** spoiler alert ** I should start by saying that I really like the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology and adore Karen Miller’s Rogue Agent series under the name K.E. Mills. However, in total the whole Godspeaker trilogy left me somewhat underwhelmed. From a purely technical side it is extremely well done with the first book Empress focusing on Mikak’s rise from slave to Empress of the desert nation and her relationship with the god. The action in the second book switches entirely to the island kingdom of Ethrea where Rhian fights for her crown against a society which expects men to rule. The parallels between these two strong women who have such similar journeys but end up in completely different places really comes to the fore in this book. Everything from their relationship with god and being ‘chosen’, to their warrior queen reputation is mirrored – even to their facial scars!


I full appreciate what Karen Miller did in the whole trilogy – and you need to rad all three to fully appreciate the scale - but what was slightly disappointing was the lack of action in this final book. The vast majority of the story was set at council meetings where people argued. A lot. I like a bit of political intrigue but there wasn’t much in here – simply people disagreeing with each other. Eventually this all ended in a huge battle, but even that was washed over with many key characters fates decided ‘off screen’. There was something about the whole series that I didn’t click with – it’s not bad at all and rather cleverly done, but I didn’t invest much into the story or care deeply for the characters