Review: Tricked by Kevin Hearne
Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.
Quick & Dirty: This amazing series continues with another dark and humorous filled tale with the Druid Atticus, his dog Oberon and Granuaile. I highly recommend this series.
Opening Sentence: The best trick I ever pulled off was watching myself die.
The Review:
The Iron Druid Chronicles is an amazing series and continues its greatness with Tricked. If you have a love for any kind of mythology, you have to give this series a try. The attention to detail about the many gods from different pantheons and other supernatural creatures make this a dark, but fun series.
Tricked is the fourth novel in the Iron Druid series. It picks up not too long after Atticus has come back from Asgard where he and a misfit group took out Thor. Knowing that a bunch of gods are after his two thousand year old arse, Atticus plans his death. Using the god Coyote in his place, Atticus appears to be killed with several gods looking on. But it is all good for Coyote, he revives after each of his deaths plus he needs Atticus’s help in order to gain wealth for his people.
Atticus is led to believe that Coyote just wants land to be reshaped for a wind farm plus a gold mine to help with money issues. Unwittingly, Atticus has been lead into a war with two powerful skinwalkers fighting over that same land. Atticus works with a hataalii (not exactly a medicine man but that is the best way to describe him) in order to use the magic of the First World (the belief system of the native people on the land) to help in defeating the skinwalkers.
For a dead man, Atticus has to fight several wars on different fronts, one with the skinwalkers, one with a former vampire friend, plus, a new war has begun with Hel as she unleashes a powerful weapon that has the scent of Atticus’s blood. She will unleash Ragnarok and she will do it with or without Atticus’s help. He must do all this while training his one and only Druid initiate Granuaile.
Tricked is an action packed nonstop rollercoaster that is all over the place. Each story and fight intertwines with the other. The story is told strictly through Atticus’s first person point of view. Atticus is such a humorous, sarcastic and refreshing personality. His interactions with his dog Oberon really bring comic relief to the overall dark storyline. The atmosphere of this story has everything I enjoy from humor to drama to horror.
The attention to detail on the mythology may bog down the story a wee bit for people who don’t like that but I enjoy it because I love to learn about different myths from all over the world. The action scenes are very meticulous and it is easy to follow along with the fights.
Overall, Tricked is a dark and humorous story filled with many mythological gods and creatures. Some you may have heard of and others you may not have. I really enjoy these books for the mythological basis they have and the fact that I feel like I am learning about some gods I don’t really know about but would love to learn more. I highly recommend this series for fans of mythology and will continue to keep this series near the top of my “to read list”.
Notable Scene:
A snarl and an abrupt pressure announced the arrival of Oberon: He jumped on top of the vampire’s back, and thus on top of me, and did his best to bite through the vampire’s skull. It successfully distracted the vampire, because he tore loose from my neck, hissing, and coldly threw Oberon—all hundred and fifty pounds of him—straight through the open door to slam forcefully against the wall in the papered hallway. I heard his bones break and a pained yelp, closely followed by a startled scream from Granuaile, who was out there, and then the sound of my friend crumpling to the floor.
He had saved my life, because that gave me enough time to finish my unbinding and turn the vampire into a gory accident. He squelched and folded inside his suit until he was naught but a legendary dry-cleaning bill in the middle of the room. I tried to get out of the bed to help Oberon and instead tumbled into the carnage on the floor, too weak to keep my feet. I was still bleeding from the neck, and I had no magic left to heal myself.
“Call a vet!” I managed weakly. They were better last words, I supposed, than many others. I could see Granuaile kneeling next to Oberon, and he wasn’t moving. I couldn’t hear him in my mind either. Granuaile looked up from Oberon’s still form at someone’s approach in the hall. Her mouth dropped open.
Leif Helgarson strolled casually into the room, hands in pockets, a smirk on his misshapen face. It widened into a broad smile when he saw the remains in which I wallowed.
“Congratulations, Atticus,” he said. “You have just killed a vampire nearly as old as yourself. That was Zdenik, erstwhile lord of Prague and, briefly, the state of Arizona.”
No wonder he’d been so strong. “You . . . sent him here?” I said.
Leif removed his hands from his pockets and held them up helplessly. “Were you not the one who told me to orchestrate the deaths of my rivals? I have merely done as you suggested. Thank you for playing your part.”
The oxygen leeched out of the room at his words, and all I could breathe in was horror. What he’d done to Oberon and me—and possibly Granuaile—was all for his worthless territory games? The edges of my vision were going black; my blood was still leaking out of my neck, and I could not think of anything to say that would adequately convey the depth of my revulsion and loathing for him now. If I had the strength left, I would have unbound him on the spot; having no recourse, I fell back on Shakespeare. Leif would recognize it and understand the context properly. With my remaining few seconds of consciousness, I quoted Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing, who spoke these words to his former friend: “You are a villain: I jest not.” And then I collapsed into a pool of my own blood.
FTC Advisory: I purchased my own copy of Tricked. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.