Customer Reviews

Empress (Godspeaker)

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

This is the most atrocious book I could not put down.

In a world as sere and forbidding as M.John Harrison's 'Viriconium', a dusty, misused female child observes her father - whom she does not even recognize as such - imposing his ultimate will on her mother, and telling the woman that the 'she-brat' has to go. A slave train is coming through in the morning, and the girl will go with it.

The young girl - without even a name, she calls herself Hekat when asked by the trader for what she is called - decides anywhere is better than home, and goes with the trader gladly. She sees this journey as an escape, and as the trader does not bind her, and dotes upon her, she learns to love someone for the first time. She is very young, but obviously beautiful; and the trader sees in her his fortune. She thinks he wants her for himself, and does her best to learn all the finer graces, not realizing that she is only a commodity in his eyes. Her final realization of this, what she sees as a complete betrayal, shuts her heart from ever experiencing love again.

A case could be made for Hekat's descent into vileness by blaming her terrible first ten or twelve years of brutal life in her miserable little village, where females are only valued as producers of male children. Another reviewer calls her a sociopath, and so she is; she learns to think for Hekat alone, putting the burden of her decisions on the 'god' that she serves, having learned of the god through her first and only master - a god represented by a scorpion, my least favourite poisonous land creature - and it does seem as though the god not only is on her side but directs her actions. When it becomes clear to her that she is only a commodity in the trader's eyes, she escapes, and exists on her own, observing the city of Et-Raklion, looking for her perfect opportunity.

Hekat is ruthless, self-centered, horrible. She runs rampant over the men she uses to exhaustion; those she goes after to further her ends are hopelessly in love with her, and do her bidding without serious complaint. In this way she works her way up from warrior status, dealing her own brand of justice on those who oppose her, and employing the alliance of men who cannot stand in her way.

This book was absorbing while illustrating a world I really, really hope is not out there somewhere. The writing style, mostly written in run-on sentences, was somewhat annoying, but never boring. I kept waiting for Hekat to experience some epiphany wherein her bloody dealer-of-death scorpion god was conquered by a kinder god, but in this world I guess the scorpion is all. Hekat uses the god to further her own ambitions; the warlord, Raklion, who brings her out of the warrior class and makes her his consort, is convinced that everything she does she does for the good of the world of Mijak. Her ally, the 'godspeaker' (priest) Vortka, continually hopes that good will come of her plans; those who stand in her way are their own breed of vile, so it's hard to work up any real empathy for anyone except Vortka, Hekat's son Zandakar, and the doomed and love-blinded warlord Raklion.

Imaginatively written, visually powerful, this book is quite an accomplishment at over 700 pages,but I was left with a sense of loss, and unfulfilled hope. The ending itself,while being predictable, was brutal and shocking; I knew it was coming, but I kept hoping I would be surprised.

I hear redeeming things about the second book in the series, but I am skeptical. My energy was drained by this first book, and I have never been so glad to reach the end of a story. It was an epic, it was engrossing - but it wasn't much fun.

I agree with the comments made that Hekat is an unsympathetic, borderline insane character and her nation is a hell on earth. I believe this is exactly what Karen Miller wants us to feel. "Empress" is actually a prequel to the main event of the trilogy, which is an ultimate clash between Mijak and the Trading Kingdoms that will take place in "The Riven Kingdom" and "The Hammer of God." Therein lies the genius of this book. An evil empire is a common device in high fantasy, but the authors often only show it is a darkly spreading invading force with a faceless (Sauron) or insane leader and a warhost of half-human beings. Karen Miller has chosen to step back in time and show how Hekat rose to become the mad Empress and how Mijak rises from a remote, dying land to become the invading horde. These people do not seek to conquer people- they seek to take land. Once they take it, they murder or enslave the natives and settle it with Mijakis. This is not world domination, it is world obliteration. An enemy like this needs a backstory through its own eyes to show how terrifying it is.

