Merry Christmas! And don’t worry, we’re not far from the end now, guys! Just hang on tight!
So Flidais just arrived right the fudge out of nowhere. Atticus explains, once again, that she has absolute control over animals (hence her ability to knock out the werewolves), and that he has no intention of ever shapeshifting in front of her again. He’s also genuinely surprised that she was able to knock out the werewolves; he “had not thought it was possible to subdue a pack of werewolves through magic.” Why? [shrugs] I dunno. Magic can do a lot of things, like kill faeries by touch, mind control, and curse people using blood, but apparently Atticus, a two thousand year old Druid, just wrote off ‘subduing werewolves’ as impossible.
And hey, what’s Grannie/Laksha doing during this scene? [shrugs] I dunno. Hearne didn’t say after he mentioned that she took a defensive stance. She’s not a werewolf, so she shouldn’t be on the ground, knocked out. But she doesn’t get mentioned until a couple of pages into this chapter, only to say that she’s doing her best to not be noticed, and Flidais doesn’t care that she’s there, so we don’t either. I suspect what happened is that Hearne wrote this scene and forgot she was there, and hastily inserted a small bit or two to explain why she doesn’t do anything. Again, this is one of those things I’d probably overlook if this book had more redeeming qualities, but it doesn’t, so, uh, there you go.
Atticus is understandably a bit wary right now; he lowers his sword, but he doesn’t actually put it away, nor does he have any intention of doing so, and he asks Flidais what’s up. The goddess goes on to explain that the witches, not being complete morons, actually set some traps around themselves for the werewolves, all involving silver. AND all the witches are packing silver daggers.
“Physical traps with magic triggers?” I said.
Who cares? This is adding more complexity to an idea that doesn’t need it. It’s a magic trap—that’s all you need to say.
Atticus asks Flidais if she’s with them, and she replies that officially speaking, she was never here and she’s not on anyone’s side. Atticus explains to us that it’s because Flidais can’t “be seen taking sides against the Tuatha De Danann” because that’s… wait, no, that doesn’t make sense! Aenghus Og is in open rebellion against the rightful queen of the Tuatha De Danann! If this were phrased in a way that says that Flidais was an undercover agent of Brighid (which she is) then I’d give this a pass, but instead it’s phrased as if none of the Tuatha De Danann are allowed to publicly side against each other, even if one of them’s plotting to overthrow their monarch.
Whatever. Flidais won’t help fight, but she can give some advice, especially since she’s angry at Aenghus for ruining her hunt back in Chapter 6. Atticus decides, I guess, that this proves that Flidais is not someone you want to mess with?
I was glad we had no quarrel; I think I would have had an arrow in my gob long ago.
Except I don’t actually believe that the author would try that hard to have you killed. Furthermore, Atticus, I think you’re missing the point of this entire conversation, and that’s this: Flidais doesn’t always act directly. If she wanted you dead, she wouldn’t just shoot you, she’d put you in a situation where you’re likely to be killed and then have no official ties to the scenario so she could get off scott-free. That’s what she’s doing to Aenghus right now.
Idjit.
Also this?
She had her bow and quiver with her now, I noticed; the protective rawhide strips on her left arm were new and fresh.
Who cares?
Finally getting back on topic, Atticus asks if there’s a way to avoid the traps, and Flidais tells him there isn’t; they form a perimeter around the witches’ location (and that of the hostages), so no matter how they go through, they will set off at least one trap. She recommends that they sacrifice one of their number to get through. And so that’s the plan they go with. Which, uh… hang on… wait, what?
Someone has to die, or at least be grievously injured for them to continue? Isn’t that incredibly morbid? Look, you’re telling me that Atticus can look at the spell used to mind control Fagles and let him see his sword, and disable that, but he can’t undo a single magic trap? He’s not even going to try to do that? Really? And even if they had to send someone through to get whammied by a trap, isn’t Atticus the best choice? Strategically speaking, he’s your Tank. Atticus heals super-fast, can draw power from the Earth, and can pop right back up pretty soon. He’s not harmed by silver in the same way that werewolves are.
But nope! Not only is Atticus not going to be the one who goes through and gets stuck through with silver needles, it is not even discussed.
I want to reiterate in case you weren’t paying attention, so listen up: THE PLOT TELLS ATTICUS THAT SOMEONE MUST SACRIFICE HIM OR HERSELF, RESULTING IN DEATH OR GRIEVOUS INJURY… AND HE DOESN’T EVEN CONSIDER OFFERING HIMSELF UP.
Can you imagine being this much of a selfish douchebag? Can you? Let’s do this thing I used to do with Angelopolis all the time that I call: Remove the Fantasy Elements. Imagine you and your friends are off on a quest to go rescue another of your friends, who only got kidnapped because of something YOU did, and then you learn that the only way to rescue your friend in time is for one of you to sacrifice yourselves, and you just turn to your friends and say, “Yeah, so one of you has to die now, sorry mate.”
‘Cause that’s what Atticus does! It doesn’t even cross his mind to try to disarm a trap, or to trip one of them himself. He’s told by someone he considers only mildly trustworthy that someone must get hit with a trap, and ATTICUS, the PERSON THEY ARE HERE FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE, the one member of the party who could potentially HEAL HIMSELF FROM THE INJURIES THE TRAP WOULD INFLICT, DOESN’T OFFER TO BE THE ONE TO DO IT. It’s just explained to his friends that one of them has to die, and that’s that.
To be fair, given these are magic traps, it’s possible that they would only be triggered by a werewolf, but Flidais doesn’t say that. She says absolutely nothing to that effect. And if she did, you’d think Atticus would offer to go it alone to avoid letting harm fall upon his friends. But he doesn’t have friends, Atticus has people who he can use and discard when it’s convenient to him. So he sees nothing wrong with demanding that people die for his own vendettas, and the narrative sees nothing wrong with letting him get away with this.
Atticus is a greedy, lecherous, scum-sucking, yellow-bellied, frat-tastic narcissist. And we’re not only meant to root for him, but see him as a hero.
Flidais explains that Aenghus Og is drawing up a lot of power from the Earth, and that when they get past the traps then the witches are still, y’know, witches, so they have to deal with that. But Hal and Oberon are doing okay, so I guess the death of one of your friends is still A-okay.
Our protagonist asks what Flidais did to the werewolves anyway, and Flidais says that she subdued them because Atticus wasn’t doing anything about it. She seems to not realize that he can’t do that by himself, which is weird considering from Atticus’s comments this is a pretty tricky and nigh-impossible piece of magic, one that Flidais manages only because controlling animals is her speciality. She also comments that when she leaves, they’ll wake up and be kind of upset, so it’s a bummer for Atticus that he can’t control them the same way.
Also, Atticus tells her that even if he could control them like that, he wouldn’t, but we all know that’s a lie as he’s willing to sacrifice one of them to get what he wants.
And we get this:
They will turn on me merely to vent their spleen.”
“Vent their spleen? Are you trying to quote Master Shakespeare to me again?” She smiled at me, and I began to think of things I really shouldn’t before going into battle. “Because no one in this age speaks of spleen venting.”
“No, you’re right,” I said. “I get my idioms mixed up sometimes. It would be more contemporary to say they’re going to go apeshit on my ass. So what would you suggest?”
Another shot for “What the kids say these days!” Seriously, why is Atticus so insistent that he has to use expressions that he thinks are modern? It’s not like he’s talking to people who care for most of the book. And it’s weird because the modern substitution he uses almost always contain swear words. Again, it’s not bad to use swear words in fiction, but it feels like Hearne’s trying really hard to sound hip and kewl by throwing them in there for no purpose.
And hey! Good to see that having Flidais smile at him is enough for Atticus to get a boner right now. He’s about to go into a Boss Fight with his worst enemy for the last two thousand years, and he’s just been told that one of his werewolf friends is probably going to die. But pfffft, Flidais is hawt, amirite? So naturally he’s thinking of having sex with her!
[Shouldn’t it be ‘vent their spleens’ anyway? It isn’t as if the werewolves all share a single spleen.]
[And why ‘apeshit’ anyway? It doesn’t fit with the mental image of, y’know, WOLVES. It brings to mind a different picture altogether.]
I also don’t understand how werewolves work in this universe? Apparently, when they wake up they’ll be so angry they won’t hesitate to attack Atticus? Are werewolves just raging murder monsters all the time then? I complain a lot about ‘Show Don’t Tell,’ but in this case, it’s like… showing us in a situation that’s vague and explicitly out of the ordinary. This? Werewolves getting magically fainted by a goddess? It doesn’t ever happen, in Atticus’s experience, so it’s not a great measure for understanding how werewolves work.
Flidais decides to [sigh] Make It Easy! for Atticus some more by telepathically telling the werewolves what’s up before waking them, and telling them that if their sacrificed companion manages to survive, she will help pull silver out of his or her body! Thanks, I guess. The werewolves growl but don’t do much else, and after Flidais leaves they dash towards the bad guys and battle—
[sits up abruptly]
You know, this fight would be much easier with guns.
We’ve talked a bit before in the comments, I think, about how really good urban fantasy makes use of the modern setting. Both Dresden Files and Skulduggery Pleasant have heroes that use magic, melee weapons, AND guns. Granted, against a lot of threats, they don’t always work, but in many situations they do, or at least slow down magical enemies enough to buy some time. Not in Iron Druid Chronicles apparently! We’re not given any explanation as to why Atticus doesn’t use a gun, other than the excuse he feeds the Leprechaun in his BS story when she asks: that he’s Irish. Apparently Atticus thinks Irish people don’t use guns. Considering that at the time he’s talking to someone who was involved with the Irish Troubles, you’d expect her reaction would be like this:
Now, with Atticus having unlimited time and funds, his constant lectures about practicality versus honor, and little regard to the law, he could very easily get his hands on some firearms and night vision goggles. He doesn’t need to go through all of this: all he has to do is get a rifle with a scope, find the witches in the clearing, and headshot them one by one. Aenghus Og, as Brighid mentioned and we see later in this scene, is wearing magical armor, so that won’t work on him, but you could definitely take out the witches. Most of them don’t have those magical protections on them.
Or heck! Use a bow! Surely with his Druid powers, he could snipe further than a mortal archer. And we know that Atticus can shoot a bow: after all, he explicitly tells us that Flidais taught him horseback archery so he could join the Golden Horde. And he grabs a bow to hunt enemies in the very next book!
