greater than that of every other human?

The Iron Druid Chronicles still has plenty of familiar urban fantasy elements, but I hope readers will enjoy this very different hero who can talk to both gods and dogs, yet loves nothing so much as conversing with friends over a fine plate of fish and chips and a pint to wash it down.

In the adrenaline-spiked third Iron Druid adventure (following Hounded and Hexed), Atticus O'Sullivan, the 1,200-year-old sexy warrior druid, pops into Asgard, steals one of the golden apples of immortality, and zips back out again. Piece of cake—until he has to go back and face off against Thor, the extremely irritating Norse god of thunder. Thor has annoyed a whole lot of people over the eons, chief among them Leif Helgarson, an ancient vampire with a mighty grudge. Atticus reluctantly teams up with Leif and Gunnar Magnusson, the alpha werewolf of the Tempe, Ariz., pack, to take Thor down—that is, if everything goes according to plan, which it never does. Hearne provides lots of zippy plotting and rocking action scenes, and fans will be thrilled by hints that the series is set to continue. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"It may be possible that Hearne and Atticus could be the logical heir to Butcher and Dresden."—SFFworld.com

"Hearne provides lots of zippy plotting and rocking action scenes...fans will be thrilled."—Publishers Weekly

“A page-turning and often laugh-out-loud funny caper through a mix of the modern and the mythic.”—Ari Marmell, author of The Warlord’s Legacy

“Celtic mythology and an ancient Druid with modern attitude mix it up in the Arizona desert in this witty new fantasy series.”—Kelly Meding, author of Three Days to Dead

“Kevin Hearne breathes new life into old myths, creating a world both eerily familiar and startlingly original.”—Nicole Peeler, author of Tempest Rising

From the Publisher