A friend of mine, who enjoys Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files series as much as I do, recommended Kevin Hearne’s The Iron Druid Chronicles. Hearne’s series features Atticus O’Sullivan, the last Druid alive. He has an Irish wolfhound that talks to him. Atticus’ lawyers are a werewolf (during the day) and a vampire (for night court). There are witches and ghouls and demons. Yes, this is contemporary urban fantasy. I’m not a huge fan of this genre, but it’s a fun change of pace from spy novels and space operas. If you’re looking for some silly fluff with plenty of magical battles, Hounded and Hexed deliver. I’ll be reading the rest of The Iron Druid Chronicles soon. GRADE: B
This is exactly the kind of stuff – paranormal – that Jackie likes, with the proviso that is has to have a romance at the center of it.
Jeff, Jackie would enjoy HOUNDED and HEXED. Yes, there’s some romance in these books, some with humans and some with goddesses!
1. Urban fantasy, urban SF. Neither interest me.
2. I weep for the state of cover “art” these days. Portrait photo covers are taking over genre fiction, along with covers featuring primarily text. What a shame.
Rick, you’re right. The photo covers are replacing illustrated covers. It’s all about the money.
British paperbacks in the 70s and 80s used a lot of photo covers and they were almost universally awful.
I remember when Dell (I think) did a series of photo covers using people like Otto Penzler, which was sort of amusing.
Jeff, I remember those celebrity covers, too. Off-beat, but fun. I prefer book covers with artwork by artists like Robert McGinnis.