Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series by Karen Miller [Archive]

Carraka

10-06-2008, 02:19 AM

My second book review! I am now eligible for that contest. Can you critique book reviews? I'd like to get better at writing these.

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Since there are only two books in a duology, I’m going to review both in this post. I read these because Shaun highly recommended them, and … if you want to go to him for a second (and different) opinion, be my guest. But these books are a far, far cry from being any of the five books you must read before you die.

The Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series is undoubtedly, unabashedly cliché. The plot is founded on a mysterious prophecy that must be blindly followed to protect the world from a faceless evil. The man cast into the hero role is a twenty-year-old fisherman, initially only seeking to make his fortune in the larger world. Archetypal sidekick? Check. Mentor(ess)? Check. Romantic interest? Check. If it weren’t for the unique personality of the reluctant hero, these books would be barely better than Eragon.

Asher, a young Olken fisherman, leaves his father and brothers to journey to the capital city of Dorana, with no higher aspirations than earning enough money to return home and buy a bigger boat. However, Prophecy (with a capital P) has identified Asher as the man destined to save the kingdom of Lur from ultimate evil. The Circle, a group of people working together to fulfill the Prophecy, must maneuver Asher into increasingly powerful positions without letting him know he is being groomed to save the world.

Despite (or because of) his lowly upbringing, Asher has not been coached in subtlety, public speaking, or basic etiquette. His entry into the political system signifies an upheaval in tradition, especially since Asher belongs to the Olken race, a race of people that normally lacks political power and is forbidden from practicing magic (not that they have any magic, of course). As interesting as it may be to watch Asher cuss through the issues with his sarcasm and no-nonsense attitude, Miller's politics are nothing new. The side against Asher proposes discriminatory, cruel solutions, and the general populace does nothing but bleat for safety. Morality is ambiguous near the beginning, but as the novel progresses, characters polarize in their alignments, becoming more obviously Good or more obviously Evil.

The first three-quarters of The Innocent Mage are slow in pacing. The plot is driven by hints of an unidentified danger lurking beyond Barl's Wall, Asher’s day-to-day affairs, and a "doomed" romance. The greatest conflict that surfaces is the question of whether or not Asher will return home to his father after a year of working in Dorana. But when the obscure prophecy is finally given substance with a hundred pages to go, the plot suddenly comes to life, and it stays alive all the way to the cliffhanger on the very last page. The cliffhanger makes it almost impossible to not at least read the first chapter of the second book to find out what happens.

The second book of the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series, The Awakened Mage, starts exactly where The Innocent Mage left off. Asher and the royal family have been dealt a terrible tragedy, and they are left to pick up the pieces and keep Lur stabilized. As Asher becomes aware of hidden abilities and the main villain asserts himself, the series stops being about politics and starts being about survival. Thus the strongest section of the duology begins.

Despite my loud remarks about the awfulness of cliché, I suddenly found myself caring about the characters. Early on in the first book, I categorized this series as a good vs. evil series, with the good inevitably triumphing. But as things get worse and worse for the protagonists, it became impossible not to doubt, and wonder if the story would have a tragic ending after all. I sat on the sofa, palms sweating, on the verge of tears, wondering how I could possible still be caring for characters I knew were going to win anyway.

But just as the first book picks up at the end, the second book suddenly drops around the same place. It becomes clear that the climax will be nothing more than a showdown between the good side and the evil side. All of the heated emotion from the previous half of the book suddenly vanished, and it didn’t return, not even when the actual death scenes begin.

I found the ending sorely unfulfilling. The plot twist and climax invoked little emotion. I set down the book, bemused that about one half of the trilogy (the first two-thirds of Innocent Mage and the last-third of Awakened Mage) could be so bad, and that the rest could be so good. However, even if the good had been able to balance out the bad, the books would have been mediocre at best.

The Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series is best read as writer, not as a reader. If you’re looking for action, excitement, or fresh plot, any time spent reading this series will be wasted. But the fact that the second book could twice inspire me to the verge of tears says something. Miller is worth analyzing in those moments when she makes you think that maybe, maybe this book is different. Her duology is a prime example of how well even the oldest clichés can work, and why it is ultimately not worth it.