There is no doubt this is a hard book to read; Karen Miller wants us to understand why the Mijaki are a terrifying enemy. She wants us to see what a harsh land Mijak is with its spreading deserts and how it has created a people equally as hard. Life is cheap in Mijak, and those who are soft hearted suffer heavily for it. Their religion is a harsh one, too, demanding blood sacrifices and self mutilation. It is no irony that the manifestation of this religion is a scorpion. These are people to fear, and it is even more chilling to see the world through their eyes; characters like Hekat are terrifying and yet they justify their actions because they believe they are carrying out a divine plan. They also believe their own people are the only people who deserve to live.

Yet they are people for all that, not orcs. They are an interesting people with unique physical features and their own distinctive culture. I liked the descriptions of everyday life that showed there are some rare times to enjoy life here and there in Mijak- it makes the scenes of slaughter more tragic because that more festive way of life is doomed. The notion of horses that are colored red, blue or black and patterned with spots and stripes like wild cats was interesting as well. I also thought it interesting that, unlike the more civilized Ethera, women are seen as equals to men in some professions, such as the military.

Hekat is an interesting character; she comes from the humblest of beginnings in a remote, mostly abandoned part of Mijak where women and girls (or, in the local vernacular, bitches and she-brats) are seen as less than stray dogs, worthy only to breed more male children. Hekat grows up with no sense of love, only anger and disdain. She first starts to feel love when a caravan master who has seen how beautiful she will become and has purchased her for a great purpose, pampers her and treats her like a special child. She believes he loves her, but when she discovers his real purpose for doting on her, it shatters her ability to ever trust anyone again. Thus she takes life into her own hands and joins the military, rising in rank from canteen slave to soldier and upward. She does work very hard for her rise to power, not through seduction but though training in war arts, personal study and defying death on the battlefield. Her troops admire her because she is willing to face the same conditions they are. And she does seem to have some supernatural talent with divine support from the scorpion god.

That is as much good as one can say about her. She may be clever and a fierce war leader, but she is also manipulative, cruel and obsessed with her destiny. Her devotion to the god is such that she has no room in her for any other emotions but fulfilling its will. This makes her a very terrifing villain. She has no room in her to respect others and no room for compassion, even for herself. Her son Zandakar and the godspeaker Vortka seve as an interesting counterpoint to Hekat, a sense that there are people in Mijak who do believe in compassion and that all is not about sacrifice and death.

I actually like the writing style here. Ms. Miller's writing style has a kind of Old Testament language to it, or even something like reading a translation of Gilgamesh. It does fit the Mesopotamia like setting of the story, even if it seems archaic. The mentions of "god" in everything (godpoles, godhouses,godbraids, godbells, etc.) can be tiring but it does hammer home how dominant the scorpion religion is to these people and their artifacts. When you read the next book, the writing style is much different, reflecting the different culture and world view of Ethera. It is a good way to show just how clashing the views are between Mijak and the Trade Kingdoms.

I do recommend reading this book. Yes, there are parts that are really hard to read and Hekat is despicable. It does set the stage very well, though, for the next books. I think if you skip this one, it will diminish the experience of the other books.

This book begins reasonably well, but goes downhill fairly rapidly from there. For the first few chapters, the reader cares about Hekat the slave, but as the story progresses, she is shown to be so appalling a character that you really want her to fail with her plotting and schemes. Unfortunately though, she succeeds in her ambitions for the Kingdom of Mijak and her elder son.

I can't recall ever disliking a main character in any book as much as I loathed Hekat.

The apple of Hekat's eye, her first son, Zandakar is at first the beneficiary of, and then falls victim to her ambition and is sold into slavery. She hates her second son, (can't recall his name - someone borrowed my book and probably trashed it), but he is a good match for her and is as unlikeable as she is. He's very big on smiting (UGH!! that word!!) enemies (i.e. everyone in the world outside Mijak) and by the end of the first book, has conquered (very violently), many other nations and is set upon world domination - Hekat's ultimate ambition.

