Ironbound

Millennial Mage, Book 8

De: J.L. Mullins

Narrado por: Tess Irondale

The iron-clad reality of the world relentlessly pursues its own. Arcanes and humanity continue under a fragile peace, often breached but never shattered. Gated-humanity thrives within their ever-renewing cities in this hostile world. Mages and Archons devote their long lives to give their people a chance.

Through tribulation and hardship, Tala has managed to return to the human lands, her freedom hard won, her self intact. Her family and friends await her, but her time away has left its mark. She has to face new trials—face the new weight that she carries—and somehow find a way though things that she has never faced before. While that isn’t exactly new, she is now no longer alone.

Supported once again by those who care for her, she is given the tools and help that she needs to deal with the continued threats on her life and her very soul. Her magic and power have grown, but she is not content to let them stagnate.

She carries with her the spoils and burdens from the arcane lands, and she is determined to turn them all toward her benefit and the benefit of those to whom she fought so hard to return.

©2024 J.L.Mullins (P)2024 J.L.Mullins

alright not great

compared to every other book in the series this one wasn't great, stories fine but there's no progression. it's just hours of finishing the last book and the mc eating.

Amazing characters and world

This series continues to deliver some of the best character work and world building in the genre. Progression is always present and feels earned. Excited for the next installment!

Wonderful

A phenomenal wrapping up of the last storyline and a great start to the next.

fun

a great continuation of the series.the narration is as good as always. a lot of dealings with talas conactions

Not Nearly As Good as the Previous Book

This book is a bit hard to rate. Had the previous book not existed, I would probably rate this one higher, but since I know that the author can do much better, I was disappointed in this one. Do you remember the times in earlier books when we are basically following Tala as she checks off tasks on her todo list whenever she is in a city? Well, this book is basically that from cover to cover with the addition of some trauma therapy and reestablishment of lost contacts. This might have been interesting had it been written at a broader level, but unfortunately the author makes us slog through this at the pace of a slice-of-life novel. Honestly, I found it terribly hard to keep my attention on this book despite the potentially interesting interactions and the revealing of additional information about the world and its bizarre system of magical cultivation and broken reality.

I will say, though, that I completely disagree with some of the negative reviews that claim that Tala was selfish and inconsiderate in this book. I did not see that at all, and in fact, I found it refreshing how often she took the time to thank and appreciate the people around her. I actually wish more main characters had this trait.

Despite my disappointment, I do look forward to the next book. Tala gains some very interesting improvements/changes to her magic and self in this book, so I'm anxious to see how she performs when in a serious fight. We only really see her handicapped by sparring etiquette and other constraints in this book. I would have liked a little more action at the end as a payoff, but I guess that is what the next book is for.

love the series

Great series can't wait for the next book the writing is great and Tess Irondale does a great job if you like fantasy this mite be the book for you

The trauma & info dump book

Very little actually happened in this book. Mostly just her talking to herself and friends about her trauma and working on her issues. When she wasn’t just staring at her issues and refusing to do anything, at all, about them.

I think I like Tala a little bit less after this book. It feels like the author is trying to tell us that she will eventually work through her stuff while also shoving in our faces how much stuff there is and how much she would rather just avoid it.

If she wasn’t trauma dumping, she was theory crafting about anything and everything magical. So she was info-dumping on how things work and trying to figure out why they work the way they do.

I also spent too much time thinking about why everyone bends over backwards to help her and while she sometimes says she is grateful, she doesn’t act grateful.

All in all, she is a very selfish, self-centered person in this book. Who acts like she just wants to cut everyone out of her life and then wander the woods alone and talk to herself. If she doesn’t “get better” in the next book, I’ll be very disappointed as this used to be one of my favorite series.

Trauma Dump

8 books in and I can't take the MC anymore. She's selfish, inconsiderate, the poster child for ADHD, and is arguably certifiable. I'm no longer able to ignore the constant trauma dumping and avoidance to continue enjoying the story and the amazing world building. That is what kept me going so long. Maybe I'll pick up book 9 after it releases on audiobook to see if "she improves".

An ok book in a great series

No one hits it out of the park every time, but this one was kind of disappointing. This series overall is great, but I felt like nothing happened at all in book 8. Or more than that, the story here could have been covered in maybe 20% of the length, and then moved on. The way the author usually threads the balance between action, relationships, world building, and various LitRPG ideas usually works great, but this was a pretty boring exposition dump, with very little character progress.