Book Eight, Staked: The Iron Druid Chronicles

I've loved reading The Iron Druid Chronicles. The conversations with the Irish Wolfhounds throughout the series is awesome. I have two amazing friends who are Irish Wolfhounds, and I can see them having these conversations. Always makes me chuckle. Thanks Kevin for a great series, and for sharing your talent with my heart.

This is a continuation of A & G's story and a must-read if you have read the others. Things are quite desperate for Atticus and the resolve is our journey through this book. We see the evolution of other major characters and you wonder how it will come together! The ending was satisfying with the potential for more. Love it!

Kevin writes another great segment in the story. I read it in one day. I love his character, the storyline and his writing style. Too bad you left Tempe, but the summer are a bugger. Please keep this story line going. You have a legion of fans and we have money.

This was harder to get into than previous books in the series because the Druids aren't together. Three separate adventures were difficult to follow initially, but even when I became used to the separation, I enjoyed the previous books more.

Mr. Hearne wrote an excellent book. Much like his others, I had a difficult time putting it down until I was finished. If you liked the others in his Iron Druid series then you will love this. I liked that various chapters were written from the perspective of various characters. I switched between reading on my Kindle and listing via Audible. The reader on Audible was especially good and gave great voice to Owen and Oberon.

Kevin Hearne delivered another entertaining edition to the Iron Druid series. As I have said after each one...can't wait for the next!
Thank you KH... You deliver the goods & your fans appreciate it!

I love this whole series! I've read, re-read, and then rinsed and repeated more often then I can remember. If you're reading this review you know the book series rocks like a Polish witch with her pinky and index fingers raised.

As always Kevin's story grabs you from the beginning and drags you along for a spectacular ride. From the moment I picked it up I didn't want to put it down, and now that I've finished, I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

Best one in a while. Contained more of the great humor I've come to expect, and aside from the continuing issues with the Granuaile chapters (just not as well written as the other points of view), was great.

Another solid story from the author. I look forward to each of his books as they are one of the best urban fantasy series currently available. Not just a romance novel with supernatural beings but a true fantasy story.

Loved it. I'm a longtime fan of the series, but It took me a minute to figure out who was telling the second chapter (there are three story tellers - watch the drawings on top of the pages.)

Worth every penny!

The last in this series was a bit of dissonance with a significant change of technique. That technique gets its groove on in Staked and Atticus and co. tie up many loose ends but at great cost. Wonderful stuff!!

I really enjoyed Staked. As with the other books in the series, I read it very quickly and stayed up far too late at night because I had to keep going. I'm consistently pleased with the Iron Druid Chronicles, and this book did not disappoint.

My only caveat, is that I would recommend you start with the first in the series (which I'm sure is pretty common sense) and not start with this book as it is the 8th.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this series up until this book. For some reason, the author decided to put the main character more in the role of a side kick, and not a particularly likeable one at that. I was willing to overlook that, in hopes that the author might return to the original series theme. However, the last part of the book became an overt environmemtalist indoctrination, and one very short on actual facts.

If I want to listen to idiots expound on things they know little to nothing about other than how they “feel” the way things ought to be, to listen to people who think feelings and wishes over rule physics and reality, I can watch some national news airhead for free. I don’t appreciate being charged for the questionable privilige of being preached at, to the detriment of what had been an enjoyable FANTASY series. I’m afraid I’m done with this author, as I’m unwilling to take a chance on spending my $$ hoping to get a good fantasy novel, and get another sermon instead.

This was an exciting read because three Druids having their own stories & adventures, made it very interesting when they finally came together for one last battle against the vampires. The ending was drought with emotion.

As always Kevin Hearne has written a book that I could not put down. The quality of the fiction, the amazing historical references, the extremely rich characters, and a plot to hold your imagination spellbound leaves me wanting the next book in the series! Well done!

Granuaile, Orlaith & Owen's perspective in the series is such a welcome addition! I can't believe there is only one more book left to go. I wish Kevin Hearne would let the series continue indefinitely. I could never grow tired of Atticus & Friends' endless high jinks and hilarious witticisms.

Three authors decided to put middle sections of their series into an overpriced novella about cheese magic, so this story starts in the middle unless you fork out money for 50 pages of Hearne. Really peeved that this is not in the item description, had to get to acknowledgments to find out. Don't mind novellas, but this model is a blatant shakedown.

Kevin Hearne does a lot of things right. He's great at capturing at Atticus' flavor and the dog and tells a fun story. But as the series goes on I find myself enjoying it less and less. The Pantheons are getting to big, the world is getting a bit more jumbled and the characters are getting a little less complex.

Matters are not helped by his insistence on writing from three separate POV's. Atticus is great. His teacher is pretty good if a bit overdone. But Granuaile is just the same as Atticus. If you redacted the names of her and her dog you could not tell the difference. He does not do women well enough that it should be a recurring thing. I thought he learned from the last book but I guess other fans liked it?

This book is fun, but in this book we have all of the following things going on: preventing Ragnarok, warring against vampires, starting a druid school, retrieving a magical horse, finding a Fae-ish entity that escaped prisoners, and fighting trolls. Thats the non spoiler version. Its too much. And the characters and reader suffer because of it. You get 0 character development in this novel. You get left feeling spread so thin that I felt like I cared about everybody much less than usual. And lastly its just confusing. A couple chapters I had to restart because I thought for sure I was reading about a different character.

What was the author trying to do here? Recycle some short stories? Is he bored of writing about Atticus exclusively? Did he run out of ideas so now is just throwing every thing and the kitchen sink in there? Jesus, Odin, the Morrigan, vampires, werewolves, witches, Jupiter, regular druids, women druids, old druids? The bones of this story/world/character still hold up and I might try one more book after this one. But everything else thats being thrown in is diluting what I loved about the story not making it better. For my money the multiple person(ality) disorder needs to stop.

Three authors decided to put middle sections of their series into an overpriced novella about cheese magic, so this story starts in the middle unless you fork out money for 50 pages of Hearne. Really peeved that this is not in the item description, had to get to acknowledgments to find out. Don't mind novellas, but this model is a blatant shakedown.

Kevin Hearne does a lot of things right. He's great at capturing at Atticus' flavor and the dog and tells a fun story. But as the series goes on I find myself enjoying it less and less. The Pantheons are getting to big, the world is getting a bit more jumbled and the characters are getting a little less complex.

Matters are not helped by his insistence on writing from three separate POV's. Atticus is great. His teacher is pretty good if a bit overdone. But Granuaile is just the same as Atticus. If you redacted the names of her and her dog you could not tell the difference. He does not do women well enough that it should be a recurring thing. I thought he learned from the last book but I guess other fans liked it?

This book is fun, but in this book we have all of the following things going on: preventing Ragnarok, warring against vampires, starting a druid school, retrieving a magical horse, finding a Fae-ish entity that escaped prisoners, and fighting trolls. Thats the non spoiler version. Its too much. And the characters and reader suffer because of it. You get 0 character development in this novel. You get left feeling spread so thin that I felt like I cared about everybody much less than usual. And lastly its just confusing. A couple chapters I had to restart because I thought for sure I was reading about a different character.

What was the author trying to do here? Recycle some short stories? Is he bored of writing about Atticus exclusively? Did he run out of ideas so now is just throwing every thing and the kitchen sink in there? Jesus, Odin, the Morrigan, vampires, werewolves, witches, Jupiter, regular druids, women druids, old druids? The bones of this story/world/character still hold up and I might try one more book after this one. But everything else thats being thrown in is diluting what I loved about the story not making it better. For my money the multiple person(ality) disorder needs to stop.

Love the characters, the dialogue and the stories. Another terrific installment. I'll be sorry to read the last one, which I understand is next. The technical aspects of the magic and bindings provides authenticity. Just great stuff.

Another great book by Kevin Hearne and as always it made me laugh and also feel sad when characters that have become dear to me no longer is around. And I hope there are many more books in the works because this felt like an ending to the series.

Thank you, Mr. Hearne, for the strong Gaia theme in this Iron Druid novel and using your influence as a writer to impress upon all of your fans the importance of acting now to save this amazing planet of life. Indeed, she will remain long after humans finish destroying life as we know it today, but how about we just not do that and love her now, as the wonder she is each day.

Another fun ride yet again in this novel! A dance of the three Druids and their unique characters and story lines that converge in a climactic ending. Our pooches unite near the end and ever so sweetly! Another must read!

I'm not good with words but if you are a fan of Kevin Hearne hurry up and get this book. If you are looking for somebody new to read then you are in luck! Great series that leads up to this well written book.

To be accurate, I can never put down Hearne's books. The new one comes out, and it's done in two or three days. He is captivating with his balance of adrenaline and comedy. I always recommend Kevin's work to my friends, family and colleagues.

A lively story with just enough depth and pathos to keep it interesting. Unforgettable characters that continue to grow and change through the series. Can't wait for the next one, but, regrettably have to

Love this series. Love the characters. Only thing that I don't like is the tense of G.'s POV. It's not bad, just pulls me out of the story a little because the editor in me hiccups. Overall the entire series is amazing.

I love Kevin Hearne! And the Iron Druid series is mesmerizing. The story was well written and intrinsically thrilling.

Worst thing about it was the distraction from switching to each of the main characters. I almost would have preferred 3 books versus 3 story lines. (Maybe 4 books if you include the dogs' story.)

Hearne is not for the weak of heart who seek a romance novel with a bit of fantasy thrown in. He is hard core fantasy meeting up with Jim Butcher, Benedict Jacka, and Patricia Briggs in the best of the best!

Staked - The best of a great series! Rotating points of view (Attics, Granuaile, Owen) plus canine commentary from Oberon and Orlaith. Nearly continuous action. Multiple settings on earth and in various pantheons. Friends and enemies both old and new. A druid's life isn't always fun, but it's never boring.

Kevin you are an arch druid GOD. My love for the characters of this series knows no bounds. I loathe when I finish a book ,but am elated to read it again and again, and to read a new book in the series is truly a harmonious euphoria. Thank you again for The Iron Druid and all that comes with him.

This series is amazing! If you enjoy Dresden files, Druids, and talking dogs, you will surely enjoy The Iron Druid Chronicles. A urban fantasy adventure with great storytelling and real characters and beautifully written backgrounds. Go find book one, you are in for a real treat!

Granuialle has ruined this series. I really liked it before she was introduced, but she is just annoying and takes away from the actual main character of the books: Atticus. Her chapter in this book where she explored her daddy issues and broke all the oil wells, while spouting off endlessly about global warming was it for me. I stopped reading at that point and I will never buy another Iron Druid book.

The whole "woman warrior" trope has also been done to death that my eyes roll into the back of my head when I see it in a book. It's too bad, as this wasn't a bad series. But Granuialle had made this series jump the shark, she's just such a one-dimensional and annoying character.

Oh well, there are a lot of other books I've been meaning to read and I'll get to them after I get a refund for this awful mess. Kevin Hearne really needs to get a clue and start focusing back on Atticus. The best thing he can do for the series is to kill off Granuialle and her whining dog.

Update: I'm so done with the Iron Druid and anything written by Kevin Hearne that I have deleted ALL of his books from my Kindle account. And I'll be getting rid of all the Audible books shortly. I wish I'd never bought any of them, but I know now I could never read or listen to them again. Very sad to see a series like this go downhill but I'm glad to be rid of it.

Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles is a great series. I have strayed away from my usual types of books (Vampires & Weres) and took a chance with his story. I love his writing and his characters. Kevin is smart, very witty and intelligent...wait until you meet Oberon.

Kevin Hearne presents his readers with a fantasy of Druids, old, very old and young who are challenged by the mythical gods of almost every culture and vampires and werewolves in almost every chapter! Well written and researched, "Staked" is one of the best in the series. Besides, how can one go wrong reading about a Druid hero and heroine who communicate telepathically with their dogs. Did I say that humor is a great part of these stories? Hope there is another book soon.

Another great addition to the series. The dialog between Atticus and Oberon alone is worth the price...I love that dog. The story certainly keeps you hopping! The three-track telling made it flow pretty quickly. Can't wait for the next one!

Staked - The best of a great series! Rotating points of view (Attics, Granuaile, Owen) plus canine commentary from Oberon and Orlaith. Nearly continuous action. Multiple settings on earth and in various pantheons. Friends and enemies both old and new. A druid's life isn't always fun, but it's never boring.

Kevin you are an arch druid GOD. My love for the characters of this series knows no bounds. I loathe when I finish a book ,but am elated to read it again and again, and to read a new book in the series is truly a harmonious euphoria. Thank you again for The Iron Druid and all that comes with him.

This series is amazing! If you enjoy Dresden files, Druids, and talking dogs, you will surely enjoy The Iron Druid Chronicles. A urban fantasy adventure with great storytelling and real characters and beautifully written backgrounds. Go find book one, you are in for a real treat!

Granuialle has ruined this series. I really liked it before she was introduced, but she is just annoying and takes away from the actual main character of the books: Atticus. Her chapter in this book where she explored her daddy issues and broke all the oil wells, while spouting off endlessly about global warming was it for me. I stopped reading at that point and I will never buy another Iron Druid book.

The whole "woman warrior" trope has also been done to death that my eyes roll into the back of my head when I see it in a book. It's too bad, as this wasn't a bad series. But Granuialle had made this series jump the shark, she's just such a one-dimensional and annoying character.

Oh well, there are a lot of other books I've been meaning to read and I'll get to them after I get a refund for this awful mess. Kevin Hearne really needs to get a clue and start focusing back on Atticus. The best thing he can do for the series is to kill off Granuialle and her whining dog.

Update: I'm so done with the Iron Druid and anything written by Kevin Hearne that I have deleted ALL of his books from my Kindle account. And I'll be getting rid of all the Audible books shortly. I wish I'd never bought any of them, but I know now I could never read or listen to them again. Very sad to see a series like this go downhill but I'm glad to be rid of it.

Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles is a great series. I have strayed away from my usual types of books (Vampires & Weres) and took a chance with his story. I love his writing and his characters. Kevin is smart, very witty and intelligent...wait until you meet Oberon.

Kevin Hearne presents his readers with a fantasy of Druids, old, very old and young who are challenged by the mythical gods of almost every culture and vampires and werewolves in almost every chapter! Well written and researched, "Staked" is one of the best in the series. Besides, how can one go wrong reading about a Druid hero and heroine who communicate telepathically with their dogs. Did I say that humor is a great part of these stories? Hope there is another book soon.

