Language and Plot, and maybe a book review or something

Sorry I've missed my last two scheduled blog posts, I've been feeling very uninspired latley. I decided it was due to a lack of pasta in my diet. So last night I ate some elbow pasta in cheese, and an idea came to me. Well, I'm not sure if its a new idea, or just something that's been festering in my brain.

I've long thought that modern books and movies and tv shows (especially tv shows) have alot more going on in them then they used too. I also think language is getting dumber. And as I was trying to go to sleep last night, digesting my inspirational dinner I couldn't help but wonder if these two things were related. Like, our minds are getting so full of plot that were forgetting how to talk, or just not caring what we say, or sound like (although this might have more to do with texting and emailing than anything else).

I recently finished "Hounded" by Kevin Hearne (who's last name has to many vowels for my taste), and I think I liked it against my better judgment. 

Hounded is about a 2100 year old druid, who is the last druid alive. Yet for being 2100 years old, he looks like he is 21, he attributes this fact to a special tea, and being a druid. So, as he looks like any other college kid, with a lot of Celtic/Druadic tattoos, he has to blend in. Which means picking up on the local idioms. Instead of saying something like "Storm clouds are thrice cursed", "Shit happens" tends to be much more appropriate.

The book is written in first person, with an entertaining narrator (see above if you've forgotten), and probably my favorite character was his dog, Oberon, the Irish Wolfhound, who's thoughts Atticus O'Sullivan (druid) could read. Oberon does some great things, like chewing up a citrus air freshener in a werewolf's (yes, there are vampires, werewolf's and witches in this story...oh and gods) car because it was "un-befitting", or constantly bringing things back to steak/sausages/and french poodles.

The plot was simplistic, the good guys faced the bad guys. The bad guys were identified at the beginning of the story, and the few "twists" were predictable. Yet despite the story lacking the twists and turns and darkness (by that I mean the MC has something to gain, or changes from what he learned) I typically enjoy in novels, I did like this book. It avoided the common pitfall's that typically throw me off when reading paranormal fiction, when the author feels like because they are writing about say, angles they have to throw in witches and vampires and werewolfs, you know, just because their popular right now.

Hearne had witches and vampires and werewolfs, but they all played an integral part of the plot, and since Atticus was the last druid alive, he couldn't very well have other druids helping him out. He also managed to not annoy the crap out of me with teaching about Celtic lore. Alot of the god's involved in the story were ones I never heard of before, and he taught us bits about them, and the ages Atticus lived through without bludgeoning the reader to death with information.

I can recommend Hounded to anyone looking for a simple story to entertain yourself, maybe while sitting on the beach drinking a beer. It's not taxing reading. Its fun. Its light. It's simple. Its' a bit like an I Love Lucy episode, or really any tv show from another time.