Hexed

Hexed by Kevin Hearne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Tempe's witch population booms, Atticus O'Sullivan is forced to make peace with the members of the former coven and join forces with them to drive the newcomers out of town. But what other deals will he have to make to see his task through to the end?

Hexed is the second volume in the Iron Druid Chronicles and nearly as good as the first. Witches following Bacchus roll into town from Vegas and start shaking things up. Throw in Coyote, Atticus' new apprentice, and some mop from the previous book and Hexed is pretty hard to put down. Once again, Atticus gets bits burned and lopped off, but manages to survive. He also manages to set up the next book.

The magic system in the Iron Druid Chronicles works better for me as a reader than that of the Dresden Files. That might be that Atticus doesn't explain the same things in every book, though. His modern slang continues to get on my nerves, however. I understand that he needs to fit in but his personality doesn't really fit my concept of a 2000 year old being either. He seems more like a typical 30 year old and doesn't display much more wisdom than that. I did appreciate the depth of his pop culture references, although he could stray further from the Butcher repertoire.

Curmudgeonations aside, I still had quite a bit of fun reading this. The widow McDonaugh and Oberon continue to be my favorites among the supporting cast. The witches were further developed and I expect they'll continue being a prominent part of the series. The Morrigan and Brighid seem to have a power struggle brewing.

Hexed shows that Hearne's pulling Atticus from the Harry Dresden mold but the imprints are still pretty clear. Four out of five stars.

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