The writing is mostly fairly amateurish, and I rapidly reached the stage where if Zandakar or then his brother looked like he would 'smite' another adversary, I would have screamed.

The good news is that Hekat is barely mentioned in the second book (called in Australia, "The Riven Kingdom) which concentrates on Zandakar and his adventures in the land to which he has been exiled. He is a far more likeable character than his mother, and so too is Rhian, the daughter and only living child of the recently dead King of Ethrea. Civil war breaks out when Rhian insists on becoming Queen of Ethrea in her own right, rather than being forced to marry a consort who would be in turn a puppet King, managed and manipulated by power seeking nobles. Zandakar becomes part of her entourage as they journey through Ethrea towards the capital and Rhian's destiny.

It is evident that the worlds of Ethrea and Mijak are fated to collide in book three, and after my negative view of this first instalment, I am actually quite looking forward to the final in the trilogy. Oh, and the writing had improved somewhat between the first and second books.

I typically do not review, because I can often approach books from an oddball angle compared to the typical reader, but I figured I would put my two cents in, because Karen Miller is a very good author, and I'm a bit mystified why they aren't releasing her books in hardcover yet. She should have her books out in hardcover!

Regarding the book proper...Empress has a very...Robin Hobb-esque feel to it, in that Karen Miller is EXCELLENT in writing believable, but unlikable, characters, and in that she's very good at making cultures for her characters, and making the characters react appropriately from WITHIN that culture, even if that reaction isn't a nice or virtuous one.

This book follows Hekat, who starts out as a young girl in an abusive, frightfully poor family. By the end of the book, she is Empress. Now, the standard format for such stories usually centers around a character that is likable--by the time the little starvling works their way to ruling the kingdom, everybody loves them, they are close to being canonized as a saint in the local religion, and the reader is overjoyed that they "got what they deserved" after being mistreated for so long. That is NOT the case here.

Hekat is self-centered, prideful, cruel, determined, a liar, self-deluded, and more. And as a character she is beautifully portrayed. But, as the reviews below show, she's not a likable character, so if you as a reader need characters that you like or love, this is not the book for you. In my case, it doesn't matter that I dislike Hekat--I find her journey intensely interesting, and it's fascinating how she, in a very true-to-life manner, exploits others in her rise to power. Karen Miller has very successfully thrown out one example showing why people who are complete scum can rise to power; reading Hekat's life is like watching dominoes fall, except I-the-reader didn't realize that the dominoes were falling until, to switch my metaphors, the avalanche was barreling down on me. It wouldn't be out of line to say Hekat is somewhat like a female Hitler, except that there's no obvious ham-handed Nazi-influences in the book. There may be some subtle ones, but you have to be pretty analytical or well-versed in history to find them. Personally, Hekat reminds me of an Egyptian Queen for some reason. Probably the scorpion/desert references.

Aside from the excellently crafted characters (likable and not-likable), Karen Miller is also very good at crafting a culture that is alien to us; she shows how the religion is linked to the people, how the government works, how a system of magic might influence a culture and its religion at its deepest roots. This isn't just a "copy what everyone else has done and change the colors so it doesn't look like a total ripoff" that's fairly common in fantasy. I believe someone else mentioned stilted speech from all the characters, but I didn't read it like that--I read it as their speech patterns being affected by their culture. It may sound odd to us, but then, we don't live in that country. Once I adjusted to it, I found that I really deeply liked it, because it took a different approach to culture-creation than I'm used to reading. Usually people just throw in a few goofy made-up words...it takes much more skill to take normal words, but string them in phrases that make the character sound foreign to our ears.

One thing that does confuse me is the cover. The cover is done in a style that indicates the story is much more fluffy than it is. I like the cover art, but I don't think it's particularly suitable to the story, and has probably misled more than one person. But that's not the author's fault, since authors don't have much input on the cover typically...more the publisher's fault, since they have a book that would appeal to Robin Hobb/C. S. Friedman/etc. fans with a cover you might see on a Mercedes Lackey or Tanya Huff book. Totally marketing at the wrong demographic, I think. Someone on the publishing marketing team was inhaling something when the cover was chosen! Anyway...

