Convince Me Iron Druid Chronicles Is Worth It
I just finished Hounded by Kevin Hearne and I liked it, mostly. The setting is cool and as a mythology nerd, I like the Celtic stuff.
I picked this up originally because I am all caught up on Dresden Files and wanted something similar to pass the time. However, I am on the fence about reading book 2. Can you help me figure out if I’d like the rest of the series? I know first books can be rocky, so I want to get some opinions before I dive in.
My biggest issues with Hounded are the pacing, some of the dialogue, and the large blocks of exposition given to us as stories.
Pacing - felt like there could have been a sense of urgency for a lot of the book, but when Atticus takes the time to sit on the porch or at the bar and yap, it loses some of the momentum. In the last few chapters, that changes and it feels good. I think setting a time deadline on the plot, “x will happen at y time” could have made the pacing so much tighter.
Dialogue - lots of asking questions, and some of the conversations with Oberon felt a bit too forced.
Exposition - on one hand, the exposition given to us as a character telling a story is cool. Atticus is really old and druids like passing knowledge through stories yada yada. But brother, we’re dropped a lot of lore as the “short version” of the story, and it just didn’t feel natural.
Do these issues improve in Hexed and following books? I am willing to power through a few weak first books for the juicy middle and end books, but I need to know if it’s worth it.