Another great addition to the series. The dialog between Atticus and Oberon alone is worth the price...I love that dog. The story certainly keeps you hopping! The three-track telling made it flow pretty quickly. Can't wait for the next one!

Great and fun read while wrapping up multiple plot lines that have been developing. The chapters shift between the three druids but it doesn't take away from the combined stories or feel choppy in any way. I 100% recommend this entry.

Staked is the penultimate novel in the Iron Druid Chronicles series, and being the eighth book in a nine book series, I think it’s deserving of such a fancy word. We are just one book away from seeing how this whole crazy saga ends. Will the druids defeat Loki? Can Atticus stop Ragnarök from happening? And what other crazy gods will seep out of the woodwork to make to make things a chaotic hell? While all those answers will have to wait, Staked keeps things fun and the tension high. Quite simply, this one is a vampire novel.

The book starts with an author’s note warning readers that they may want to check the novella A Prelude to War before diving into Staked. If you’re inclined to do so, you’ll have to pick up the eBook Three Slices which is collection of three stories by Kevin Hearne, Delilah S. Dawson and Chuck Wendig. I opted to just dive into Staked, and while you do miss out on some things that are referenced in the book, you’ll be okay. Furthermore, if it’s been a while since you’ve read the previous books and you’re feeling rusty on where things are right now, there’s a handy catch-up chapter that summarizes everything that’s happened so far. It’s a very helpful refresher. Now for the story proper.

In keeping with the vampire theme, the book starts with a bank heist in which Atticus goes after a book container all the addresses for the world’s vampires. It’s the first step in his quest to hunt down and kill the ancient vampire Theophilus. Elsewhere, Granuaile is on her own quest to rid herself of Loki’s mark so she can be free of his watchful eyes. This leads her to a witch’s coven in Poland and a journel to an island off the coast of Germany to find a warhorse of divination. Meanwhile Owen is off in Arizona starting up a grove to train new druids with the help of some werewolves. There’s battles with trolls, a giant cobra, armies of dwarves, and lots of vampires. With the help of some allies, the three druids go off on multiple adventures dealing with the gods and mystical creatures. It’s a fun romp around the world with lots of humor, action and some touristy tidbits of knowledge as they visit different places.

Obviously this isn’t a book anyone would want to start with since it’s the eighth book in a nine book series. For fans who have been following along with the series, Staked is a must read. However the good news is that it’s another fun, enjoyable entry into the series. Whether you’re an Atticus fan, Granuaile fan or an Own fan, there’s something for everyone. Plus there’s lots of fun with Oberon and Orlaith and all their dog humor. Comparing Staked to the rest of the series, it’s a good entry, but I wouldn’t say it’s the best book yet. That said, it’s not a move in the wrong direction either. This one keeps up the action and plotting with tons of entertainment. While Atticus isn’t changing much as a character, Granuaile and Owen are. Plus this book brought me to tears at one point which is always a good sign that the author is doing their job right. The character depth is there.

As a great read with entertaining characters, colorful action and enjoyable humor, I give Staked a five out of five. Kevin Hearne ended this one on a satisfying happy note and I’m interested to see how he’ll finish the series off with the end so close in sight.

The best books EVER!!!!!!! Such an incredible cast of characters, beautiful writing, intense conflict followed by the "harmony" we ALL long for. I pray that Atticus, Granuaile, Owen, Oberon, morality, etc. Continutue to wreak havoc on our hearts in the most beautiful of ways for many novels to come. Mr. Kevin Hearne, you are a most incredible writer. (Man, I would LOVE to have a Kevin Hearne/Jim Butcher mash-up.... Attics, and Dresden! Anyways Tysm for these amazing books!!!!!!!

This book has saved my faith in my kind of literature: urban fantasy. First I fell in love with Laurell K, then Jim Butcher & now Hearne. It had all kinds of geeky stuff I love: mystery, mythology, magic & druidry. I like Atticus' POV the most. I devoured it just like all the others.

Having thoroughly enjoyed the first 7 installments of the Iron Druid Chronicles, I was looking forward to the 8th. It started out just fine, with the usual witty dialogue between Atticus and his hound. When I can laugh out loud with the characters while listening to a book, it is a real pleasure. Hearne has written some fabulously fun and well crafted stories.

But the enjoyable ride was over when it took a nasty turn: Granuialle went leaping right over the edge. Talk about a nutter. She sees nothing wrong with sabotaging her step-father's oil based business because she thinks he didn't love her. She seems to have a seething hatred for him that is very poorly articulated. If she had loved him and thought he loved her....would her actions against his type of business have been so hideous? I think not. She hates him, so she gave no thought whatever to the thousands of hard working people who would instantly lose their jobs and the ability to feed, clothe and house their families after her mayhem.. Nor does she appear to think for one second about the impact on the world economy and its people if she continues to destroy fossil fuel production (which apparently is her plan). Chaos, deprivation, starvation, riots and war. Period. Far, far more terrible than burning fossil fuels is causing, particularly in light of the fact that things are already changing over time and it does, indeed, take time. But oh, who cares? Granuialle knows best and will decide for the entire planet all by herself.

Geez...if this is what Druids believe is good for the Earth, we, and Gaia, can live without them, thanks. Oh, and to top it off, she beats the crap out of her step-father when she is through wrecking his business and the lives of others. Nice. And she clearly thinks this is perfectly ok? These types of people are truly terrifying. In fact, they are terrorists.

This interlude ruined the book for me and I will not be buying the next one if Granuialle and this type of heavy handed politicizing is in it and maybe not even then. If this was a political statement in favor of eco-terrorism, for shame. If not, then write her out and good riddance.

I really enjoyed the first parts of this series - three and four were especially good. Starting in seven it took a turn for the worse, and this book is just annoying. It moves the plot along, but feels disconnected, preachy, and scattered. Made worse by the fact that a side story in a different book of short stories is required for continuity - it isn't a throwaway extra, this book won't make sense without it. It is more like the first few chapters of this book than a separate story.

First problem is too many POV characters. Jumping between the three, chapter by chapter, ruins continuity. Two out of three aren't even that interesting. Owen as crotchety old person finding himself and falling in love now that he is young again; we've seen that, and Atticus did it better. Granuaile as a SJW with super powers... we'll come back to her in a minute. Atticus and Oberon's story line in this one was mostly jumping around doing random things, that somehow contributed to the plot line. That story lacked the humor and drama of the first books, and had very little suspense or drama.

Granuaile's chapters are by turns unbelievable, boring, and heavily preachy. Her daddy issues suddenly are front and center, while the end of the world is at hand. In the interests of her revenge (also Gaia, but since she starts with her personal target it is mostly revenge) she destroys jobs, livelihoods and starts a crusade that, if successful, would starve millions and shut down life as we know it. All while she can globe trot the world at will and is on course to live forever. And she is preachy, self righteous, and moralizing to a ridiculous degree. Her hound isn't even funny. If she gets her way, the druids will end up enemies of the entire rest of the world - whether that is the governments getting involved, or every pantheon going against them as their starving followers pray for relief.

And these characters all have basically godlike powers, but aren't immortal, except that the writer doesn't want them dead. Granuaile throws down with two gods. Atticus survives who knows how many bullet wounds, and is back up and fighting in minutes / days / hours. Nearly dead, just barely alive, then back to full strength (with a little soreness). Their allies just hand them the tools needed to defeat their enemies. And the writer just keeps them all alive because he feels like it - any of them could (more plausibly) be dead than alive.

And the loss of the Morrigan two books ago is big; she provided a lot of the drama and entertainment. Her cameo her is silly and fairly pointless.

If you really liked the first few books, and want to finish the story regardless, read it; skim or skip some chapters, ignore the discontinuities, and you will be fine. If you were on the fence about this series already, this is a good place to get off.

I was a huge fan of the series from the first book, being a huge fan of Celtic mythology. New takes on that pantheon were always welcome to me. I have taken the journey with Atticus and Oberon against celtic gods, evil witches, The norse gods, Native monsters, and evil vampires. I never particularly cared for Granuille, seeing her as entitled, smug and pretentious with daddy issues, but hey, she was just a non-POV sidekick character. Then Kevin Hearne decided to make her his wish fulfillment character, using her to expound his leftist politics, and made her a POV character. Ugh. He added Owen the Arch Druid, bringing the series more back to its lighter roots, but still keeping Granuille as a POV, and becoming more and more itrritating with her character having pages of monologuing about the evils of rich people, oil companies, climate change, scientists with legimate disagreement about climate change cause and results being labeled shady and dishonest. I mean, pages of monologuing about this stuff. Ugh again. There is nothing wrong with a mention of your politics, but when you use 5 or 6 chapters of your book for preachy monologuing, thats message fic, and there is enough of that garbage ruining sci-fi and fantasy as it is. Sad he has gone that direction, since the rest of the book was really good. The vampire war is finally settled, there are lots of good fight scenes, and there is some character growth in every character other than Granuille, who is just a cypher for Hearne's wish fullfillment. Greta the Werewolf is perfect example of a character stepping forward. I really like her, she is a good counterbalance to Owen. The Celtic Pantheon is about to explode again it looks like in book 9, so we'll see what happens there, but I have read my last chapter of Granuille, Captain Planet Druid. Since her POV chapters don't actually have anything to do with the rest of the story, they can actually be skipped, and you'll miss nothing. Easily the weakest effort from the author to date, and if this continues, I'll just drop it. There is too much other good stuff out there that dont feel the need to preach at you, like the Dresden Files, Tim Marquitz's Demon Squad books, Craig Schaefer's Daniel Faust series, or Ari Marmell's Mick Oberon books.

Please stick to writing and put away your Social Justice Warrior persona. Luckily I was able to skip, using Audible, all the chapters that were focused on Granuaile. The character thinks that destroying a company and causing it to go bankrupt "hurts no one". Um... how about all of the folks who work there and depend on the company for their livelihood? Simplistic, patronizing, SJW preaching. I bought your book to escape, not to be followed by a harpy telling me how best to live.

I've been reading the Iron Druid series since a friend turned me on to them and when I saw that I had a chance to review one for the store's Vine Program I had to grab it. As with the earlier pieces in this series Staked is a continual flowing book that does a good job keeping the reader interested and wanting to move forward. Having said that Mr. Hearne has started to weigh the series down with additional characters (Owen and Granuaile) having their own chapters. I say weigh down because while they have good stories that flow toward the main arc, they tend to interrupt the main story for a significant period causing you to have to recall what the main story. Other authors have done this too, in my opinion better than Mr. Hearne does (I'm sorry, Owen and Granuaile are to similar in personality/style to Atticus making for a little mud in the story line). That said, this is generally a good continuation of the Iron Druid series.

So I bought this very shortly after it came out, and was happy to settle in reading it today, only to discover the author's forward basically telling me there was an essential piece of the story missing between the end of the last book and the start of this one, and if I wanted to know what was going on I was going to have to track down an anthology about cheese. Oh and it's only available in audio or ebook. Sorry if you don't do those formats or use one of the large stores it's not available at. I guess you're out of luck.

Honestly, the series has been slipping the last few books anyway, and the sausage jokes are getting old. Maybe I'll pick up Prelude to War if it's ever available on its own and get into the book then. In the meantime, I thought others should know.

I fell in love with this series after the first book, Hounded, had been recommended to me on Goodreads. I love mythology and Kevin Hearne offered such a unique take on Druid, Gaelic, and Norse mythology. I was immediately pulled in by such an intriguing story of the (seemingly) last living Druid who was hiding in Arizona, living the life as a laid-back novelty and book shop owner. Sadly, Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid series has become a library read for me. I was rather disappointed in the previous book, Shattered, after paying the hardback price I decided to get Staked from the library before laying out my cash this time. I’m glad I did.

I detest overt politics and/or preaching when I read fantasy stories. I was rolling my eyes at the author's not so subtle weaving of his political views into the plot. Granuaile, after training twelve years to become the world's only second known Druid, she devolved into a self-righteous environmental terrorist whose primary motivation was to take revenge on her stepdad because he wanted her mother all for himself and never wanted her around. Then, in order to make the new druid trainees more worldly, the new crop of children chosen were picked one from a particular ethnic group and they all would live and train at the compound of the gay wolf alpha and his husband. This could not have been more contrived as a social commentary to serve as Hearne’s own social soapbox similar to Terry Goodkind’s libertarian preaching in the Sword of Truth series.

Staked just felt stagnate as it brought the once-exciting series to a sputtering end. True to form, Atticus machinations and miscalculations with the vampires once again lead to the death of another beloved character. Owen never developed much beyond being a foul-mouth, sour ole curmudgeon but was sensible enough to distance himself from Atticus and throw in his lot with Greta and the remaining wolves. Only Oberon was the saving grace of the book for me.

Overall I found Staked boring, plodding, and bordering on preachy. Thankfully Hearne has wrapped up this series before it became a shadow of its former glory, a la the Dresden Files. The first four books were excellent but sadly, in the end, series didn't quite live up to its potential.

Good book, but I am SO annoyed the beginning of the book (A Prelude to War) is only available as part of an anthology. You start in the middle of the story, and no, I'm not going to buy it. I already bought this book because I thought it was a continuation of the last book, not several months later in the story. But as soon as you open it, there's an author's note that if you want to start from where the last book left off, you'll have to go out and buy a DIFFERENT book. Maybe my library will get it one day, but by that time I'll have moved on anyway.

Perhaps it seems like I am being unfair, but I don't buy a lot of the books I read, especially when a series goes from releasing in paperback to hardcover. The previous ebooks were not necessary to read to continue the main plot, and this feels like when I buy a video game only to find out to get the full game I have to shell out more money on DLC.

I have loved the Iron Druid series since I picked up the first book, and I try to reread them before each release. That being said the continued expansion of Granuielle and the inclusion of some really liberal material has made an enjoyable book series slow to a crawl. I really hope we get more Aticus and Oberon and Owen moving forward and leave the SJW stuff behind.

If the core Iron Druid 9-book storyline is now Atticus having to take Thor's place at Ragnarok, then this book does very little to advance that. On the other hand, the long-running druids v vampires squabble is finalised. The real bad news, though is:

1. Hearne has continued using Granuaile and Owen as POV characters;
2. The vampire stuff only gets interesting in the last few pages of the book;
3. For all it’s a suitable climax to deal with the Big Bad Evil Vampire, its sort of squibbed and a letdown.

