Customer Reviews

The Prodigal Mage (Fisherman's Children)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I absolutely loved Kingmaker/Kingbreaker, and I really wanted to love The Prodigal Mage as well. The things I loved about the previous novels don't hold true in this book. I loved Asher's character and really understood where he was coming from in The Innocent Mage and The Awakened Mage. I liked his attitude and ability to set everyone straight. In The Prodigal Mage he comes off as a bitter old man. Asher and his wife argue and fight nonstop in this book. It really bothered me. When they aren't arguing with each other, they are yelling at their kids. Have you ever had to sit and listen to a couple argue with themselves and yell at their kids for long periods of time? If you have, I'll bet you didn't enjoy it. Well that's what you are in for with The Prodigal Mage. Asher doesn't want his children to use bad magic, but he won't explain to them why. So of course, being kids, they do it anyway. When Asher's son Rafel is told not to go into the whirlpools or over the mountains, of course he wants to. It's what kids do. I have to say that most of this book is arguing and debating about the same tired issues. We knew the world wasn't going to be wonderful after the end of The Awakened Mage, and the problems the world faces in The Prodigal Mage are predictable. Of course the two races are going to fight for supremacy and not work together. Of course the people will expect the all powerful Innocent Mage to fix all of their problems in an instant. Of course not everyone trusts Asher. Sigh. The inaction and slowness of Kingmaker/Kingbreaker did not bother me at all because I loved the characters. Even without the characters there was a meaningful plot. I can't say the same about The Prodigal Mage. The characters are all extremely grating, and there is no plot to speak of, just danger. As other reviewers have said, this book is mostly setup, so don't expect any kind of conclusion here. The ending was a bit too predictable to me, and feels like a repeat of the previous novels. I don't think I want to continue with this series, though it pains me to say so since I really do love the world created. The problems the people deal with are real, and they bicker and complain just like real people. On one hand realism is nice, on the other hand if I wanted to hear people complain I would go to a city council meeting, because that's what this book feels like, one big complaint fest.

There was a good 400 pages to build up the story to where it gets interesting. 400 pages of redundancy and set up, going over and over the same things, making this book not at all enjoyable as a stand alone novel. The book starts out with young Rafe speaking of how he was only 6 years old when he first realized he wanted to adventure beyond the borders of Lur, and then the set up to bring you there, which should have been an interesting hundred or so pages, was 400 pages of boredom and the same issues over and over again. If you haven't read the kingmaker duo, the first half of this book will be beyond boring and painful to get through, because its only purpose is to put aside Asher as the hero of the story. Well, if you're picking up this book as a new series without the influence of the previous, we're already set up with Rafe as the main character of this book, so 90% of the story being about why Asher was no longer the hero is pretty much a waste of my time and strained my patience. When it finally gets interesting, and Rafe finally goes on his quest over the mountains, the book ends 50 pages later in a horrible cliffhanger. I'd recommend waiting until book 2 comes out, skimming over the first half of this book, and then reading the rest.

I'm conflicted when it comes to this book, the author takes way to much time to set the scene and it was painful to listen to the characters complain and argue about there lot in life. Asher's indifference to magic is beyond annoying the decisions that the main characters make is beyond stupid, and one characters hate and arrogance is just way to contrived. With all that said I made it to the end and hope to read more just a little less contrived.

I was a big fan of the original series, Kingmaker Kingbreaker. I think this is a great follow-up to that series after many years. Some other reviews talked about how Asher sounds like a grumpy old man now. I believe that is justified in his character arc - he's been battling ignorance of the kingdom over the past several years, and Prince Gar isn't around to help with the public image. If you remember, Asher was never very good at public relations...it was just that people respected his boss and friend, Gar.

Now I won't pretend that this is better than the original series. It would be some difficult footsteps to follow. I believe the character development of Asher was very well refined as compared to the development of Rafel. I am very curious about his sister, who is allegedly the focus of the next book. I like her character, though she's only a side character in this book.

Two words that sum up this book. Slow. Boring. The characters and environment are well thought out, but there is just not enough going on for a fantasy title that includes magic. There are numerous things hinted at, and going on in the background but very little that will hold you in the book.