If anybody was sensible, the situation would be approached like this: Atticus and his friends shoot around the assembled witches, taking out as many as they can. Then Atticus turns into an owl, flies over the traps, lands in front of Aenghus, fights him, and then BOOM! Plot solved. If the writer were any good, he’d come up with excuses for that not to happen, to preserve drama, but instead we’re just… running in because that’s how you approach Boss Fights, I guess. The idea of using ranged weaponry doesn’t even come up.
The werewolves run ahead of them because they’re in full-on Rage Mode.
But for Gunnar and the rest of them, this wasn’t about saving a pack member so much as saving face. No one could be allowed to mess with the Pack and not suffer retribution—with, perhaps, the exception of Flidais.
Why?! Why are werewolves supposed to be this macho?! I get it, they’re half animal, but the fact of it is that the animal half is of a creature best known for using teamwork and strategy to take down their prey. All of them running straight at the enemy with little regard to their own safety is the exact opposite of that!
But nope! Can’t be thinking about these things. Instead, werewolves are just angry Macho Men. Laksha even comments that being angry makes them stronger. For Reasons.
They get close, and Laksha says she’s going to fight Radomila now, as they’re near enough now and the werewolves could use some help, and draws herself a circle in the dirt. Atticus continues on ahead alone to catch up with the werewolves. He finds the werewolf that tripped the trap.
It was hard to miss, because there was a werewolf moaning pitiably on the ground, with silver needles sticking out of him like S&M acupuncture.
I’m sorry, what?! You see someone stuck full of needles, and your first thought for comparison… is a sex thing? Not, like, a pincushion, which I think is the simile anyone else would have gone with? You jump immediately to sadist/masochist sex play?! We’ve talked about Atticus having a one-track mind, but… one of his friends is full of deadly needles, and his mind compares this to a sex thing.
And who was the wolf who drew the short straw? We don’t know for sure, but Atticus thinks that it’s Dr. Snorri Jodursson. That’s right, the Pack’s doctor is the one who was chosen to get himself possibly killed. You know, the doctor who the Pack employs to help them and Atticus in times of trouble? Who pays a team of doctors to keep his supernatural clients out of the public record? Yeah, that guy.
Now is it just me, or is this possibly the stupidest decision the Tempe Pack has made in the book? Letting their healer get in a potentially fatal situation? He’s the last guy you want to get killed. Atticus is confused by it too, not because logic but because Snorri was pretty high-ranking in the pack. But he doesn’t care, ‘cause he just moves on with a quick “I would never understand pack politics.” Never mind that the guy who stitched him up a few chapters ago, and is meant to be a friend, I guess, is bleeding out right there. Nope! Not important.
And hey, isn’t it handy that the werewolves got here first? Because out of the six witches present, four of them are already dead when Atticus arrives on the scene! How convenient! The only two left are Emilya and Radomila, the ones we actually care about. Three other werewolves have been injured, and Atticus tells us that they’re not doing so hot, but we don’t get much detail other than that.
Radomila’s a miniboss, so she’s in a cage lined with silver doing her spells. This would be fixed with a ranged weapon. Emilya runs away, and the werewolves are about to follow her, but then realize that she’s only leading them to the perimeter traps, so they don’t pursue and she gets away to be a pain in the next book.
It was time for me to act.
YA THINK?! This chapter book has been other people doing stuff for you, including getting killed! It’s far past time you did something!
There was nothing more they could do—I sincerely doubted they would be able to take on Aenghus Og, and last long. I doubted I could either, but I had some hope.
…what? Where is this coming from? Since when has Atticus expressed anything but the upmost confidence in his own abilities compared to Aenghus? He keeps telling and showing us that he can curbstomp every enemy that gets in his way. He’s only been vaguely nervous about Aenghus Og coming for him in Tempe, but he’s done nothing to actually prepare himself other than go about his day and talk to people he knows around town. And now he’s telling us, “Oh, I don’t know if I’ll be able to beat him
NO! Let’s not act like there’s any fear of failure here. You know and I know that what’s going to happen is that they’re going to fight in a way that shows just how much more TEH AWESOMEZ Atticus is than Aenghus. It wouldn’t surprise me if Atticus threw in the word ‘AWESOMEZ’ because he thinks people say that nowadays, although he’d also put a F-bomb there too.
Anyhow, Aenghus Og is there, clad head-to-toe in silver-plated armor, apparently doing… who knows while the werewolves were slaughtering witches. To be fair, they can’t even touch him, because his armor is silver-plated. There’s a detailed description of his armor too, if you care: Corinthian helmet, silver gorget, chain skirt, and some silver spurs. Atticus calls the spurs “a surreal mash-up of medieval armor and American spaghetti westerns” which is weird, ‘cause… well, medieval knights also used spurs. As did the ancient Celts, in fact.
He’d planned to involve the Tempe Pack all along—for many months it would seem, because that suit of armor had to be a fairly recent commission… It spoke to me of a level of connivance that chilled the marrow of my bones—when he found out where I was, he had known I would involve the Pack through my lawyers… He had outplayed me with the witches from the beginning, had two different police departments playing fetch for him, and had anticipated or even counted on a pack of werewolves showing up tonight: What else had he thought of ahead of time? What was he doing with that fire pit, and what was Radomila up to?
[yawn] Oh, I’m sorry, am I supposed to care what he’s saying? Because I don’t. This part is supposed to make Aenghus Og feel like a credible villain, but that doesn’t change that he has been on page for one chapter and he hasn’t said or done anything we haven’t already been told he’s going to do. He hasn’t said anything at all actually.
This moment is meant to convey to the audience how devious Aenghus is, how he’s been planning this for months and he’s a perfect manipulator. Except Atticus has walked through all of Aenghus’s minions at a leisurely pace and has refused to take him seriously. It’s just now that Aenghus is in front of Atticus that our protagonist is worried about him. And as we’ve discussed, Aenghus’s plans have all been really stupid. If he wanted to kill Atticus that bad, all he had to do was hire someone to shoot him. That’s it! That’s all! We’ve even seen him telepathically talk Fagles into shooting Atticus: why didn’t he do that with a bunch of gunmen?
And hey, if Aenghus has known about Atticus being in Tempe for months, why did he send that scouting party of faeries at the beginning of the novel? The first chapter? That served no purpose other than to start the book with an easily-won fight scene.
This all falls flatter than a pancake.
So what’s Aenghus doing with the fire? Why he’s summoning stuff! First comes Death, riding a pale horse, given no description other than being a hooded figure on a pale horse. Because Hearne has no creativity. Atticus explains that because the Christian personification of Death is here personally, then his deal with the Morrigan won’t save him. If he gets killed, Death will take him to the afterlife, Morrigan or no Morrigan. Atticus begins to wonder if the Morrigan had planned for this, but I don’t care.
He also notices that Aenghus is drawing up a lot of power from the Earth, actually killing the plant life around him, and Atticus is actually upset about this because as a Druid he’s supposed to care about this I guess. This really makes him mad, too. Atticus acts like this is some sort of perverse use of magic, because Druids are supposed to protect the Earth, and screwing with power like this “was solid proof that his priorities had widely diverged from the old faith, and he had bound himself to darkness.”
Dude. You’re the one who made an amulet that makes him deadly to faeries to touch, breaking the rules of magic. And you sold the secrets of that amulet to the Morrigan, the goddess of violent death and war. You just let the guy who stitched you up get shot full of deadly needles FOR YOU without raising any objections. Don’t claim the moral high ground here.
If I were to die tonight,
You won’t. We all know you won’t. We’d know that even if this wasn’t the first in a series. We know that Hearne won’t give you any trouble.
it would be a death any Druid would be proud of—not fighting on behalf of some petty Irish king’s wounded pride or his yearning for power over a small island in the great wide world, but fighting on behalf of the earth, from which all our power derives and from which all our blessings spring.
Stop claiming you have some sort of moral reason for doing this! Atticus is here because they kidnapped his dog! It’s not like protecting nature has been something he’s cared about before now either. In his civilian life, it’s not like we see Atticus promoting clean energy, or conservation efforts, or recycling, or growing a sustainable environmentally-friendly garden. No, he’s been a regular slimeball, hunting in public parks, stealing municipal funds, selling drugs to college kids, and doing everything he can to benefit himself. He doesn’t step out of his comfort zone until he’s forced to.
So no, Hearne, don’t try to spin Atticus as some environmentally-conscious eco-warrior. He’s not. He’s just some douchebag villain you’re barely even trying to spin as a hero.
Atticus leaps at Aenghus Og, sword held high and screaming at the top of his lungs. And then demons start crawling out of the fire pit, because of course they do and that’s the end of the chapter.
Have a happy holiday season, guys!
Comment
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The Smith of Lie on 21 December 2019, 10:26 said:
Merry Christmas to you too!
Why would that be any different than knocking out a pack of wolves? I mean we know that Atticus, who is human, was vulnerable to her magic while shape-shifted. The book gave us no reason to suspect werewolves would be any different than a magic shape-shifter in that regards.
Now if they were like Werewolves from the Werewolf: Apocalypse in Crinos form there’d be some reason to at least suspec there’s some doubt here. But we get nothing except what I assume is a pointless wank about how awesome the goddess that Atticus shagged is.
I guess there’s a first time for anything. Even for Atticus not being a completely carless and reckless.
If only the book had gone into some details about political situation amongst Tuatha, established some of them beyond “a bad guy” and “bunch of hot goddesses that Atticus has/is gonna to have sex with”. We could have Aenghus pull off Baron Harkonen by securing support or at least non-involvment from the major players among Tuatha as a preparation for his bid for power. And Flidalis could be skirting the line by keeping to the letter of agreements made, while going against their spirit in a clever fashion.
And yes, I am sorry for describing the alternative timeline where the book does not suck. But it is the same one where Hitler discovered cure for cancer, so you know it is one of the weird ones.
Oh hey, another weird timeline. How awesome would it be if the whole affair whe the Sword was set-up by Flidalis playing a long con to get Atticus killed by Aenghus?
Yes, it would be even more ridiculously circuitous than what actually happened, but it would be hilarious.
You forgot that they have Laksha with them, who is allegedly some sort of Uberwitch, capable of taking whole coven at once (with her McGuffin) and backed by centuries of experience. You’d expect that she might know a trick or two when it comes to disrupting magic traps. But that’d rob Atticus of a chance to sacrifice one of his
friendspawns. We all know that deep inside he enjoys the thought of having someone die for him.You know what I have not raved about in a while? Flashman. Harry Flashman is a scum of the Earth, a coward and a blackguard. And you know what? He’d make a show of offering to take a hit himself. Sure, it’d be done in such a way to solicit an offer from someone else, an offer that’d Flashman would allow himself to be convinced to accept. But he’d at least think about the option, before trying to talk himself out of it.
