Those who are frequent readers of novels in the fantasy genre may know of the Kingmaker and Kingbreaker books by Karen Miller. I am not a follower of this genre and so when my fiance decided to buy me a copy of this book I had my doubts about her tastes in books, honestly, because this was the first book she’d ever sent me. I wanted to read it for her sake, but it’s nearly 700 pages and I was hesitant to dive into it in case it was so ludicrous that I couldn’t finish. My tastes are closer to thriller, horror or other more (arguably) realistic genres set in our modern era. I love the imagination of high fantasy, but I prefer to watch it unfold on film.
This being said, I have to say that I honestly expected the book to be less intense than it was. I should have known better, given the nature of who recommended it to me, but at the same time, I’ve always felt fantasy tended to be a bit more idealistic in its presentation and light on realistic details. Well, Empress is nothing short of utterly brutal and savage to the absolute core yet still full of the soaring imagination one would rightly expect from a high fantasy novel. Both elements, the hot and the cold, are combined with such force that you can’t help but get sucked into this book if you give it fifty pages worth of your time. Frankly, I did not wager I would be unable to put it down, but I was because the story is uniquely applicable to our real world.
The basic story involves Hekat, a young girl from an impoverished village in the land of Majik who is sold into slavery. She serves as the focal point of the story and her adventures propel the story through a range of environments. She meets a wide variety of characters along the way who are much more developed than I had expected to find in a novel of this sort. Due to the epic size of the book, we see a girl survive pure horror in every imaginable form and rise to become, well, an Empress. In this story we get both the emotional realities of how trauma affects a person and how another person may take similar traumas only to react to them in a completely different way. This psychological aspect to the story sets well against the fantastic scope of the tale.
The world that Karen Miller has created for this tale is one that is reminiscent of the Old Testament in the Bible. It’s a harsh and at times bleak place full of superstition, but also shockingly zealous faith. This ends up being a truly fascinating exploration of religion and spiritual values that is easy to enjoy because it’s not referencing any specific religion and rather approaching the concepts as a whole. The level of detail that Miller weaves into this tale makes it feel as if she has a few hundred thousand more pages of notes and maybe a few binders full of drawings to go with it. You can’t help but wish this book could be made into a movie.
Don’t worry about being presented with another Tolkein clone world and don’t worry about being preached to. The world of the Godspeaker is unique, vibrant and as self-loathing as our own modern surroundings. Still, the core values of heroism and magic radiate throughout each page of this book, running through the savagery the way the human spirit manages to flourish even in concentration camps.
If you only read one fantasy novel this decade, it really ought to be Empress because you will be impressed by how absolutely worthy of your time this story is, but one warning. You really ought to have a friend read it, too, because you will want to talk about this story!
Visit Karen Miller’s website to learn more about her books: http://www.karenmiller.net/
Click here to get your hands on “Empress (Godspeaker – Book One)”
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