As to point 1, Owen is not really distinct enough from Atticus despite the accented speech and being an Irish stereotype so broad it would have been rejected from Father Ted, so we are left with faux-Atticus without Oberon to bounce cool quips off. That’s like a hot dog without the bun - sausage is good, but its not a hot dog. The real problem though is Granuaile - she's gone from being a cool kick-ass warrior woman to a whiny hippie with not just daddy issues, but step-daddy issues too. Basically, the entire reason that she's a druid now is because her step dad ignored her, and he runs an oil company, so therefore fossil fuels are evil by association. I guess we're lucky her step dad wasn't a busy UN hostage negotiator - I shudder to think what might have happened to Granuaile's career choices in that case. Also, the whole daddy issues thing: not helped by the fact she's shacked up with literally the oldest man in the whole world.

When we still get Atticus and Oberon, its still pretty cool, but that just reminds us of the less fun stuff in the rest of the book. It’s a real shame Hearne could not find a way to tell the story without splitting the view in three.

The Vampire menace: There is a lot of set up here, and the payoff at the end is almost accidental - Granuale and Owen show up out of nowhere, more or less, to help Atticus, and why Atticus does not properly clean up one adversary first has consequences (which, of course, are not really suffered by Atticus). It’s a good fight scene at the end - really good - but it lacks deeper meaning.

Now I know why novels usually love long expository speeches by the evil dark lord about his nefarious plan. We didn’t get one here, and Theophilus, apparently 2000 years old and more, scourge of the druids and a power behind the roman empire and possibly the Church, really just dies like a mook. I mean, he puts up a fight, but as to why any of it happened…no idea. Sure, Atticus is a godslayer, etc, etc, but a hero can only shine to the extent he has a worthy opponent: sadly, in the end, Theo does not live up to scratch.

A lot of the promise of the earlier books is gone now. This was book 8, so there is one book left to wrap everything up (hopefully only from Atticus' POV). That’s probably doable, but book 9 will need to be a significant improvement on this to avoid becoming a disappointing ending.

This was an incomplete novel, it was missing the first few chapters, they appear in a Novella in an anthology mixed up with two other stories that don't sound interesting at all. If you actually want to know what is going on you have to pay 7 dollars for that but only in e-book or audio so if you don't have a device to do that you can't read it. Looks like he was trying to be a nice guy and give a rub to two authors by forcing his fans to buy
their work, in my case it didn't work. You will figure out the back story as you read but it is tiresome and actually made me resent both the story and the author for the transparent money grab.

I just...

I feel bad even writing this. I have been just shy of a superfan of this series since I found it a few years ago. I have waited, with fangirl squeeing, for this book's release. Having recently moved, I about fell over when I found out the author was going to be a couple towns over for a signing. I hate crowds, but I went and paid my $27(!!) for the hardback, even though I already had the Audible version, because I wanted to support one of my favorite authors and have something for him to sign.

It all started out well enough. Atticus, Oberon, Owen...

...and then Granuaile and Orla. I should dig Granuaile. I really should. She is a super strong female character. I should be thrilled Hearne gives her so much time, but she reads terribly, even when she's an integral character in the storyline. In Staked, she's really not all that important. She has two separate side stories and, while I expect/hope/pray at least one of them of is integral for the next and last book of the series, all she manages to do in Staked is slow everything down and add filler to what still feels like a terribly short book.

I would say that Hearne is distracted by his other projects at the moment, but the Atticus, Oberon and Owen stuff still read really, really well. They all remind me of why I fell in love with this series in the first place - I hate to say it, but I hope in the end, Atticus will ditch the chick. She's a drag, man.

As many have pointed out, This book is on a steep decline. I've enjoyed the rest but the added politics into the book has made it cringeworthy. Everytime I hit a Granuaile chapter I just want to skip it and move onto the next but unfortunately I rough through it in case something important is added to the storyline. Unfortunately this will probably be the last Iron Druid novel I purchase. There's far too many good books out there to waste my time on one that's turning into one man's political statement.

I have read all of the iron druid books and have been a fan of urban fantasy fiction in general for many years. This series started out so strong, but as others have pointed out, it has just flattened, and not because the core subject has gone cold, but rather that Hearne has unleashed his inner snowflake in a manner that just turns me off. You can't read around it as other might have suggested. It is pervasive. The story, still compelling, is hard to wait for between gushing precious language about "saucers clanking" and "steam hissing" in a European cafe setting. This is not to even mention the monologues about the virtues of "Hounds". I own a "Hound" but I call him a dog like most literate human beings not searching for overwrought ways to describe everyday occurrences. I almost threw this thing across the room reading that tripe. What are you thinking Kevin? But also the advocacy for domestic terrorism in the name of environmental concern. Again, this is just too much self-indulgent bologna for me to swallow, and completely incongruous with the previous books in the series. Sure the pronounced ties of the protagonists to gaia could lead to such a storyline, but even as Hearne points out, Atticus was not involved in such utter senseless tasking / story lines previously because he had Angus Og and other interesting antagonists driving his actions. Hearne by writing this bit of introspective dialogue by Atticus admits this Eco-Warrior storyline is less interesting and less important than the rest of the entire series, and yet continues to promote this drivel in chapter after chapter. (This while the relatively interesting story line of Owen Kennedy is just getting started. And it shows hope.) There are ghosts and vampires and werewolves and trolls and jailbreaks....you get the point. There is an entire interesting universe out there that is being disregarded by this politically driven nonsense that adds zero value to the story. Shame on you fat and happy writer. Shame. You can see his ham-handed attempt to create distance between Atticus and Granuaile coming from a mile off, and you can tell it will become an issue in future reading. Worse yet is the seemingly even more ham-fisted attempt at distracting the reader with (spoiler alert) forthcoming puppies. Who doesn't like puppies? I for one do not when they are an artifice being used to layer over severe structural story issues that are self imposed by this now self-important author. Run away. Run away.

After SHATTERED, I had concerns that THE IRON DRUID CHRONICLES may be taking on water with an excess of POVs, mythologies and threads. STAKED slowed its roll a bit by limiting the amount of chapters from Owen and Granuaile’s perspectives, and I certainly can’t find fault in Kevin Hearne’s comedic writing style, but the female druid continued to annoy me, and when compared to some of this series’ epic stories, I found that the conclusion to the two century-long vampire saga was rather anticlimactic.

Atticus and Oberon have jetted around most of the globe and several planes; however in this installment they visited Canada, and tons of familiar cultural references ensued including a visit to Timmies and the hound discovering his new favourite dish: poutine! Readers also get to discover why one never wants to be “Nigel in Toronto”, and Owen was temporarily put on dog sitting duty which was seriously the funniest thing ever. Listening to Oberon explain to the archdruid how modern tech works was priceless.

Granuaile has to be one of the most irritating characters that I’ve had the misfortune of experiencing; I literally counted the number of scenes from her POV because if I reached ten I was DNF-ing this audiobook. Happily, that didn’t happen, but her personal crusade against her stepfather, and elitist attitude about what a druid’s mission *should* be pushed me to my breaking point. Owen on the other hand is an absolute peach! I like the direction that his tangent has taken, and of course Oberon is still the bestest of sidekicks.

Luke Daniels is THE man for the job with regards to narrating this series. As soon as he starts talking I immediately know which persona he’s assumed whether its the protagonist’s or a secondary that’s not made an appearance for several novels. In this title he dabbled with some French, and even though he botched one word pronunciation, I give him full marks because the rest was on the nose. His rendition of Owen is SO good, and the last scene with Oberon and Orla is as close as humans will ever come to dog speak.

STAKED was an step up from the previous book, but I still pine for the pre-SHATTERED days.

I have read and reread all of the books and short stories and loved them. This has to be the worst book in the series. Having each chapter narrated by a different character doesn't help either. I do enjoy the Owen and Atticus storylines, but Granuaile just seems like a character created so the author can push his political views. Honestly you could probably just skip all of the Granuaile chapters and it would be a better book. I kinda hope she is killed off early on in the last book so I don't have to read about her anymore. After this series is over it would be nice to have two spinoff series one with Atticus and one with Owen.

Once again we a treated to three POVs and three storylines but unlike Shattered these work seamlessly.

Atticus has issues with the vampires and their leader Theophilus. Enough is enough and its time to take a stand. To do this, he will face danger, severe ties, suffer loss and will end up carrying guilt but with a price on the druid’s heads, Atticus is determined to be the victor. This thread has him reconnecting with characters from previous books as he does quite a bit of traveling in his quest. The Hammers of God was an interesting thread and I loved how Hearne brought them back in and feed my quest for knowledge regarding them. The Dark Elves also made an appearance and continue to fascinate me.

After Granuaile ‘s experiences in India, she is determined to be free of the mark, the Norse God Loki set upon her. To do this she enlists the help of the gods and the witches in Poland. This was an intense thread that has her facing several Slavic nightmares. She also continued her quest regarding her stepfather. I like Granuaile but I would be lying if I didn’t say that her POV sometimes grates on my nerves. She is passionate but also youthful in her reactions.

The third POV is Owen, who has decided to teach again and is spending time with a certain werewolf and her clan. In Staked, Owen has a wee bit of trouble with trolls. This thread was intense, heartbreaking and tied to the overall series ARC as Owen makes a startling discovery concerning an enemy.

Oberon and Orliath were present and added humor, emotion, and talks of food to the story. While I enjoy Orilath, but Oberon continues to steal the show. One of my favorite side stories in Staked had to do with a ghost and I enjoyed how Hearne both shared events from Atticus’s past and addressed ghostly entities.

The stories eventually wove together when Atticus and the other druids join him in Rome as he takes on Theophilus. These final scenes were intense and had me sitting up straight and listening intensely.

Luke Daniels continues to narrate the series and I think he will be as sad as I will be when the final novel releases. Thankfully, he narrates Hearne’s new series and many other titles.

Eighth in The Iron Druid Chronicles urban fantasy series and revolving around Atticus O’Sullivan and Oberon and Granuaile and Orlaith, as they globetrot the world. Owen and Greta want to stay put.

My Take
Hearne uses third person multiple point-of-view as he rotates among Atticus, Granuaile, and Owen, and yes, he makes the majority of the changing perspectives quite obvious.

I love that Rabbi Bialik has "repented" and come to his senses! Who knew a religious man could realize "that people must walk their own road to salvation and not necessarily follow me on mine. I had taken my faith too far." Oh, yeah, baby… I do like that comment Atticus makes about Gaia not requiring worship.

I’m not too sure how faithful Granuaile is being to Druid principles with the designs she has on her stepfather. I do agree that he deserves it (and I’m looking forward to seeing what she does in Scourged.

Owen is a bit of a crack-up as he reluctantly attempts to assimilate into modern society.

All three protagonists have their particular missions, which find them, at the end, in the same place for a final throwdown. No, the series isn’t ending, just this particular goal. One of Atticus’ tasks turns out to be a nasty bit of gameplaying.

I don’t know if it was me or if Staked got juvenile about halfway in. It didn’t help that Granuaile’s interactions with Orlaith became so annoying nor that Granuaile spent so much time justifying her upcoming actions against her stepfather. Why she ever thought she could influence him, I’ll never know. Just lame. Fortunately Atticus and Oberon continue their jocular — more intelligent — interactions.

It's a matter of pride and responsibility with a strong sense of good versus evil in varying degrees.

The Story
With two more druids as backup, Atticus is determined to gain revenge for the massacre two thousand years ago. Only Owen and Granuaile have their own problems. It turns out that trolls have a long memory for those who stiff them, and Granuaile is desperate to remove Loki's mark that can track her anywhere.

Unfortunately, those vampires have no intention of going peaceably, and there'll be more than one showdown, until Atticus gets to Rome, the origin of that thousands-of-years-ago massacre.

The Characters
Atticus O’Sullivan, a.k.a., Siodhachan Ó Suileabhán, Sean Flanagan, and then Connor Molloy, was born in 83 BCE. After he became a Druid, he was on the run evading murderous vampires as well as Aenghus Óg. Oberon Snackworthy is his Irish wolfhound with whom Atticus can communicate telepathically. And they are a crack-up! Fragarach is his magic sword. Nigel Hargrave was Atticus’ identity back in 1953 in Toronto when he enrolled as a pre-med student. There was also a Nigel in the late nineteenth century in seminary school. He was betrothed to Gwendolyn, a.k.a., the Lady in Red.

Granuaile MacTiernan, a.k.a., Clever Girl, recently became a Druid and is accompanied by her Irish wolfhound, Orlaith. Scáthmhaide is her staff. Beau Thatcher is Granuaile's stepfather and a wealthy oil baron. He's also a MAJOR jerk.

Laksha Kulasekaran is the spirit of an Indian witch who now possesses Mhathini Palanichamy ( Shattered , 7); we first met Laksha in Hexed , 2. She lives with Mhathini’s family in India. Her mother works in the silk industry; her autocratic, controlling father is an IT consultant. Durga is a devi, a goddess who protects humanity and restores balance.

Archdruid Owen Kennedy, Atticus' teacher, aka, Eoghan Ó Cinnéide, had been stranded on a time island in Tir na nÓg. His shapes include walrus, bear, and kite. He and Greta, a werewolf Enforcer for the Tempe Pack who transfers into the Flagstaff Pack, are together. His apprentices include a Mongolian family: Nergüi , a new pack member in Flagstaff whose wife, Oyuunchimeg "Meg" is straight human. Their seven-year-old daughter Enkhtuya "Tuya". Diego and Rafaela are from Peru and new pack members concerned about protecting their son, Ozcar. Mohammed and his son, Mehdi, are from Morocco. Sajit is a Hindu from Nepal. His daughter is Amita. Natália and her six-year-old Luiz are from Brazil. Sonkwe and his daughter, Thandi, are from Zambia.

The werewolves
Hal Hauk is Atticus' attorney and a werewolf who is the alpha of the Tempe Pack. Sam Obrist is the Swiss alpha of the Flagstaff pack; Ty Pollard is his second and husband. Kodiak Black, a.k.a., Craig, a bear shifter, was murdered in Shattered , 7.