And Flashman would fully acknowledge that what he is doing is manipulative and morally wrong. He wouldn’t let that stop him, but for all his faults he knows who he is and makes no pretense to be otherwise in narration. (And that is why I love him as a character even if I have to condemn a lot of his actions.)
This was the very first thing I thought about when I read that the witches are all armed with silver daggers. Except I applied it to the bad guys. Why are the witches using daggers? We have been given no indication that magic inteferes with technology, so why not guns?
Hell, even if magic and tech did not go together, why not bows or crossbows? Going into hand to hand with a wolf strikes me as a pretty poor idea, especially with a short weapons. Sure, it can be done, but when one thinks of witches, it does not include a reputation for deadly skills in close quarters.
But of course, and this explains both witches using daggers as well as Atticus and co not laying an opening barrage on the baddies, all characters in the book are barely functioning morons who wouldn’t know strategy and tactics even if the two ambushed them during a river crossing and shot full the cast full of holes.
At this point, given the subtlety and delicate care with which Hearne covers the matters, I’ll take it and be happy that this did not translate to Atticus using pipe bombs…
Also this strikes me as incredibly callous. It is his
friendpawn who just took a hit for his sake, possibly sacrificed his life. And here’s Atticus making light of it, by employing a really inappropriate witticism.Ok, here’s what I would do if I were a power-hungry, god bent on killing Atticus and getting a magic sword from him.
I’d get a mortal goon good with guns. I’d have them ambush Atticus on a street and shoot his kneecaps. And break his arms with a baseball bat, just to be sure. All this on a nice, insulating layer of concrete. Then have them throw Atticus into a van and drop them off at some quiet, private property. Where I’d have Atticus swinging from some meat hooks to ensure no healing-factor shenanigans. From there on it is a straightforward affair of flaying him slowly untill he tells me where the sword is. Once that is that flaying can be continued for its own sake.
Well it is an obvious, last moment attempt to give the whole thing some more gravitas than a sunday trip to the mall. Given what happened through the book and the lack of any real activity from Aenghus, so he needs to be retroactively made actually threatening.
You know that you made your protagonist too strong when the Big Bad has to go through a hoops of summoning a FUCKING HORSEMAN OF APOCALYPSE just to be able to take them on. Usually one ramps the stuff up to the level of characters from Book of Revelation at the earliest in the book 4 or 5, preferably even later. I mean where do you take if from here? There’s no reasonable escalation from a freaking Death showing up.
Well either that, or the Death is getting cheapend beyond all reason and becomes a pointless ornament serving only to show how awesome the protagonist is.
Ah, but we need to build up some tension! I mean, there was pretty much none so far, so cramming few lines about how Atticus thinks he might die is the only way to create an illusion of it.
It does not work.
Well, blow my legs off and call me shorty, I expected Atticus to end the chapter by going off to go and catch a nap, as he is wont to do when he’s promising to take action.
Juracan on 22 December 2019, 07:27 said:
The only thing that seems to make werewolves different than other magic-users who shapeshift into animals in this book seems to be that werewolves are rage monsters? They wolf out when they get angry, which happens more easily, and apparently get stronger when they’re upset? How this translates to them being more resistant to magic controlling them, I don’t know.
That’s one of the big issues with this book when it comes to backstory: it doesn’t do a lot of it when it comes to the Tuatha de Danann. It’s like the book assumes you have a basic understanding of Irish mythology, except we don’t. If it was just Atticus throwing some references out there, it’d be less weird, but several of these gods actually show up in the Plot, so it’s confusing. What’s also confusing is that at the same time, it expects you to not know about Irish mythology, because if we did we’d know that this book’s characterization of Aenghus Og is complete bunk in contradiction with everything in the myths about the guy.
So instead of developing these characters, he just sort of throws them at you nonsensically, doing what he wants with them whether or not it makes sense to the mythology or what he’d previously written.
Really awesome, but sadly, Atticus doesn’t die at the end of this book.
To be fair, Hearne himself forgot they had Laksha with them.
But yeah! You’re right! Especially considering that it’s the same brand of magic: witchcraft! So there’s no reason I can think of that she wouldn’t give it a try. We’re not sure why they have any sort of time limit on this, so Atticus or Laksha should totally just sit and be able to disarm a trap or two. But nope! Can’t have that, I guess.
Atticus is such a douchebag.
This is exactly the sort of character Atticus should be, based on how he acts and thinks, but instead he’s written in the least interesting way possible. He’s just some lazy dick but everyone praises him as clever and brave when he hasn’t even pretended to be so.
Yup. Like you said, we’re given no indication that magic and technology interfere with each other, so it’s just… really dumb that no one’s using guns in this fight. Atticus keeps telling us over and over again how he’s clever for not caring about honor or the like, and that he’s all for sneaky tactics if it keeps you alive, and yet… he doesn’t even think about using guns, or doing anything in this final battle except a straightforward charge. With a sword.
You know that’s fair.
Basically. It’s not like Atticus has to fight Death or anything. Death’s just… there to chill and watch.
Nah, even Hearne knows that when he’s near the end of the book, something has to happen. It’s going to be lame and anti-climactic, but it will be something.
The Smith of Lie on 22 December 2019, 10:24 said:
It’s not even the lack of backstory. I can imagine a universe in which I go along with “well, yeah all those legend got the stuff wrong and all those gods and creatures are actually different” schtick or with just giving us tha bare-bones basics and letting the curious do their own research into mythology. But it is the way the Tuatha are (non)involved into the plot that annoys me.
A story with the plot “For the last 1000 years or so Odin was gathering the greatest warriors of the human race and now the Earth is gonna become the field of battle between Aesir and the Jotunn.” is not mythically accurate, but it does something interestinw with the premise of what the gods were doing in the meantime and what are they up to these days. (Also I just described a premise for an amazing, anachronistic, over the top post-apocalypse setting.)
Hounded does nothing of the sort. We get no insight into Tuatha internal politics, they are not developed as characters, we know nothing about their relationship with modern mortals. They are as much cardboard cut-outs as the Garden Gnome Leperchaun. They only do the things that are required to put the Atticus through the barest minimum of plot and they barely even get an excuse of a motivation.
And this connects with how they are all stupid and archaic. Of course they are. Because Hearne gave no thought to their characterization beyond “haha, they still act like it’s 114 BC. I am so clever.”
Huh, I thought we got that back when Flidalis jumped into the bed with Atticus.
Juracan on 22 December 2019, 10:35 said:
This probably describes
mostall of the characters of the novel. But you’re right—it’s especially egregious with the gods, because we’re meant to believe that they’ve been around for thousands of years, and they apparently spent that time… doing absolutely nothing.Their lives revolve around Atticus, apparently.
TMary on 10 December 2023, 01:12 said:
Starspirit: Well, hey. As TMary said last time, I’m writing the novel for this chapter, because, um, it made me explode in several places and I wanted to talk about it. Hope that’s cool with everybody!
I’ll drink to that. cracks open a bottle of ginger tea and takes a swig
scratches his head Is it me, or is it kinda weird that Hearne picked werewolves as the anti-magic of his supernatural world? I mean, okay, somebody is currently out there going “It’s fantasy, bro, it doesn’t have to make sense, you’re overthinking it”. But … I dunno. For me, there should be at least a kind of internal logic to a magic system, not just picking characteristics and species(es) out of a hat and combining them at random. Like, at least give me some reasoning behind it — spells which were designed for humans don’t work on them while they’re being wolves because they’re not currently in a human form? Just something. But throwing out “oh yeah, werewolves are super-resistant to magic” just makes me go “…Okay but like why, though?”
It might help if I had any idea what these werewolves look like when they’re in wolf form. All Hearne says is that they’re really scary, which … maybe implies that they don’t look exactly like normal wolves, but then again the Leprechaun describes them as “big dogs”, and frankly, a wolf pack bearing down on you, out for your blood, is pretty darn terrifying all by itself. So I really don’t have an image in my head for what Hearne’s werewolves look like. And that’s a problem, because werewolves are not really a fantasy creature with one stock appearance. If you asked me to picture a unicorn, say, I would just think of a white horse with a horn, unless you told me “Oh, actually, I’m doing the classical cloven-hooves thing” or “Oh, actually, this is a qilin, which is really a whole other animal”. But a werewolf … there’s kind of a lot of ways you could interpret that. Are they just wolves? Are they mostly like wolves but with minor differences? Are they hideous man-wolf creatures that walk on two legs? I don’t actually have a standard picture in my head, and since Hearne’s not giving me his picture, I don’t know what to see, and therefore I don’t know what to expect from it. shrugs Could just be me, though.
Hearne keeps doing this thing where he throws out these little details like they matter, like he has this whole complicated magic system planned out where there’s a difference between a physical trap with magic triggers and a magical trap with physical triggers, or something. I dunno why he does it, whether it’s to make this feel like a fleshed-out world or whether it’s to make Atticus seem smart1, but it’s kind of gettin’ on my nerves, since none of it actually matters in the end.
Yeah, that’s … wouldn’t that be taking sides for the Tuatha Dé Danann against their enemies? This book’s logic is frickin’ upside-down.
This is a really good point, but I have to say that I think Hearne also missed the point of what he was writing. Which is just … astoundingly oblivious.
However, I have no such blind spots. Excuse me for a second.
What Flidais did not warn Atticus of was the final trap laid for him by the witches and Aengus Óg, the fail-safe to ensure that even if they died, they would take this offensive little man with them. As he was striding away from the battlefield, bloated with smug satisfaction, an arrow, magically hardened and attuned to the aura of his amulet, struck it in the exact center and shattered it instantly. He scarcely had time to react to its loss when another one found his heart.
Brigid later confronted Flidais about it, but, well, as Flidais herself pointed out, she had been nowhere near the battlefield at the time, and the arrows bore no sign of her handiwork and all signs of the coven’s. And she had warned O’Sullivan before he entered combat, the werewolves themselves attested to that. And if, a day or so before this battle, the Morrigan had chosen to go back on the deal she had long ago made with the druid, was that Flidais’s fault? Perhaps she and the Morrigan had spoken recently — perhaps even of O’Sullivan, perhaps vented a bit about his arrogance and indolence — but it was the Morrigan’s decision in the end, to spare him death or leave him to it. The Morrigan herself certainly fiercely denied having been influenced by any but her own mind.
