Desperately needed to be a trilogy | The Awakened Mage (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker)

Awesome finish. | The Awakened Mage (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker) | Karen Miller

books:


	• The Awakened Mage (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker) Karen Miller Orbit, 2007 - 736 pages average customer review:based on 21 reviews view larger image
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The worst kind of book

The worst kind of book is the book that has just enough potential to keep you reading even though it's not very good. Awakened mage is one of those books. This series was dramatic letdown.

Desperately needed to be a trilogy

These two books (Innocent Mage and Awakened Mage) are two of the hardest books for me to really give a review for. Karen Miller does an excellent job of developing characters and building a world for Asher to emerge as the savior of the kingdom. Where Karen fails is in having actual excitement, or action. These two books are build up to nothing. The final confrontation is the last few pages of the book. The final confrontation is so anticlimactic I almost laughed. I really feel that this series would have benefited from a third book, and more action.

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Awesome finish.

The Innocent Mage introduced us to a Lur full of life, vibrant and peaceful. The Awakened Mage, however, takes us into a Lur where Morg, an immortal mage with a vendetta from beyond the Wall, may destroy everything that Asher, a simple Olken, has grown to love.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series, and found myself enjoying this one just as much, if not more. Karen Miller proves that such a modest book count of two doesn't mean that there has to be any less story than a larger series. Quite the opposite. The Awakened Mage is packed full of action, love, hate, and despair, and never feels cramped.
I'm going to try to do the synopsis without ruining anything. This is really hard to do because the first book left you with a cliffhanger that is integral to the start of the second book, but I'll do my best.
All is not right in Lur. Dorana City has a new WeatherWorker, the once magically-crippled Prince Gar, but some are not happy at all because Gar isn't supposed to have magic. Morg, however, is more upset than anyone else: he's trapped in a body that is on the brink of death and cannot understand why his spells on Gar are still holding firm.
I think that's all I can give you without ruining the book. If I tell you what happens with Morg you'll have no reason to read the first half of the book, and if I tell you anything about some of the other characters it is about the same. The hard thing about trying to wrap it up into a tiny little package that gives you an idea of what this is about is not ruining the book in the first place.
Given that, this book is just as awesome as the first. Karen Miller is a fantastic writer and she has pulled together a dense and powerful fantasy story. The story is epic, and deeply political, more so here than in the first book. You might say that The Awakened Mage is a look into the inner workings of a real medieval kingdom with kings and queens, and lesser lords desperate for power. Besides the characters themselves, the political side is the strongest element in the book. When things really start going south, they don't just stop and give Asher or Gar a break, they really fall all the way into the dirtiest, darkest, most horrendous hole imaginable, and keep them there, all through a working of politics.
Karen's ability to create likable and detestable characters is remarkable. When she wants you to not like a character for whatever reason, she makes sure that's so. There are always good, valid reasons behind it. This is an example of an amazing writer at work. There were times when I hated Morg so much that I had to put the book down for a moment to let the steam out, much like Fane angered me in The Innocent Mage. This is part of being immersed in the work itself, which is not very easy to manage. Immersive fiction is fiction that allows you to become so engaged in the reading that you are unaware of what is going on around you. It's like having your eyes glued to the TV screen, only in this case your eyes would be glued to a page. Karen's portrayal of this story is exceptionally immersive. I found myself drawn into the story instantly, from start to finish.
The story itself is strong and I think in some ways might be stronger that the first book (this might have a lot to do with the fact that things spoken of in the first book take place here). The ending is not perfect, but it does the job. I think perhaps expanding on it a little would have made it stronger, but at the same time it did seem to work very well and avoided the cliches of your typical "good guys against the bad guys", or at least molded them in such a way that you didn't really notice (another mark of a good writer). The pacing is perfect at getting you from the beginning to the middle and from middle to end. Karen doesn't fall pray to typical trappings of long-winded, boring, pointless sections of prose. Everything happens for a reason crucial to the plot.
The short version of this review is that this is one of the best adult fantasy series I have read in a long time. There are very few writers who could have used a cliffhanger in the first book of a duology and keep me interested enough to go on to the second. Karen managed to do that perfectly. I am officially a fan of her work. The Awakened Mage is a superb piece of fantasy fiction, from a superb writer. I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.

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"The evil foretold has risen ... and we are all that stands between it and the end."

Asher has come a long way for a fisherman's son. Together with his friend Prince Gar, he has defended their kingdom against its bitterest enemy, but at great cost.

Now, the evil mage Morg is preparing for his most deadly assault. Desperate, trapped in a broken body, Morg has little time and fewer scruples. And he has a plan.

As Gar and Asher unwittingly fall into a dangerous deception, Morg gets ever closer to his goal. And this victory would be particularly sweet?for who better to destroy the kingdom than the two who would give anything to save it?

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