Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Jul 03, 2011

Heather rated it:

This is the worst book I've ever read.

First, the dialect quickly grows tiresome. The native language of the characters is formal, ritualistic and somewhat broken at the same time. Were it only the dialogue, it would be tolerable, but the narration is written in the same dialect. 700+ pages of it is too much, especially since an integral part of the language seems to be the misuse of the comma. If all of the run-on sentences were removed, there would be no book left.

Second More...

5 comments like (8 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2011

Hannah rated it:

This is now my favorite book. I strongly urge anyone who hasn't read this to read it, and to read it with this in mind- you're not SUPPOSED to like Hekat. I grow tired of seeing reviews with people rating it only one star because "she's too mean" or "there's just something about her that makes me hate her." Hekat is set up in the first book to show you the background of the villain; to give you a look into how she got the way she did later on. If this book wasn't here, the ne More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Aug 23, 2010

Serenity rated it:

I picked up this trilogy in Hastings for my birthday this year. I had seen it a couple times on the shelves before and my mother has always gave me this rule: If you see a book--or a series--on a shelf and you are unsure of it then leave it be. If you come back the next two or three times and the book is still there then you're meant to pick it up. So, I finally picked it up. My friend advised me to only get the first book, just in case I didn't like it I wouldn't have wasted money on the other More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2011

Afryst rated it:

Despite the single star I gave it, I'm tempted to recommend this to serious fans of the fantasy genre, as a case study. While I found it belaboured, it has some genuinely good ideas.

The main character, Hekat, is fascinating (for all of several minutes). After a childhood of neglect and abuse, she enters adulthood with a pathological commitment to the acquisition of power. This, combined with boundless arrogance and cruelty, makes her completely inhuman, an archetype. The sympathy her More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 20, 2009

Z rated it:

Karen Miller's writing doesn't disappoint. But be warned, Hekat is not your typical fantasy protagonist-hero. I did not find myself rooting for her as the book went on. Quite the opposite, I found fewer and fewer redeeming qualities as the story progressed. That's the real reason for the low rating. On the one hand, I want to applaud Miller for creating a non-traditional, atypical relationship with a protagonist. On the other, I kept hoping something would happen to help me understand Heka More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

May 04, 2011

Kerstin rated it:

Very different from her previous series, the Godspeaker Trilogy is raw, crude, and at times vulgar. The main character Hekat is psychotic, grown up in a life of pain, blood, and the secret whispers of her god. She is almost unbelievable and almost unlovable but she pulls pity and sympathy as she fights to reach her ambitions and those of her god.

Very long and at times confusing I enjoyed this book immensely for its vivided characters and twisted plot. If you want a challenging and s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 12, 2011

Cyn rated it:

I started really disliking this book by the time I got about half way in. The world is so rich and vast and had so much potential, but around the middle of the book I just started to hate the main character! Hekat is strong and proud, but also so very arrogant and self-righteous. She has little to no real emotion for anyone, and the one emotion connection she does really make does nothing to make her better, because she's too blind to really accept love.
I read it all the way through, howeve More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 29, 2011

Brina rated it:

Als Sklavin geboren – zur Herrscherin bestimmt..

Hekates Schicksal, eine Sklavin zu sein, war schon früh besiegelt. Von ihren eigenen Eltern wurde sie recht früh an einen Mann verkauft, der ihr zunächst den Glauben schenkt, sie nur aus Liebe bei sich aufgenommen zu haben.
Erst nach und nach muss Hekate feststellen, dass sie für ihren Herrn bedeutungslos ist und nie etwas anderes als seine Sklavin sein wird, die er wie eine Ware betrachtet.

Für sie gibt es nur einen Ausweg: More...

0 comments like

Jul 07, 2011

Krystal rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Jan 11, 2011

Ithlilian rated it:

A nameless she-brat was born in a desolate desert area where female children were seen as worthless. Her father "the man" decides to sell her to a wealthy merchant that sees beauty in the dirty nameless child. Even at her young age she has fire in her. Her master calls her a Hell cat, thus she chooses her name-Hekat. From then on Hekat decides that she will be no mans slave. For she is strong, she is powerful, she is beautiful, she is chosen of the god.

