Trapped by Kevin Hearne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Let me start out by saying that I love Kevin Hearne. He is a wonderful author and seems to be a great guy. That being said, I am a little sad about how this series is progressing. The stories are still great; the characters are still awesome; and the world-building is creative.
My issue is the amount of pop culture that is being tossed into the novel. I get the geek thing, the internet memes, the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Pastafarians. I get that. It is amusing right now because it is current.
What about in ten years? Will these inside jokes still be funny then? I care so much about the world that Mr. Hearne has created. I want to be able to love it when I reread it ten, twenty years from now. I don’t want to feel like I’m reading something that was only applicable to the year that I read it.
The first book had a few references to pop culture, but it revolved around character creation. As the series has continued, instead of making Atticus more rounded, it seems as if he has become more entrenched in the now. I find this disingenuous. He is over 2000 years old. I realize that he had to change with the times, but when his personality seems to be supplanted by the “kitteh” and the bacon phenomenon, he is no longer the Atticus that I fell in love with.
The relationship between Granuaile and Atticus also seems to develop without evidence of development. I know that twelve years have passed since the last novel and much probably happened between them, but I missed that development. I really missed it. Once again, it seems as if character development was tossed out the window for the “easy” fix.
Maybe I am asking too much. Maybe it is selfish to want something that lasts forever. I hope that Mr. Hearne goes back to what he is really good at: creating characters that you fall in love with in spite of all of their flaws and creating relationships that feel real.
Quietly Askew 