Customer Reviews

Hammer of God (Godspeaker)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

What a struggle this book was. It can be summed up easily. Rhian talks about war and argues with a bunch of people, then there is a bit of fighting. I've never read another book where court politics irritated me so much. Everyone bickers and Rhian yells at them. I guess it's because most other books have rulers that actually command respect, instead of demand it at the top of their lungs and shake a fist. I understand that not everyone likes Rhian and acknowledges her fully, but I got tired of the constant bickering that never moved forward. The first 600 pages of the book felt pointless, nothing happened other than some discussion and maybe one semi important event. None of the characters are complex or interesting, not even Zandakar. Rhian's marriage isn't interesting to read either. I stuck in there because I loved empress so much, but I honestly think that Riven Kingdom and Hammer of God were a waste of my time, and Empress would be better stand alone. Why can't evil triumph over good for once? Once again, the safe road was taken, in more ways than one.

HAMMER OF GOD (The Godspeaker Trilogy)

This book wrapped up most points fairly nicely and creates a happy ending, which is rather surprising when you look back on Karen Miller's first novel in the series. I wasn't very satisfied with the ending, and I feel as though this was the ending that was expected from begining of the second novel. I'm not one who can easily foresee the ending of a novel, but this was blaringly obvious. But it did fit in well.

In the second novel, Rhian's whinings and self doubts were tolerable, but by god did they get under my skin in this book. As another reviewer noted, I have no idea why any emphasis was put on the strain that Rhian and Alasdair felt in their marriage. It seemed incredibly obvious and logical to me that the responsibility of fighting a war and running a country would add stress to a marriage. Stress to life in general. Why those 2 characters had so much dialogue discussing this is beyond me.

This weakness in the novel was made worse by the fact that the Mijak side of this battle received little development, and previously strong, interesting characters fell by the wayside (Toymaker/Dimijak)in terms of development. In fact there wasn't very much further development going on in this story. Just the final climax and ending.

I did give this 3 stars because it completes the task the novel set out to do. Tie up most loose ends and give an ending to an interesting story, even if ultimately a little predictable.

I stumbled on the Godspeaker series by accident. After finishing the first two in only a few days, I was eager to read the finale. Miller created such a wonderful villain in Hekat and mismatched but lovable heroes in Dexterity Jones, Rhian and Zandakar. She fabricated a beautiful world with cultures and people that have so much potential for further enrichment. Miller set up the stage oh-so perfectly. Sadly, the final hundred pages left me wanting...well...more. Of what I'm not entirely certain.

I was glad for the near 2400 pages of ritual, tradition, politics, action and angst; but, a number of the plot threads that wove together that led to the final battle were left untied and frayed. Almost irrelevant. Although we know what happens to one of the major characters, we are only given a shadow of an impression of the fates of the others. Hence me wanting more.

Miller's prose is engaging. The plot--from Empress, through Riven Kingdom and ending in Hammer of God--is riveting and well thought out. Unfortunately, the plot moves either at a snail's pace or with the speed of a cheetah giving chase. This is due to sometimes pouty characters and their frustratingly long debates over dozens of pages or a need to hurry a point along with action that lasts only a few pages.

Throughout Hammer of God, the characters flatten and lose their unique sparks and many of the points of tension and conflict seem pointless and redundant. In the end, readers will need to spend much time using their imaginations, wishful thoughts and deepest desires in contemplation of what could have been said and done and what should have definitely been cut out.

I carefully read and enjoyed the other two books in this trilogy, Empress and The Riven Kingdom, despite the many negative things written on this website about them. I think I came into this book with high expectations, therefore, and most of them were met. I would strongly recommend this book to a friend, and would convince people who are doubting the series after Empress (which seems to be the common path), to at least continue on to this book.

Please be forewarned, if you continue to read this review, there will be spoilers but there will equally be more argument for my position.

There were several things that I truly loved about this book, and several that I feel could have been done more deftly. In my other reviews, I commented on Ms. Miller's writing style. I chose to believe that the biblical style of Empress was for a purpose, but then The Riven Kingdom did not have the contrast that I hoped for. Thankfully, the writing in Hammer of God confirmed my thought that that the writing in Empress was for effect. Ms. Miller strongly contrasted the thought processes and the way that characters communicate with one another based simply on the writing and where they were from. There was also, on a deeper level, an interesting idea presented about how growing up in certain places may affect us in ways that we can't understand.

Although some people may not appreciate the speed that the story moved with, alternating very slow with very quick, I see it from a different standpoint. When Rhian is faced with killing two of her subjects, she spends a great deal of time contemplating it. Also, there is honor given to the difficulty of uniting people to work together against an enemy (i.e. pulling together the Trading Nations to stand against Mijak). Some people see this as tedious and filler, but I see it as giving honor to the way that the real world functions. Also, once Rhian gets the ball rolling, the sequence of events speeds up and is reminiscent of a waterfall. Again, in the real world of war and fighting, there is a lot of waiting around and then action. Ms. Miller really put in the effort to represent a world that was as real as we chose to believe it was.

There is enormous character growth in this book, from Alasdair learning when enough is enough from Rhian, to Zandakar making the ultimate decision to do what is right in response to his family, to Dexterity accepting his role in the conflict and how he must sacrifice. I loved the inter-character relations, but I also loved how Ms. Miller chose NOT to take the simple ways to cause drama, which may have included Rhian cheating on Alasdair with Zandakar or the addition of an unborn child into the mix. These would have been simple to include, but they were also the easy way and Ms. Miller did not pursue that. I admire her for causing the tension to be just as palpable without opting for the easy way. I also love the character development in lesser characters, such as Vortka, who plays a smaller role in this book until he finally tells Zandakar that he is Vortka's son in a scene that would melt a stone, and Han, who's devastation at his brother and fellow witchman's death makes him so real it hurts. These smaller roles are just as important as the major and make this book even more enjoyable.

Overall, this book was worth the fight through Empress, without a doubt. Anyone who is doubting this series, fight through. Although the ending is swift and somewhat dissatisfying, sometimes sacrifices must be made. I doubt that Rhian was satisfied seeing Zandakar sail away with Dexterity in tow, and neither was I. Fortunately, that small flaw was nothing in comparison to what this book has to offer. Read it. You won't regret it.

I fell on the series accidentally but was impressed with the way the author develops her story and the characters. Both my husband and I had trouble putting all the books in the series down...until we got to the ending. I get the feeling Ms. Miller was tired of the whole series at that point becasue almost every character acted a) out of character b) out of the expectations Ms. Miller had so carefully crafted for us. What a terrible ending. I won't spoil it for others who haven't read the ending but be forewarned. The ending doesn't nearly match up to the promise of the rest of the series.

I read this trilogy a few years ago and very much enjoyed it from start to finish. I highly recommend these books as well as Karen Miller's other books. My heart was broken when I found I had lost this trilogy and the King maker King breaker set recently :(

After finishing the book I read some of the reviews. Almost all the negative reviews have something to say about the length of the book. To be honest I was astonished after finding out how long this book had been! When reading on the Kindle it doesn't have pages, and I read this book in two weeks. To me it was a fast read, there was no time durring this book that I felt she used as filler. The prior books I had felt that, especially in the last book when they were travelling to Linfoi, I thought it would never end! I really felt like the other two books were leading up to this fast paced, and overall pleasing conclusing. I have no qualms about having read this book, and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in this genre.