I will go no further fo More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 27, 2010

Miss M rated it:

Miller created an incredibly rich, complex fantasy world with its own religion and culture. The setting was phenomenal, and deserves 5 stars on its own.

I also enjoyed the plot, and the writing style. While it wasn't classically "good" writing, and it wasn't always the smoothest read due to being based on the world's dialect. The style of writing reflected both the setting and the main character, and was an interesting, creative way of writing a book. It was a conscious choi More...

0 comments like

Jul 26, 2010

Amanda rated it:

I really didn't like this book. The story started out ugly and got uglier as it went on, and on, and on.

This is the story of a completely unlikable "heroine" in an unlikable society in an unlikable and dying land with an unlikable god. The character development is almost nonexistent. All I can say is that I started out feeling vaguely sorry for Hekat, but quickly began to dislike her as her character became angrier and more zealous. Actually, I haven't disliked a charac More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 28, 2010

Mike rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (9 people liked it)

Mar 15, 2010

Verodarling rated it:

I give this book 4 stars because the world Karen Miller creates is truly unique and she manages to make it terrifyingly real and complete. The story is different also. If, at the beginning, I felt pity for Hekat, at the end I couldn't feel one ounce of simpaty for her, on the contrary. It was a tiresome novel, the sacrifice and fight scenes (and there are a lot of those) are so bloody they sometimes become sickening. They remind me of the bloody rituals of the Incas. Also, like someone else said More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 31, 2010

Jenna rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Nov 11, 2009

Vincent rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Mar 06, 2009

Donna rated it:

I wanted to like this book.

It's an epic fantasy that has a detailed setting and some really unique touches. It's about a common girl who, through a combination of ability and ruthlessness, raises herself to power.

It's also depressingly flat. Most of the characters are unlikeable, and aren't interesting enough to make up for that. Hekat sees things in terms of black and white, which makes her reactions predictable and her few moments of introspection dull. Characters who a More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 14, 2011

Terence rated it:

Perhaps it's because I'm coming down from a China Mieville high having recently finished Embassytown but trying to read this was an awful experience.

When the author's idea of representing the ignorance of peasants is to have them talk like The Cookie Monster* you know you're not in a good place, literature-wise.

* Mea culpa: I impugn The Cookie Monster - at least he used verbs.

4 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jan 20, 2012

Mark rated it:

With the first book in her new trilogy,
Karen Miller makes it very clear that she has more than one rabbit in her hat when it comes to weaving a story.

Leaving behind the more traditional fantasy world of her Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology, Miller embarks on a savage journey through the land of Mijak; and a civilisation that is ancient, dark and ruled by the iron hand of a bloodthirsty God, its Warlords and its ordained Godspeakers. It is a harsh and brutal world where survival of t More...

0 comments like

Feb 23, 2011

Nikko rated it:

Why I read this book?
Empress by Karen Miller was recommended by a coworker who knew I enjoyed fantasy novels.

My one sentence summary:
A woman believes herself to be the instrument of god whether she is or not.

Kuddos:
From page one, Hekat's narrative voice was captivating. Her limited, yet all knowing perspective, is fascinating and pulls the reader into the story. She is not a good person, and whether she is acting on god's will or her own remains unclear. Howeve More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 02, 2011

Angela rated it:

A 700 page fantasy like something ripped out of an ancient Sumerian myth of chariots and kings, a mash-up of an Old Testament epic and heavy metal lyrics. Slavery! Blood! Scorpions! Death! More scorpions! More death! How you can you not love anything with this much unapologetically ham-tastic scenery chewing? People don't converse in this world, they emote. If you've seen the SNL skit, "Lothar of the Hill People"... that's how all the dialogue goes, pretty much all the time. ... " More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 21, 2011

Julianna rated it:

I happen to enjoy this book. And I like the main character. I'm sorry. Everyone will most likely think I'm insane for liking her. I enjoyed her coldness and when she was growing up she had a lot of struggles that made her that way. She just wanted love but the whole world was out to use her for their own gain. She wised up to that and in the end she did what she had to do to survive that horrible world where there is no chance of individuality what so ever. I don't really care if she turned " More...

