Besieged by Kevin Hearne is a collection of nine short stories set in the world of the Iron Druid series. These tales focus on various recurring characters from the series, from Atticus, to Archdruid Owen, to Perun, a god of thunder. Each story is prefaced by a notation placing it in the Iron Druid Chronicles timeline.

Written with Hearne’s customary wit and humour, Besieged follows Atticus to ancient Egypt, the Western US Gold Rush, and even the depths of Xibalba itself. There are a few stories focusing on Granuaile, Owen, and even an immensely amusing one about Perun. That one, ‘Cuddle Dungeon’, finds the thunder god being introduced to the BDSM world. ‘The Bogeyman of Boora Bog’ was probably the creepiest and darkest of the stories. Here Owen tells of a time in his distant past, after he was assigned to a village near can expanding bog. His job was to heal the land and to teach the villagers about better planning to not damage the land further. However, the villagers inform him that there’s a monster in the boglands, stealing livestock and even children. One had been taken only days previous. Owen goes into the bog, but what he finds is no fae monster, but one of the far more human variety.

I loved the (not so) subtle chastisement in ‘Gold Dust Druid’ towards people who post reviews on a book before it’s even released. Proper ARC reviews obviously don’t count, but so many times I see reviews posted before the book is released by people who didn’t read an ARC, or who read one and ignore that it’s an ARC and subject to change, and that it will go through more edits to fix grammar. Those aren’t final copy. In the same story is a reference to a fellow urban fantasy writer. I spit my tea when I read that part.

Highly recommended, especially for urban fantasy or Kevin Hearne fans!

***Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. This book was reviewed for the San Francisco Book Review.