Hounded

Executive Summary: An alright, but not spectacular debut that is helped by how short it is. There are hints of possibility here to develop into a better series at least.Audio book: This is the first book I've listened to by Luke Daniels. At first I didn't like him much but her grew on me. He seems pretty good at accents, I'm just not sure I like his normal reading voice though. I did really enjoy his voice for Oberon however.Full ReviewI've had several people tell me this is a great series, especially as a fan of the Dresden Files. I got a good deal on the first book from audible recently so I finally checked it out. Since this is comparison I hear a lot, I figure I'll give my a review as a sort of compare and contrast for anyone else out there whose loves Dresden and are considering these books.I'm a little underwhelmed. I always tell people to give Dresden a few books before it really gets good. Maybe that will be true here as well. Both have a snarky protagonist who can do magic and fights overwhelming adversaries. I don't enjoy the humor in this one nearly as much. [a:Jim Butcher 10746 Jim Butcher https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1205261964p2/10746.jpg] has me laughing out loud at least several times during a novel. This one I chuckled internally a few times, but that was it.There are several other similarities that seem to be taken right from the pages of the later books of Dresden. I'll put them in spoiler tags so as not to spoil anything from either series, I consider both minor at this point but better safe that sorry: a dog sidekick and an attractive young female apprenticeThere are differences however. Atticus has fully embraced technology. He runs his own business and sells things online as part of it. This would be a problem for Harry. Atticus is very old and the last of his kind (that we know of anyways). Harry is considered young for a wizard.The big highlight for me was Atticus's dog Oberon. I think Mr. Hearne does a good job portraying dog-like thoughts, or at least what I would guess them to be.I found myself bored for at least the first 25% or so, but somewhere along the way I ended up enjoying it enough that I snagged the sequel on another daily deal from audible. I hope to see some growth in the second book or I may stop there.