The Awakened Mage (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker Series #2)

Suspense, Drama, and lotsd of plot twist!

This is the second book in this series I have read. I love the main character of Asher, a common man thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Asher find at every new challenge that he discovers something new about his self. He is always struggling between the high expectations of what other's demand of him and how he views himself as a common fisherman. There is almost a sort of arrogance in his humility.

In this book of the epic tale, Asher faces a betrayal that may either break him or make him stronger than he ever thought he could be. The betrayal is written in heart breaking detail. Our hero is reduced to the lowest of circumstances, without friends, without hope. Each painful moment is chronicled for the avid reader.

How does he survive and triumph? Buy the book and find out. I did.

A great sequel

This two part series is easy to read even if you aren't traditionally a fan of this genre. It is well written and very engaging. Hard to put down.

Good Series

This series was intersting and the characters were likable. It isn't an intircate plot that has you on the edge of your seta wondering what is going to happen, but it does keep you interested enough to want to finish the books. Overall, I would recommend this series.

well written, hard to put down

Karen Miller has a distinctive style and in this book it really shows. The characters are believable, they have faults and egos just like in real life. Nice twists and turns, enough to keep you interested and reading but not so many that you lose your way in the book. Very enjoyable read.

Loved this book!

Admittedly, I purchased this book without having read the first one. It was a little difficult at the beginning to understand the dynamics of the storyline and the characters without having read the first, but I quickly became engrossed by the world that Ms. Miller created. She did a suberb job. The characters were very real and likeable, especially Prince Gar. I felt for these charaters as they fought to save their home and their loved ones. It was funny and heartwarming in parts, heartbreaking in others. The writer certainly knows how to play on her readers' emotions. I couldn't put it down! It was without a doubt one of the best books I've read in a very long time!

Unlikely liking

I read both of the books in this series, and enjoyed them immensely. This wasn't a typical fantasy in which everything plays out well in the end, there were many sacrifices made along the way. The characters were relatable, though I must say they all changed quite a bit throughout. They were quite the unlikely crew. I look forward to seeing if Miller decides to further enlighten us with what happens in Lur now. To be honest, I was a little baffled in how everything was suppose to play out in what was left of the book once it really got going. I wasn't sure that I would enjoy the end, but I did.

Wretched

The first book was readable if terribly slow. The second is just wretched. The author spends an entire book and a half-about 1300 pages!-having pretty much every major surviving character-not to mention pretty much his own entire race-in the books screw her main character just as much as they possibly can. Then, when he finds out, he has one little snit-fit, and then within 10 pages is blithely willing to go sacrifice himself to save all the people who lied to him, cheated him, betrayed him, and pelted him with garbage, and all because they tell him that he's the Awakened Mage and he has no choice because of some whack-job prophecy?!? The guy's a pretty simple-minded fisherman, but you'd think-if he were a real person and not a poorly drawn character in a poor duet of books-that he might be just a little teeny bit suspicious of believing every single thing they say immediately after learning that everything they told him prior to that is a lie, don't you think? Frankly, by the end of the book, the only single character I cared about even a little was Morg, the bad guy, who at least deserved a bit of revenge after 600 years of effort. The rest of the people-excuse me, cardboard cutouts-in the book don't rate a single moment's consideration. A poor couple of books by someone who's read-and regurgitated-too many fantasy novels without adding anything novel of her own. After finishing these two books, I was so annoyed and disappointed that I threw them away rather than donate them to a library.

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Liked the first loved the second

The first book was little slow to start but once the story got going I found the book hard to put down. The second book got even better. The character development in these books was very well done. You really start to care for the characters. One of the characters in the story 'Willer' made me want to crawl into the pages of the book and strangle him myself. All characters in the book were important to the story and helped the book get even better. In other words no 'Filler' characters that had no berring on the end of the story. Very well done, highly reccommend.

This was hard to finish ....

I had high hopes for this final in the duo, but it was hard to finish for several reasons. For one, the main character, Asher, discovers his true destiny a few pages before the book's end!! Incredible. And he all too easily accepts that he is the savior of his world, taking the word of people who have deceived and abused him in the worst way. He's disagreeable and churlish -- I liked his horse better --so the ending stretches credibility to the breaking point. His love interest -- hastily developed and therefore, not credible -- Dathne, is a dishonest, treacherous, cantakerous shrew of a woman. There was not an ounce of likeability in this character. That the author decides to have them fall in love abuses the plot. I don't believe he loves her, and I know she doesn't love him. She sees him as a means to an end, and says so often enough. This lately-discovered loved for him is an insult to readers. The more believable relationship was between Asher and Prince Gar. I liked Gar. He was the personification of nobility, and he was ill-used by the author. I don't like how this book ended. The author strung us along for three-quarters of the second book before enlightening Asher as to his true destiny. Why wait so long? It was torture. Also, my heart broke for Gar, and I didn't understand why the author did what she did. It seemed gratuitous. I actually liked the first book. And, as I read the second and found it going nowhere good, I suspended disbelief and doubt and put my faith in the author. This sequel feels as though it were written on auto-pilot. If there was one redeemable thing about this book, it was the author's use of language. But overall, this was an enormous disappointment.

a fabulous fantasy

In the capital city of Dorana in the Kingdom of Lur, malevolent mage Morg has kill the Doranen royals except for pathetic Prince Gar, who is no threat as he has no magic skills. Morg has also taken possession of the body of the prime successor to the weather controlling throne Conroyd Jarralt.--------------- Gar believes he is the last hope to prevent the catastrophe that Morg¿s assent will bring, but he lacks magic. He turns to his best friend and assistant Asher the Olken, who are not supposed to be able to wield magic. Gar pleads with Asher to perform weather magic as the ancient prophesy predicted that an Olken mage will save the kingdom Doranen with weather magic.----------------- The conclusion to the delightful THE INNOCENT MAGE is a fabulous fantasy thriller because the title hero Asher has a chance to win against a superior foe only if he can control the anger caused by being a victim of stereotyping racism. Olkens are considered inferior because they allegedly cannot perform weather magic so he has to hide his skills if he wants to survive yet now he must use his skills if his country wants to survive. He may be destiny¿s darling, but will he attempt to save a kingdom that treats him at best as a second class citizen? Karen Miller provides a fabulous finish to her saga.------------------ Harriet Klausner

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