Poland is…
…where the Sisters of the Three Auroras coven, worshippers of Zoryas, protective goddesses, and led by Malina Sokolowska — is based these days ( Hounded , 1). Other (remaining) members of the coven include Berta, Kazimiera, Klaudia, and Roksana. The new ones include Martyna, Ewelina, Agnieszka, Dominika, Magdalena, Zofia, Patrycja, and Anna.

Rabbi Yosef Bialik, once part of the Hammers of God, appears to have changed his tune. Although he still has his Cthulhu beard tentacles.

Tír na nÓg is…
…where the Fae live. Brighid is their leader. Creidhne and Luchta are her still-living sons; Goibhniu is not. Aenghus Óg is Brighid’s brother and the Celtic god of love. Flidais is Perun’s lover, an Irish goddess of the hunt. Fand is one of Flidais' daughters currently in prison for her actions. Manannan Mac Lir, a sea god, is Fand’s husband. The Morrigan is the crow goddess.

The Glass Knights wear blue glass armor; the Black Axes are an elite dwarf infantry unit. Yewmen are mercenaries who have been working for Atticus.

Swartálfs are…
…dark elves who live in Swartálfheim and are led by Turid Einarsdottir. Krókr Hrafsnon is the head of the assassins.

Gods
Asgard is where the Æsir gods are based. Odin is their leader while Frigg is Odin’s wife. Hugin and Munin are Odin’s ravens, Thought and Memory. Fjalar is a dwarf Runeskald with two missions. Loki is a trickster god who put a mark on Granuaile.

Perun is a Slavic thunder god. Świȩtowit is a Slavic god of war and divination; his horse, Miłosz, is missing. Weles is another Slavic god, a sneaky one allied with Loki. Shango is an Orisha, a god of thunder.

Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt, has been imprisoned in pieces ( Hunted , 6). Jupiter leads the Roman pantheon.

Elementals are…
…beings in the earth. Ferris is helping Atticus at the start. Colorado is the elemental in the Flagstaff area. The Mecklenburg elemental is based in Germany. The elementals call Atticus "Druid" and Granuaile "Fierce Druid". A Druid’s first function is to protect the earth.

The vampires
Atticus discovers that letting Werner Drasche, an arcane lifeleech, live in Hunted was a mistake. Theophilus fancies himself the leader of the world’s vampires and intends to take Atticus down. Part of Theophilus’ nest includes Karl, Hans, and Marko is a sniper. Leif Helgarson had been Atticus' vampire lawyer in Tempe until he betrayed him.

Toronto
Gary and Chuy are bank guards. Ed is a customer at a café.

Rosicrucians are…
…not the friendly society they portray. Bram Stoker, William Butler Yeats, and Aleister Crowley were part of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and into Hermetic Qabalah.

Julie d’Aubigny, a.k.a., Mademoiselle Maupin, was a famous opera singer, a lover who did not care about gender roles, and a duelist. Earth is Midgard. Dr. Sudarga who treats Owen. Nocnice are nightmares, damned souls who choke people when they are asleep. Mekera is a tyromancer helping Atticus.

The Cover and Title
The cover is icy in its blues and a collage of the cities they travel to and through. The young-looking Atticus with his short curly red hair appears to be wearing a blue plaid shirt, and he holds a bloody stake in his hand. There’s an info blurb at the top in white, and the author’s name is white in a distressed font in the bottom third of the cover while the title is equally distressed but in red at the very bottom. There is a badge near Atticus’ right shoulder announcing the series information.

The title is a special tool and action that wipes up trouble: Staked.

Disappointed. Easily the worst of the whole series. Atticus is still a fun character but the whole story was all about tying up loose ends rather than forwarding the actual story. The relationships all seemed disjointed and unsatisfying. Hoping this isn't a case of getting famous and no longer caring about the story. I desperately hope I am wrong.

I got this book through the the store Vine program to review. This is the eighth book in the Iron Druid Chronicles. The ninth book is as yet untitled and is supposed to be the final book in this series. This was a decent continuation of this series; although I haven’t enjoyed the last couple books in this series as much as earlier ones.

Hearne starts out this book with a preface telling you that you need to go pick up the anthology Three Slices and read his Iron Druid novella (A Prelude to War) in there. I did that (with a bit of grumbling). However, after reading Staked I don’t think you have to go and read A Prelude to War in Three Slices. Hearne recaps the events in A Prelude to War just fine within this book. I would only go and pick up Three Slices if you are also a Delilah Dawson and Chuck Wendig fan.

In this book Granuaile and Atticus spend most of their time apart. The story is actually told from three points of view that of Granuaile, Atticus, and Owen. Granuaile is busy trying to figure out how to get Loki’s mark removed and also trying to get a cloak put over her so that no one can divine where she is. As a result of that she ends up going to the witches and doing a quest for them in exchange for the cloaking magic.

Atticus is trying to find the oldest vampire Theopolis and take him out in an effort to stop the war between druids and vampires once and for all. Meanwhile Owen had decided to start a new druidic grove and work on teaching a new generation of druids.

This book was decent and there are a lot of good action scenes as well as some humor (although not nearly as much humor as previous books). The story feels a bit more fractured than earlier books in this series. It’s kind of like three books mashed together; although the characters do come together at the end.

This book wasn’t as entertaining as previous books but read more like it was just a playing out of events that had to happen to tie up some storylines. I just couldn’t engage with the story and really get into it like I have for earlier books in the series.

Probably my favorite part was when the Hammers of God and their tentacular beards get involved in the story; this was pretty awesome. The other characters didn’t show much growth or change. Atticus is still blundering around causing issues. Granualie has definitely come into her own and is making good decisions and planning for the future.

Overall this was a decent addition to this series but not as entertaining as previous books. The story just feels too fractured and wasn’t as much fun to read. I am happy the ninth book is the final book in this series. This series started out absolutely spectacular and the last few books have gotten less and less entertaining. I would still recommend this series to urban fantasy fans out there. It’s a good one and fun to read.

So I bought this very shortly after it came out, and was happy to settle in reading it today, only to discover the author's forward basically telling me there was an essential piece of the story missing between the end of the last book and the start of this one, and if I wanted to know what was going on I was going to have to track down an anthology about cheese. Oh and it's only available in audio or ebook. Sorry if you don't do those formats or use one of the large stores it's not available at. I guess you're out of luck.

Honestly, the series has been slipping the last few books anyway, and the sausage jokes are getting old. Maybe I'll pick up Prelude to War if it's ever available on its own and get into the book then. In the meantime, I thought others should know.

I fell in love with this series after the first book, Hounded, had been recommended to me on Goodreads. I love mythology and Kevin Hearne offered such a unique take on Druid, Gaelic, and Norse mythology. I was immediately pulled in by such an intriguing story of the (seemingly) last living Druid who was hiding in Arizona, living the life as a laid-back novelty and book shop owner. Sadly, Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid series has become a library read for me. I was rather disappointed in the previous book, Shattered, after paying the hardback price I decided to get Staked from the library before laying out my cash this time. I’m glad I did.

I detest overt politics and/or preaching when I read fantasy stories. I was rolling my eyes at the author's not so subtle weaving of his political views into the plot. Granuaile, after training twelve years to become the world's only second known Druid, she devolved into a self-righteous environmental terrorist whose primary motivation was to take revenge on her stepdad because he wanted her mother all for himself and never wanted her around. Then, in order to make the new druid trainees more worldly, the new crop of children chosen were picked one from a particular ethnic group and they all would live and train at the compound of the gay wolf alpha and his husband. This could not have been more contrived as a social commentary to serve as Hearne’s own social soapbox similar to Terry Goodkind’s libertarian preaching in the Sword of Truth series.

Staked just felt stagnate as it brought the once-exciting series to a sputtering end. True to form, Atticus machinations and miscalculations with the vampires once again lead to the death of another beloved character. Owen never developed much beyond being a foul-mouth, sour ole curmudgeon but was sensible enough to distance himself from Atticus and throw in his lot with Greta and the remaining wolves. Only Oberon was the saving grace of the book for me.

Overall I found Staked boring, plodding, and bordering on preachy. Thankfully Hearne has wrapped up this series before it became a shadow of its former glory, a la the Dresden Files. The first four books were excellent but sadly, in the end, series didn't quite live up to its potential.

Good book, but I am SO annoyed the beginning of the book (A Prelude to War) is only available as part of an anthology. You start in the middle of the story, and no, I'm not going to buy it. I already bought this book because I thought it was a continuation of the last book, not several months later in the story. But as soon as you open it, there's an author's note that if you want to start from where the last book left off, you'll have to go out and buy a DIFFERENT book. Maybe my library will get it one day, but by that time I'll have moved on anyway.

Perhaps it seems like I am being unfair, but I don't buy a lot of the books I read, especially when a series goes from releasing in paperback to hardcover. The previous ebooks were not necessary to read to continue the main plot, and this feels like when I buy a video game only to find out to get the full game I have to shell out more money on DLC.

I have loved the Iron Druid series since I picked up the first book, and I try to reread them before each release. That being said the continued expansion of Granuielle and the inclusion of some really liberal material has made an enjoyable book series slow to a crawl. I really hope we get more Aticus and Oberon and Owen moving forward and leave the SJW stuff behind.

If the core Iron Druid 9-book storyline is now Atticus having to take Thor's place at Ragnarok, then this book does very little to advance that. On the other hand, the long-running druids v vampires squabble is finalised. The real bad news, though is:

1. Hearne has continued using Granuaile and Owen as POV characters;
2. The vampire stuff only gets interesting in the last few pages of the book;
3. For all it’s a suitable climax to deal with the Big Bad Evil Vampire, its sort of squibbed and a letdown.

As to point 1, Owen is not really distinct enough from Atticus despite the accented speech and being an Irish stereotype so broad it would have been rejected from Father Ted, so we are left with faux-Atticus without Oberon to bounce cool quips off. That’s like a hot dog without the bun - sausage is good, but its not a hot dog. The real problem though is Granuaile - she's gone from being a cool kick-ass warrior woman to a whiny hippie with not just daddy issues, but step-daddy issues too. Basically, the entire reason that she's a druid now is because her step dad ignored her, and he runs an oil company, so therefore fossil fuels are evil by association. I guess we're lucky her step dad wasn't a busy UN hostage negotiator - I shudder to think what might have happened to Granuaile's career choices in that case. Also, the whole daddy issues thing: not helped by the fact she's shacked up with literally the oldest man in the whole world.

When we still get Atticus and Oberon, its still pretty cool, but that just reminds us of the less fun stuff in the rest of the book. It’s a real shame Hearne could not find a way to tell the story without splitting the view in three.

The Vampire menace: There is a lot of set up here, and the payoff at the end is almost accidental - Granuale and Owen show up out of nowhere, more or less, to help Atticus, and why Atticus does not properly clean up one adversary first has consequences (which, of course, are not really suffered by Atticus). It’s a good fight scene at the end - really good - but it lacks deeper meaning.

Now I know why novels usually love long expository speeches by the evil dark lord about his nefarious plan. We didn’t get one here, and Theophilus, apparently 2000 years old and more, scourge of the druids and a power behind the roman empire and possibly the Church, really just dies like a mook. I mean, he puts up a fight, but as to why any of it happened…no idea. Sure, Atticus is a godslayer, etc, etc, but a hero can only shine to the extent he has a worthy opponent: sadly, in the end, Theo does not live up to scratch.

A lot of the promise of the earlier books is gone now. This was book 8, so there is one book left to wrap everything up (hopefully only from Atticus' POV). That’s probably doable, but book 9 will need to be a significant improvement on this to avoid becoming a disappointing ending.

This was an incomplete novel, it was missing the first few chapters, they appear in a Novella in an anthology mixed up with two other stories that don't sound interesting at all. If you actually want to know what is going on you have to pay 7 dollars for that but only in e-book or audio so if you don't have a device to do that you can't read it. Looks like he was trying to be a nice guy and give a rub to two authors by forcing his fans to buy
their work, in my case it didn't work. You will figure out the back story as you read but it is tiresome and actually made me resent both the story and the author for the transparent money grab.

I just...

I feel bad even writing this. I have been just shy of a superfan of this series since I found it a few years ago. I have waited, with fangirl squeeing, for this book's release. Having recently moved, I about fell over when I found out the author was going to be a couple towns over for a signing. I hate crowds, but I went and paid my $27(!!) for the hardback, even though I already had the Audible version, because I wanted to support one of my favorite authors and have something for him to sign.

It all started out well enough. Atticus, Oberon, Owen...

...and then Granuaile and Orla. I should dig Granuaile. I really should. She is a super strong female character. I should be thrilled Hearne gives her so much time, but she reads terribly, even when she's an integral character in the storyline. In Staked, she's really not all that important. She has two separate side stories and, while I expect/hope/pray at least one of them of is integral for the next and last book of the series, all she manages to do in Staked is slow everything down and add filler to what still feels like a terribly short book.

I would say that Hearne is distracted by his other projects at the moment, but the Atticus, Oberon and Owen stuff still read really, really well. They all remind me of why I fell in love with this series in the first place - I hate to say it, but I hope in the end, Atticus will ditch the chick. She's a drag, man.

As many have pointed out, This book is on a steep decline. I've enjoyed the rest but the added politics into the book has made it cringeworthy. Everytime I hit a Granuaile chapter I just want to skip it and move onto the next but unfortunately I rough through it in case something important is added to the storyline. Unfortunately this will probably be the last Iron Druid novel I purchase. There's far too many good books out there to waste my time on one that's turning into one man's political statement.

