Scourged

Scourged is the final novel in The Iron Druid Chronicles series (at least so far), and I found it to be a “meh” conclusion to an amazing series. As should be a surprise to no one who has read the other books leading up this this one, the book largely concerns Ragnarok. There are some other interesting subplots, but overall Hearne finishes up the story he's been telling. In some ways the battle against Loki felt too easy and the book was a bit meandering. The real gut punch comes in the events following the battle, which were kind of sad and somewhat out of tone for this humorous urban fantasy series. Even if most of what happened was Atticus' fault, he's such a likable character that it seems tragic to see bad things happen to him without seeing some resolution. Frankly I didn't like that he and the hounds ended up alone, much as they were at the beginning of the series. The ending was somewhat open ended. Perhaps this won't truly be the final adventure for the Iron Druid after all? But if it is, even if this book wasn't as great as some of the others, the series as a whole merits 5/5 stars from me. Excellent, read this book if you've read the others, and read them all if you haven't yet. This book might only be 4/5 for me, but the whole adventure is well worth the time, especially when listened to as read by the amazing Luke Daniels.