0 comments like

Aug 16, 2010

Rachel rated it:

I actually haven't finished reading this book yet, and I'm not sure that I will, at least not soon. The problem isn't that the book isn't well done -- it's that it's so well done I don't know that I can take it.

I think the strongest thing about this novel is the world-building. Miller has created a world unlike anything I've read in modern fantasy fiction, and I find it utterly compelling. The details are amazing, and worked in subtly enough that I never felt like I was getting expos More...

0 comments like

Sep 29, 2009

Wayne rated it:

I liked this fantasy world that Miller created. It was just about the strangest world I have visited in someone's imagination. We get to know our protagonist, Hekat, as a young girl sold into slavery where she will be raised to be a courtesan. She has other ideas and we follow her life and sometimes bizarre choices.

This world is dominated by a God who really likes blood and so there are constant sacrifices made of all sorts of animals including humans. This God speaks to "God Sp More...

0 comments like

May 07, 2011

Kate rated it:

Grammatically speaking, this may be the most painful book I've ever read.

The story is interesting from the start. A lot of thought is put into the story and setting, and the details of this fantasy world are vivid and original. The protagonist is not what I would call likable, but she is definitely hard to forget.

The author does have a way with words--some of the liberties she takes with language are downright poetic. But many just feel clunky. Add to that a gross misuse of p More...

0 comments like

Jul 26, 2010

Spewspam rated it:

This is the best fantasy book I've read in a long, long time. I would like to give it a 4.5 rather than a 5.

The closest similar style that comes to mind is Tanith Lee. In some ways, Karen Miller is better, in others, worse.

The best part of her writing craft is that it is rich in detail and brings her carefully-crafted world to life while still maintaining a fast pace and avoiding overwritten purple prose. It is beautifully written - after the first 30 pages, the worl More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 26, 2010

Bryan rated it:

epic, bloody, dark, and compelling. the origin story of a bronze/iron age villainess in world dominated by bloody and wrathful scorpion god. this is not a book for the squeamish or those who want to forget the bloody, violent, and terrorizing origins of our own western religions. if you're looking for a fantasy novel with beautiful elves dancing in a forest glade while heroic nobles quest across the land to defeat the forces of evil, this is not for you.

I enjoyed it quite a bit. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 18, 2010

Kat rated it:

Empress is something different. Kudos to Karen Miller for doing something that I have been ranting about for too long. Creating a strong, resourceful female protagonist. She does this in the form of Hekat, our eyes and ears to the unique world of Empress.

Now if only I could convince her to write a strong, resourceful female protagonist that I actually like.

The story is extremely well-written. The world that Karen Miller creates is something that many authors fail at: More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 03, 2011

Nicole rated it:

This is one of the most unsatisfying books I have ever read. The books has a promising start as we are introduced to anabused, starving, unwanted and defiant child. From the book blurb I expected a tale of struggle and triumph. Instead I got to watch the development of one of the most selfish and evil charcters in any book. Hekat is cruel, proud, arrogant, ambitious, unjustly proud, cold,manipulative and hateful. It is understandable how someone raised without love could become such a terribl More...

0 comments like

Sep 10, 2009

Debbie rated it:

Read the Kindle version. There wasn't a lot to like about this book. The main character Hekat is a young girl sold as a slave by her father. After convincing herself that she is beautiful and "in the god's eye" her self-confidence lets her rise to become the titular Empress. The theology used in this book is interesting, but also brutal and bloody. The people worship the god who "sees them in its sight". The god is not a capital "G" god, and is an it. They worship i More...

0 comments like