In the end, Brigid had to accept that there was no way to prove Flidais had planned for this. And really, Flidais mused to herself, she had done her queen a favor, and Brigid would see that soon, once her annoyance blew over. O’Sullivan, lying, lazy, loathsome revenant that he was, had outlived his usefulness. Defeating Aengus Óg was a great service, but there was no particular reason to keep him around after that. He really was very annoying.
leans back and sighs with satisfaction That felt good. What next?
Like, if this was a sign that she was about to go into battle or something, it would make sense and would matter. But she ain’t. So it don’t.
Since I was asked to proofread this chapter and let you know if there were any errors (not that I’m the right person for that job at all, but I’ll do my best), I feel I should point out that you said “Flidais tells her” in that sentence. Which threw me off for a second there. XD
sudden frozen grin Ah. Ah, yes. This. THIS is why I’m here.
pant
pant pant
OK. OK, I think I can go on calmly.
THIS. I HAVE NEVER MORE EMPHATICALLY THIS-ED IN MY LIFE.
tugging on his own ears in frustration Look, O’Sullivan, I’ve been in the kind of situation you’re in right now, before. I’ve been in situations where my family and friends were in danger, where it was them or me. And I always picked me. I always said, “Let me do it.” “I can’t ask any of you to do this.” “Please, don’t hurt them, hurt me.” I say this not to get a medal, or to be lauded as a Great Hero; I’m just saying that that is what you do when your loved ones’ safety and happiness and very lives are at stake! And yes, if you keep sacrificing yourself, odds are good they will start arguing with you about it — offering to go in your place, telling you that they won’t let you do this alone. I’ve had arguments like that. I’ve lost some of them. And I don’t exactly regret the fact that my friends and family loved me enough to take a hit for me — I’m just sorry that they had to take anything at all, that I couldn’t protect them from that.
furious again But you, O’Sullivan, you selfish parasite, you have never done anything that didn’t benefit you in some way, and sometimes you don’t even do that. You have no redeeming qualities whatsoever, not even charisma, and I’m completely at a loss to understand why anybody should or would be willing to die for you. I mean, there’s the fact that one of their own is in there, so I could understand somebody being willing to risk their lives for Hal, but the fact that Atticus doesn’t even think to offer himself for the job, or to try and disable the trap, is just mind-blowing levels of selfishness.
You know who this makes me think of? Giovanni. You know, the dark twisted abusive kinda father-figure, who ran the international crime syndicate bent on world domination, who had me created as a weapon and lied to and manipulated me for the first few years of my life, who kidnapped and tortured me and my loved ones? Yeah, him. Atticus reminds me of no one so much as him, right now. Because Giovanni is a sociopathic narcissist who thinks he’s more important than anyone else on the planet, and therefore we should all be willing to lay down our lives for him if need be, out of gratitude for him deigning to allow us to exist in his world in the first place. But him lay down his life, him even inconvenience himself, for one of us peons, oh no, that’s going too far. He’s too important, don’t you know. He deserves our loyalty, not the other way around. And since he can’t get loyalty in the usual way — by being a decent human being who other peple are happy to help — he’s not above manipulation and gaslighting and emotional abuse to convince people that they’re nothing without him, that he’s the only one who’ll ever bother to care about them, and therefore the least they can do is everything he wants, whenever he wants it.
I know Atticus isn’t close enough to the werewolves to have that kind of relationship here, and I know this is just bad writing. But that’s what’s coming to mind for me. At the very least, it’s a similar attitude. Hearne wrote his hero as having a similar attitude to the most evil man I have ever encountered. How do you do something like that?
long, seething sigh I’m going to console myself with the thought that the werewolves here are thinking about Hal, willing to lay down their lives for Hal, and Atticus doesn’t enter the equation at all, except for them to figure that of course they can’t expect him to be of any help. But Atticus still looks really bad here. Because the werewolves are willing to die for their friend, and he’s not even willing to be inconvenienced! Oh no, he might get a owie! increasingly hysterical sarcasm THE POOR BABY! HOW WILL HE EVER COPE?!
Sorry. Sorry. I’ll — I’ll try not to do that again.
Also, um, should let you know that you wrote this sentence: “He’s not harmed by silver in the same way that werewolves.” and either didn’t add an “are” or wrote “that” when you meant “as”. Not that I blame you for being somewhat distracted, considering what you were recapping.
chugs half his bottle of ginger tea in one go and looks up haggardly Where were we?
I think you want that to be “says”, since we’re in the present tense anyway.
A bummer for Atticus, maybe? Or maybe just “it’s a bummer Atticus can’t control them”? I’d be inclined to go with the first one, myself, since I’m not especially bummed by the news — elated is probably a little closer — but do what you want with it.
HahahahahaHA. Oh, you’re funny, Atty. Go on, go on, tell me all about this bridge you want to sell me.
Not only everything you said, which I agree with, but also: Flidais had to have the story of Moses explained to her in this book, and yet somehow she knows to “correct” Atticus and tell him what The Kids These Days are saying? And also again, the last time I remember reading the phrase “vent one’s spleen” was in Order of the Phoenix. Which is like twenty years old at this point, but still. It’s not like nobody knows or uses the phrase these days.
Also also also, maybe they’ll attack you because THEY WERE LYING THERE LISTENING TO YOU PLANNING TO SACRIFICE ONE OF THEM SO YOU WOULDN’T HAVE TO PUT YOURSELF OUT IN ANY WAY. I know that’s not it, but it would be the logical assumption.
And this too: “because the modern substitution he almost always tends to contain swear words”. I think you meant to say “he uses”? Or else just delete the “he”. Your call.
massaging his forehead This man makes me so very, very tired. And I’m only getting him secondhand.
I think you meant “murder”, although personally I would find this scene more fun if we had a bunch of mud monsters oozing their way to the fight instead of werewolves. It would be different, anyway.
Yeah, it’s … downright weird what Hearne chooses to explain and what he leaves to your imagination. And — okay, I know I had my whole thing earlier about how werewolves don’t have enough of a stock image that I can easily picture them without an author telling me what to think of. But they’re enough of a stock fantasy creature that I can form a pretty basic image in my head of what a werewolf is supposed to be, and all an author has to do is explain to me what they’ve done differently with their werewolves. But Hearne is just … not giving me anything to go off of. He’s hinting at things that are different about them, but he’s not really explaining anything. And I guess, maybe, the fact that they’re rage-driven and the angrier they get the wilder they get, until they’re willing to attack an ally2, is supposed to be a reference to the old image of “werewolf” as “mindless slavering monster bent solely on killing”. But that connection isn’t made very well, IMO.
…Or maybe they’re supposed to be berserkers? Wolf-berserkers, who are driven by rage and become immune to various forms of attack when they’re angry? Maybe? They’re all Norse … they turn into wolves … it would make sense, but it’s pure conjecture on my part. Because, again, Hearne told us nothing.
Nooo, don’t do that! Let them kill him! LET THEM RIP HIM LIMB FROM LIMB! I WANT BLOOD, DANGIT!
sigh
Well, that’s more than Atticus, the guy who dragged them out here, who literally learned medicine from the Irish goddess of healing and who most definitely has healing powers which he could probably use on an ally if he really wanted to, has offered, so point for Flidais, as far as I’m concerned.
Yes to all of this. If Hearne had been thinking about his plot, he would have, I dunno, avoided urban fantasy altogether and set the story far enough back that reliable handheld firearms aren’t even a thing. You don’t even have to go that far back before swords make for as good or better weapons than guns in many situations (although the bow and arrow would totally still be an option). Or he would have said that Aengus Óg and the witches3 would be using magical protections against weapons and you can only fight magic with magic, or something. Or, here’s a thought: Do like you said. Go in there with the guns first and take out a couple of the witches, but then the others quickly throw up magic shields, and now they’re prepared, forewarned, protected, and furious. Boom, you gotchyer high-stakes action and a reason to not use guns. Call me for more plothole repairs at 1-800-THINKING.
AAAAAUUUUUUGH I HATE THIS BOOK I HATE THIS MAN I HATE EVERYTHING I WANT IT TO BURN I’M SO ANGRY I CAN’T SEE
panting Sorry. Sorry. But seriously, why is Hearne so insistent on all his characters being unlikable selfish jackasses who are only concerned for their own well-being? Why is it every time he has a sympathetic motivation, he instantly tells us that actually no, there’s a totally self-serving reason these people are doing this and they don’t actually care about each other? The werewolves are a pack. A wolf pack is a family. This is a social animal capable of feeling and deep, intense, loving emotional ties. This is the animal dogs came from — you know, that animal renowned for its devotion and affection? Where do you think they got that from, huh?! WHY ARE YOU TURNING YOUR SUPPOSEDLY SYMPATHETIC WEREWOLVES INTO THE MAFIA, AND WHY DO YOU THINK THAT I WILL FIND THEM COOLER IF THEY’RE SAVING THEIR REPUTATIONS INSTEAD OF SAVING A FRIEND’S LIFE?!
You know what, no. I refuse to accept this. The werewolves are furious because Hal has been kidnapped and hurt, they are charging in because they want to save him, and Atticus is just incapable of understanding that, because, like somebody else I used to know, he doesn’t understand the concept of love or friendship. ‘Cause this totally sounds like Giovanni’s thought process, to me. He got that I cared about my loved ones — used it against me, more than once — but he used to say things to me that made it very clear he thought I viewed them as, like, possessions. That I was only angry when he hurt them because he was breaking my toys. And he did NOT get why I cared about people outside my own circle — because those people didn’t belong to me, so why bother caring about them?
That’s Atticus’s thinking right here, and it’s coloring his perceptions of the werewolves. They’re actually fine, normal people. That’s my headcanon and I’m sticking to it!
