Hammered

Hammered follows immediately after the events of Hexed, the previous novel in this series. The hammer referred to in the title belongs to Thor, who is hands-down the most disliked god in any pantheon. (After killing two gods from the Irish pantheon, Atticus was visited by deities from all over, each of whom wanted to make it clear that deicide was a bad plan, unless the target was Thor.)

I'm reading through this series pretty quickly, and finding it fun, light bedtime reading. Anyone interested in details can check my reviews of previous volumes, but in general, my main complaint with the series are that Atticus's voice and tone are way too modern and shallow for an aged druid. The author, Kevin Hearne, addresses this within the books, and clearly isn't going to change it, so it is what it is. Reading other reviews of this series, readers either feel like I do, or think the voice is the best thing about the books, so opinions clearly differ on this.

Reading other reviews also helped me put into words another problem I have with the books: the way Atticus's apprentice, Granuaile, is written. She isn't a character as much as a cardboard cut-out. She is way, way too oblivious to her attractiveness to be anything like believable, as ReginaR points out in her perceptive review. She doesn't get any better in this volume, basically sitting out the entire book. When she does show up, she is brilliant, helpful, obedient, gorgeous and sexy. She needs to either grow a personality, go away, or turn out to have been a double agent all along.

Now to the specifics for this book: The Norse mythos is by far my favorite. I've read the Eddas several times, and I am familiar with the major and minor characters and the social setting. Hearne does a really impressive job with this. He takes some liberties, but it's really well researched and written. So far, this is my favorite book of the series. Ratatoskr, the squirrel who lives in Yggdrasil, the world-tree, is now my second favorite character after Oberon the wolfhound. (Note - yes, I am saying that the animals are more vivid characters than the humans. And yes, that is a back-handed compliment.) I'm a little peeved that my favorite Aesir, Heimdall, lasts for about 20 seconds, but at least he plays a decisive role.

Jesus makes an appearance, as do the Jewish Kaballists from Hexed. Again, Hearne is doing a great job of piling on the problems, setting up scenaria for future volumes, and writing a pulled together series rather than just a bunch of stories. I see from his website that he has this planned as a nine-volume work (the Norse would approve), and I actually believe that he has it planned out and he's not just playing it by ear. (This is a very large and sincere compliment!)

There is a really interesting section in the middle, where the adventurers sit around telling their personal stories of why they hate Thor. It's interesting both for it's comments on the role of stories in building community, and for the stories. Hearne has made a real effort here to use voices that aren't clones of Atticus's shallow "frat boy" diction, and it shows. Considered for writing alone, this is the best part of the book.

Setting us up for further adventures, Jesus and The Morrigan both tell Atticus in no uncertain terms that going to Asgard and taking on Thor is a huge mistake. He basically ignores them. Naturally, things spiral out of control pretty quickly, and he does a lot more damage to a lot more people/gods/beings than he ever intended. If the ending is any indication, he's in for big trouble from another source as well.

I'll keep reading. ( )

Love this series, can't wait for the next one!! ( )

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Storyline
Poor Atticus just can’t catch a break can he?
Hammered picks up right where Hexed left off and Atticus is fulfilling the promise he made to Laksha: steal the golden apples of Idunn in Asgard. After that near impossible task he also needs to fulfill the promise he made to vampire Leif Helgarson: take him to Thor’s realm in order to battle him.

Thoughts
Okay, enough about the storyline. Here’s what you really need to know: this story/series is HILARIOUS and is steadily climbing up my favorite list. Hammered ended up being quite a bit darker than past installments but was no less enjoyable. I mean how can you not love a book with lines like this:

“Now go and stake some vamps. Especially the sparkly emo ones.”

“There's a reason Bath & Body Works doesn't have a line of products called Huge Fucking Squirrel.”

“Is monstrous fuckpuddle,” Perun asserted, and everyone turned to stare at him with equal parts amusement and bemusement. “What? Is this not English word?”

This was naturally my favorite conversation bit out of the entire story:
“Oh noes, kitteh haz major angriez!” I said. I turned around to share a laugh with my companions and found them glaring at me. “What?” I asked.
Leif shook a finger and said in a low, menacing tone, “If you tell me I have to talk like an illiterate halfwit to fit into this society, I will punch you.”
“And I’ll pull out your goatee,” Gunnar added.
“Lolcat iz new happeh wai 2 talk,” I explained to them. “U doan haz 2 be kitteh 2 speek it.”

If you’re like me, this series sat on my shelf for quite a long time and I just never picked it up. Don’t make the same mistakes I did! This series is fabulously fun, incredibly original, and has an incredibly intriguing storyline that I can’t get enough of. The 4th installment Tricked comes out April 24, 2012. ( )

Wow, so much darker than books 1 & 2! Still plenty of humor, loved the bonding between Atticus, Leif, and Gunnar during their drive to the forest. However, I can only give 3 stars because...

hello, TWO gods tell Atticus that this is a supremely bad idea, and for all his "Ok Jesus, lesson learned" - the information is totally in one ear and out the other. It is very naive of Atticus to think that team Thor-must-die would be happy to get to Asgard, take a few shots, figure "well, this is going nowhere good" and leave. Of course they would want to follow through on their vengeance regardless of whether it means their death! Someone a thousand years old should be able to figure this out!

I'm also on board with several other reviewers here - what was Atticus thinking when he promised to help the frost giants kidnap Freya?! He can't have been planning to go back on his word, because this whole book is about how keeping his word is more important than lives lost or causing a world crisis. Plus, here he is helping avenge the crimes of Thor while promising to help take a prisoner. There are plenty of good examples as to why these guys are after Thor, but no examples of what Freya could have done to deserve being held captive (and most likely worse) by a bunch of randy giants.

I'll still give book 4 a shot, but it has a lot of character redeeming work to do. If I don't see it happening, I probably won't stick with the rest of the series. ( )

You feel differently about a book when you read it aloud, especially when it has a ton of "big" words and unpronounceable names and you're reading it to a sort of special ed teenager. But she really enjoyed it, despite not being into fantasy. I liked it of course, so the fact that both of us got into it says something about the book.

I don't know how this one compares to others in the series. I was concentrating too hard on pronouncing all the Norse names and remembering the voices I put to each name to really concentrate fully on the story, but it was definitely good. The dog wasn't in it as much, nor the widow, and as always it ended on a mild cliffhanger. (The story is resolved but the outcome of what happened to two people wasn't answered.)

I wish Hearne would make better use of regular women in his stories. There are always goddesses (although not so many this time) who are strong, intelligent and frightening, and the narrative inclines me to believe that Hearne is not sexist, but there isn't a female who accompanies the adventures. It's very much a male-bonding sort of thing instead.

Atticus's apprentice isn't very involved but this time he did use her more than he ever has before. Hearne also toned down how randy Atticus is, although I always find that part hilarious and realistic. ( )