All in all, I loathed and was depressed by Hekat, but I was totally and utterly excited by the craftsmanship of the book, and by the chain of dominoes that are falling over, affecting everything in their path. And there are other characters in the book that are sympathetic--Hekat's son, for example. I want to know what happens to them too. If you're looking for some fun and light escapism, don't pick up this book...it may make you cry. But if you're looking for interesting characters and cultures, or for a book you might learn something new from, you might want to give this book a try.

I just picked up the next one in the series today; it looks like we'll have a bit of a more sympathetic main character than Hekat in it, but I hope we see Hekat as well, because she's just interesting. :D

~~Domini

I originally wanted to give this book a 0-star rating because I hated Hekat by the end.
Hated.
I rarely use that word but the skill of the writing leaves room only for the strongest of emotions. After simmering down I realized that this is what the writer was attempting to do. After introducing Hekat (as a nameless child) you begin to really like the character, even to indentify with her at some points. She makes some questionable choices that you can understand, maybe even agree with. Then, out of nowhere, this girl that you've watched grow up and have grown to know turns into the villian!
WTF!!!!

Only the most well-written books can elicit such an emotional response from as jaded a reader as I. You love her, then you hate her. Then you hate yoursaelf for loving her in the first place and immediately transfer that hate to the author and the book for making you feel that way. I mean, I felt dirty after finishing the book.
This is the most well-written book I've ever hated.

Excellent book!

Empress is the first book of the Godspeaker trilogy, and is definitely a violent beginning to the trilogy. It is the story of Hekat, a nameless back country girl, who rises to become the Empress of Mijak.

Heartwarming, right? Wrong! From the first page, the reader is sent to the graphically backwards village that Hekat (the "she-brat" for the first 10 pages) lives. Women are treated little more than the lowest mongrels whose only purpose is to breed males. Hekat herself is very unlikable as a protagonist, I often found myself cheering when Hekat lost on one of her reckless gambles (which wasnt often).

The heirarchy is based on war and being extremely skilled in sword play, called "knife dancing." Once Hekat escapes her fate of being a whipping post and breeder, she finds that if one is talented at fighting, then it doesnt matter what sex one is. In fact, Hekat is so talented at "dancing" that she catches the eye of the warlord of Et-Raklion, the most powerful city state in Mejak. She eventually becomes the War-Leader (second in command) of the warhost (army) through her own talents and manipulation. Then she declares herself Empress of Mijak after the death of the warlord; naming her son the Warlord.

Equally violent, is the religion of Et-Raklion. Worshippers are subject to the occasional punishments of whippings, being covered by scorpions (which is the god's symbol) and drawn and quartered. There is also many animal sacrifices. In one case, the High Priest slaughters around 20 animals in a day for the furneral rites of the Warlord. The brutal nature of the religion suits Hekat's personality to a tee as they both rely on divine punishment to manipulate and rule through fear. Hekat even goes so far as believing that she is being talked to by the One God and uses its power (and her own charisma) to become Empress and start conquering.

This is not a page turner and its 700 pages+ were actually a daunting task for me to get through. It was mostly due to the fact that Hekat is really, really hard to like. She is a strong character and a neat surprise, however her complete lack of humanity is somewhat appalling. Her only redeeming quality is that she is somewhat vurnerable around two people: her son Zandakar and her "friend" Vordka. Other than that she is absolutely ruthless.

Another aspect of the book that slows reading down is the awkward, but intentional, grammatical errors. Most of the beginning of the book is narrated by a combination of run on sentences and choppy phrases. As the book progresses there are still run-ons, but it does get easier to read. This is not a complaint as the style completely emphasizes the harshness of Mijak.