Thank you for that link, I needed something silly. :)
WELL, I’M GLAD SOMEBODY THINKS ABOUT HELPING THE WEREWOLVES. It’s extremely annoying that it’s the lady who teamed up with demons to learn how to gain a corrupt immortality by stealing other people’s bodies, but it’s still more empathy than Atticus has ever shown, so I’ll take it.
gapes in outrage and disbelief
YOU — YOU — YOU HAVE THE GALL — TO SAY — YOU JUST — YOU MAKE JOKES NOW, YOU — I HOPE THE NEXT TIME YOU’RE RIDING YOUR BIKE, YOU FALL OFF IT, DOWN A HILL COVERED IN CACTI, AND INTO A PIT OF SCORPIONS WHO HAVE ALL JUST HAD THE WORST DAY AND NEED SOMEONE TO TAKE IT OUT ON, YOU — YOU — YOU—
gets up and flips over his chair
flips over the desk
flips over the room
…
flips over the room again and again and again and again, until it is finally in its correct orientation
sits up, dazed and blinking, and pushes his way out of a pile of furniture Um. Remind me never to do that again. That was like a ride in a haunted carnival run by an evil clown.
begins picking up the room as he continues his rant But seriously, what a callous, unfeeling monster. And you know the worst part of all this? Not only could Atticus — or Laksha, as Smith pointed out — try to break these magical tripwires so nobody has to get hurt. Not only could Atticus go in there alone rather than risk any of his friends’ lives. Not only can Atticus literally not die, heal himself super-fast, and not feel the effects of silver the way the werewolves do. Atticus, as per this book, can switch off his pain receptors at will. Not only could he spring the trap with no lasting effects, he doesn’t even have to feel the pain in the moment. But no, he left it to Snorri — who, yeah, seemed like a fairly unlikable sleazeball when we first met him, but Atticus isn’t supposed to think so (and I still didn’t think he was bad enough to deserve being shot full of silver needles)!
You know what, no. Rewind. Go back to before the werewolves even sprang the trap. I have something I need to do.
Gunnar Magnusson barked a last note of defiance before turning around and launching himself down the path into the canyon. His pack quickly followed, and Atticus had no time to do anything except mutter “Bye!” before taking off after them, Laksha close behind.
And then, surprising everyone so much that the angry werewolves screeched to a halt, a giant purple creature that looked like a cross between a cat and a kangaroo appeared out of the thin air, and a furious voice exploded inside everyone’s heads.
“I GUESS WE DO THIS THE HARD WAY!!!”
Then the creature lunged forward, seized Atticus by the back of the shirt and the belt, and disappeared with him again. They reappeared at the edge of the ring of traps, and the creature hurled Atticus bodily forward to bounce his way into them. Then it stood back, a hand to its ear and a rapturous expression on its face, and listened to the resultant symphony:
“OUCH — OW — SHIT — OW — IF — CRAP — OW — DAMMIT — OW, OW, OW — OWWWWW!”
This final note was far more emphatic than the previous ones, and the creature sighed with satisfaction, then went over to where Atticus was sitting up, scowling and wincing as he pulled silver needles out of himself. The creature bent over, its hands on its hips, and the voice rolled through Atticus’s mind again, calmer but no less disgusted:
“You know, if you had just thought to trigger this trap yourself, you could have switched off your nerves and not felt a darned thing. There’s a lesson in that, you human tooth extraction.”4
And it vanished into the thin air, only reappearing once, in front of the still-stunned werewolves and Laksha.
“Trap’s sprung,” it said, jerking a thumb down the path behind it. “No need to thank me.” And it disappeared again.
plunks himself down in his chair and sighs again That’s better. Where were we?
…Oh, right, canon. Well, a guy can dream. heaves a breath and takes another swig of ginger tea
stares in silent disbelief
OK. Even Giovanni wouldn’t do that. Because Giovanni has a frickin’ brain. And while he very much considers his soldiers disposable pawns, he would still prefer not to have to dispose of more of them than necessary. If there was some conflict they were heading into and he needed to sacrifice a mook, he would not sacrifice one of the medics. Because he’d need them later to patch up anybody who could be saved.
Also, the way Atticus says “I would never understand pack politics” … makes it sound like the werewolves looked around the pack, selected the most unpopular member, and forced him to go sacrifice himself. Which is very much a thing Giovanni would do — as long as the unpopular member wasn’t a medic — but … geesh. Not something I want to see in a group of characters who I’m supposed to sympathize with. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll just be headcanoning that they did a straw-drawing, it was totally fair, and Atticus just thinks they deliberately sacrificed one of their own who they didn’t like because, well, that’s what he’d do in their place. Still a stupid decision, but not totally reprehensible. Leave me to my delusions, they are keeping me sane.
‘BOUT TIME, I was about to bust out the cattle prod.
Your sentence didn’t quite end there. But I agree with the sentiment of this rant. BOY HOWDY DO I EVER.
Um … duh??? This guy has allegedly been gunning for you for the last two thousand years, and you’re surprised that he planned ahead of time for this battle? That he found out who your allies were and took measures against them, and that he got allies of his own and might have more tricks up his sleeve? Like … yeah! Of course! Not everyone is as stupid as you, Atty! Is the concept of preparing for a fight so foreign to you that you treat basic security measures as a sign of Extreme Four-Dimensional Chess?
I’m sorry to keep bringing him up, goodness knows I don’t want to think about him any more than I absolutely have to. But this would be like if I, after Giovanni had been trying to recapture me and my family for the better part of twenty years, found out that he had beefed up his security against psychic abilities, hired bounty hunters who specialized in capturing people like us, and gotten the local police department on his side … and then I went “LE GASP! What connivance! What treachery! HOW DEVIOUS IS THIS MAN? WHAT ELSE IS HE PLANNING TO DO?” A, if he wasn’t smart enough to do all that, I would have beaten him a long time ago, and B, I really should know what he’s like already! We’ve been enemies for a long time!
deep breath Also, I second everything you said about how this is just Hearne trying to pump up his villain as a credible threat, so it actually looks impressive when Atticus wins. ‘Bout twenty-three chapters too late for that, says I.
There’s no mistake in this sentence, I just thought I’d bring up the fact that I found it a little confusing ‘cause I wasn’t sure which “he” was which. I get it, pronouns, they’re annoying that way, but I thought I’d bring it up.
All I have to say to that.
And you have a lawn in a desert, Atty. Just because that’s a mundane, societally accepted way of draining resources from the land and blighting the environment doesn’t make it better than what Aengus Óg is doing. Shut yer piehole.
(Seriously, folks, PSA: please, please, if you can, consider moving away from a traditional lawn and towards landscaping with native plants. Turfgrass is a non-native species to North America, so it doesn’t support the food web; in order to keep it a perfect, pristine lawn, you have to use herbicides to wipe out the native plants which do support biodiversity and pesticides to wipe out the native insects which make up that biodiversity; it requires chemical fertilizers, which are just generally bad for everything, and the runoff from all these chemicals gets into your waterways and spills out into your local environment, impacting wildlife far beyond your yard; in a desert especially, it sucks up gallons of water which are needed for, well, everything else, and there’s a lot of carbon emitted when you mow it with a gas mower. Not to mention that I’ve seen what happens when people try repeatedly to grow grass seed in a place that doesn’t support it. Nothing else can grow, because they’re constantly preparing the ground for the grass, so the whole yard turns into a little wasteland of dirt that erodes every time there’s a rainstorm. I get the appeal of the big open space of grass, believe me, I do, especially if you have kids and/or dogs and you want them to have somewhere to run around and play. I’m just asking you to compromise. If it doesn’t have to be turfgrass, maybe don’t use turfgrass. Look up the native plants in your area and do something with them. They’re often really pretty and much more low-maintainence than non-natives! Even the least you can do is better than nothing. Please.
And I recognize that this is a subject a lot of people aren’t educated on, and I recognize that real landscaping, especially a drastic change, takes a lot of time and effort and money that not everyone can afford to expend. I’m not being judgemental. Of anybody but Atticus. Because he’s a twit. And he should know better.)
THANK YOU. My gosh, what a vile little hypocrite.
And — I gotta point something out. ‘Cause in the book, he actually says — actually says — that up till this point, he was still doubting this course of action. He was actually considering running away and leaving Hal and Oberon in the clutches of his supposed worst enemy. He wasn’t sure yet that he wanted to make saving his friends his problem. He was still willing to run away and hide again, no matter what kind of harm it would cause. But then Aengus is blighting the Earth and oh, that’s just a step too far. That’s when Atticus decides to take a stand.
Look, I think you all know by now, I’ve said it plenty, but: I’m a tree-hugger of the first degree. Part of the conflict between me and Giovanni was because what he wanted would have destroyed the environment and I could not let that stand. I love my forest; I count it among my loved ones.
BUT I ALSO LOVE MY FRIENDS AND MY FAMILY. And somebody hurting them would have been more than enough reason for me to stand against that person, even if they had gone about it in the most environmentally conscious way possible. You should also care about the people you claim to love. You should also be willing to go to bat for them, no matter what else is going on. And the fact that Atticus says he would still have been willing to run away and leave Hal and Oberon to die is just mind-boggling. I guess maybe Hearne was trying to show us just how much this cause matters to Atticus, but there are ways to do that that don’t involve making him look like a monster! At this point, I’m convinced he’s only angry because Aengus Óg is taking all the energy that he wants to use! He sure hasn’t given any other sign of genuinely caring about anybody or anything but himself!
And not only that — he has the gall to tell Oberon that he loves him when Oberon is happy to see him! NO! YOU DON’T! IF YOU DID, YOU WOULD NEVER EVEN HAVE CONSIDERED LEAVING HIM BEHIND, NOT FOR A SECOND! YOU ARE A LYING, SELF-SERVING SCUMBAG, AND I HAVE HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH YOU!
stomps to the door and flings it open GUYS! GUYS I NEED HELP!
turns around, his eyes glowing blue ONE LAST SPITEFIC.
I love my family. Half of them I’m not related to by blood, but that doesn’t matter with us. We’re family in every way that counts. Call it cheesy, if you want, but it’s true. We’re all for one and one for all around here.
Also, we’re psychic powerhouses that very few creatures dare to stand against. So when we discover a situation that needs our help, not only will we do something about it, but we can. And when we all work as one, that something tends to be pretty effective.
I went and got twenty of my family, the people who have stood with me through the toughest times any of us have ever faced. My wife, our kids, my brothers, their wives, two of my nieces, one nephew, and their spouses. Between all of us, O’Sullivan didn’t stand a chance, Plot Armor or no.
We teleported into the middle of the battlefield, which was an appearance shocking enough to make all parties there freeze in their tracks. And then I spun around to Aengus Óg, feeling my family gather their powers behind me. This was why I needed them. Alone, I wasn’t strong enough to do what I was about to do. There’s a limit on how far any of us can teleport something individually. But all together, twenty-one of us … we can cross dimensions.
