Jim's Books

Trapped

Kevin Hearne

Trapped
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ISBN: 9780356501970

Description

After twelve years of secret training, Atticus O'Sullivan is finally ready to bind his apprentice, Granuaile, to the earth and double the number of Druids in the world. But on the eve of the ritual, the world that thought he was dead abruptly discovers that he's still alive, and they would much rather he return to the grave.

Having no other choice, Atticus, his trusted Irish wolfhound, Oberon, and Granuaile travel to the base of Mount Olympus, where the Roman god Bacchus is anxious to take his sworn revenge - but he'll have to get in line behind an ancient vampire, a band of dark elves, and an old god of mischief, who all seem to have KILL THE DRUID at the top of their to-do lists.

Reviewed on 2nd December 2015

The fifth book in the Iron Druid Chronicles surprised me by being set twelve years after the previous book - a twist that I certainly wasn't expecting and one that left me trying to puzzle out when the stories were actually set, as I'd assumed the earlier stories were contemporary and struggle to believe that Hearne would want to be trying to predict the near future.

However despite the potentially futuristic setting nothing major appears to have changed in the world - at least in the limited time we spend in the company of mortals rather then the many domains of fantastical gods and mythical creatures. I was left a bit disappointed that the stories didn't continue in the same vein, but clearly the author wanted to shift some things up a notch.

There are a few references to an adventure which I have discovered, since finishing the book, was depicted in one of a number of interstitial short stories that I hadn't even realised existed. Again that threw me off slightly and made me wonder whether I'd been reading the series in the wrong order.

Anyway, back to this book specifically, which follows the characters as they are drawn back out of hiding and become involved in a complex set of rivalries which I'm not convinced I could have followed even if I'd been taking notes as I went along. Similarly I have no idea quite why one event led to another, and was slightly baffled by some of the action scenes which I think I was to tired to follow accurately enough to appreciate.

I enjoyed some of the other new detail though - some fascinating world building expansion explaining how Druidism works in this world, and some character development that I was sceptical off at first but later bought into, and of course the returning fantastic humour built around Oberon.

So overall a book I enjoyed despite feeling I didn't take it all in, and one that I'm certainly looking forward to following up with the rest of the series and the shorter adventures which ochre missed so far.

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