I have read all of the iron druid books and have been a fan of urban fantasy fiction in general for many years. This series started out so strong, but as others have pointed out, it has just flattened, and not because the core subject has gone cold, but rather that Hearne has unleashed his inner snowflake in a manner that just turns me off. You can't read around it as other might have suggested. It is pervasive. The story, still compelling, is hard to wait for between gushing precious language about "saucers clanking" and "steam hissing" in a European cafe setting. This is not to even mention the monologues about the virtues of "Hounds". I own a "Hound" but I call him a dog like most literate human beings not searching for overwrought ways to describe everyday occurrences. I almost threw this thing across the room reading that tripe. What are you thinking Kevin? But also the advocacy for domestic terrorism in the name of environmental concern. Again, this is just too much self-indulgent bologna for me to swallow, and completely incongruous with the previous books in the series. Sure the pronounced ties of the protagonists to gaia could lead to such a storyline, but even as Hearne points out, Atticus was not involved in such utter senseless tasking / story lines previously because he had Angus Og and other interesting antagonists driving his actions. Hearne by writing this bit of introspective dialogue by Atticus admits this Eco-Warrior storyline is less interesting and less important than the rest of the entire series, and yet continues to promote this drivel in chapter after chapter. (This while the relatively interesting story line of Owen Kennedy is just getting started. And it shows hope.) There are ghosts and vampires and werewolves and trolls and jailbreaks....you get the point. There is an entire interesting universe out there that is being disregarded by this politically driven nonsense that adds zero value to the story. Shame on you fat and happy writer. Shame. You can see his ham-handed attempt to create distance between Atticus and Granuaile coming from a mile off, and you can tell it will become an issue in future reading. Worse yet is the seemingly even more ham-fisted attempt at distracting the reader with (spoiler alert) forthcoming puppies. Who doesn't like puppies? I for one do not when they are an artifice being used to layer over severe structural story issues that are self imposed by this now self-important author. Run away. Run away.

After SHATTERED, I had concerns that THE IRON DRUID CHRONICLES may be taking on water with an excess of POVs, mythologies and threads. STAKED slowed its roll a bit by limiting the amount of chapters from Owen and Granuaile’s perspectives, and I certainly can’t find fault in Kevin Hearne’s comedic writing style, but the female druid continued to annoy me, and when compared to some of this series’ epic stories, I found that the conclusion to the two century-long vampire saga was rather anticlimactic.

Atticus and Oberon have jetted around most of the globe and several planes; however in this installment they visited Canada, and tons of familiar cultural references ensued including a visit to Timmies and the hound discovering his new favourite dish: poutine! Readers also get to discover why one never wants to be “Nigel in Toronto”, and Owen was temporarily put on dog sitting duty which was seriously the funniest thing ever. Listening to Oberon explain to the archdruid how modern tech works was priceless.

Granuaile has to be one of the most irritating characters that I’ve had the misfortune of experiencing; I literally counted the number of scenes from her POV because if I reached ten I was DNF-ing this audiobook. Happily, that didn’t happen, but her personal crusade against her stepfather, and elitist attitude about what a druid’s mission *should* be pushed me to my breaking point. Owen on the other hand is an absolute peach! I like the direction that his tangent has taken, and of course Oberon is still the bestest of sidekicks.

Luke Daniels is THE man for the job with regards to narrating this series. As soon as he starts talking I immediately know which persona he’s assumed whether its the protagonist’s or a secondary that’s not made an appearance for several novels. In this title he dabbled with some French, and even though he botched one word pronunciation, I give him full marks because the rest was on the nose. His rendition of Owen is SO good, and the last scene with Oberon and Orla is as close as humans will ever come to dog speak.

STAKED was an step up from the previous book, but I still pine for the pre-SHATTERED days.

I have read and reread all of the books and short stories and loved them. This has to be the worst book in the series. Having each chapter narrated by a different character doesn't help either. I do enjoy the Owen and Atticus storylines, but Granuaile just seems like a character created so the author can push his political views. Honestly you could probably just skip all of the Granuaile chapters and it would be a better book. I kinda hope she is killed off early on in the last book so I don't have to read about her anymore. After this series is over it would be nice to have two spinoff series one with Atticus and one with Owen.

Once again we a treated to three POVs and three storylines but unlike Shattered these work seamlessly.

Atticus has issues with the vampires and their leader Theophilus. Enough is enough and its time to take a stand. To do this, he will face danger, severe ties, suffer loss and will end up carrying guilt but with a price on the druid’s heads, Atticus is determined to be the victor. This thread has him reconnecting with characters from previous books as he does quite a bit of traveling in his quest. The Hammers of God was an interesting thread and I loved how Hearne brought them back in and feed my quest for knowledge regarding them. The Dark Elves also made an appearance and continue to fascinate me.

After Granuaile ‘s experiences in India, she is determined to be free of the mark, the Norse God Loki set upon her. To do this she enlists the help of the gods and the witches in Poland. This was an intense thread that has her facing several Slavic nightmares. She also continued her quest regarding her stepfather. I like Granuaile but I would be lying if I didn’t say that her POV sometimes grates on my nerves. She is passionate but also youthful in her reactions.

The third POV is Owen, who has decided to teach again and is spending time with a certain werewolf and her clan. In Staked, Owen has a wee bit of trouble with trolls. This thread was intense, heartbreaking and tied to the overall series ARC as Owen makes a startling discovery concerning an enemy.

Oberon and Orliath were present and added humor, emotion, and talks of food to the story. While I enjoy Orilath, but Oberon continues to steal the show. One of my favorite side stories in Staked had to do with a ghost and I enjoyed how Hearne both shared events from Atticus’s past and addressed ghostly entities.

The stories eventually wove together when Atticus and the other druids join him in Rome as he takes on Theophilus. These final scenes were intense and had me sitting up straight and listening intensely.

Luke Daniels continues to narrate the series and I think he will be as sad as I will be when the final novel releases. Thankfully, he narrates Hearne’s new series and many other titles.

Eighth in The Iron Druid Chronicles urban fantasy series and revolving around Atticus O’Sullivan and Oberon and Granuaile and Orlaith, as they globetrot the world. Owen and Greta want to stay put.

My Take
Hearne uses third person multiple point-of-view as he rotates among Atticus, Granuaile, and Owen, and yes, he makes the majority of the changing perspectives quite obvious.

I love that Rabbi Bialik has "repented" and come to his senses! Who knew a religious man could realize "that people must walk their own road to salvation and not necessarily follow me on mine. I had taken my faith too far." Oh, yeah, baby… I do like that comment Atticus makes about Gaia not requiring worship.

I’m not too sure how faithful Granuaile is being to Druid principles with the designs she has on her stepfather. I do agree that he deserves it (and I’m looking forward to seeing what she does in Scourged.

Owen is a bit of a crack-up as he reluctantly attempts to assimilate into modern society.

All three protagonists have their particular missions, which find them, at the end, in the same place for a final throwdown. No, the series isn’t ending, just this particular goal. One of Atticus’ tasks turns out to be a nasty bit of gameplaying.

I don’t know if it was me or if Staked got juvenile about halfway in. It didn’t help that Granuaile’s interactions with Orlaith became so annoying nor that Granuaile spent so much time justifying her upcoming actions against her stepfather. Why she ever thought she could influence him, I’ll never know. Just lame. Fortunately Atticus and Oberon continue their jocular — more intelligent — interactions.

It's a matter of pride and responsibility with a strong sense of good versus evil in varying degrees.

The Story
With two more druids as backup, Atticus is determined to gain revenge for the massacre two thousand years ago. Only Owen and Granuaile have their own problems. It turns out that trolls have a long memory for those who stiff them, and Granuaile is desperate to remove Loki's mark that can track her anywhere.

Unfortunately, those vampires have no intention of going peaceably, and there'll be more than one showdown, until Atticus gets to Rome, the origin of that thousands-of-years-ago massacre.

The Characters
Atticus O’Sullivan, a.k.a., Siodhachan Ó Suileabhán, Sean Flanagan, and then Connor Molloy, was born in 83 BCE. After he became a Druid, he was on the run evading murderous vampires as well as Aenghus Óg. Oberon Snackworthy is his Irish wolfhound with whom Atticus can communicate telepathically. And they are a crack-up! Fragarach is his magic sword. Nigel Hargrave was Atticus’ identity back in 1953 in Toronto when he enrolled as a pre-med student. There was also a Nigel in the late nineteenth century in seminary school. He was betrothed to Gwendolyn, a.k.a., the Lady in Red.

Granuaile MacTiernan, a.k.a., Clever Girl, recently became a Druid and is accompanied by her Irish wolfhound, Orlaith. Scáthmhaide is her staff. Beau Thatcher is Granuaile's stepfather and a wealthy oil baron. He's also a MAJOR jerk.

Laksha Kulasekaran is the spirit of an Indian witch who now possesses Mhathini Palanichamy ( Shattered , 7); we first met Laksha in Hexed , 2. She lives with Mhathini’s family in India. Her mother works in the silk industry; her autocratic, controlling father is an IT consultant. Durga is a devi, a goddess who protects humanity and restores balance.

Archdruid Owen Kennedy, Atticus' teacher, aka, Eoghan Ó Cinnéide, had been stranded on a time island in Tir na nÓg. His shapes include walrus, bear, and kite. He and Greta, a werewolf Enforcer for the Tempe Pack who transfers into the Flagstaff Pack, are together. His apprentices include a Mongolian family: Nergüi , a new pack member in Flagstaff whose wife, Oyuunchimeg "Meg" is straight human. Their seven-year-old daughter Enkhtuya "Tuya". Diego and Rafaela are from Peru and new pack members concerned about protecting their son, Ozcar. Mohammed and his son, Mehdi, are from Morocco. Sajit is a Hindu from Nepal. His daughter is Amita. Natália and her six-year-old Luiz are from Brazil. Sonkwe and his daughter, Thandi, are from Zambia.

The werewolves
Hal Hauk is Atticus' attorney and a werewolf who is the alpha of the Tempe Pack. Sam Obrist is the Swiss alpha of the Flagstaff pack; Ty Pollard is his second and husband. Kodiak Black, a.k.a., Craig, a bear shifter, was murdered in Shattered , 7.

Poland is…
…where the Sisters of the Three Auroras coven, worshippers of Zoryas, protective goddesses, and led by Malina Sokolowska — is based these days ( Hounded , 1). Other (remaining) members of the coven include Berta, Kazimiera, Klaudia, and Roksana. The new ones include Martyna, Ewelina, Agnieszka, Dominika, Magdalena, Zofia, Patrycja, and Anna.

Rabbi Yosef Bialik, once part of the Hammers of God, appears to have changed his tune. Although he still has his Cthulhu beard tentacles.

Tír na nÓg is…
…where the Fae live. Brighid is their leader. Creidhne and Luchta are her still-living sons; Goibhniu is not. Aenghus Óg is Brighid’s brother and the Celtic god of love. Flidais is Perun’s lover, an Irish goddess of the hunt. Fand is one of Flidais' daughters currently in prison for her actions. Manannan Mac Lir, a sea god, is Fand’s husband. The Morrigan is the crow goddess.

The Glass Knights wear blue glass armor; the Black Axes are an elite dwarf infantry unit. Yewmen are mercenaries who have been working for Atticus.

Swartálfs are…
…dark elves who live in Swartálfheim and are led by Turid Einarsdottir. Krókr Hrafsnon is the head of the assassins.

Gods
Asgard is where the Æsir gods are based. Odin is their leader while Frigg is Odin’s wife. Hugin and Munin are Odin’s ravens, Thought and Memory. Fjalar is a dwarf Runeskald with two missions. Loki is a trickster god who put a mark on Granuaile.

Perun is a Slavic thunder god. Świȩtowit is a Slavic god of war and divination; his horse, Miłosz, is missing. Weles is another Slavic god, a sneaky one allied with Loki. Shango is an Orisha, a god of thunder.

Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt, has been imprisoned in pieces ( Hunted , 6). Jupiter leads the Roman pantheon.

Elementals are…
…beings in the earth. Ferris is helping Atticus at the start. Colorado is the elemental in the Flagstaff area. The Mecklenburg elemental is based in Germany. The elementals call Atticus "Druid" and Granuaile "Fierce Druid". A Druid’s first function is to protect the earth.

The vampires
Atticus discovers that letting Werner Drasche, an arcane lifeleech, live in Hunted was a mistake. Theophilus fancies himself the leader of the world’s vampires and intends to take Atticus down. Part of Theophilus’ nest includes Karl, Hans, and Marko is a sniper. Leif Helgarson had been Atticus' vampire lawyer in Tempe until he betrayed him.

Toronto
Gary and Chuy are bank guards. Ed is a customer at a café.

Rosicrucians are…
…not the friendly society they portray. Bram Stoker, William Butler Yeats, and Aleister Crowley were part of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and into Hermetic Qabalah.

Julie d’Aubigny, a.k.a., Mademoiselle Maupin, was a famous opera singer, a lover who did not care about gender roles, and a duelist. Earth is Midgard. Dr. Sudarga who treats Owen. Nocnice are nightmares, damned souls who choke people when they are asleep. Mekera is a tyromancer helping Atticus.

The Cover and Title
The cover is icy in its blues and a collage of the cities they travel to and through. The young-looking Atticus with his short curly red hair appears to be wearing a blue plaid shirt, and he holds a bloody stake in his hand. There’s an info blurb at the top in white, and the author’s name is white in a distressed font in the bottom third of the cover while the title is equally distressed but in red at the very bottom. There is a badge near Atticus’ right shoulder announcing the series information.

The title is a special tool and action that wipes up trouble: Staked.

Disappointed. Easily the worst of the whole series. Atticus is still a fun character but the whole story was all about tying up loose ends rather than forwarding the actual story. The relationships all seemed disjointed and unsatisfying. Hoping this isn't a case of getting famous and no longer caring about the story. I desperately hope I am wrong.

I got this book through the the store Vine program to review. This is the eighth book in the Iron Druid Chronicles. The ninth book is as yet untitled and is supposed to be the final book in this series. This was a decent continuation of this series; although I haven’t enjoyed the last couple books in this series as much as earlier ones.

Hearne starts out this book with a preface telling you that you need to go pick up the anthology Three Slices and read his Iron Druid novella (A Prelude to War) in there. I did that (with a bit of grumbling). However, after reading Staked I don’t think you have to go and read A Prelude to War in Three Slices. Hearne recaps the events in A Prelude to War just fine within this book. I would only go and pick up Three Slices if you are also a Delilah Dawson and Chuck Wendig fan.

In this book Granuaile and Atticus spend most of their time apart. The story is actually told from three points of view that of Granuaile, Atticus, and Owen. Granuaile is busy trying to figure out how to get Loki’s mark removed and also trying to get a cloak put over her so that no one can divine where she is. As a result of that she ends up going to the witches and doing a quest for them in exchange for the cloaking magic.

Atticus is trying to find the oldest vampire Theopolis and take him out in an effort to stop the war between druids and vampires once and for all. Meanwhile Owen had decided to start a new druidic grove and work on teaching a new generation of druids.

