![]() And it’s nice to watch Asher mellow (a little) over the course of the book. I applaud her willingness to write characters that readers have little choice but to dislike. First Hekat (who, really, is a type of distilled evil) from Hammer of God, then Barl (who is more annoying than evil), and now Asher. It’s actually remarkable, this penchant Miller has for unlikable main characters. Then again, Miller goes out of the way to make Asher into an arrogant prickly pear of a jumped-up peasant, so why should we care about what happens to him? Good for the kingdom, not so much for him. Turns out this is part of a prophecy, though (not a spoiler, it’s like in the second chapter) in which Asher is going to save Lur from the destruction of its magical barrier, but probably at the cost of his life. While there is plenty to enjoy about the slow-simmer of worldbuilding in which Miller engages here, some of the same decisions that make Miller’s world of Lur so interesting also make for a duller read.Īsher, a lowly fisherman, stumbles his way into the employ of Prince Gar (whose name either sounds like a Klingon or someone trying to clear their throat of phlegm-take your pick). ![]() ![]() Karen Miller dangles the potential for magic like a carrot before whacking the reader with the stick of scenery-chewing dialogue. ![]() ![]() For a book called The Innocent Mage, set in a land protected by a magical barrier, where the practising of magic is a capital offense for the Olken and a birthright for the Doranen, not a lot of magic actually happens in this book. ![]()
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