Two Ravens and One Crow

An Iron Druid Chronicles Novella

By: Kevin Hearne

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Length: 2 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Atticus O’Sullivan is back in an all-new, action-packed, laugh-out-loud novella from the author of The Iron Druid Chronicles.

Two-thousand-year-old Atticus may have outwitted and outfought everyone from Odin to Bacchus, but in this eBook original, he’s about to discover what comes around when you go around messing with gods.

Six years into the training of his beautiful apprentice, Granuaile, a large crow swoops down and transforms into none other than the Morrigan, a goddess who insists that Atticus come with her at once. He must leave his apprentice behind, along with his Irish wolfhound, Oberon - and he must also leave his sword. The Morrigan has always taken extreme pleasure in pronouncing the Druid’s mortal danger and imminent doom, so the fact that she won’t reveal the purpose of their journey makes him very nervous. Of course, any time the Celtic Chooser of the Slain drops in unannounced, it’s never good. When she does let slip that she’ll be saving his life in the near future, Atticus is left to wonder...will he soon be giving his legions of enemies something to crow about?

Includes a preview of Kevin Hearne’s highly anticipated new novel in The Iron Druid Chronicles, Trapped!

©2012 Kevin Hearne (P)2012 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Celtic mythology and an ancient Druid with modern attitude mix it up in the Arizona desert in this witty new fantasy series." (Kelly Meding, author of Three Days to Dead)

"[Atticus is] a strong modern hero with a long history and the wit to survive in the twenty-first century.... A snappy narrative voice...a savvy urban fantasy adventure." ( Library Journal)

the magorum

I didn't like the plot or the weird magical creature or the whole story

Meh. $4 book at best.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

If you are an Atticus junkie, it's a must-have, but for the price, there are much better values on this site.

Would you be willing to try another book from Kevin Hearne? Why or why not?

I'm almost ready for this series to be over with... I realize this was only a novella, but I felt like this one was totally just phoned in. I'm really at odds with myself on these books, it's almost to a "guilty pleasure" status. The pop culture references were a bit comical at first, but it's like Atticus is Abbott, and Oberon is Costello, and when Atticus does the funny bit, it kinda falls flat. I've enjoyed this series thus far, and I'm sure I'll see it through to the end, but this one definitely left me wanting. I wished that it would've provided some interesting back-story, to maybe Atticus' relationship with the Morrigan, or solely Atticus and Oberon. If I'm gonna fork over $10, I'd happily do it for 3hrs of Atticus and Oberon interaction.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Luke Daniels?

I would have cast Luke Daniels from a couple of books ago. I would equate his narration of this, to Roy Dotrice in "A Feast for Crows". (For any George RR Martin fans, you know what I'm talking about!) I've enjoyed him in the other books, as best I can recall, but the first 10-20 min of this is utterly painful (as you can tell from the preview).
After some time, it gets a little better, but it's under 3hrs, so by the time you grow accustomed to it, it's over. Honestly, I heard the preview for the next book at the end of the last book, as well as this one, and if Loki is going to be an active character, I'm not sure I'm going to like the next book either.

Do you think Two Ravens and One Crow needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Absolutely. I guess it is only meant to serve the purpose of a little filler, or a "tide-me-over" until the next book. Maybe I had my expectations too high, I dunno.

Any additional comments?

This book should be priced under $6, there far better books for less money out there.

Why Luke? Why?

As recent fans of The Iron Druid Chronicles, my wife and I were happy to see this novella... and then we heard it. The story itself is great. Yet again we see gods of different pantheons running alongside each other and being truly vulnerable on Earth. Hearne did a great job in tying up some loose strings left over from "Hammered" and "Tricked". The problems comes to Luke Daniels voice and acting. I'm really not sure what happenned here, but the characters were changed by bad decisions. In the other stories in this series, Atticus has seemed to be a guy with years of experience, but youthful demeanor. In this one, Luke changed his voice and he sounded like he was an uptight jerk. Another voice change that killed me was Oberon. While Oberon has always been goofy, here he became an idiot as well. We're talking about the hound that was beating a 2000 year old druid in a word game with wise cracks and puns in "Tricked"! Oberon should not sound like a developmentally challenged version of goofy.

If not for a great story, I probably would have returned this one.