This book was decent and there are a lot of good action scenes as well as some humor (although not nearly as much humor as previous books). The story feels a bit more fractured than earlier books in this series. It’s kind of like three books mashed together; although the characters do come together at the end.

This book wasn’t as entertaining as previous books but read more like it was just a playing out of events that had to happen to tie up some storylines. I just couldn’t engage with the story and really get into it like I have for earlier books in the series.

Probably my favorite part was when the Hammers of God and their tentacular beards get involved in the story; this was pretty awesome. The other characters didn’t show much growth or change. Atticus is still blundering around causing issues. Granualie has definitely come into her own and is making good decisions and planning for the future.

Overall this was a decent addition to this series but not as entertaining as previous books. The story just feels too fractured and wasn’t as much fun to read. I am happy the ninth book is the final book in this series. This series started out absolutely spectacular and the last few books have gotten less and less entertaining. I would still recommend this series to urban fantasy fans out there. It’s a good one and fun to read.

Staked continues finding Atticus in danger. Atticus, Owen, and Granuaile are on individual journeys and the chapters skip among the three. It is not until the end of the book that all three come together. As you might expect from the title, Staked, when they all get together it is to fight vampires.

The vampires are still trying to rid the world of Druids and Atticus is fighting back. Loki has his mark on Granuaile and she is working to get if off and find a way to block her presence from other of the magical world. Owen is trying to adjust to the modern world and start a new Grove of Druids. The fight with the vampires impact all three.

I enjoyed seeing more of Owen and Granuaile. As usual both Oberon and Orlaith (Owen and Granuaile’s dogs) add humor to the story. Look for a big change for the two. The story moved at a brisk pace. There were surprises and some unexpected deaths. All this leads to changes for Atticus and friends.

Staked is a nice addition to the Iron Druid series. Be warned that there is a novella, A Prelude to War that fits between Shattered and Staked. It was published in a ebook mini-anthology, Three Slices. As a result Staked does not start where you might expect.

A good read! Absolutely love the Iron Druid series and will be sad if and when it finally comes to an end. Anyone else getting the vibe that Atticus is being set up to be the next 'Chooser of the Slain'?

This one is good addition to the series featuring Atticus' Vampire War with a little bit of the Loki/Ragnorok arc moving forward while including Atticus, Owen and Granuille's personal growth for each character.

It reads like 3 stories in one from the point of view of each druid. Atticus' story has the most action. Owen's is the funniest (absolutely love his thoughts on the new world). Granuille's story being mainly about her overcoming some personal demons (imho my least favorite bit of the book).

Though I like Granuille, in this book, the emphasis to her storyline was on her personal growth as a druid and a person but something is missing. Instead wanting to root for her, Granuille comes across as selfish (her quests were all about her) eventually becoming smug and preachy by the end of the novel.

All the while. Atticus and Owen are busy dealing with multiple serious issues (in regards to more than just themselves) and suffering heartbreaking loss.

Be sure to read the short story written by KH in Three Slices because the events of this book immediately follow the events in Three Slices. Otherwise, you will feel like you missed something important that happened at the beginning.

This book was just as exciting and entertaining as the previous books and novellas in the series. I read this without reading Prelude to War and didn't feel like there were any big unexplained gaps by the time I was done with this book. The characters grow and develop and the action actually advances the plot.

This whole series is allegory for the horror that is software development in an environment where the customer won't let go of legacy applications. Atticus is a rock star developer working for a legacy technology corporation who is confronted by newer Vampire/Arcane Lifeleech Agile software companies that don't rely on mainframes but can deploy their thralls/software to cloud providers without incurring the high capital costs that training new druids and building out self-hosted environments entail. It's only by colluding with other old corporate behemoths and attempting an unfriendly takeover of his competition that Atticus can hope to prolong his old hold on power and maintain the status quo. Other plots also talk about locking in new recruits before they know enough to ask for good wages and employing an elemental (lobbyist) to change regulatory conditions to disadvantage an energy company just to satisfy a grudge. It's all very entertaining.

I'm reviewer 71, I think, so I've had the chance to read some reviews before I put fingers to keyboard. I've found there are valid points from most of the more detailed ones, both positive and those less so.

The multiple points of view from the (now) three druids is an interesting move by Hearne, and you can see different personalities. But given the author has used time skips before, the next series of Druid books might require separate books for each one. Frankly, the sort of storylines I foresee in the future include a Star Wars type where one of the druids takes to the Dark Side and joins the vampires, or joins evil oil companies, or threatens to expose the entire mythical world. After all, where once there was but one druid, soon there will be nine.

But I get ahead of myself. Staked nicely tied up many loose ends, although the big bug bear of Ragnarok still looms. I let out a tear or two when a certain long time minor character passed away. It was interesting to see how each of the three druids interacted with the Gods, and that Atticus truly isn't alone anymore. He is a good person, he has done the best he can, and now, in the future, he will need to reinvent himself, and despite conflicts, on a personal level, he might need to move into uncertain territory.

Book 9's are often just money making attempts by the author and lack the freshness of the original first novel. Hearne has managed to stay the course (perhaps by taking his time- each book takes about a year to release, compared to as little as one month by many kindle authors) and I found Staked to be as satisfying as any of his previous books in the series. But, being book nine, I was grateful for the brief refresher of the previous eight books in the start.

Staked- if this is your first time with this author, don't start here- read the first book. If you're up to book eight, hurry and buy this one- you need your Atticus fix, you know you do.

And a brief acknowledgement to Oberon. Gods I love the hound :)

I think the author took some time in between the previous book in the series and this one and that was a good call. Staked feels less rushed and more thought through then the predecessor, Hearne also strikes a better balance between covering the characters (i.e. I am less annoyed with Granuaile for examply, albeit she is still annoying). Storyline is overall interesting, the humor, which is really why this series stands out to me, is ok. I think Hearne is running out of ideas, and at least according to Wiki there is only one book left in this series, I hope he stick to that, I think he has gotten all of the juice and humor out he could from the characters in there.

One new thing that I was not a fan off is the element of environmental terrorism Hearne decided to throw in for the first time. The view that all oil companies are evil and that they all need to be destroyed and replaced with solar is both naive and dangerous, I would hope the druids in the series realize that, it doesn't look like Hearne does.

Staked is a strong addition to the Iron Druid series. I didn’t liked the previous book as much, but I think the author has toned down the parts to Owen and Granuaile. Owen and Granuaile still plays a role, but I would say that Atticus takes the center spotlight once again in this book.

Atticus’s war against the vampires continues in this book. Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed Atticus and Oberon’s chatter during his adventures on his quest to destroy Theophilus, the ancient vampire that convinced the Romans to destroy druids thousands of years ago. There is plenty of tension and intrigue as Atticus maneuvers against friends and foes alike. Sometimes, I felt bad for Atticus, since all he wanted was to stay under the radar but somehow he always gets dragged into these conflicts.

I’m not entirely sure where the author is going with Owen’s story. It saddened me what happened to Owen and the wolf packs, but since Owen is definitely staying with the wolves, I wonder how much of a role he’ll play in the future books.

I’m not the biggest fan of Granuaile and Orla. Maybe because I am so used to Atticus’s and Oberon’s voices after so many books, listening to Granuaile and Orla just sounds wrong and uncomfortable somehow. It is not Luke Daniel’s fault, he is a fantastic narrator, but personally I just can’t get used to them. I feel like the author is trying to make Granuaile and Orla into another Atticus and Oberon and it’s just not working.

Overall, I think this was an improvement compared to the previous book. The plot moves fast enough to keep the reader engaged and there is more Atticus and Oberon time. There wasn’t much about Ragnarok in this book so I think in the coming books the author may focus more on the Ragnarok plot.

"Staked" goes down in history as the book in which a great paranormal series goes right off the rails. In what could have been a very good book Hearne takes the series down a rabbit hole - taking his Druids from their well thought out paranormal realm directly into poorly thought out environmental terrorism.

Why the hell should Gaia care that humans harvest hydrocarbons that used to be dinosaurs and other plant life? Burning wood is OK for druids, but burning other stuff isn't? A Druid who can shift planes and travel at will; declares war on all the other humans who can't - by dramatically raising their fuel prices? Give us a break, we read fantasy to get away from political crap, not to be lectured to!

I had begun to give the series (that had been excellent previously) to friends as gifts; having read "Staked" I can no longer even recommend the series.

Iron Druid Atticus O'Sullivan has a vampire problem and he has decided to once and for all take care of that by staking the ancient and power crazy Theophilus. And, he will need some allies to help him to that. But, both Owen Kennedy and Granuaile have their own problems. Owen skipped packing custom to a troll many years ago and now he learns that a troll has a very, very long memory. Granuaile is trying to rid herself of the mark that Loki has put on her, but with the help of Odin will she perhaps finally be free of it.

I was a bit worried that I would have a hard time getting into this book since I've only read the first book in this series. But, I was lucky. Before the story started, was it a short examination of the books before this one and that made it a lot easier to read Staked because that way I got the gist from all the books before this one. What I like about this book is the mix of humor, adventure, and mythology. I love that the books are using so many different Gods from different beliefs. It's quite cool to have Odin showing up one minute and then Jupiter.

The book is following Atticus, Owen, and Granuaile separately before they join force towards the end. I remember Granuaile from the first book, and she has come a long way from the wanna-be-druid to the fully trained druid she is now. I found her story quite good, apparently she has a big problem with Loki and last time she saw him she tried to kill him and he has put a mark on her that she will do anything to get rid of. Also, now that she is a druid will she finally be able to confront her step-father which is the reason she asked Atticus to train her in the first place. Owen is a fellow druid that Atticus knew a long time ago. For me was he a totally new character, but I instantly liked him and his, well let's say problems with adjusting to the modern world. He has agreed to tutor new druids, but vampires and trolls are getting in the way. Atticus meanwhile has finally decided enough is enough when it comes to the vampires and now he will find Theophilus and put and end to all the nasty vampire business. He does have to deal with some stuff before, like for instance stopping a war, rob a bank and deal with a lovesick ghost.

I enjoyed this book from start to finish. The thing with this book is that it's so easygoing to read. It's a lot of fun banter, puns, and a lot of action. And, since I love mythology is it really fun to have all these Gods show up here and there.

I'm now quite eager to go back and start off where I left the series. I feel that knowing what happens here in book 8 doesn't take away the fun of reading the previous books. Quite contrary, reading the short summary of the previous books just made me more excited about the prospect of reading books two and buying the books I don't have.

I recommend this series to those that like to read well-written and funny urban fantasy books with Gods, druids, witches werewolves etc.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

This book is lacking compared to the previous books. Atticus is still a great character and Owen is hilarious. Granuiale is a tedious character. Previous reviews of saying the book has a personality disorder was apropos. There are times that the story is preachy but thankfully those times are not long. I would say skip the book all together If it wouldn't be necessary for continuity.

I'm going to be in the minority here because I thoroughly enjoyed having the story told from three different points of view, unlike the previous books which were only told from the main character's POV.

By this point in the series we have three Druids in the world, all tied to Atticus (the main character) by either being his former teacher (Owen) or his former apprentice (Granuaile), and all three play major roles in the ongoing story arc. The chapters are written from alternating points of view, and if you for some reason neeed a clue as to who's narrating, look at the design under the chapter heading; the wolfhound, horse, and bear images delineate who is speaking.

The action in this book takes place all around the world - in Canada, the US, Poland, Ecuador, Italy, France, Angola, and India, just to name some of the places. And not to mention the various mythic planes of existence, too.

The main focus of this book is on Owen's acculturation into the modern world after his two-thousand year sleep, on Granuaile understanding why the Elementals named her "Fierce Druid" and in coming to terms with her past, and most importantly, on Atticus' final showdown with Theophilis in the ages-old attempt by the vampires to wipe out the Druids completely. Characters from the Celtic, Roman, Norse, African, and Slavic pantheons appear. The Sisters of the Three Auroras, the Ethiopian diviner, the Arizona werewolf packs, Elementals, vampires, Laksha Kulasekaran, and others all make appearances, too. Given that wide variety of characters you'd naturally think that it would all be a mish-mosh - but you'd be wrong. Mr. Hearne has a deft hand at keeping the focus on whichever character is needed, whenever he or she is on-stage, so there is no confusion as to what's going on at that moment, or who is involved.

One thing that I've always enjoyed about Mr. Hearne's writing is that actions always have consequences, just as in real life. The characters aren't infallible, they make missteps, and those missteps can have dire consequences further in the story. They also have to fight their battles with skills and tools that they have; they don't get a convenient new magic power every time they get into a sticky situation. He understands that when fighting with gods and other supernatural beings, not everyone is going to make it out alive - and not everyone does. The characters aren't two-dimensional; they all have shades of grey to their emotions and actions, which makes the story just that much more interesting because you don't always know how they are going to react. There are multiple subplots in this book but I thought that he did an excellent job of weaving them all together throughout the book, alternating points of view but always with the ultimate goal of tying all the actions and events together by the end of the book. Each chapter whetted my appetite for more, and I was sorry when I came to the end of the book.

I have enjoyed this series since its inception, and I give the author props for changing up the format a bit, to keep it fresh for us and also probably for himself. While this can be read as a stand alone book, it's much better to start at the beginning of the series, because each book builds on the previous ones.

, Kevin Hearne returns with the eighth installment of the Iron Druid Chronicles – and “Staked” (Del Rey, 336 pages, $27) is a worthy entry. In fact, it might also be the last, as Hearne wraps up a lot of loose ends in “Staked,” though of course Atticus O’Sullivan and friends go through quite a bit of trauma and drama along the way.

For those unfamiliar with the series (which began with “Hounded”), O’Sullivan is a 2,000-year-old Druid who has significant magical powers – but is an underdog against the entire panoply of ancient gods (from Greek to Norse to Fae) and barely manages to stay one step ahead of disaster. Hearne is an engaging writer, the touch is light, and the books have always been fun, so if you liked any of the previous volumes, you’ll enjoy “Staked.” As always, though, if you haven’t read any, it’s best to start at the start.

Kevin Hearne was killing it up to this book, but he phoned this one in. I enjoyed books 1-7, but in "Staked" (book 8), his wit is replaced with something akin to expository writing, where he is describing events rather than pulling the reader into the world. He did a fantastic job with Atticus and crew in previous books, and I hope this book was only a blip in the otherwise great series and not a smouldering curse Aenghus Óg has cast from the beyond!

