Atticus is a 2,000 year old Druid, was born in Ireland, and now resides in Arizona in the USA.
The Iron Druid Chronicles is a nice urban fantasy that strays away from the somewhat common underdog trope. Sure, we all love an underdog, who doesn't? But sometimes it's nice to do some reading where the main character knows they can probably handle themselves, steps up to the plate, and knocks it right out of the park.
Sometimes, that's what Atticus does. Right in the opening of the first book we see him get attacked by fairies (vicious, murderous nobleman type fairies) and he beats them handily them summons something to eat them.
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| Suffer that woundikins you fairy scoundrel! |
The underdog example being a prominent one, that's one of the reasons I liked the Dresden Files. Harry Dresden is usually, if not always, on the back foot and you really feel like the story is dragging him kicking and screaming through the mud. But Harry Dresden never gives up, and neither does Atticus O'Sullivan.
On the flip side, the Iron Druid Chronicles you get the impression that Atticus is over his head but in the same way that I can't breathe if I stand at the bottom of a swimming pool, but I can swim. I can breathe just fine if I use my noggin' and actually start swimming.
It's almost unfortunate that this relieves a lot of tension from the story, even when you're thrown into climactic battles at the end of the books. Atticus just isn't in trouble like we're used to. The books are still very enjoyable, I don't want to detract from that, but perhaps they could be executed a bit better.
The characters in the Iron Druid Chronicles are colourful, varied, and have their own goals and ambitions. One of the things I do love about this series is that it pulls on a mythology that gets less of a look in than the standard European medieval fantasy.
What with Atticus being 2,000 years old he's old school. Literally. He's an old Irish druid and he has connections. He personally knows a lot of gods and most of them hail from the Emerald Isle B.C.E.. And I think that's pretty darn cool.
(Sidenote - anyone want to suggest other fantasy that's based on Celtic mythology or Ireland? Artemis Fowl not withstanding. I am game for some more of that)
So along with seeing some pretty smart destruction of dangerous faeries very quickly we also see the wonderful entrance of the Celtic goddess of battle, Morrigan, also make a swift appearance. And this is the flip side of being a top dog, It's a pleasant change from the constant uphill battle, it's more of a 'tread carefully lest ye be throttled by a god' kind of battle.
Speaking of dogs and battle, what good is an age old druid if he doesn't have some sort of warhound? No good, that's who.
But never fear, we have Oberon, the Irish wolfhound (come on now, was it really going to be anything else?). Oberon is the comic relief, he has all the typical sensibilities and attention span that you would expect of a dog and comes across as lovable and playful scamp. There are some flaws with Oberon, I think, though. For example, if there's a huge Irish wolfhound as the animal familiar of a kick-ass, 2,000 year old druid, I want to see him wreck the place up. You do occasionally see him helping out in some battles, but not being the avatar of doggy death and destruction that you would hope he would be.
Okay with all that I think I've rambled on at you enough for now!
To summarise; the Iron Druid Chronicles are quite an entertaining series but with a few flaws. Sometimes you get the feeling it tries too hard to make you laugh. I think this is probably a lot easier to deal with in the books where you can skim over bits, but when you're listening to the audiobook you're forced to hear every line of Atticus trying to speak as a lolcat to a vampire, and man is that awkward.
But the flaws shouldn't stop you. It is a lot of fun and it's nice to dive straight into the, pretty much non-stop, action. The world is interesting and the characters are fun. And even though there are a couple of bits that I found awkward, which were few and far between to be fair, I also found that I went through the first few books like nobody's business and that is always a very good sign. So definitely check it out if you enjoy urban fantasy
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