The only up side to the book i can give is that the series gets better. Each book afterward adds a little more action to spice things up.

I would recommend this book ONLY to people who have excess time and money to get to the others in the series. Otherwise your buying a paper sleeping aid.

Read all the reviews for the series. Most of the keywords founds was

-low stars
-redundant
-poor story progression
-not as amazing as the previous series.

Ten years ago Asher saved Lur from destruction. Now he and his wife Danthe, and their two children Rafe and Dennie, look forward to a more peaceful life, free of prophecy and fear.

No such luck. Of course.

The earth itself has become sick with turmoil--flooding, earthquakes, whirlpools--as a result of hundreds of years of magical manipulations. Asher worries he must use his WeatherWorking magic again to save the land, even at the expense of his own life. At the same time the most powerful mages of Lur turn their noses at Asher's help, and instead seek their own way to escape a land in danger of famine. Unfortunately, Lur is surrounded by an impassible reef on the coastline and an even more dangerous blight across the mountains.

THE PRODIGAL MAGE catches up with Asher and Danthe from the The Innocent Mage (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker, Book 1) which is set 10-20 years before PRODIGAL. While it's not necessary to read that duology in order to understand what's going on, it will prevent a high learning curve about the world, the story, and the characters.

The main character of PRODIGAL is Rafe, Asher's son, who has inherited his father's unique mixed magic--that is, he has the magic of his own Olkin race which is subtle and nature-focused, and the Doranen magic which is not only much stronger, but dangerous. Asher, however, is afraid of magic and what it can do. He's seen enough destruction and death caused by magic to last his lifetime, and as a result doesn't want to have anything to do with it. But when his son is born with his own gift, he and Danthe block Rafe's abilities so no one knows what he can do. Or how strong he really is in Doranen magic.

Rafe loves his parents, but he hates that his parents keep secrets from him. He hates that they stifle his magic. He doesn't understand his parents, and they don't understand him. It's a frustrating dynamic how he can still love and want to honor his parents, but they can at the same time be blinded to their son's needs as a result of their own fears. Then there's Dennie, Rafe's little sister, whose own powers take a truly unique form, but requires even more over-protection by their parents. Asher is still the common sense fisherman's son, who's bullheaded and yet soft-hearted. Danthe is still the fiery woman trying to make the right decisions. All of this is established pretty early on.

But like in the first duology, it all turns into blah blah blah.

I had hoped that Karen Miller learned from the mistakes in her first series. The first handful of chapters in PRODIGAL were setting up to be a more streamlined and exciting promise, but by a quarter of the way through repetition and over-wrought emotion become a crutch for building tension. In INNOCENT and The Awakened Mage (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker) the repetition consisted of constant yammering about a prophesy that didn't have much bearing on the plot. In PRODIGAL we read the same arguments between the characters in practically every chapter, and all the yelling and tears get old fast. I liked Asher in the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology, but here he's a bitter old man, and Danthe has become shrill and overbearing. Rafe wanders around aimless and grouchy. It just wasn't as fun to read. The conversations re-hash the same things over and over. The internal monologues are characters with one-track minds. Blah de blah de blah. Just get on with the story, already.

Not a lot happens in PRODIGAL, and like INNOCENT is fairly predictable, the book one big set-up for the sequel. Mostly this is because Rafe needs to grow up. He first has to come into his powers, otherwise he's pretty useless, since he's got no profession and his father won't teach him magic beyond what he learns in school. The problems with Lur's climate and landscape spend the entire book to reach a breaking point before anything gets going. And while it's not uninteresting, it means that the tension has to do with a nebulous danger instead of the result of active plot, which hurts the story's momentum. Then the novel ends with a cliffhanger. Again. Just like in INNOCENT. Would it kill the author to write the first book in a series in a different way?

What PRODIGAL and others of Miller's books have going for them is the prose. Each PoV chapter, whether it be from Rafe's PoV or his Doranen schoolboy nemesis Arlin, is flavored with their own ways of speaking and seeing the world. Add to this smooth flow and pacing and it's easy to keep reading, hoping that perhaps the next chapter will move the story along.