Profound quote from "Staked" book 8 of the Iron Druid Chronicles, by Kevin Hearne:
"I suspect most people have someone like (this) in their lives... A person standing in between who you used to be and who you want to be, guarding the wall and proclaiming that you shall forever be imprisoned by their expectations and obligations. Crossing to the other side will always be a struggle and fraught with dangers that may leave scars. But ohhhh.... the reward when you leap over that wall or break through it and shed the burdens of the past.... I am light and free and my path ahead is smooth and wide through a land of burgeoning promise."
I've listened to this entire series in audio form, and the narrator is excellent. The author is very talented at writing an easy to follow modern day magickal story. I'm not a fan of how the gods and goddesses act in his stories, but throughout his books are profound quotes and deep insights, as well as quips and quotes from popular culture. For instance in this book, he references the "multipass" from the movie The Fifth Element, without referencing the movie itself.
Highly recommend this series. ❤

This always entertaining series has continued to evolve, and we now get the story from three points of view - our original main character, Atticus O’Sullivan, his protege Granuaile, and the archdruid Owen Kennedy (and don’t forget the awesome hounds Oberon and Orlaith). All three characters have their own story to tell, and their own problems to take care of, but they all intersect at the final confrontation between the druids and their nemesis Theophilus, the power hungry vampire who declared war on the druids two thousand years ago. We reached a very satisfying conclusion which wrapped up this story arch very well, so I’m interested to see where the author takes us next with this group. Wherever it is, I know it will be a great adventure.

This book is easily the worst of the series. Gone is the light-hearted, breezy, fun tone of the books, replaced by Granuaile on a spiteful revenge mission that was bitter and disturbing and overall it was a story that just didn't flow well. Unlike all of the earlier books in the series, this one was just not enjoyable to read.

I don't think this was a terrible book but it fell far short of the other books in the series (that I'd give 4 stars to overall). The author really seemed to lose his way with this one and I'm hoping the next (and final) book restores my confidence in the series and the author.

A good book, but not without a flaw or two. Jumping back and forth between Atticus, Granuaile and Owen is distracting. The Nigel side story.. not needed. The supposed betrayal had a simpler solution, and we lost another old friend who I did not think we had to. Atticus is not someone you want to be friends with - he's Jessica from Murder She Wrote - being his friend is dangerous. But it moves well ( a 2 day read for me) , and is enjoyable, and several of the plot arcs at least appear to end. A couple of new smaller plots could be emerging, and the series is slated to end next year with Scourged, though he also seems inclined to throw in some short stories from Atticus' past in anthologies that do not need to be in the main plotline, and I hope he continues that. One major plot arc needs resolution, otherwise he could have ended here, unlike a few of the series where major lines are open all over. . Not a place to begin the series - you need to start at book 1. But if you like the series, you need this book. I'd give it 4 1/2.

I loved the first few books in the series, tolerated the last few, and hoped that things would pick up again. Alas, the latest novel was too much for me. I gave up on Granuaile's ridiculous character and her quest to destroy the evil oil companies because "they should be using solar, and wind.." Hmm. they all walk around ranting about eating sausages, but I guess Kevin Hearne is a meat eating tree hugger? Sorry, but life's too short to read bad fiction. It was a nice ride, but I'm out.

I'm giving this one star for one reason alone...Kevin Hearne decided to absolutely RUIN a book series that could have been fantastic by inserting his leftwing SJW politics. It most often comes out in Granuaile, his unnecessarily strident third wave feminist nut job character, which is sad because she could have been an amazing strong female character instead of one who has to tell you she's strong and berate others with lectures about how strong women can be, ad infinitum. (HINT: Strong women don't need to tell you how strong they are. It's the weaklings who do that.) Unfortunately, his books are turning into a constant stream of ludicrous lectures on "I'm as good as you" from her or, in this book, "Step Daddy didn't love me and global warming and carbon pollution..blah blah blah". I get that it's about Druids, but if you can talk to the Earth, it's unlikely you would believe all the left wing nonsense...the Earth would probably tell you, "Yeah, you're an idiot if you think you can change the weather...without magic and all." On the plus side, I suppose his tirades on global warming are still firmly in the realm of fiction.

...but borrowed it from the library instead. And read it on my Kindle, so I don't even have to drive to the library to return it. As Mr. Hearne is an English teacher, I'm sure he knows everything he did wrong in writing this, but he foisted it on us anyway. Clearly Mr. Hearne was bored by writing it: formulaic and cartoonish, the story lurches from one exotic location to the next like a breathless travel documentary scripted from a guidebook, while the wink-wink cultural references will feel dated within a few years. But if you want to be lectured about climate change by someone who understands neither science nor economics, this is definitely the book for you.

A pity. I really enjoyed the earlier books in this series.

While still a very enjoyable read and a fantastic series, this book felt... disjointed? rushed? less-than-connected? Maybe it's having three different narrators with three (somewhat) different stories.
Other stuff that didn't sit well: a lot of B- and C-stories keep getting dragged along or used--I'm assuming--for set-ups for future books. I get it. You want to keep the series moving. You want to keep readers interest with, "What will happen with..." But there were just too many of them.
Also, and I know this is a quibble, but enough with Atticus running out of energy because he's only got one bear charm. For that matter, enough with all of the Druids running out of energy. If you're in a war, you don't go into battle with one bullet. Yeah, I know they are reluctant warriors at best, but damn near every fight turns on this one element. If I made it a drinking game, I'd be passed out by the middle of the book.

I have always enjoyed the Iron Druid books, and this one is no exception. Snappy repartee, a veritable world tour of mythologies and a meet & greet with many different deities, and best of all, the hilarious conversations between the Druid Atticus and Oberon- his Irish Wolfhound.

Plenty of action, world travel, and more than a note of humor, this will keep you grinning and on the edge of your seat at the same time.

This books differs in that it is told from three viewpoints: Atticus O’Sullivan & Oberon, Granuaile (his former apprentice) & her wolfhound and archdruid Owen (The Iron Druid's former master) . It was hard for me sometimes to tell who's viewpoint we were hearing, until I noticed the chapter headings have two wolfhounds for Atticus, bears for Owen, and horses for Granuaile. I am not sure if I liked the three viewpoint concept. I hope the next book doesn't continue this.

Still, a fun page turner read, recommended to fans of this series (of which I am one).

Simply not as good as his other books in the other books in the series. The secondary story lines are either simply lazy or comical. Granuaile has changed from an interesting character to a thrashing super powered child with daddy issues. We get it, you dont like your dad, so lets assault him with a stick. Frankly her character could be killed off and the series would be better for it. The main story line is still driving and interesting. The author just needs to stop living out childish political fantasy in his writing, because you can tell its forced. Frankly im suprised his editor was ok with it.

I've been reading the Iron Druid series since a friend turned me on to them and when I saw that I had a chance to review one for the store's Vine Program I had to grab it. As with the earlier pieces in this series Staked is a continual flowing book that does a good job keeping the reader interested and wanting to move forward. Having said that Mr. Hearne has started to weigh the series down with additional characters (Owen and Granuaile) having their own chapters. I say weigh down because while they have good stories that flow toward the main arc, they tend to interrupt the main story for a significant period causing you to have to recall what the main story. Other authors have done this too, in my opinion better than Mr. Hearne does (I'm sorry, Owen and Granuaile are to similar in personality/style to Atticus making for a little mud in the story line). That said, this is generally a good continuation of the Iron Druid series.

What should I say about Staked? How about if you enjoy a sarcastic, action filled book that uses a complex and creative use of different religions and deities as its backdrop to establish ever changing and intricate story lines, then Staked is the book for you.

If not, then I don't really know what to do with you.

But don't stop at Staked being the book for you, the ENTIRE Iron Druid Chronicles is for you! That said, if you haven't read the previous books in the Iron Druid Chronicles then don't start with Staked, not because it's not a great book, but because so much of the story and complexity has been built up, layer over layer, over the previous volumes in the series, that much of the intricacies of the series would be lost on readers who had not read the previous book sin the series. But the good news is if you haven't read the other Iron Druid Chronicles books then you have some fun reading ahead of you!

As for Staked, what makes this book different from the others is the sense of offense that Atticus' new decisions have lead him to. Finally acting instead of reacting, Atticus, Granuaile and Owen face more action than I can remember occurring in a single volume of the Iron Druid Chronicles. Villains in previous books in the series become allies and previous allies become enemies, leaving readers shocked and astounded with the intricate outcomes.

Of course, this increase in action does not detract from any character development or strong writing. If anything, Hearne has improved his writing over the course of the series, exploring different voices and characters in different POV. While I personally like Atticus' POV the best seeing the world through both Owen and Granuaile' POV has helped open up the story to new heights as even Atticus' decisions are questioned, bringing a sense of challenge to the story and world as we know it.

All in all, Staked is another fantastic book in an amazing series. I loved it and personally can't wait until the next book in Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicle.

Well written, fast paced novel. Of the series, this one "annoyed" me the most. Only because it concerns me for future novels. Given the fact that it sounds like the newest druid may attempt to go after "dirty" forms of fuel and become the #1 member of the Sierra Club, this may put a serious krimp on future books, making them hard to read.

Then again, if the world shuts down because of it, and they go out for a beer and the bar owner says sorry, no beer, because no gas for the delivery truck, and businesses are all going out of business because no cars have gas and she learns a valuable lesson, that could be some good reading.

I guess it's wait and see time.

This wasn't the best story in the series so far - but it was still very entertaining. While I don't mind multiple POV's, it was a little hard to tell them apart in this one and that really took away from the story.

So for some reason I cannot quite discern, this book was shrouded in a bit of sadness. However, it was yet another wonderful addition to the series, with great pondering and reflection mixed in with humor and action.

This book ties up a lot of loose ends from the earlier books in the series. This should not be the first book you read in this series. Also, there is a novella ("A Prelude to War") that links this book with the rest of the series, and you should be sure to read that first, since this book takes up the story where the novella leaves off. Taken as a whole, I have really enjoyed this series. The main characters are engaging and the story-line is imaginative. If you like urban fantasy you are sure to like this series. BTW, the novella is part of a mini-anthology titled "Three Slices."

Wow! Another adventerous tale from Hearne. I don't want to spoil this for anyone, so I will not go into a whole lot of details. This is book 8 in the series, and like always Atticus has found himself into a deadly adventure. The blowback comes home and hits his friends, putting a strain on their relationships. I did enjoy this installment, and I am definitely looking forward to the next, and last one. This story was a bit different, as the trio are not always together. It also felt as if Hearne was bringing things to a close, knowing that this is the second to last book. This is not a bad thing, especially if you are like me and need closure. It doesn't even effect the book in a negative way, you just know that it is almost time to say goodbye. That makes this a bit sadder than the others, but there is still a bit of fun and foolishness. Oberon is still the happy canine and Owen is still the onery mentor. If you have not started this series, now would be a good time to start.

5 stars *****

I really miss Kevin's books. It seems the good authors write a few books at reasonable prices, get some notoriety, and start selling 30 page stories for 99 cents, or Comic books. I guess the ink runs dry sooner or later, huh? Sad...very sad.

Snappy dialog and humor are halmarks of this series and this book is no different.

This book continues as the previous book with viewpoints of the three main characters, although instead of the same events it is three separate stories until almost the end. The vampires are still try to destroy the druids as the established over arching plot in previous books.

I enjoyed this. While it wasn't my favorite book of the series it is still fast paced and action packed. Plus the humor of the dogs and the witty dialog makes this a continued hit for me.

When I read the first book in this series I thought it was for kids. I misjudged and have never regretted continuing. The writing is just what is needed everyone so often. It doesn't hurt to laugh out loud every ten pages as well.

I spent a long time without reading the druid chronicles, so it took me a while to remember names and settings, but then it was fine and I liked the story enough to read all the other books after this one.

Wait, whut? This is only 300-some pages long? Well it sure as heck felt like 800. In a good way! There's a lot of storyline packed into Staked between our three protagonists and the stakes (no pun intended) get quite high.

I've been quietly watching Hearne's career from before Hounded released and it's been really great to see his writing get stronger with each book. I probably recommend this series offline more than any other for sheer broad appeal but something about Staked just felt stronger, more tightly written. Like he's really hitting his stride as a story teller. I finally feel like I'm connecting with Granuaile as a character too which I think had a lot to do with her plot this time around. Owen continues to amuse but his characterization felt richer, more reachable and mature in a way that made me feel sappy. On the same hand I don't think I'll be the only reader who finds themselves feeling torn when certain happenings happen and make things complicated for former student and teacher. Prepare for complicated feels y'all.

Look, if you've loved the series so far and you want to skip a night of sleep you're gonna love this. It's never slow, there's a ton of story, loads of butt kickery, and plenty of good humor thrown in. I think it's Hearne at his finest and I can hardly stand the thought that we're going to be waiting months for book 9. Put on the coffee readers, you're going to be napping at your desk tomorrow.

An excellent book, that revolves around our main characters, Atticus, Granuille, Owen, and of course Oberon and Orlaith. Minimal interference from gods, though they are there. Lots of vampires and werewolf action, oh and a few witches and ghosts.

I loved Staked, it cleans up some things and sets up more things for the finally in book nine. I see many people complaining about Granuaile and the way she dealt with her stepdad. I guess people expect a Druid to act like thy are over 2000 years old like Atticus. Granuaile is only in her 30's, and Kevin Hearne apparently used her youth to so what can happen when a young, inexperienced person gains to much power quickly. The part I did not like was when Greta wanted to blame everything on Atticus. The vampires clearly have staged a war on Druids, so why is it Atticus's fault that they attack Owen? I dislike Greta; she is a bitch in more than one way. Overall, I loved the book and had read it more than once. Now ready for book nine.

This series has went downhill the last couple of novels. Its a mediocre 3 star story that suffers from having 3 different story lines going on with 3different characters. I subtracted another star because of how bad Granuaile's story line is, especially when dealing with her dad. I'm just glad I borrowed this for free from the library and didn't waste my money buying it.

Think this is going to be the last one for me. REALLY tired of the eco-terrorism BS. It's stupid, and hypocritical (he still drives cars, enjoys the comforts of an industrial world). Wet blanket Granuwail and cry in the corner Atticus. Snore.

