Staked by Kevin Hearne

Staked (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #8)

by Kevin Hearne

Iron Druid Atticus O'Sullivan, hero of Kevin Hearne's epic New York Times bestselling urban fantasy series, has a point to make - and then drive into a vampire's heart.

When a druid has lived for two thousand years like Atticus, he's bound to run afoul of a few vampires. Make that legions of them. Even his former friend and legal counsel turned out to be a bloodsucking backstabber. Now the toothy troublemakers - led by power-mad Theophilus - have become a huge problem requiring a solution. It's time to make a stand.

As always, Atticus wouldn't mind a little backup. But his allies have problems of their own. Ill-tempered archdruid Owen Kennedy is having a wee bit of troll trouble: turns out when you stiff a troll, it's not water under the bridge. Meanwhile, Granuaile is desperate to free herself of the Norse god Loki's mark and elude his powers of divination - a quest that will bring her face to face with several Slavic nightmares.

As Atticus globetrots to stop his nemesis Theophilus, the journey leads to Rome. What better place to end an immortal than the Eternal City? But poetic justice won't come without a price: In order to defeat Theophilus, Atticus may have to lose an old friend.

Reviewed by EBookObsessed on

5 of 5 stars

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Atticus gets a magical stake and it’s time to take on the vampires.

As always, I audiobooked this series since Luke Daniels does such a spectacular job.

I’m not kidding. Atticus, Granuiale and Owen are gifted stakes from the weapons maker in Tír na Óg and one touch of the stake anywhere on the vampire unbinds them into puddles of vamp goo. There is a great scene where vampires are all sitting around the start exploding and they are all freaking out because they can’t figure out what is happening meanwhile we know there is a camouflaged druid taking care of business.

Granuiale appeals to Odin to help remove the cloaking/tracking mark that Loki branded her with. While she wants to remove Loki’s mark, she knows that will open her up to divination once again. So she heads to Poland to find and speak to Melina’s coven of witches to see if they can provide her with a magical cloak. But nothing with witches comes free and they send her to find a magical horse which was captured and being hidden by Loki. An easy trade, get them the horse and they will devise a cloak for her.

Owen is busy with his girlfriend Getta creating his Grove of apprentices to teach a new generation of druids. It is a wonderful display watching the children learn basic druidism and the first time they connect with the elementals. The problem comes when enemies of Atticus who can’t devine the Iron Druid but they can locate Owen and his apprentices. The Grove might have the protection of Tuath Dí Danann and the werewolf pack but that doesn’t mean that he and his students are safe.

Meanwhile Atticus has come up with an interesting trap for Verner Drasher and goes off to see if he can finally get rid of him for good.

Problems with the vampires have hit a critical point and Atticus makes a deal with the devil…well, not the real devil but close. They are no longer friends but Leif Helgerson is “the devil you know” and they make a deal, if Leif helps Atticus find Theophalis and if Atticus can destroy him, Leif can step in as the oldest vampire and strike a deal for peace between the vamps and the druids. That is a lot of “ifs.”

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 24 February, 2017: Finished reading
  • 24 February, 2017: Reviewed