Hammered Out

Twice now, I've written about The Iron Druid Chronicles, a long-running series from Kevin Hearne about an ancient magic user living in the real modern world. I likened it to The Dresden Files, another lengthy and well-liked series, for the similar demeanor of the protagonist, the similar incorporation mythology into long-term world-building, in the similar accumulation of side characters from book to book.

Now, with book three of the series, Hammered, I can add another comparison: both series started off entertaining to me, and then lost steam after a few books.

Many of the things that slowly soured me on Dresden are the very things that made me enjoy this third Iron Druid book less. Hearne's series already has a number of intriguing secondary characters after just two books... and book three sidelines most of them. A compelling coven of witches introduced in book two (and not fully dispensed with) barely appears. Main character Atticus pointedly tells his apprentice she is not coming on this current adventure. Even his loyal dog Oberon, source of much comic relief, is left at home for the bulk of this novel.

It is a very focused story. I had commented of later Dresden books that they seem to weave together ever more disparate plot threads to create a sense of jeopardy coming at the protagonist from all sides. The Iron Druid Chronicles seemed to be following a similar formula in its first two books. But Hammered takes a different approach. Its entire narrative springs as a consequence of the events of the previous book, and there are no subplots at all to distract from the main character's single-minded quest: to kill the god Thor. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, perhaps; I could have used a "side quest" in this story. It takes an awful lot of pages to do something quite straightforward.

However, I still found things to like about Hammered. The side characters I enjoyed from previous books may not be here, but there are new ones (and existing ones that take on a larger role here)... and they're actually the most compelling thing about the book. This is about an "adventuring party" all questing together to kill Thor, and in a fascinating middle section of the novel, the first-person narrative of Atticus gives way to a series of flashbacks from different POVs, detailing each character's personal reason for hating Thor. I found many of these back stories more compelling (and, alas, more readable) than the motivations of the main character.

Ultimately, I'd put Hammered just barely at a B-. Nevertheless, it definitely blunted my enthusiasm for continuing with more of the books. It felt stretched, like it could have been a novella, and currently I don't have plans to seek out book four.