Previous SFF Author: Karen Healey
Kevin Hearne grew up in Arizona and earned a degree in English Education at Northern Arizona University where he worked for the college newspaper as an editorial cartoonist and feature columnist. He’s been collecting comic books since he was a kid. Learn more at Kevin Hearne’s website.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE TITLES BY KEVIN HEARNE.
Thanks to retired reviewer Justin Blazier who recently caught up with Kevin Hearne at his local bookstore. Kevin is celebrating the release of Staked, the next installment in his popular IRON DRUID CHRONICLES. Leave a comment for a chance to win one of three paperback copies of Hounded, the first book of the series, or one hardcover copy of Staked. This giveaway is open to readers in the U.S. and Canada… And here’s Justin:
Last week,
A warm welcome to Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne, co authors of the July 17 released fairytale farce extraordinaire Kill the Farm Boy. Kevin kindly returns to the FanLit interview seat where we’ve spoken to him in the past about his fabulous IRON DRUID series.
Taya: Tell us about the genesis of Kill the Farm Boy. Whose idea was the premise and how did it evolve?
Kevin: Delilah and I were in the Dallas airport after a signing and killing time before our flights in a seedy barbecue joint.
The young-Irish-lad façade does not stand me in good stead when I’m trying to appear scholarly at my place of business — I run an occult bookshop with an apothecary’s counter squeezed in the corner — but it has one outstanding advantage. When I go to the grocery store, for example, and people see my curly red hair, fair skin, and long goatee, they suspect that I play soccer and drink lots of Guinness. If I’m going sleeveless and they see the tattoos all up and down my right arm,
Turns out that when you kill a god, people want to talk to you. Paranormal insurance salesmen with special “godslayer” term life policies. Charlatans with “godproof” armor and extraplanar safe houses for rent. But, most notably, other gods, who want to first congratulate you on your achievement, second warn you not to try such shenanigans on them, and finally suggest that you try to slay one of their rivals — purely as a shenanigan, of course.
It’s been three weeks since Atticus O’Sullivan slew two gods.
First things first: This one’s more serious.
Oh, there’s still humor here — and to butcher the nursery rhyme, when Kevin Hearne is funny, he’s very, very funny. I cackled madly as Atticus geeked out over his favorite author and demonstrated his knowledge of Internet memes. On the whole, though, Hammered is a much more serious story than either Hounded or Hexed. While giving us two books’ worth of side-splitting entertainment,
Atticus O’Sullivan, the 2000 year old druid who looks like he’s 22, has just pissed off a bunch of Old Norse gods (for details, read Hammered) and now he must go into hiding. It’s a good time for that because what he really wants to do is spend the next 12 years training his gorgeous and smart apprentice, Granuaile. Fortunately his werewolf lawyer can fix up some new identities, but first he has to fake his own death so the gods will stop hunting him,
Two Ravens and One Crow by Kevin Hearne
You could think of Two Ravens and One Crow as book 4½ in Kevin Hearne’s IRON DRUID CHRONICLES series. It’s a novella that takes place halfway between book 4, Tricked, and book 5, Trapped. I don’t always read these “extra” stories, but I think fans of THE IRON DRUID CHRONICLES will want to read this one because 12 years passes between Tricked and Trapped —Atticus is training Granuaile to be a druid during this time —and readers will want to see get a glimpse of what was happening all those years.
It’s been a long 12 years, but finally Atticus O’Sullivan is finished training his druid apprentice, Granuaile. Atticus and Granuaile faked their deaths and have been living in a trailer under the names Sterling Silver and Betty Baker, hoping they can get the training done before the gods find out they’re not really dead. (Kevin Hearne doesn’t tell us much about what happened during those 12 years, but he did write a novella, Two Ravens and One Crow, about an adventure that Atticus and the Morrigan had at about the halfway mark.
The Grimoire of the Lamb by Kevin Hearne
I don’t think it’s possible to get too much Atticus and Oberon.
That’s why I love these little novellas that Kevin Hearne has been putting out while we wait for his next IRON DRUID novel.
