Karen Miller (1) (1961–)

Almost 700 pages where we follow the exploits of an emotionally stunted hero. Did I need the full saga of Hekat's life to understand her motivations? No, no I did not. The plot of the book is essentially a Cinderella story: a slave from the savage north becomes empress because she is chosen by god. This is a good concept on paper except that the protagonist is extremely unlikable, and this is mostly because she is a sycophant, and it makes it really difficult to care about what happens to her. She does everything, and claims it is for her god. She is the exception, and claims that it is because she was chosen by god. Do the gods exist? Who knows? Who cares? At the end of the day the conflict comes from three people who all claim the god speaks through them, but are hearing drastically different things. This has the effect of making the character seem crazy. I get it, she was unloved as a child, and she is determined to never be a slave again, but that is not enough to garner sympathy by the end of the book. Like, I read Medea, and still had sympathy, but the difference is that Hekat's actions do not feel just, and it is difficult to care. She has a lot of hubris ( like any tragic hero from your High School lit class), there is a lot of misplaced confidence in her decisions on all fronts. She became empress because she has so much arrogance that everyone thinks that she knows what she is doing, but the plot has to literally flex itself around this ridiculous conceit, until things fall apart. If she were a bit more of a character, and maybe if she had a bit more interaction with the guy who inexplicably fell in love with her, the majority of the book wouldn't have felt so pointless. I was reading this trying to figure out how she was succeeding, because she shouldn't have been succeeding, and whenever she succeeded ( because she is a sycophant) it is proof that she was "in the god's eye," but as a thinking reader of fantasy, supernatural powers do not prove the existence of a god or demons in the world, and I think it is interesting that there is nobody who is definitively "demonstruck" people point fingers, like in the Salem Witch Trials, but who is demonstruck is determined more by who holds different beliefs to you. That was the really realistic thing about it, god isn't a character in this book, god contradicts himself, not everyone has the same god. The world is clearly built influenced by classical civilizations like ancient Rome and Greece, as well as with the philosophy of imperialist societies, especially christian ones. The voice of god swings back and forth between New Testament God and Old Testament God, and the voice of god and the motivations of god change with both the individual and the needs of the new world. The last couple of chapters that are told from the viewpoint of her son were a much better read for me, and really redeemed the rest of the book. The problem is that grimdark is not my trash. I do not like seeing horrible people succeed and good people fail. I also have issues with racial coding in fantasy because a race of people with vitiligo, and brown-skinned people with blue eyes is... problematic especially from a white Australian author. I think that people who have problems with the dialogue are, right, the characters talk weird and it is draining to read.… (més)

Nice and thick book in an old -fashioned fantasy setting. Family features, battles around territories, jealousy and murder, love and unreachable love.
Roric is one of the main characters, he is a bastard son and can therefore not claim a maker on anything. Due to an armed threeping of Harold, the reigning duke he becomes the Duke of Clemen.
Clemen is a part of an island that is separated by a swampy area from Harcia where his cousin Balfre is in charge. Balfre is a manipulator and a man of intrigues and manslaughter.
In the swamp, the cheerful pig is a sanctuary where Harcians and Clemen people meet and where Marie and Edo provide food and drink. Benedikt is Marie's son and they have taken care of Willem, who is actually Liam, son of Harold, but who has been saved by Ellie's feeder from the massacre around the deposition of Harold. All parts of a very easy -to -read book. That tastes like more, but I have not been able to find the second part so far.… (més)

Of Miller's three Star Wars novels, this is better than Wild Space and is tied with Clone Wars Gambit #1. it follows the basic outline of Wild Space: Jedi in an isolate world, finding themselves at loggerheads with non-Jedi. There is too much rehashing of the same arguments but it is not as bad as Wild Space. I somewhat liked Clone Wars Gambit #1 because of the interesting character of Bant'ena Fhernan--the scientist who develops a horrible bioweapon to save her family--who takes a backseat in this outing. The novel drags as it centers on Anakin and Obi-Wan holing up in some bumblefuck village, but at least it did not have the absolute dreadful first act of Clone Wars Gambit #1. I am glad to be done with Miller's Star Wars novels, but this was not as much of a chore to get through as I feared.… (més)