When I decided to read this book, I didn't realize it was the 8th book in the Iron Druid Chronicles series. I really don't recommend starting this series -- or any series -- that far into it. There is so much character history in the previous books that you miss if you haven't read all the earlier books.

It is a testament to how good this series is that I really enjoyed this book even without all that history and backstory. Part of the reason I could follow along was that the author started with a three page recap of what has happened in the series thus far. By reading that summary, at least I understood a bit about the world the characters live in, who they are, and what they are doing. I still do not recommend you start the series here without having read the earlier books, but that summary greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the book.

I quite enjoy the urban fantasy genre so it is a surprise that I had not encountered this series before now. The world of this series is much like that of the Harry Dresden series -- modern life except that werewolves, vampires, fairies and other supernatural beings exist without being noticed by most of the population. However, this world goes one big step further -- ALL the gods from every belief system exist. And right in the middle of all the supernatural events is Atticus O'Sullivan, a 2,000 year old Druid with magical powers.

Two other human characters, Granuaile (apprentice to Atticus) and Owen (an archdruid) are involved in intersecting storylines. But the two wolfhounds, Oberon and Orlaith, might be some of my favorite characters in the book. Atticus and Granuaile are able to speak with the dogs so the reader gets the dog's eye view of the action.

The book is told in alternating first person narratives by Atticus, Owen & Granuaile. Although they have distinctive "voices," it initially took me awhile to figure out when the narrator changed -- until I realized the illustrations at the beginning of the chapters reflected the narrator.

Now that I've read this book, I need to fit the earlier books in the series into my reading schedule because now that I've read this book, I want to catch up on what I missed in the earlier books.

This book ties up a lot of loose ends from the earlier books in the series. This should not be the first book you read in this series. Also, there is a novella ("A Prelude to War") that links this book with the rest of the series, and you should be sure to read that first, since this book takes up the story where the novella leaves off. Taken as a whole, I have really enjoyed this series. The main characters are engaging and the story-line is imaginative. If you like urban fantasy you are sure to like this series. BTW, the novella is part of a mini-anthology titled "Three Slices."

Wow! Another adventerous tale from Hearne. I don't want to spoil this for anyone, so I will not go into a whole lot of details. This is book 8 in the series, and like always Atticus has found himself into a deadly adventure. The blowback comes home and hits his friends, putting a strain on their relationships. I did enjoy this installment, and I am definitely looking forward to the next, and last one. This story was a bit different, as the trio are not always together. It also felt as if Hearne was bringing things to a close, knowing that this is the second to last book. This is not a bad thing, especially if you are like me and need closure. It doesn't even effect the book in a negative way, you just know that it is almost time to say goodbye. That makes this a bit sadder than the others, but there is still a bit of fun and foolishness. Oberon is still the happy canine and Owen is still the onery mentor. If you have not started this series, now would be a good time to start.

5 stars *****

I really miss Kevin's books. It seems the good authors write a few books at reasonable prices, get some notoriety, and start selling 30 page stories for 99 cents, or Comic books. I guess the ink runs dry sooner or later, huh? Sad...very sad.

Snappy dialog and humor are halmarks of this series and this book is no different.

This book continues as the previous book with viewpoints of the three main characters, although instead of the same events it is three separate stories until almost the end. The vampires are still try to destroy the druids as the established over arching plot in previous books.

I enjoyed this. While it wasn't my favorite book of the series it is still fast paced and action packed. Plus the humor of the dogs and the witty dialog makes this a continued hit for me.

When I read the first book in this series I thought it was for kids. I misjudged and have never regretted continuing. The writing is just what is needed everyone so often. It doesn't hurt to laugh out loud every ten pages as well.

I spent a long time without reading the druid chronicles, so it took me a while to remember names and settings, but then it was fine and I liked the story enough to read all the other books after this one.

Not make book series make it to book 8. Kevin Hearne has done a pretty deft job so far to keep things moving and interesting. The last few books shifted focus from the druid Atticus to his mentor Owen and his apprentice (now full fledged druid) Granuaile. As the name seem to imply, a lot of this story revolves around fighting Vampires. But Ragnarok is approaching so the story is a lot bigger that it appears. The first 2/3 of the book seems like three separate stores but toward the end things start coming together. I can;t say I'm a huge fan of reading three concurrent stores but at this point I'm pretty invested in seeing how this overall story arch ends. Entertaining to read but I didn't lose any sleep finishing the book.

Wait, whut? This is only 300-some pages long? Well it sure as heck felt like 800. In a good way! There's a lot of storyline packed into Staked between our three protagonists and the stakes (no pun intended) get quite high.

I've been quietly watching Hearne's career from before Hounded released and it's been really great to see his writing get stronger with each book. I probably recommend this series offline more than any other for sheer broad appeal but something about Staked just felt stronger, more tightly written. Like he's really hitting his stride as a story teller. I finally feel like I'm connecting with Granuaile as a character too which I think had a lot to do with her plot this time around. Owen continues to amuse but his characterization felt richer, more reachable and mature in a way that made me feel sappy. On the same hand I don't think I'll be the only reader who finds themselves feeling torn when certain happenings happen and make things complicated for former student and teacher. Prepare for complicated feels y'all.

Look, if you've loved the series so far and you want to skip a night of sleep you're gonna love this. It's never slow, there's a ton of story, loads of butt kickery, and plenty of good humor thrown in. I think it's Hearne at his finest and I can hardly stand the thought that we're going to be waiting months for book 9. Put on the coffee readers, you're going to be napping at your desk tomorrow.

An excellent book, that revolves around our main characters, Atticus, Granuille, Owen, and of course Oberon and Orlaith. Minimal interference from gods, though they are there. Lots of vampires and werewolf action, oh and a few witches and ghosts.

I loved Staked, it cleans up some things and sets up more things for the finally in book nine. I see many people complaining about Granuaile and the way she dealt with her stepdad. I guess people expect a Druid to act like thy are over 2000 years old like Atticus. Granuaile is only in her 30's, and Kevin Hearne apparently used her youth to so what can happen when a young, inexperienced person gains to much power quickly. The part I did not like was when Greta wanted to blame everything on Atticus. The vampires clearly have staged a war on Druids, so why is it Atticus's fault that they attack Owen? I dislike Greta; she is a bitch in more than one way. Overall, I loved the book and had read it more than once. Now ready for book nine.

This series has went downhill the last couple of novels. Its a mediocre 3 star story that suffers from having 3 different story lines going on with 3different characters. I subtracted another star because of how bad Granuaile's story line is, especially when dealing with her dad. I'm just glad I borrowed this for free from the library and didn't waste my money buying it.

Think this is going to be the last one for me. REALLY tired of the eco-terrorism BS. It's stupid, and hypocritical (he still drives cars, enjoys the comforts of an industrial world). Wet blanket Granuwail and cry in the corner Atticus. Snore.

When I decided to read this book, I didn't realize it was the 8th book in the Iron Druid Chronicles series. I really don't recommend starting this series -- or any series -- that far into it. There is so much character history in the previous books that you miss if you haven't read all the earlier books.

It is a testament to how good this series is that I really enjoyed this book even without all that history and backstory. Part of the reason I could follow along was that the author started with a three page recap of what has happened in the series thus far. By reading that summary, at least I understood a bit about the world the characters live in, who they are, and what they are doing. I still do not recommend you start the series here without having read the earlier books, but that summary greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the book.

I quite enjoy the urban fantasy genre so it is a surprise that I had not encountered this series before now. The world of this series is much like that of the Harry Dresden series -- modern life except that werewolves, vampires, fairies and other supernatural beings exist without being noticed by most of the population. However, this world goes one big step further -- ALL the gods from every belief system exist. And right in the middle of all the supernatural events is Atticus O'Sullivan, a 2,000 year old Druid with magical powers.

Two other human characters, Granuaile (apprentice to Atticus) and Owen (an archdruid) are involved in intersecting storylines. But the two wolfhounds, Oberon and Orlaith, might be some of my favorite characters in the book. Atticus and Granuaile are able to speak with the dogs so the reader gets the dog's eye view of the action.

The book is told in alternating first person narratives by Atticus, Owen & Granuaile. Although they have distinctive "voices," it initially took me awhile to figure out when the narrator changed -- until I realized the illustrations at the beginning of the chapters reflected the narrator.

Now that I've read this book, I need to fit the earlier books in the series into my reading schedule because now that I've read this book, I want to catch up on what I missed in the earlier books.

Having been an Iron Druid fan from the start, I'm glad to see a stronger book in the series again. Hearne definitely stepped up his game, juggling the 3 POVs with ease and deepening the distinct voices for Atticus, Owen and Granuaile. I have to admit I'm still not a huge fan of Granuaile's POV, the tone is too rigid for me even though it's clear Hearne intended on making her an intelligent, independent badass. I think it's clear Granuaile is the weakest POV character.

I love the raunchy humour Owen brings, he's certainly earned his spot in the cast and I look forward to reading more of him. He makes me laugh out loud, and that is always a defining factor for me. While there's still the same amount of humour like in previous books, I feel it came at Oberon's expense. Oberon just isn't the same hound, he really seems all grown up (maybe that's a good thing, that hounds can have character arcs too?) but I do miss the old playful banter and inside jokes Atticus and Oberon shared. I guess this is the downside to having 3 POVs, that a character like Oberon is going to get a smaller role.

As far as pacing and action is concerned, it's everything you want. Again, the characters POV determines the type of action scene you get and it's executed wonderfully. The story didn't lag at all. Hearne incorporated his travel experiences to the novel and brought all the settings to life in an authentic way, even if he's missing the c in scheisse.

And yes, poutine really is awesome. Thanks to Kevin Hearne for making me fall in love with the Iron Druid Chronicles all over again.

Atticus starts seeing the consequences of what he does, which sucks for the character but is awesome to watch. Not clear where this would go from the ending, except maybe going crazy environmentalist in a psycho way.

This may be the only book series that I will ever re-read over and over again. It's very fun and extremely well written... It also provides this city girl with way to reconnect with nature, a vicarious connection, but a connection none the less.

Another great addition to the Iron Druid series. I love spending time with these characters and Hearne is masterful craftsman. Just the right amount of action, suspense and humor make me keep reading and re-reading this series.

I checked Staked out from my local library. Hearne never disappoints. I loved this installment of the series. A little sad when we lost one of my favorite characters, but it was great to see some advancement with Owen and Granuaile's threads. So much was cleaned up in this book so I was very satisfied when I reached the end- I hope there are many more books to come, but I could be quite happy if this were the last-- it simply felt 'right'.

I have to agree with some others who reviewed this book. The multiple points of view was distracting and not very readable. I've enjoyed this series, but if this had been the first book I had read, I might not have looked for others. Also, it seemed shorter than some of the other books and more perfunctory. I guess that I will give it another shot, but if the next one is "phoned in" as well, I might call it a day.

I have this author and this series to thank for getting me excited about reading again. I'm a 52-year-old female and it had been decades since I was hooked on any author or series. I'm not into science fiction, Celtic mythology or any other genres but by page 3 of Hounded I was hooked. I am currently reading the fourth book in the series and had the pleasure of seeing Kevin Hearne in Scottsdale the day Staked was released. This series is fun, the characters are great and it is often a laugh-out-loud read. I highly recommend this to anyone, no matter what your age or interest. He has written a series that has something for everyone! Thoroughly enjoyable for all ages...also a super spiffy, fun, smart author!!! If you get a chance to meet him you won't be disappointed!!!!

Kevin does it again. I've waited quite some time for this next installment of the Iron Druid Chronicles and it didn't disappoint. I'll make this a spoiler free zone and say that if you haven't gotten this book get it now. Just the interactions with Oberon make it worth it!

Another great adventure in the life of Atticus O'Sullivan. I'm only 60 pages in and I can't wait to see how things turn out.
P.S. The U.K.(Orbit) paperback edition includes the novella "Prelude to War" which takes place between shattered and this book in the back.

Appreciated the ending, and enjoyed Owen's POV chapters. As a rule though I like multiple first POVs. Especially loved Owen's struggles as he adapted to modern life, and finds his place in the world.

Granuaile's chapters drove me nuts for two reasons: environmental preaching, and use of present tense first, when all other chapters are in past tense first. The tense change is jarring. And while I don't have a problem with Gran going after her stepdad, I do object to her premise that all coal/oil mining is bad. Yes, green energy is good, but it also can be detrimental to wildlife, etc. Anyway, this book I skimmed Gran's chapters, and enjoyed Owen and Atticus, and the puppies, of course. :o)

Based on reviews of book 9, and the fact this book ended tightly, I have no intention on reading further in this series. I got a nice tidy ending stopping here without the disappointment of book 9. Sounds like Hearne should have ended the series here.

Good writing but it did not keep me engaged like previous novels in this series. This series has typically been of the variety that I cannot put down but this particular novel "Staked" I have found other books to read at the same time. I will finish it eventually and will even buy the next book when it comes out but I was a little let down at the pace of this one compared to previous books.

I have been a big fan of the Iron Druid Chronicles series since the very first book came out. Every time a new one comes out, I am so excited I must read it right away. It was no different with this one. Like always, this book was filled with plenty of humor, action, and good writing. Unfortunately, it was filled with multiple POVs, so much so that at times it took me a couple of pages to figure out whose POV I was reading. That really took me out of the story and made it hard to get back in. The book also felt like 3 short stories put together, not exactly related to one another. Yes, they did relate to each other, but at times it didn't feel like it. However, don't let this put you off on reading this book. It is still worth it, just be prepared for these bumps in the road and you'll be fine. I am also dreading the next book because it will be the last. I will miss this series and its characters. Go out and buy this one ASAP! Highly recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the advanced copy which I voluntarily reviewed. This exact review will also be posted on Goodreads.

Not make book series make it to book 8. Kevin Hearne has done a pretty deft job so far to keep things moving and interesting. The last few books shifted focus from the druid Atticus to his mentor Owen and his apprentice (now full fledged druid) Granuaile. As the name seem to imply, a lot of this story revolves around fighting Vampires. But Ragnarok is approaching so the story is a lot bigger that it appears. The first 2/3 of the book seems like three separate stores but toward the end things start coming together. I can;t say I'm a huge fan of reading three concurrent stores but at this point I'm pretty invested in seeing how this overall story arch ends. Entertaining to read but I didn't lose any sleep finishing the book.