For those of you who don’t know, Atticus is an ancient druid who runs a bookstore in modern-day Arizona. His dog Oberon, a large Irish Wolfhound, is his humorous sidekick. In each novel, Atticus and Oberon have to deal with some sort of supernatural threat involving gods from various pantheons.
It seems like everyone is out to get Atticus and Granuaile, the world’s last two druids. They’re running from the goddesses Artemis and Diana, the vampires and dark elves want them dead, and Loki and his daughter Hel need to kill Atticus so they can unleash Ragnarok on the world. As the title tells, Atticus, Granuaile and their dog Oberon are being hunted in this sixth novel of Kevin Hearne’s IRON DRUID CHRONICLES. The hunt takes them across Europe, including the English Channel. It’s stressful for our heroes,
When Kevin Hearne’s IRON DRUID CHRONICLES series started with Hounded a few years ago, the story starred Atticus O’Sullivan, the world’s last druid, and his funny movie-watching Irish Wolfhound, Oberon.
In Shattered, the seventh novel (and the first one released in hardback!), we now have two more point-of-view characters. One is Granuaile, the former barmaid who became Atticus’ apprentice and is now a druid in her own right and has her own hound (Orlaith) that she can mind-speak to.
The Chapel Perilous by Kevin Hearne
Kevin Hearne has written several short stories and novellas set in his IRON DRUID CHRONICLES universe. These make a great introduction to the series for new readers and they give fans (like me) a little fix while we wait for the next novel to appear. Who wouldn’t want to spend an hour or two with Atticus O’Sullivan, the world’s oldest druid, and Oberon, his trusty Irish Wolfhound on a lazy afternoon?
“The Chapel Perilous” was originally published in Shawn Speakman’s Unfettered anthology and is now available as a 99₵ ebook.
Two Tales of the Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne
Well, I just can’t get enough of the Druid Atticus O’Sullivan and Oberon, his Irish Wolfhound. So, when I saw that two of Kevin Hearne’s IRON DRUID CHRONICLES short stories were recently produced in audio format and narrated by the amazing Luke Daniels, I had to have them. These stories have also been released in ebook format.
“Kaibab Unbound” is Kevin Hearne’s first short story. It takes place just a couple of weeks before the events of the first IRON DRUID CHRONICLES novel,
Note: Contains mild spoilers for previous books in the series.
Staked is the eighth novel of Kevin Hearne’s extremely popular IRON DRUID CHRONICLES. When this series started with Hounded back in 2011, the story focused on Atticus O’Sullivan, a two-thousand-year-old Druid (the last one on Earth) who owned a bookshop in Arizona. Hiding from Aenghus Óg, the Celtic god that wanted to kill him, Atticus was living a quiet life with his hilarious bacon-loving Irish wolfhound named Oberon….
Scourged (2018)is the ninth and final novel in Kevin Hearne’s IRON DRUID CHRONICLES. This has been a great series and I have looked forward to the release of each book as well as all of the related novellas and short stories. The IRON DRUID CHRONICLES is especially wonderful in the audio versions (Random House Audio) performed by the fabulous Luke Daniels. I’m absolutely certain I enjoyed them even more in audio than I would have in print format.
In Besieged, Kevin Hearne has collected nine short stories that take place at different times in his popular IRON DRUID CHRONICLES saga. On his website, Hearne labels Besieged as book #8.5 in the series while GoodReads amusingly lists it as #4.1, #4.2, #4.6, #4.7, #8.1, and #8.6. I’d recommend reading Besieged after Staked (novel #8) or, better yet, use it as a companion collection as you read through the series.
The Demon Barker of Wheat Street by Kevin Hearne
When you need your next Atticus and Oberon fix from Kevin Hearne, I recommend The Demon Barker of Wheat Street. This short IRON DRUID CHRONICLES story first appeared in Carniepunk, an anthology devoted to urban fantasy stories about carnivals. It can be purchased separately in a 35-page ebook format for 99c or in audio format for $1.32.
