Review: Wishing the story was better edited because it is an interesting and engaging plot but the crafting of the story is frustrating and characters need to be fleshed out more.
Appetizer: "There are many perks to living for twenty-one centuries, and foremost among them is bearing witness to the rare birth of genius."
The first line identifies an intrigue about the main character, the fact that he has lived for over two thousand years. This drew me quickly into the story which jumped straight into action. However, this excitement was soon overshadowed by problems in the meat of the story.
Meat Course: The story overall had some surprising spices to an otherwise jerky story. Much of the novel was contrived or cliche and was short on the unexpected surprises that make stories like these great. For starters the immortal Druid owns and operates an occult shop. There is nothing unexpected or unusual about that but there could have been ways to make it so. I will say the action sets in quickly with the plot's point of tension beginning with the Druid's necklace. Hearne establishes the necklace's importance defending its wearer within the first chapter. "My cold iron amulet was bound to my aura, and by now they could no doubt see it: I was some sort of Iron Druid, their worst nightmare made flesh." This if followed by a detailed explanation of its creation (read very hard to make and took many years).
Additionally the creator wears the necklace who is also very old and one assumes experienced. So what does the character do?... He takes the necklace off to clean leaving himself completely unprotected and vulnerable. For a two thousand year old man, he's really, really, really stupid. Additionally, the author uses the moment of weakness to emphasize that he has a very stereotypical testosterone driven libido towards a "naked, statuesque woman with milk-white skin and raven hair" when she "draped an arm around [the Druid's] shoulder and trailed her nails down the back of [his] neck, causing [him] to shudder involuntarily." This happens again later in the story. I am not a fan of seduction or sex without an emotional connection, so this did not work well for me.
Getting back to the crafting of the story. So fairly early in the book the author has 'shown' the reader the necklace's importance and then proceeds to 'tell' the reader why the necklace is important. This is redundant and a crafting trait found throughout the whole of the novel. It is annoying and frustrating like having to chew the same piece of jerky over and over again.
This story does a lot, sometimes too much especially when the reader gets a double dose of show and tell. On of the aspects about fantasy is there needs to be clear cut rule for the universe of the story to exists. A lot of stories run into problems because they do not establish these rules for the reader or it takes too longer for the reader to understand what the rules are. Hearne's story actually goes in the other direction, the reader is bombarded with rules of the world and the Druid's seemingly infinite powers: seeing through fae glamour, self healing, sensing metal, communicating with other paranormal, immortal, handsome, converses with goddesses (has sex with them too), has a lawyer who has ghouls on call, a dog he can talk too, can "cloak" himself to change forms, etc... That is a lot to get a handle on in the first story and a little too good to be true.
Dessert: That is not to say that there aren't some good points. The overall concept of the story is very different and unique making it interesting and the key reason why I finished the main course. The really good part is Oberon, an Irish wolfhound in the series that is the Druid's 'familiar.' The dog is funny and communicates in English but with an identifiable doggy voice which provides excellent comedic quality to the story. "After my bathtime story, [Oberon] wanted to be the Genghis Khan of dogs. He wanted a harem full of French poodles, all of whom were named either Fifi or Bambi."
With better editing this could have been a great novel worthy of every course being devoured.
Word Count: 719
Edits: 2 (last updated 12/29/15)
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