I cleared my throat, concentrated, and pointed a finger at the Irish god. “FRACK YOU!” I bellowed, and as one, my family sent their power surging into mine, giving me the boost I needed.
Aengus vanished, sent hurtling through time and space to land at the feet of Brigid, who could do with him whatever the queen of the Irish pantheon did with traitors to the crown. Then I spun to Radomila. “FRACK YOU!”
She, too, disappeared into thin air — transported to Malina and the coven’s waiting arms. And then I pointed at the “fire pit” and shouted “FRACK YOU!” and the rift between dimensions closed over, the gate sealed off, the danger was gone. And then I wheeled to O’Sullivan.
I think he must have thought we were one of his author’s saving throws, because he was watching all this go down with a snide satisfaction that vanished when I rounded on him. He opened his mouth to say something, but my family and I got there first.
“And most especially and sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, FRACK YOU!!!”
And O’Sullivan vanished in a puff of blue light. I stood there for a second, breathing heavily, and then lowered my arm and, with a wave of my hand, unlocked the chains binding Hal and Oberon to the trees. The Tempe Pack transformed and ran to embrace Hal, exclaiming over him in voices halfway between excited human shouting and ecstatic canine whining, and Moonheart, one of my sons, the gentle pacifist, the dog lover, went straight to Oberon, who was standing and looking confusedly around him. I relaxed. The two hostages were in good hands, anyway.
But there were still people hurt, possibly dying, and I spun around to face Granuaile’s body and Laksha’s mind. The wrongness of the two minds in the one body, one young and lying dormant, the other awake, and watchful, and centuries old, sent a crawling sensation over my skin. But I forced it back and held her stare. I wasn’t about to let her see me intimidated, and also, I was going to give her a chance. We could use her help.
Vazay, one of my nieces, always on top of it when it comes to anything psychic, had already found the necklace Radomila had dropped when we’d teleported her, pulled it to her telekinetically, and was now standing behind me, holding it floating in the air — Vazay’s a fantasy fan, she knows better than to touch mysterious magical objects. I jerked my thumb at the necklace and barked, “Laksha!”
She inched a little closer in Granuaile’s body, looking at me with cautious deference. “That was … impressive,” she ventured. “I have never seen such—”
“If you really want to turn over a new leaf,” I interrupted, tired of everybody in this book talking all the time and nothing getting DONE, “and you don’t have any evil intentions towards the young woman whose head you’re in, then go heal the injured werewolves, and then get inside this necklace so we can talk properly.”
She looked at me for a moment or two, then nodded and immediately headed off to where the injured members of the pack were lying, surrounded by their comrades. They looked a little suspicious at her approach, drawing back warily in a way that really reminded me of wolves spotting an intruder on their territory, but she told them she was there to help, and they must have believed it, because they nodded and allowed her to begin healing their packmates.
I still wasn’t totally sure we could trust Laksha — her whole change of heart felt pretty convenient to me — but for the moment she was being helpful and peaceful, so I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. I turned to Tareila, my sister-in-law and a natural peacemaker, and sent her to please go explain our appearance and actions to the werewolves so they didn’t completely freak out, and then turned to Laputi, one of my brothers, and his wife Natyra, and sent them off to go find the injured Snorri, stabilize him, and bring him back here where Laksha could treat him. A few of us went after them, just in case there were any more weird things lurking around here that they might need help with; the rest of us stayed and kept an eye on Laksha, making sure she was doing what she said she was.
I let out a long sigh of leftover adrenaline, and leaned heavily against a tree trunk. Vivian, my wife, came up to me, put her arms around me, and rested her chin on my shoulder. It felt good, and I shut my eyes and revelled in her presence.
“Where did we send O’Sullivan?” she asked me, after a minute.
I shook my head. “Not a clue, babe. He could be orbiting the Earth right now, for all I know.”
Vivian, who knows me better than I know myself sometimes, looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “You kinda sound like he could be orbiting the Earth for all you care.”
I tried to deny it for a few seconds, then gave up and let my shoulders slump. “I been pushed,” I said, laughed exhaustedly, and ran a hand over my head. “When I say he reminds me of Giovanni, that is not an exaggeration.”
“Mm.” Vivian frowned a little. “No, I didn’t think so.” She hugged me a little tighter, and I put one hand over hers.
“Still,” I went on, because I was starting to calm down, “I suppose we had better find him. Make sure he’s not actually suffering some fate worse than death. I’m not that ruthless.”
Now she grinned at me. “I know. ‘S why I love you.” She kissed my cheek. “Better also make sure he’s not inflicting a fate worse than death on anybody else.”
“That too.” I sighed. “But I’m ruthless enough that he’s not one of my priorities right now. For the moment, I want to make sure the werewolves all get healed and get home safely. Then I want Laksha out of Granuaile’s head, and I want to make sure that poor kid gets home safe too.”
“I’ll helm that, if you’d like,” Vivian said. “I’m worried about her — I want to make sure her mind is okay after it’s been housing somebody else’s, and I can’t believe O’Sullivan pulled her into this without even bothering to make sure she knew what the risks were.” I could hear the anger crackling under her voice as she spoke — Viv’s not like me, all fire and fury. When she’s angry, she turns to ice.
“I leave her care in your more than capable hands,” I said. “But I think she’ll be okay. I don’t feel like she’s hurt, exactly. But she’s gonna be scared.”
“Mm.” Vivian let out a long sigh on my shoulder, and then went on. “And Laksha? What are we going to do with her?”
“I dunno,” I groaned, running my hand over my head again. “I need some time to think that one over. Get to know her properly, try to figure out if she can be trusted. And then besides that … we need to stick around for a bit in case any other members of the Irish pantheon show up.”
Vivian stared straight ahead for a minute, then said, “That is the weirdest sentence I have ever heard you say. While you were awake, anyway.” I laughed a weary laugh again, and she went on, “And … are we thinking of calling in some friends, see if we can fix what’s been done to the Earth here?”
I looked around me at the blighted landscape, the withered plants, the cracked, parched earth, and clenched my jaw. “Yeah,” I said, “yeah, I think we’d better do that too.” I let out a long sigh. “We’ll just be the clean-up crew for a bit.”
Vivian chuckled, and kissed my cheek again. “That’s what superheroes do,” she said, and I smiled and wrapped my tail around her.
…OK. OK, I feel better now. Phew. Um. Thank you for indulging me, folks. Hope that last spitefic didn’t run too long; I was trying to tie up the loose ends, but it might have gotten away from me. Anyway, I’m gonna go listen to some music and wash out the taste of this chapter. Might see you in the next one, but I think I’ll let TMary helm that. Au revoir!
1 It’s that second one, it’s definitely that second one.
2 Well, “ally”.
3 Good name for a band, that.
4 This insult comes to you from TMary, who had her wisdom teeth out back in May and did not enjoy the experience.
Juracan on 15 December 2023, 21:20 said:
Glad to have you, friend! Hope you’ve recovered from your explosions just fine.
Yeah, it IS weird. I don’t understand it. Here, it seems like human control/calming spells don’t work on werewolves, but he keeps having scenes that make it seem like werewolves are especially resistant to just about every kind of magic. I talked about it a little bit in the sporking for the next book, as Atticus explicitly compared witches vs. werewolf to “dropping a tank in a pit of snakes”. What the logic of it is, I don’t know—I don’t think that it’s A Thing in other fiction, but I’m not as familiar with werewolf fiction.
This, I think I chalk up to Hearne not even trying to do something different with his mythical creatures. He assumes that if he says “werewolf,” or “vampire,” you already have an idea of what he’s talking about, so he doesn’t bother to sit down to explain how these creatures work in his constructed world. But as you said, “werewolf” can mean a lot of different things, so we don’t actually have a clue what we’re supposed to be picturing here.
It really doesn’t! He’ll throw out details like this, as if hinting at a complex magical system, and then neglect to actually explain it until it becomes relevant/he needs Atticus to have an easy out for any situation involving magic. Develop your magic system, man!
That felt good to read, you should know!
Fixed!
Yes to this entire rant (and also the use of Unikitty gifs).
Frustrating to me is not just that he’s unwilling to lay down his life—this could be written as a character flaw or something. It’s not even considered. Atticus doesn’t even bring it up, and no one thinks it’s worth mentioning! So it’s not even just “He’s a coward that won’t put himself on the line for his friends,” it’s “His friends and allies think it only right that they put their lives in danger for him.” It’s an absolutely confuddling way to write a character, or a scene which is supposed to lead into a dramatic final battle.
Fixed!
Fixed!
Fixed!
I think Hearne/Atticus is really out of touch (or was when he wrote this book) about what young people know/are interested in? Remember, earlier in this book, he assumes that college-aged people would assume the word “fencing” refers to selling stolen items.
I want to say that this expression came up earlier between the two in conversation, but I don’t remember for sure and I don’t know that I want to pull up the book on Kindle to search for it. Either way, it’s dumb that Flidais, the one who, as you said, didn’t know the story of Moses, and if you recall, cannot operate a blender, is the one who makes this “correction.” And it’s dumb that Hearne thought this “correction” needed to be made at all, or that it was funny.
Fixed!
I did, and I fixed it, but you’re right, I also like the idea of mud monsters appearing in the story. Enough I considered not fixing it.
I didn’t even consider the berserker idea, though that kind of makes sense given that they’re all Norse/Icelandic? We’re not given any other answer as to why they’ve all got Norse names, actually, and it’s weird. It would have taken a short paragraph to tell us that they’re berserkers. We could have gotten that instead of, I dunno, those lengthy descriptions of female characters, or random boss fights that don’t add to the Plot.
Sadly, they don’t do that, and he doesn’t die—in fact he lives through this entire series, and into the spin-off Hearne wrote. Although from what I’ve heard (spoiler alert) he does lose his arm at the end of this series.
Random side note: it would have made sense if Atticus carried healing potions or something with him as he went into battle? But that would require forethought and, like, caring about other people’s wellbeing.
Yeah, but then the characters couldn’t talk like obnoxious modern stereotypes and there’d be no pop culture references. And it’d require research on Hearne’s part. Can’t have that.
True dat!
Put this on a business card.
This requires Hearne to know something about wolves other than… well, pop culture osmosis about werewolves.
If I had to make a shot in the dark (so take this with a grain of salt), he might also be thinking that if he wrote it like this it was more mature somehow? Like, “No, my characters aren’t stupid kiddish characters motivated by friendship and the Power of Love! They’re complex, with socio-political motivations like saving face!” That it doesn’t make sense for the characters to act that way instead of, like, normal people who want to help their friends, doesn’t really figure into it.
