Kevin Hearne - Staked

The eighth book in the Iron Druid Chronicles series, published January 26, 2016.
Genre: urban fantasy
Cover: nice



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

When a Druid has lived for two thousand years like Atticus, he's bound to run afoul of a few vampires. Make that legions of them. Even his former friend and legal counsel turned out to be a bloodsucking backstabber. Now the toothy troublemakers - led by power-mad pain-in-the-neck Theophilus - have become a huge problem requiring a solution. It's time to make a stand.
As always, Atticus wouldn't mind a little backup. But his allies have problems of their own. Ornery archdruid Owen Kennedy is having a wee bit of troll trouble: Turns out when you stiff a troll, it's not water under the bridge. Meanwhile, Granuaile is desperate to free herself of the Norse god Loki's mark and elude his powers of divination - a quest that will bring her face-to-face with several Slavic nightmares.
As Atticus globetrots to stop his nemesis Theophilus, the journey leads to Rome. What better place to end an immortal than the Eternal City? But poetic justice won't come without a price: In order to defeat Theophilus, Atticus may have to lose an old friend.


Well, the blurb pretty much says it all. An action filled book, with three different storylines, Atticus and Oberon, Granuaile and Orlaith, and Owen. Atticus fights vampires, and tries to find the head vampire to slay him, as he was the one that sicked the Romans after the Druids, causing them to die out (well, except for Atticus himself, and his old mentor Owen).
Granauile has been branded by Loki, and she needs to get rid of that brand. For that, she needs Odin's help. When Loki comes after her, after her visit to Asgard, she sure makes him pay for what he has done to her, and I did love that scene!
And Owen is trying to make a new life for himself, after been outside of time for 2000 years. His werewolf girlfriend and her pack have found him 6 new apprentices to train, and his job is to keep them safe. And that means: Atticus is banned from the territory, as where ever he goes, his enemies follow.

Sad things happen, but also lots of fun things. I love the mix of all the different mythologies. Oberon and Orlaith are great, and Orlaith has finally learned enough to be able to talk to Oberon. So now they can beg for sausages and bacon together!
I wish I had read this book before I went to Berlin, instead of right after, as Atticus visits it and it would have been fun to try to find those places.

We are also introduced to a new character, a powerful seer, who sees things while making cheese out of different kinds of milk. Fun, original and very quirky.

This book continues after a short story called A Prelude of War, and Kevin Hearne warns about that in the start of the book. And also that, lucky me, it is included in the back of the book. So if you have bought the Orbit version, trade size paperback, you are in luck. Otherwise, I recommend you buy and read the novella first.

9 stars.

© 2016 Reviews by Aurian