No spoilers. Just my general annoyances with the book as a whole. Now, I enjoyed the other two books in this series because I thought Kevin Hearne did a good job of portraying what a 2100+ year old would act like. Instead of being broody or emo, he was light heartened and really tried to fit in with humanity. However, this book seemed to take that too far. Atticus is supposed to be this bad-arse Druid who can slay gods left and right yet he complains about every little "ouchie" he gets.

I expect my leading men to be studs; if they get hurt, they walk it off. They don't complain and grumble about how unfair life is. There also would be times where he is making commentary of his motley crew and I would be annoyed. Like how he was trying to separate himself from the group saying how he didn't feel the need to assert his "manliness" and win "macho points". Really? Why is he keeping score of these man points? He didn't do this once or twice; he seemed to do it every time he was in the company of the other men, specifically Gunnar and Leif. Kevin made them seem like at any second they'd whip 'em out and measure. It was just ridiculous. Plus the continuous back and forth Shakespeare battles began to wear on me. Once or twice it is fine, but to use this conversational device in all three books more than once bugged me like no other. Plus the lolcat speak drove me up a wall. No one, I repeat no one, should ever put that in their books. I agreed with Leif that if that's how you fit in with humans, I don't want to fit in.

Also there was something that didn't make sense to me. This whole book is essentially about Atticus's journey to Asgard to defeat Thor, but the book starts out with him going to Asgard to fetch the golden apple. I remember him making the promise to get one, that's not what flummoxed me. What didn't make sense is why he would be making two trips. The first trip alerted the Norse Gods to who he was and essentially made him have to alter his whole life because of it. He ends up packing all his stuff and planning to move in fear of the Norse Gods finding out where he lives and going after who he loves. I don't get why he couldn't have done a two for one deal and get this all over with. Why drag it out? To me, it just seems to create weak filler.

I will say there were moments of laughter on my part. The line "it was like watching Santa gun down Rudolph" made me chuckle. Also Atticus's interactions between Oberon and Puren where vastly entertaining. As a whole though, I just couldn't really get into it. It felt like a chore, and reading shouldn't ever be a chore. I honestly don't know if I will read anymore from this author. The first two books were good, but this one disappointed me so much, I don't know if Kevin Hearne is redeemable to me.