Karen Miller can tell a story that keeps your attention, but this duology could have been shorter while still covering the same ground. All the characters were a bit one note, and each seemed to have a very small emotional range. As this is her first effort, I hope to see some improvements in later books.In particular she needs to do some research. One character goes up in the world and starts wearing silk and brocade instead of cotton and linen - in pre-industrial societies, cotton was by far the most expensive fabric, due to the labour costs of production; wool and linen were the most common fabrics. Royal families who go off in a coach for a picnic would not only have a coachman, but one footman at least to put down the step, open the door, hold the horses so the coachman can get down - as though a royal family would go anywhere without several attendants anyway. And the likelihood of a king in any society collapsing in a crypt and no-one noticing his absence till next morning is vanishingly small. But no, not a valet or page in sight.
A few contradictions as well - the mage king needs to do weather magic every few days in a special tower, but also does an annual visit of several weeks to the seaside.
The Innocent Mage first published 2005, Innocence Lost (also published as The Awakened Mage) 2006
No comments:
Post a Comment