Hey, I’m cool with it. If it makes you feel any better, in the next book the leader of the werewolves refuses to help Atticus because of the danger his pack was in here. Atticus whines about it though, as if throwing yourself in danger for his sake is only natural.
You’re welcome!
I’d be surprised if Atticus even knew the meaning of the word ‘empathy.’ The man would probably make some juvenile joke about it.
That is incredibly creative, and I have to say I agree. I hope it happens.
Ah, wisdom teeth. I remember them well. Not fun.
It certainly is! Thank you for that!
Okay, this one’s a weird example, because in the Textpattern there is punctuation here, it just didn’t show up in the post? I guess I hit the right combination of punctuation and quotation marks to make it invisible? It’s supposed to be a![]("?)
(exclamation mark, end quotation, question mark, exclamation mark). I’ll try to fix it but I don’t know if it’ll work.
Atticus treats any planning or nudging him to do something as four-dimensional chess. For a guy who’s supposed to be clever and paranoid, he very rarely makes any alterations to his precautions when a new situation comes up, and he never goes on guard when he finds out that a new threat is on the way.
He’s really, really dumb that way.
I tried adjusting it to make it better? Let me know how it reads.
…I didn’t even consider this, or if I have I didn’t remember. But yeah! You’re right! I’ve pointed out that he could easily be using his power to grow his own food and hunt sustainably, too, but he doesn’t do that because Hearne probably thinks that would make him too weird or something.
Atticus’s motives are a horribly-wrecked part of this book. He has them, yes, but they’re brought up sparingly and they just make him look terrible when they’re on display in scenes like this. It’s like a last ditch effort to make us care about him—“He’s a good guy! He cares about the environment!” Only it falls flat for the reasons you described.
Oh goody! [sits back and munches a cookie]
Well, you’re welcome anytime you want to stop by and comment! Thanks for joining us!
Starspirit on 17 December 2023, 22:02 said:
Thank you! I am a little charred, but none the worse for wear :D
“Dropping a tank in a pit of snakes” is such an … extreme way of putting it and makes the werewolves so overpowered. That’s yet another symptom of Hearne’s apparent dislike of actual conflict in his books — solutions (at least for Atticus and his
alliescroniesflunkies) are never flawed. They’re never a way to improve the situation while still having some problems to work through; they’re always an instant complete cure for the issue. It can’t be that werewolves are resistant to magic but can be overcome by enough witches working together, so Hal still has to be careful. Nope! Instant win, just add werewolf. It just … well, it Makes It Easy.I’m not a werewolf guy myself, so I don’t know either. Maybe I could see it as an extrapolation from the old (well, “old”) convention of “only silver can kill a werewolf”, but, like, I always took that to mean no ordinary methods will kill a werewolf, not that they were immune to magic. It’s one of those things that I probably wouldn’t be bothered by in a better book with a better story, better cast of characters, and better world-building, but, well. Here we are in Hounded.
That last one is the bit that really gets to me! Again, everything revolves around Atticus. The magic system only exists to explain why Atticus doesn’t need to be worried about the worrying thing he just told us about. So the magic system just becomes “It does whatever I need it to do to serve Atticus.” Atticus doesn’t inhabit his magical world — he shapes it to fit his own needs.
Why, thank you! Glad to have been of service [grins]
Can’t go wrong with Unikitty GIFs. …Now I’m wishing I had used this
during my rant about the werewolves’ motivations. Oh well. THERE WILL BE OTHER OPPORTUNITIES I’M SURE.
RIGHT?! I know this is probably just a case of Hearne not thinking about anything but what would look cool/make Atticus’s life easier, and he didn’t mean for Atticus to be selfish scum and the werewolves to be inexplicably in his thrall, but … I mean, I do get the sense that he thinks Atticus is someone to lay your life down for, neglecting the rather important part where people are usually willing to do that for someone who’s willing to die for them. And, well, “doesn’t even consider the possibility of helping his allies so they don’t have to die” is really believable considering Atticus’s explicitly canon characterization, so, kind of a fail all round.
YEAH THIS. This is an eye-poppingly egregious case of an Author’s Pet, the writer just … constructing the world around his main character, thinking solely in terms of “what makes life easiest for Atticus”. None of these other characters are people; they’re just pawns there to make his life more convenient, or else to make it very briefly difficult so he looks cool when he beats them.
Did a quick search for “spleen” through TMary’s copy and I don’t think it did? Maybe it was their conversation about “consort” instead. Or “shat kine”, or any one of the innumerable repetitions of this very, very tired — and I use this term advisedly — “joke”. (I did find a point where Atticus used the phrase “back the fuck off” and Flidais did not need that one explained to her, but for some reason she needed blenders explained…? I dunno.)
That’s the bit I really don’t get about this … “joke”. I don’t claim to be a great comedian or anything, but I like to think I have some idea of what constitutes humor, and this is just … not funny. What is the punchline? “This phrase is what people actually say these days, and I know it even though I’m old”?
Thank you! I mean, I think it would fit with the concept of elementals in this story, which is really sadly underexplored, I think. You can’t just tell me there’s a giant iron monster living under Atticus’s shop and then not elaborate on that!
It really would! And, I mean, I don’t know that that’s what they’re supposed to be, but it would make sense. And I think that would be a cool way to build off of the werewolf mythos! But it is sadly only a headcanon, because Hearne didn’t say that.
I know, right? We could have gotten elementals and wolf berserkers! And just a general expansion on this world and its ideas! It might not have been any more Irish, but at least it would be something unique and fun with its own identity!
I mean … I expected as much. And yet it’s still somehow disappointing.
…Small mercies? That feels like a terrible thing to say, but, I mean … it’s kind of satisfying that his allegedly oh-so-dangerous life and enemies end up leaving at least some mark on him. I’d prefer it if it was an ally realizing what a terrible person he is and attempting to tear him limb from limb, but I’m gonna guess that’s probably not what it was and take what I can get.
You’re right! Honestly, it would make sense just for his own well-being; as we see in the next chapter, once his amulet runs out of juice and he can’t get any more power to recharge, he’s kind of a sitting duck and can get seriously hurt. I would have much rather seen him running and dodging, trying to get to relative safety and unstopper a potion bottle with one broken wrist so he can at least stop the bleeding and patch himself up enough to get back into the fight than just “Oh, never mind, the Morrigan’s here to put me back together, lol”. And you’d think for somebody so clever and paranoid, he would just always have some kind of medicine on his person in case of emergencies. I mean, shoot, the first thing that goes in my backpack when I’m wandering around the woods is always a first-aid kit.
True, silly me, how could I forget.
…How have I gone this long in my life without having business cards. This shall be rectified at once!
Grain of salt taken, but I have to say this does make sense. And, like, I’m not opposed to socio-political motivations, but … if that’s all you have, it’s kinda hard for me to root for your characters, y’know? If they cared about both things, that’d be one thing, but the way it’s written Atticus seems to think they don’t.
I’d also add that … I don’t fully get who they’re supposed to be saving face to? I mean, I get that you can’t just let someone kidnap one of your guys and not go do something about it, that would be nuts. But there’s nobody here to witness this fight except Aengus Óg and the witches (releasing a new single on January 9th 2024), who nobody’s planning to leave alive to talk about this fight, and Atticus, who’s — allegedly — on the pack’s side already. And Laksha, I guess, but to be honest it’s really easy to forget she’s there. My point is that it’s not like this battle is part of some overarching war that everybody knows about and that has huge implications for everyone in the supernatural world, and the werewolves are one faction in it that have to consider how best to maintain their position in the magical community or something. This is a private, tiny little dispute involving maybe two dozen people all told, so it’s kinda hard for me to take this “GRR WE MUST DEFEND OUR REPUTATION” thing seriously when the stakes are honestly not that high.
Or it would be, if I accepted that as their motivation, but as I have decided, they’re just trying to go rescue their friend like normal people and Atticus doesn’t get that because he doesn’t understand human emotion. nodnod
That does make me feel better, and I gotta say that from what I’ve seen of Hexed it does seem … very marginally better as far as treating other characters as people too, what with the werewolves refusing to work with Atticus and Coyote just straight up using him to achieve his own ends? Especially the whole Coyote thing — the werewolves I’m honestly not sure we’re not supposed to see as them being unreasonable, given that Atticus whines about it. Either that, or Hearne somehow thought that “I’m going to complain because the people who were injured and straight-up died for me in the last book are a little annoyed that I dragged them into that” was wrong, but forgivable in the long run.
Speaking of which:
…Item #731 on the List of Ways Atticus Reminds Me of a Literal Supervillain, I guess.
That … seems depressingly likely, yeah. Make that Item #732.
Thank you! I was looking for something appropriately Arizonan.
…I’ll keep an eye on Hexed and see if I can’t find a spot for a quick spitefic. Some ideas are too good not to act on.
TMary: NOT FUN. They’re healed now, of course, but wasn’t how I’d recommend spending an afternoon. Or the following couple of weeks.
My pleasure, thank you! :D
Oh, that is weird! Huh. I dunno how to fix that either, except to use a different combination of punctuation and see if that works?
…Severely tempted to drag Giovanni in here and make him do a spitefic where he gets Atticus in some SERIOUS hot water because Atticus … behaved exactly the way he does in canon and paid absolutely no attention to an obvious threat even when it was right under his nose. Honestly, I think those two deserve each other.
Oh, yeah, that’s much clearer!
That’s a really good point, and I hadn’t really thought about it before now, but … Atticus really is … aggressively normal, isn’t he? He’s got his nice house in his suburban American neighborhood, he watches football, hangs out at the pub, has perfectly adjusted to everything about the twenty-first century, and only ever makes references to the most well-known of pop culture (and sneers at people who make references to anything more obscure). He is, in every way, a pretty stereotypical modern-day American man.
Which is a weird way to characterize a two-thousand-year-old druid from ancient Ireland who has werewolves and vampires on speed-dial and regularly visits pagan gods. Personally, I’d expect a guy like that to be a little … well, different. And … probably it’s just that Hearne didn’t put a lot of thought into Atticus’s character, like everything else, but I also wonder if it’s not that he was worried about Atticus coming off as too unrelatable and alien for his audience? Which is a fair worry to have, a character like that could easily be really different and off-putting and hard to connect with, but personally, I would have gone with the solution of giving him relatable motivations, like, say, caring about his loved ones and wanting to protect his home.
