Empress (Godspeaker Series #1)

I'm glad I read this book

Normally not a fan of fantasy I decided to broaden my genres, and I am glad that I started with this book. At first I was in love with Hekat the main character and as I read on I grew to dislike her! Never have I read a book that I completly dispised the main character, and then fall in love with a different one, but I believe this book to be a stepping stone to the other books to come... I am sooo excited to read the next book to see what is going to happen!!! I highly recommend that you read this book!

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

An interesting approach.

To enjoy this book I think you're supposed to understand a few things. First, you are going to despise the main character. This is intentional. Why? Because she is a villain. Why is she the main character? I suppose to set the stage for the next books.

It's interesting to start a series from the other side, to get inside the deranged head of a power obsessed and narcissistic psychopath. She believes she's touched by her god, and the evidence keeps confirming that she was destined for "greatness". Who would dare oppose her?

Their culture is a brutal and harsh culture based around sacrifice and blood, which has religious significance to them, kind of like the Mayans. Hekat makes for an intriguing "heroine", and she reminds me of some kind of wild bloodthirsty beast who refuses to be tamed by anything.

So if you are looking for endearing and lovable characters you are going to hate this book. But if you're looking for a modern fantasy with one of the most memorable heroines you will read about then you might really enjoy this. I look forward to the next book in the series.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A good fantasy book

I just finished reading this book today. I read some of the reviews afterwards to see if I agreed. The book is definitely worth reading. It does a good job of making you wish for the main character to succeed then wish for her to die. At one point, I called her likable villian but then she became even more villanous. I am buying the next 2 books tomorrow. I think the biggest issue some people have with main character is not taken in context. Many fantasy books start with little people like slaves or orphans and hard lives, that grow to do big things. They become noble and heros along the way. If you consider the transformation, it is not normal. Hekat was a goatslut slave barely treated better than a dog. Until she changed her own destiny by doing something very dangerous. Then, she had to continually prove herself in a savage world. Why would such a person develop compassion? Why would they become a hero? I think the author developed her in a more realistic manner than other standard fantasy books I have read. I liked it and think it a worthy read.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Religious Zealot Tries To Rule The World

This book had so much potential when I began reading it. The setting in the middle eastern like land of Mijak was so real I felt as though I was walking in the sun parched landscape. What ruined the book for me was the main character. When I got the book I was hoping for a nice rags to riches or slave to Emperess story with lots of character growth. Instead I got a main character who was a religious zealot psychopath who mutilates herself, swims in blood, and kills to please her god. I read the whole book hoping for the main character to find some sort of redemption instead all I got was more revulsion from her self centered insanity. Throughout the book the character never changes despite her change of status in society. I usually like the anti-hero types but this one had nothing to her I could stomach. I would not recommened this book to anyone.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Horrible.

This book was brutal and harsh. Very vulgar and disgusting. The main character is kind of evil. She grew up in a harsh world and went through alot and the character was a product of that environment. i kept thinking as i read on, "it must get better, It MUST get better." but it never did and i was sorry i wasted my money. Deep down i hoped that the main character would grow a heart and show some type of compassion but she was so cold and the book so graphically brutal that i was kind of traumatized. It leaves disturbing mental images.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Brutal but well written, enthralling epic

This book is NOT for the fainthearted. It is set in a brutal world, complete with lots of blood and sacrifice so much that my stomach turned, but it was enthralling. I, too, did not like the main character in fact I hated her, she matched the world but I simply wanted to find out what happened to her. My advice: Read at your own peril!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Not worth your time

I enjoyed Ms. Miller's previous books and was looking forward to reading this latest. However, I couldn't even finish it -- it takes place in an ugly, brutal world with a completely unlikable main character. I just couldn't get past my dislike for her and found her to be completely unbelievable.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

How did this get published?

When I read the first few pages in the bookstore, I thought to myself, "Hmm not bad. Female protagonist, she's in a bad place but looks like she'll get out of it." so I bought it. Oh boy. I never have wasted money like this before.

Miss little Hekat. Oh how you suck. I'll get to her but first lets talk about this world.

It's a very middle-eastern looking world with a desert slowly expanding. No one knows why or how, but it's proving to be a problem. The people who live there... are completely insane. These guys worship this scorpion god thing whose symbol is an eye (Sauron much?). And they offer blood sacrifices to it. And how. The desert situation must not be as bad as they make it out to be if they can find enough animals to slaughter and fill a pool of blood on a daily basis. Not just pools, every single time they pray they kill an animal. Morning prayer? Kill an animal. Afternoon tea? Kill an animal. Football kick off? Kill an animal. The place must stink.

