“Hounded,” Iron Druid book 1 by Kevin Hearne: Fun urban-gods pulp fantasy based on Irish myths. Goes down easy.

The modern setting deflates the pompousness of the genre, turning each old god into a fish out of water. Each one’s an immigrant comedy on legs.

Key ally in this tale is a Tamil witch, Laksha Kulasekaran, who’s dreadfully Orientalized. Written thinly with all the Kali tropes (demonic, unclean) as well as bud-bud dialogue: “I am not knowing,” “I was not thinking so.”

I’ve never heard any desi misuse continuous tense that way. Feels like concocted exotica, like Johnny Carson’s Carnac.

Extremely formulaic: each chapter is a cut scene with a different mythical creature, mostly fights, a little sexytime. Each ends on a cliffhanger. Every female is a goddess, most literally. Gets old fast.

A Druid version of “Reacher,” where he takes down all attackers cleverly and surgically describes each kill like the slo-mo “Fallout” VATS.

Way too in the weeds on low-level plot mechanics, stuff that doesn’t matter.

There’s a running gag where gods from all mythologies hate Thor for being an a-hole. But he’s even harder to kill after Marvel creates comic and movie avatars :)

Compulsively readable until you tire of the formula.