Hammered by Kevin Hearne

Third book in, I'm still enjoying this series as light fluffy fun. Fairly violent light fluffy fun, in this particular book, but still, this is definitely popular fiction as opposed to literary. But more to the point, it's good popular fiction. I need my brain candy. This is becoming one of my favourite series for that.

On the other hand, there was much less Oberon the Wolfhound, and since he's pretty much my favourite character, that was not quite as fun.

In this one, Atticus ventures out on an ill-conceived mission to help a vampire and a werewolf kill Thor. (Why does that sound like the first line of a joke?) He's warned off of doing so by no less than Jesus and the Morrigan, but he swore an oath, and so, has to follow through. A couple of trips to Asgard, some nasty shit, and the start of what looks like the end of the world, if not exactly Ragnarok.

Jesus' appearance was amusing, but what I did like in particular about this book was the vast middle section that was mostly other gods with grudges against Thor telling why, as they all prepared to go into battle. It wasn't tension-filled, there wasn't any moving of the plot forward, but something in me always responds to tales told 'round the fire.

We find out why the vampire, the werewolf, a Chinese legend, a Russian thundergod and a Finnish god (or champion?) all want Thor dead, and they make some compelling cases. These are mostly new characters, as those we've known through the last few books are left back on Earth, where Atticus hopes they'll be safe when the Asgardians come looking.

I don't know how much else I have to say about this book. I enjoyed it. Perhaps not quite as much as the others, but still enough to want to keep reading further in the series. I shook my head, figuring Atticus should have figured out some loophole - when Jesus and the Morrigan both tell you the same thing, you maybe need to listen a little better. No man can escape his weird, I guess.

But yeah. The melding of all the different pantheons I like, the snark I like, and the easy distraction from heavier tomes (I'm looking at you, Mason & Dixon) very welcome. Two-thousand year old druids still feel pretty fresh, if not quite as an enjoyable new surprise as they were two books ago. (First books often get me extra excited, when I discover something entirely new. It's not that I enjoy later books less, it's just that it doesn't have that additional bump of a new and shiny discovery.)