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pennie_dreadful) wrote2008-04-14 11:51 am
pennie_dreadful) wrote2008-04-14 11:51 am
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book review--Innocent Mage by Karen Miller
An enjoyable read, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations. Classic fantasy, complete with an ancient prophecy, an unwitting hero, magic, romance, intrigue, all the usual fantasy bells and whistles. Nothing's wrong with that, of course. It just fell a bit short for me. It's all about Asher, a fisherman who leaves his small village and large family to make his fortune in the big city. He finds work in the royal prince's stables, and because he is patently unimpressed by the prince and his rank and fancy clothes and manners, he ends up becoming the prince's trusted confidant and advisor, without quite understanding how and why he ended up in such a position. Eventually, of course, true regard develops and they become close friends, something the prince badly needs (he's sort of a black sheep, and not wildly popular with his peers, although he's the people's darling)
Of course, it turns out Asher's the savior prophesied centuries earlier to save the kingdom from an unspeakable evil. But he wants nothing to do with saving the world, he just wants to save up some money so he can go back home and set up his father comfortably and make an honest living as a fisherman.
It was a good first effort, I suppose, and it had its moments where I laughed out loud and smiled. But there were some things that just bugged me.
I had several "hold on..." moments where my belief was jarred. Such as when Asher steps up to save Prince Gar's horse. What in the world is a fisherman doing trying to calm down a horse? I don't know jack about horses or boats, but I'm pretty sure that just because a man has experience steering a sailboat in a gale, it doesn't mean he'll be able to calm down a frightened horse. And I don't care how unimpressed Asher is when it comes to rank and all it's trappings, I just absolutely could not believe in his absolute utter lack of regard and civility to the prince at their first meeting. The prince, people. The whole scene just didn't fly to me.
Another issue I had was with the character Morg. He was your typical one dimensional, pure evil villain. A cookie cutter bad guy. As far as I'm concerned, the villain has huge potential to be the most interesting, complex character in the story. The best bad guys are the ones who weren't always evil, who have reasons that make sense (to them) for the terrible things they do. (Jim Butcher did a great job with his villains in The Codex Alera series...it's brilliant...but that's another review.)
Another case of a book where I just got the feeling that it hadn't lived up to its potential.
Of course, it turns out Asher's the savior prophesied centuries earlier to save the kingdom from an unspeakable evil. But he wants nothing to do with saving the world, he just wants to save up some money so he can go back home and set up his father comfortably and make an honest living as a fisherman.
It was a good first effort, I suppose, and it had its moments where I laughed out loud and smiled. But there were some things that just bugged me.
I had several "hold on..." moments where my belief was jarred. Such as when Asher steps up to save Prince Gar's horse. What in the world is a fisherman doing trying to calm down a horse? I don't know jack about horses or boats, but I'm pretty sure that just because a man has experience steering a sailboat in a gale, it doesn't mean he'll be able to calm down a frightened horse. And I don't care how unimpressed Asher is when it comes to rank and all it's trappings, I just absolutely could not believe in his absolute utter lack of regard and civility to the prince at their first meeting. The prince, people. The whole scene just didn't fly to me.
Another issue I had was with the character Morg. He was your typical one dimensional, pure evil villain. A cookie cutter bad guy. As far as I'm concerned, the villain has huge potential to be the most interesting, complex character in the story. The best bad guys are the ones who weren't always evil, who have reasons that make sense (to them) for the terrible things they do. (Jim Butcher did a great job with his villains in The Codex Alera series...it's brilliant...but that's another review.)
Another case of a book where I just got the feeling that it hadn't lived up to its potential.