Oh and the slave dudes collect their people's pee... No explanation.

And Hekat becomes the empress of the looney bin. After finding out that once you're sold as a slave you will always be one, she runs away and then cuts her face so she would not be beautiful and can serve her god better, also to make sure her owners could never recognize her.

This doesn't work. At all. Oh and she joins the army or something.

Enter Mister Warlord, whom upon seeing her, suddenly gets a stiffy for her. Hekat sucks at hiding. Eventually she marries this guy and begs him to take her, you know what I mean, right in front of his army so they can watch. What is wrong with this girl!? Oh and she cheats on him after a couple miscarriages.

She thinks their god loves her cuz she's beautiful and special, she repeats this over and over and over!

So yeah it gets pretty boring for a while as she plans for world domination through her son. When suddenly the book shifts gear and now her son is the leading man. Huh?

This happens about a third of the way in and it might as well have given me whiplash. It still wasn't good. Her son meets a gal on his conquest and brings her home to mom. Big mistake. Some bull crap happens and I don't remember the rest. I think the book just ends right around there.

So all in all, awful. Don't buy it. I beg you.

Brilliant

There are so many twists and turns that keep the reader on their toes. This work most definitely NOT PREDICTABLE

Not my fav

Too predictable

worst ever!!!

I couldn't even finish it!!!!!...save your money

Great Book

I picked up this book just because; I started reading on the bus and could not put it down. I loved Hekat and then I hated her. I loved how the story unfolded. I found myself repeating things that she would say. I was so intrigued by the plot and how Hekat came to be. I would have never expected her to character to develop as it did. I was shocked and mad at the ending, I truly did not expect it. I could not wait to get the other two books in the series. I look forward to spending the rainy days reading.

Perhaps the second most depressing book I ever read

I freely state I haven't read the other two books of the series yet, so maybe the first one makes sense in their context.

I started reading this and was going along ok, when everything took a turn for the worse. For the most part the characters are woefully unlikeable, but they are full and well defined. The culture created in the book is complex and rich, but abhorrent. I am struggling as to whether or not I should read the next two, I found the book so unpleasant.

Please don't think I am knocking the book. It seems very carefully constructed with interesting story choices and writing choices. I just found, and I think it was intentional on the authors part, that the characters and setting were so foreign I had to make myself finish the book.

not

simple writtings, has no character depth, and she is saying things from other writers who are from the old lost generation which we in 21st century know is false. I hope they will take the book back. I will tell others to not buy and will not buy from her again. Sad thing that, but I need to read from educated writers.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Eh, Okay.

Brutal. Empress was a good book. However, it was brutal from the start! Anyone with issues involving abuse, sex, killing, and malicious manipulation should not read this series. I loved Hekat at first, but by the time we got to her second child I was nearly ready to put it down. I may get the sequel if it goes on sale.

Not to my taste

I found this bookto be too violent and sad. I did not have any sympathy for any of the characters. I most likely will not buy any of the sequels.

Did not bond with the characters

Although the writing style is agreeable and the development of characters is acceptable, I did not relate too or bond with the characters as the story developed. I found myself dis-interested as the story progressed. The main character was more villian than heroine and left me wanting.

Talk about a 180

In the beginning of this book I was rooting for Hekat. Now I can't wait for her to die. She is such a haughty woman!!! But I love to hate her. I thought this was a good book, there are some things in it that remind me of Jaqueline Carey's Kushiel series, but it is mostly original. An excellent read for rainy days, easy to get in to and easy to read.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

started okay, quickly went downhill

I don't mind brutal, ruthless protagonist, but they must have some redeeming qualities and/or some premise for their attitude. This book gives none of that, particularly the latter. You¿d think Hekat, who feared a life foreshorten by being fed to the dogs, or a best a life of abject poverty in a desolate land, would be grateful to be taken away from that where the worst case she¿d be married off to a wealthy suitor, even if it's not to her beloved slave trader Abajai. But no, she runs away from Abajai to hide out in a tree. Now given up to this point Hekat had displayed nothing but an unexplained nasty, uncaring attitude, I no longer cared what happened in the story and just starting skipping pages heavily, finding 200-250 pages later, incredibly she becomes empress with a nasty, uncaring attitude. Glad I didn¿t waste my time. I had read Miller¿s ¿Mage¿ pair and found the protagonist cantankerous, but tolerable. The story was entertaining enough to be okay.

Brutal but wonderful epic!

Empress was an excellent story, though I can understand how many would not like the main character. However, I believe you're not supposed to like the main character and I have a feeling the next book in the series is going to build on this and intertwine new characters with the hated main character. I found it an excellent concept and look forward wholeheartedly to the next book in the series!