In the end I just couldn't stop reading it becuase the world of Mijak was fascinating. Hekat herself is very much worth reading the book for because she is unpredictable, contradicting, and downright scary. So, if you are willing to put up with a crazy protagonist and a violent world, this is a great start to the Godspeaker Trilogy.

The world that this book is set in is very vivid and rich...too bad the characters lack depth and personality. I started out feeling a lot of empathy for Hekat, but quickly ended up hating her character. Extremely shallow and one-dimensional. Supposedly godtouched, but I couldnt decide if she really was or if she was just exceptionally lucky in her plotting and scheming to get ahead. A bit of a shame because I really liked Miller's Innocent Mage books. I will probably end up buying the second book if I need something to fluffy to read when I am between better books...but it will definitely be a used book buy!

Other reviewers have slammed this book because of the unlikability of the main character, Hekat. I'm going to try and rectify this, given that I have read the entire trilogy (it's just been published in Australia but Amazon won't let me review it) and I can look at it as a whole.

First, a quick summary. A young girl is sold as a slave as her father refuses to have anything other than male children, her six sisters have been sold before her. Hekat chooses her own name and travels with the trader who is the first man in her life that shows her any sort of affection, yet Hekat mistakenly believes thisis genuine but the trader merely wants to sell her later as a concubine. She is also told she is precious and chosen by the god, something that Hekat will continue to believe for the rest of her life.

Hekat escapes after learning of the trader's intentions and kills him, becoming a knife dancer in Raklion's army. Raklion is fascinated by her and later makes her his wife as he is old and needs an heir. Hekat has two sons, Zandakar and Dmitrak though by different fathers and neither of them Raklion.

She manages to in the end control just about everything in the court and Raklion lets her, naming her Empress of Mijak before his death.

I will admit that while I did not particularly like Hekat as a person, as she clearly is horrible and I'm not going to make excuses for her or for the society that she grows up in. However, I was fascinated by her and what she was going to do next. As Raklion sees in the novel, she is betwitching in a similar way that a lot of female villains are in film and literature. Hekat is not the hero of this novel, it is more about what happens to heroes in a society that does not appreciate them. The role of a hero I would probably give to Hamo, Vortka or Zandakar, which says something given what happens to them both in this novel and over the course of the series.

Don't dismiss this book! A lot more is revealed about Mijak's religion in the sequels The Riven Kingdom and The Hammer of God. Empress of Mijak is a mature fantasy book which combines pretty much all of what I love to read in novels.

I personally enjoyed this book--the characters were interesting; the landscape terrible but believable and it left me with wanting more--which is very important to an author. While I agree with other reviewers that Ms. Miller overused the word smite--the writing and the verbage she used was very effective in allowing the reader to become fully immersed in this world. Hekat may not be the heroine many readers were hoping for--I found it refreshing that she was not the quirky and smart heroine that many female authors are falling back on. This whole novel was just a set-up for the following novels. We know who the villain is, we know *how* she became the villain and we might even understand her. This series will be different from other fantasy series because we personally know the villain--she's not a faceless enemy drawing near. I hope others will give this book a chance and get over the whole "smiting" debacle.

The book is set in a harsh world which revolves around a blood thirsty god. The world is very well created and plot original, but most of the characters are flat. All completely devoted to the god and believing they are doing its will. I felt that this book was way too long and could have been shortened. The book was so long I found my attention waning in spots and stopping to skip ahead to see if anything interesting happened in the next 50 pages. I was glad as I looked at the other reviewers that I am not alone in my hatred and loathing of the main character Hekat, who was cold and heartless, just looking for power. Some of the language in the book I felt was crude and many scenes were gory. It was also annoying the repeated phrases like "I am Hekat...." (and she lists all the things she has done). The only thing that makes me want to read the next book is to see what happens to Hekat son (which is why I'm giving it 3 stars) and to see what the 'god's will' really was. This is because at the end of the book their seemed to be conflicting messages from the god.
I would suggest to borrow this book and not buy it unless you are a very devoted fan of Karen Miller.