But is it worth all this set-up for the sequel? I'm going to give a hesitant 'Yes'--because if you liked the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology, then The Reluctant Mage (Fisherman's Children) is a more plot-driven story with a conclusion that's worth the journey. If you can get past the books' flaws.

I hate gotcha titles, and after drudging through this book, with for 600+ pages, I was totally disgusted at the end. The book was a long slow read, far worse than any Robert Jordan prose, and given the "small" scope of the universe we are talking about, it was hard getting through it all. I stumbled across the Kingmaker/Kingbreaker books about 5 months ago, and those books really motivated me to get this book, but I was seriously disappointed here. I strongly don't recommend it for anyone, unless you're a diehard Karen Miller fan, otherwise skip it skip it skip it.

First off let me be clear; I love the Kingmaker Kingbreaker series. They provide and deliver wonderful characters and amazing story, if you have not read them, please buy them. Now I am not going to pull any punches. IF your someone who loved Asher and the conclusion in the first series, felt satisfied with the ending. Then please; DO NOT READ THIS BOOK! Ava Jamshidnejad review on top is 100% correct. This book is slow, boring, the character argue for 400 pages over and over again about the same issues. It sole purpose is to push Asher off stage for the young golden child, who knows better than anyone else, making the original characters look like idiots. It was frustrating watching characters, that I've grown to love, make contemptible, selfish decisions that endanger everyone in that world, all the time bemoaning their poor fates, and not attempt using common sense in trying to resolve their issues. This book was nothing short of a chore to read. The ending was deplorable due to its originality and was already used in the prior books.

Karen Miller is a popular fantasy author from Australia. Apparently she has written quite a few novel down under but only a few, more recent ones have made past our borders. The Prodigal Mage is the first book in one of her new series and I thought it was quite good.

But I'm not really sure whether or not it was much better than just `quite good'. There are a few things that I really liked, mostly about the writing style, and other things that weren't so exciting.

Here's what I really liked:

- The speech that is used for each character and the development through that speech. This is quite an impressive feat. The story follows a few different characters, but the main ones start out as children and develop into adults by the end of the book. She not only makes this happen through descriptions and good character development, but also by starting the voice of the children appropriately to the age. They mess up sentences, they have a hard time pronouncing everything, and they are meek and compliant to their parents and other adults. As the story develops and they get older, their language grows with them. The childish aspects of how they act and how they think become more and more acute and intelligent. The process by which Karen does this is actually very impressive. High props to her for that.

- The relationship between characters is deep, passionate and real. This book is about family. People may not really catch that as they read through it, but that's an aspect that I picked up right away and it made me happy when I read about those things. Yes, I said happy...for lack of a better, more descriptive word. Of course, this isn't a perfect family and a large part of the story deals with the values of trust that come along with family. Values that might not seem so common to all individuals these days. There are times when we are ready to give up on loved ones, but even through the secrets and the mistakes we tag along on the journey of life and do our best. This was very well depicted in The Prodigal Mage.

-There was never really a villain. I mean sure, there are annoying people and there are taints left from an old villain. But for the longest time, there is no Sauron...no Darth Vader...it's man vs a collapsing world. Even though this might seem at times to take away from the entertaining aspect of the world that Karen has created, I believe that it has set the stage for a different type of character development from what we are use to seeing in other novels of the genre. If you read this book, I think you might agree that it has set a good stage for the upcoming volumes of the series.

A couple downers:

-It is pretty slow. A lot of internal character development in this book and that means that not as much is happening in outer world events. It's a sacrifice she had to make for the characters and I think that in the long run it will pay off. The downside is that you actually need to get through this book to keep interest for the next ones. If her readers are bored with volume one, she might lose potential fans before the second one is out.

-The magical elements of the world she created were really interesting, but she didn't play with them enough. I was hoping she would find ways to put more of the different powers into play, but she never did. That was a bummer and only added to the overall slow pace of the entire work.

The Prodigal Mage is a fun read. It's pretty simple and the language is very well put together. Despite the couple swear words here and there, it is a fairly mild book compared to some of her others, but I'm getting the impression that this will change in the following volumes. I'd recommend this one to anybody who is in the mood for a bit more of a psychological fantasy novel (if there is such a thing)...if you're looking for fights and dragons and wars, you'll have to look somewhere else.

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