Take the Doctor. He’s a nine-hundred-year-old alien from another planet entirely and a species who regenerates every time they die, time travels freely, and are definitely super-geniuses by our standards. He’s been to the beginning of the universe and the end — and not chronologically. He doesn’t see the world the way humans do — literally, I don’t think the world looks the same to him as it does to humans — and there are moments in the show where that’s strongly on display. But at the same time he cares deeply about the people he loves and about the problems of whatever planet he finds himself landing on. He wants to help. That’s his whole mission in life, that’s why he’s called “the Doctor”. And that makes him a sympathetic, lovable character despite his, well, alien nature. Way, way more than if he was constantly spouting off pop culture “jokes” and living quietly in suburbia doing nothing but ogle hot women and visit his favorite pub.
Plus, Hearne’s target audience is the geek crowd. They can take a character being a little outside the norm, especially if it makes sense for his backstory!
I hope it entertained!
Thank you very much, and I’m sure I’ll be back! :D
Oh, and how was NaNoWriMo? Or should I ask? ;_
Starspirit on 17 December 2023, 22:04 said:
…That was supposed to be a little sweatdrop-emoticon at the end of that last sentence, but apparently that’s another series of punctuation that Textpattern doesn’t like. So just, you know, imagine a little guy sweatdropping.
Juracan on 19 December 2023, 06:43 said:
Good to hear, friendo!
Which is a bit strange, because I think somewhere in this book we’re told that werewolves can be killed by lightning? I don’t know, there’s something I think about why werewolves can’t take down Thor. I thought it was a ‘duh’, and you would think that even if a witch’s hexes can’t kill a werewolf, they’d be able to at least hurt/incapacitate one. Instead, like you said, it’s an instant win button.
I didn’t consider this, but it’s probably what Hearne is going for. He’s hardly the only one to do it. In Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus, the same rule applies to werewolves, despite it being based off of Greco-Roman mythology, and our heroes using fire, lightning, and weapons forged out of divine metals. I didn’t like the idea there much, either.
If this sporking had a physical location, I’d print that and slap it on the side somewhere.
Tru dat.
Right! If Atticus is such an inspiring hero to the people around him… well, we’ve seen no sign of it. He just sux. If that’s the impression we’re meant to have, he would have to spend a lot of the book helping others, and putting his life on the line for them. Instead of wandering around having a normal day until some mooks show up to harass him.
Given this book, the punchline is probably, “Hehe, a swear word!”
There are a lot of things, in this book and the next one, that Atticus/Hearne mention and then just… drop. The beginning of the next book reveals that Atticus regularly talks to Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, and then… moves on as if that’s not important.
Going off of what I’ve seen in reviews, it’s as revenge for a past deed (in book 3 in fact!), and one of his allies lets it happen to him because of the horror of what he did. For the record though, a lot of fans had a problem with this, because they felt like the series had up until that point been about how awesome Atticus is—so having someone come up and call him out/physically mutilate him for something he did in the past felt really off with everything else written in the series.
Either way, Hearne is still using Atticus as a character in his spin-off series, and given that spin-off series has a character named Buck Foi, I strongly suspect it’s not a serious introspective work that has Atticus try to make up for being such a colossal jerkbag.
I don’t know, either. The end of this book reveals that there is a larger supernatural community, as the witches have been defending Tempe from other threats. But Atticus knew nothing about those threats, and presumably his werewolf friends didn’t either. He doesn’t even know the other witches’ names? So no, there’s no one for the werewolf pack to be saving face to, as far as anyone knows at this point.
The next book tries to have it so that this battle makes waves in the supernatural world, while also having it so that Plot-relevant entities, like the maenads or the Roman pantheon or the witch antagonists of that book, don’t know who Atticus is. It’s bizarre. The only thing I can think of is “Whether these people know Atticus and what he did in the first depends on whether or not I can make story out of it.”
I suspect you’re right, given there are scenes where Atticus says, “If only the werewolves had helped me, I would have fixed this already! Their pack leader is being a stubborn git!” Actual concern for other people, especially friends, is difficult for him to comprehend, I guess.
That’s what I’m thinking? Thing is that between two exclamation points is how you put an image in, so that’s probably what’s going on there? I think?
Again, it makes you wonder why Hearne picked an immortal Druid as a protagonist if he was going to make him into a stereotypical modern person. Sometimes it’s like the only time it really matters is when he does something especially dickish, so the text/author can move past it with, “Well he’s not a modern person, he doesn’t have a modern moral system.”
I was thinking about this yesterday, and I think that maybe this is because of American Gods again? The god characters in that mostly act like modern people, who swear and make pop culture references a lot. The difference being that the book is much better written, the pop culture references are not nearly as dated, and the god characters are still gods. They make plenty of references to their own mythologies and cultures in ways that make it obvious that the information isn’t just picked off of Wikipedia.
A hypothesis, anyway.
It’s, uh… eh? I reached above the word count, but the text still needs a lot of work before I even finish the draft. I’ve been putting it off for a while. Hopefully I’ll hop back on it soon.
Starspirit on 21 December 2023, 03:15 said:
Sorry, I had to. But yeah, I do remember that coming up at some point, primarily because I remember thinking that it was, as you said, a bit of a “duh”. If lightning couldn’t kill them, they’d be a bit OP.
Oh. Yeah, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, even leaving out that silver is a very new addition to the werewolf mythos. Like, werewolves are monsters, but they’re not undead, like vampires or zombies, so it’s not like they can’t die because they already did or something. You would think Zeus, at least, could take out a werewolf or two.
Why, thank you!
All of this.
Probably. sigh
Oh yeah, that. We’ll probably have some things to say about that, whenever we get there. (I will try to make as few of them as possible “lawn in a desert” , because I think I’ve belabored that point enough.) ‘Cause, yeah, that’s something that should be elaborated on.
I’m … of two minds about this? ‘Cause, on the one hand, I do actually get where they’re coming from. It’s not fun when you’re reading a story, and it suddenly veers wildly from what you thought it was. And this story is such an escapist fantasy, it is doubly not fun to have the main character suddenly brutally attacked like that.
On the other hand, for me, personally, feeling as I do about Atticus, I can’t help but feel that this is WELL-deserved and LONG overdue. And I’m … really curious to know what this man did that was so bad that Hearne stopped spoiling him and let him face the consequences of his immoral actions.
…It took me a while to get the name “Buck Foi”, and I was going to be embarrassed about that, but then it occurred to me that if anyone ought to be embarrassed, it was Hearne for writing that “joke” in the first place. And yeah, you’re right.
Only partially related, but it’s really striking how … small Atticus’s magical world feels. I think it’s another symptom of the problem where the world only really exists when it suits Atticus. It’s not its own separate entity. But it makes all the conflicts feel really … small-stakes and meaningless. And leads to these situations where people who really should know about each other don’t.
I — that — is — just —
Sorry, sorry. But … I will have words for this when we get there. Saving it for now, though.
Ah, that would make sense. And because it can’t find a picture, it just isn’t showing up.
I think it’s a good one! Definitely I think there’s a desire here for that kind of character — ancient and different but still cool and accessible. And it’s not like I’d even mind Atticus being a Thoroughly Modern Man; we’ve discussed before how annoying the trope of “the gods are stuck in the past and are incapable of learning anything about the modern world” is in this book. But that’s all he is. Like you said, if he had more of a connection to his mythology and culture, or if, as we’ve stated, he just felt like a man who had seen two thousand years of life, it would be one thing. But he’s just … a modern guy with a thin veneer of age plastered over him. And, also like you said, it’s basically just used to excuse Atticus’s especially deplorable actions.
Well, that’s not bad news! Best of luck with it :)
Oh, and if we don’t end up talking to each other before the new year, TMary wishes you to know that she intends to comment on Chapter Twenty-four soon, BUT she’s writing a spitefic for that one, and it’s taking a while because it’s a fight scene and she don’t do fight scenes, and life is busy right now, so it probably will not be appearing until some time in January. So if she drops off the edge of the Earth again, that’s where she went.
And also, a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!
Juracan on 23 December 2023, 19:44 said:
Yeah, it is a ‘duh’, I think, but apparently in a world where werewolves are somehow immune to most magic attacks, it’s worth bringing up. Thing is, he brings it up before he explains that werewolves are immune to most magicks (which I don’t think he ever explicitly explains), so it just feels dumb.
Yeah. To be fair, we don’t see actual gods fight the werewolves in that series. It’s still dumb. That’s around the time I think Riordan started leaning more and more towards pop culture references, to his detriment.
I look forward to it! It’s such a random aside in the second book, even though this absolutely should be a huge part of his character. Especially because the guy’s apparently enraged at the thought of someone misusing the Earth?
I agree. The man totally deserves being screwed over like that, but it’s not the way the beginning of the series handles the character or themes at all. And sure, a series can evolve, but it doesn’t seem as if it did as much as just abruptly shift to something else. I don’t know; I haven’t read that far, I’ve only looked at reviews and summaries. I don’t know if I’ll ever get that far; I’m not planning to spork that far, at least.
It’s a bad joke, and Hearne should feel bad about every time he writes it.
Yeah, weirdly at some point I read Eoin Colfer’s Highfire which similarly has an immortal, last-of-his-kind creature in modern day, and he’s also swearing up a storm, and while I didn’t like it that much it works better than this because the character, Vern, seems honestly like he’s been through a lot and suffered for it. He also lives by himself and avoids people whenever possible. Atticus, on the other hand, keeps sounding like… Just Some Guy.
It’s annoying.
[Random side note: I had a thought about the early discussion with TMary on how the Irish mythology felt tacked on, and maybe making an essay comparing this series to another which uses Irish mythology a bit weirdly? The Tapestry by Neff? And seeing how those two serieses use and distort Irish mythology to their own purposes. I think The Tapestry is much better, for the record (though that’s not hard), because while it definitely twists the mythology, it still tells an interesting story USING that mythology, whereas Hearne seems to hold it in contempt and avoid it other than as like, a monster manual or something.]
Thanks, friend. Any encouragement is welcome. I’m really not great at writing fiction, though.
No problem! I’m sorry to basically everyone if I don’t get the next sporking chapter out on time. I got a bit distracted because I had an idea for another essay unrelated to Iron Druid for Impish? We’ll see if that, or the next chapter, comes out first.
And to you as well, friendo!