The Purloined Poodle by Kevin Hearne
If you haven’t been reading Kevin Hearne’s IRON DRUID CHRONICLES series, you are really missing out. These are fun fantasy adventures featuring a cool modern-day druid named Atticus and his canine familiar, an Irish Wolfhound named Oberon, possibly the most awesome sidekick in all of fantasy literature.
Everyone loves Oberon, so it’s not surprising that Hearne would spawn a series (called OBERON’S MEATY MYSTERIES) that gives Oberon center stage. As the name of the series implies,
The Squirrel on the Train by Kevin Hearne
Kevin Hearne’s IRON DRUID CHRONICLES (IDC) series is immensely popular, partly because of the Iron Druid’s hilarious canine side-kick, Oberon the Irish Wolfhound. The IDC novels are especially good in audio format, thanks to Luke Daniel’s amazing performance. His characterization of Oberon is particularly excellent.
Hearne and Daniels have smartly capitalized on Oberon’s popularity by spinning off a delightful series of novellas that feature Oberon as the protagonist and narrator.
A Plague of Giants by Kevin Hearne
Displaying his versatility, Kevin Hearne turns his pen to epic fantasy in A Plague of Giants (2017), the first novel in his SEVEN KENNINGS series. It follows a large cast of characters who live in different kingdoms on a continent that has just been invaded by a race of strange-looking people who are tall, thin and white-skinned. These Bone Giants, as they come to be called, came from across the water in ships and landed in several seaside towns.
A Blight of Blackwings by Kevin Hearne
A Blight of Blackwings is the second novel in Kevin Hearne’s SEVEN KENNINGS series, following A Plague of Giants which you’ll need to read first because this novel jumps in right where the first one left off. Hearne uses the same structure and frame story, with Fintan the bard using a magical device to turn himself into the image of each point-of-view character.
At the end of A Plague of Giants,
Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson & Kevin Hearne
Usually, any book that deals with cheese and has a talking goat will win me over. 2018’s Kill the Farm Boy has a talking goat, and it devotes many pages to thoughtful discussions of cheese. It looks deeply into the tropes of epic fantasy and fairy tales, then turns them upside down and inside out. Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne give us gonzo variations on conventional characters, lots of flatulence and poo jokes,
Fans of Kevin Hearne’s popular IRON DRUID CHRONICLES will be thrilled to learn that Hearne has a new spin-off series: INK & SIGIL. The first novel, Ink & Sigil (2020), introduces Al MacBharrais, an older widowed gentleman who has a unique talent. He uses special inks to create sigils that hack the brain through the ocular nerve. For example, the Sigil of Porous Mind makes the target open to suggestion, the Sigil of Certain Authority makes the caster appear to have the authority to do whatever they’re doing,
Paper & Blood is the second novel in Kevin Hearne’s INK & SIGIL series which is a spin-off of his very popular IRON DRUID CHRONICLES. In the first INK & SIGIL novel, Ink & Sigil, which you’ll want to read first (though Hearne thankfully gives us a “The Story So Far” summary – thank you!), we met Al MacBharrais, a sigil agent who uses ink and paper to create magic spells.
A Question of Navigation by Kevin Hearne
While on a hike, Clint Beecham gets abducted by aliens. The aliens have decided that humans are tasty and that Earth will make a wonderful buffet for them. Along with Clint, they’ve kidnapped 50,000 humans and are on their way back to their mother planet where they will report the location of this big delicious feeding trough.
Most of the captured humans have been put into a cargo hold and are being harvested for food, but Clint and a few others have been set aside for a special purpose.
There is so much free or inexpensive short fiction available on the internet these days. Here are a few stories we read this week that we wanted you to know about.
“Clan Rathskeller” by Kevin Hearne (2010, available at Kevin Hearne’s blog, audio available)
“Clan Rathskeller” is one of Kevin Hearne’s short stories set in his IRON DRUID CHRONICLES world. This one takes place before the events of the first book, Hounded. Atticus, the last druid, and his Irish Wolfhound Oberon, are in Tempe Arizona,
Previous SFF Author: Karen Healey
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…
this sounds like a fun one