Hammer of God (Godspeaker) [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Karen Miller (Author), Josephine Bailey (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 2010 | Series: Godspeaker (Book 3)

In Ethrea, Rhian sits upon a precarious throne. Defiant dukes who won't accept her rule threaten the stability of her kingdom. Dexterity has been banished from her court in disgrace. The blue-haired slave Zandakar, the man she thought was her friend, has been revealed as the son of a woman sworn to destroy her world. And Rhian's husband, King Alasdair, is unsure of her love. The trading nations refuse to believe Mijak is a threat and promise reprisals if she dares protect her realm. Only Emperor Han of mysterious Tzhung-tzhungchai knows that the danger from Mijak is real.But is he an ally or an enemy in disguise? As she struggles to learn the truth, and keep her embattled crown, the murderous warhost of Mijak advances.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Karen Miller is the author of the bestselling fantasy duology Kingmaker, Kingbreaker, the Godspeaker Trilogy, and the bestselling tie-in novels Stargate SG-1: Alliances and Stargate SG-1: Do No Harm. Writing as K. E. Mills, she is the author of the Rogue Agent series. Josephine Bailey has won ten AudioFile Earphones Awards and a prestigious Audie Award, and Publishers Weekly named her Best Female Narrator in 2002. Her native British accent has been used in many audiobooks and voice-overs, including The Wild Thornberries, Uncle Gus, and Disney-Dreamworks projects. In addition to her award-winning voice work, Josephine is involved in television, film, and theater. On television she has played parts in Robin Hood, A Tale of Two Cities, and Sword of Freedom. In film she was featured in Shadow Hours, Life's a Circus, and Corridors of Blood. Her theater experience includes lead roles in Betrayal, Otherwise Engaged, and Blithe Spirit. Josephine received her training from the Corona Stage School in London and the Tracy Roberts Actors Studio in Los Angeles. Josephine currently resides in South Carolina.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged,Library - Unabridged CD edition (January 25, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400143187
• ISBN-13: 978-1400143184
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 7 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,523,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Karen Miller was born in Vancouver, Canada, but was raised in Sydney, Australia where she still lives today. She wanted to be a writer from early childhood, but that took some time to happen. While she was waiting she worked as a public servant, a receptionist, in the horse industry, in local government, in publishing, in telecommunications, as a college lecturer and ran her own science fiction/fantasy/mystery bookshop. She fell in love with Star Wars when she saw it on the big screen, the very first time it was released in 1977. That love affair has lasted her whole life. So far she's written six mainstream fantasy novels and two Stargate SG-1 tie-ins.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Flawed ending to a brilliant serries, March 24, 2009

By 

Bill E. Stripp (Chicago, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hammer of God (Godspeaker Trilogy, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

After reading the wonderful Empress and equally good Riven Kingdom, I could not wait to start reading the conclusion to the series. Sadly, I should have left this one in the store and imagined my own conclusion to the trilogy.

It's not that the characters aren't interesting, nor the story compelling; it's the interactions of the two that makes this tale sadly lacking.

A major portion of the book centers on Rhian trying to become the queen she needs to be. Yet, even though she somewhat does, it doesn't really accomplish anything. There is little in her decisions, or little in any of her angst about being a killing queen, or even in her training that has any real relevancy in what concludes the tale.

When I finished the final battle, and set the book down to contemplate it, this became more and more evident. Fine she consolidated her power, did it help her? Not really. She had a hard time with her husband, did it matter? Not really. She distrusted Zandakar, did it matter? Not really. She gathered a fleet, did it matter? No. All of the main lines of conflict and tension ended up being mere window dressing for a final staged set piece battle.

Even one of the main fights was nothing more than page filler that while visually compelling, was utterly pointless. The armada that Rhain spent much of the book worrying about gathering? Pointless. The army that she never raised, useless. The skills she learned, moderately useful, but only in her own personal struggle.

So why did I read several hundred pages of sometimes angsty conflict? The sad thing is that I am not sure. While we will never be certain, I feel the author had written the ending, needed a page count, and filled until she reached it. The story would have been so much better if the 500 or so odd pages leading up to the end had some relevancy to the finish.

In the end, I'm both glad and sad that I read this book. I am glad for seeing her final vision for where this tale was heading. However, I am sad that I should have just read the last 100 pages and been much happier.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Needs more cowbell, March 7, 2010

By 

Kawika "honest2u" (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Hammer of God (Godspeaker Trilogy, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

Thus ends Karen Miller's series about the godspeaker. I really thought a lot of the dialog was tacky and long-winded. I don't mind 800-page books, as long as the content is useful and interesting...and that's where this book fails. I think Karen is a good writer, but an awesome writer like Leiber would minimize the funk and keep to the story. I do like most of the humor, some of it is goofy. And why is Mr Jones suddenly talking like C3P0? This book includes too many POVs as well. I don't know, the whole book was OK, and so was the series. I really liked Empress and still think that Hekat was an awesome villain. I also think that hota-training should be instilled in our school systems so that girls and women can defend themselves from the predators lurking in our society. I like the world Miller created, and the different aspects of each society...but the actual story is just OK.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good story but over-padded in the last volume, September 25, 2011

By 

Mr. L. J. Morris "Perrito-gordo" (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Hammer of God (Godspeaker Trilogy, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

The first volume of the trilogy, Empress, gave one of the best descriptions of an human yet alien society I've read in a long time. Her Mijak are a tribe heavily dependent on blood sacrifice, perhaps very loosely based on the Maya, who under some very psychotic leaders quickly turn to human sacrifice on an epic scale. The first book describes the rise to power of a young girl taken into slavery, but whose peculiar and totally amoral abilities take her to the top of this disfunctional society.

The second volume gives a complete contrast in the rise to power of another girl, but this time on a peaceful society based on an isolated island set in late Medieval Europe, who though a mass of self doubt and indecision, and thwarted by macho characters, eventually manages to get the top job.

So you can guess what is going to happen in the third volume. The clash between the two eventually happens, but it is very late in the book. The first two books are well written, and she describes some interesting characters who play a large part, if not the biggest part, in the final clash. However, the conflict happens quickly, in a only a couple of chapters, and I'll leave it to the reader's imagination who wins.

The trouble with the third book is the sheer verbage and waffle, 800 odd pages of it, before you get to the final battle. There are some well crafted incidents, but these are isolated in pages and pages of rather boring dialogue between the "European" warrior queen and her characters, full of doubts about her ability and wish to wager war, and her horror of killing. These themes are repeated and repeated again ad nauseum. No sane person likes war and killing, and the author didn't need to spend more than half the book trying to pursuade us and her characters of the undesirability of war. After the first two hundred pages I found myself skimming most of the dialogue, reading the few better bits, and then moving on to the last battle. This part was well written and her publisher perhaps should have made her amplify the battle scenes and cut out most of the dialogue. It would have made a much better book.