The Godspeaker Trilogy

Godspeaker Trilogy #1-3

by Karen Miller

Sold into slavery, Hekat dreams of power. Fate leads her to the warlord Raklion, and she begins turning dreams into reality. For the nameless god of Mijak is with her, and it promises her the world.Far away, the King of Ethrea is dying. His daughter Princess Rhian is ready to rule, but if her enemies have their way the crown of Ethrea will never be worn by a woman.Dexterity Jones is a toymaker. To protect Rhian and his country, he must place his trust in an exile from Mijak. Yet, as Ethrea comes ever closer to civil war, a greater danger awaits. Hekat still desires the world ... and power is no longer a dream.This omnibus edition of THE GODSPEAKER TRILOGY includes Empress, The Riven Kingdom and The Hammer of God.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, High Fantasy, Epic Fantasy

1360 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 13, 2012

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. Please see this thread for more details.

Also writes as "K.E. Mills"

Lord, do you really want to know?

Oh, all right.

I was born in Vancouver, Canada, and came to Australia with my parents when I was 2. I think. Dad’s an Aussie, Mum’s English, go figure. Talk about Fate and Destiny. But three passports come in handy.

I’ve always lived in Sydney, except when I didn’t. After graduating with a BA Communications from the then Institute of Technology (now University) a few years ahead of Hugh Jackman, dammit, talk about rotten timing, I headed off to England and lived there for 3 years. It was interesting. I worked for a bunch of nutters in a community health centre and got the sack because I refused to go do EST with them (you stand in the middle of a circle and thank people for hurling verbal abuse at you for your own good, they said, and then were surprised when I said no), was a customer services officer for DHL London (would you believe at one time I knew every single airport code for every single airport in the world, off by heart?!?), got roped into an extremely dubious life insurance selling scheme (I was young and broke, need I say more?) and ended up realizing a life-long dream of working professionally with horses. After 18 grueling months I woke up, and came home.

Since then I’ve done customer service in the insurance and telecommunications industries, been a training officer, PR Officer in local government, production assistant in educational publishing, taught English and Business Communication at TAFE, been a supervisor and run my own sf/fantasy/mystery bookshop. Money for jam, there! I also managed to squeeze in a Master’s Degree in Children’s Literature from Macquarie University.

I used to have horses of my own, and spent lots of time and money showing, breeding, training and judging, but then I came off one time too many and so a large part of my life ended.

When I’m not writing I’m heavily involved in the Castle Hill Players, my local community theatre group, as an actor, director, prompt, stage manager (but not all at once!) and publicity officer.

I’m a story junkie. Books, film, tv ... you name it. Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica (the new series), Stargate, Firefly, X-Men, Buffy, Angel, Supernatural, The Professionals, Forever Knight, Due South, The West Wing, The Shield, Sandbaggers, Homicide, Wiseguy, The Shield, The Closer ... and the list goes on. And that’s just the media stuff!

I love music. While writing I listen primarily to film soundtracks, because they’ve been written primarily to evoke emotional responses in the listener. This helps access emotion during tough scenes. Plus, the music is pretty. At least the stuff I listen to is. Favourite film composers include Hans Zimmer, Alan Silvestri, James Horner and John Williams. Vocalists I enjoy are Josh Groban, Russell Watson, Sarah McLachlan, Simon and Garfunkel , Queen, The Moody Blues, Steeleye Span, Meatloaf, Mike Oldfield ... anyone who can carry a tune, basically.

In short, I’m an only child with an overactive imagination, 3 dogs, 2 cats and not enough hours in the day. I don’t drink, smoke, or do enough exercise. I make periodic stabs at eating properly. Chocolate is my besetting downfall.

So that’s me. You can wake up now ...

Reviews

[Claudia Putnam · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this a while ago, looking for escape. There used to be good fantasy out there you could find; what happened? The first book wasn't too bad--Hekat as a damaged-beyond-repair psychotic girl who claws her way from slavery to Empress was kind of an interesting concept. Joan D'Arc, Hitler, Stalin, take your pick. This type of speculation is what fantasy can be good for.

But then. In the second book we move to a different land, and England-like land, with a Victoria-like queen, and then it became all this whispering and silliness and girliness. Sure, she's a brave queen, much like Victoria was, but you know. This is OUR world, with a religion much like ours. A GOOD religion for the most part and although for a long time we were in the heads of the other, alien world, with the odd, blood-soaked religion/law, now we can see who is good and who is bad, and it's simple, simple, simple.

Also, guess what, it turns out that the good, gentle island people, who don't even have an army, are WHITE, and the desert, demon-possessed, blood-soaked people are mainly brown and black.

Yeah, okay. Fuck off, Miller.

There were a couple of interesting moments, but all and in all the stories fail because Miller's imagination fails.

[Toria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a trilogy wrapped up in one pretty little (and very long) package. The books are Empress, The Riven Kingdom and Hammer of God. I have a lot of thoughts about this series so bare with me here while I try to make it somewhat comprehensible.

I’ve written a review about Empress here about my love for Hekat, the protagonist of that book. I know a lot of people that read it hate her, but I love Hekat and I love that first book and I always will. It’s dark and gritty and a good read. I was young when I first read this series (about 17, I’m 26 now) and my perception of the other two books in the trilogy has changed from then.

The theme of this series is centered around God(s) with magical elements. Now, without getting into it too much, I am not a religious person by any means. I’m not part of any organized religion as I’m Native American and was raised in our old ceremonies etc. etc. and I mention it because I want it to be clear that I’m not any sort of religious authority. BUT when I’m reading a fantasy/sci-fi/fiction books I LOVE reading about fictitious religions. There are so many different avenues of belief and it’s interesting to me to see how religions can be different and the same, and who knows, if things had gone differently, maybe we’d have a similar religion to some in this book.

The blood was warm, it covered his feet, his ankles, his calves. It rose up his thighs, it lapped at his genitals like a woman’s tongue, it sighed across his belly and drowned his scarred chest. Rank warm blood flowed over his lips, his eyes, it stopped his breathing. He swam in blood.

The problem though is that in the first book there is this incredibly powerful and bloodthirsty god that craves sacrificial blood and offerings and sends their desires through scorpions and answering questions to people (royalty) that ask as they swim through blood. The god is nameless and is neither male or female. Super unique and cool to read about, right?

Then in the other two books… you basically get an off brand version of Christianity. A prophet named Rollins preaches peace and acceptance and then is “crucified” (shot with arrows) for it and the kingdom unites and there’s peace at last. And go figure, the ones with the “good” god are white. I can’t count how many times they called anyone that had any religion other than theirs “HEATHANS.” The whole book boils down to this “good” god vs. the “bad” god. Granted, a lot of stories boil down to good vs. evil but I feel this could have been handled differently.

The second book is basically a young woman trying to take her place on the throne and literally everyone shitting on her for it because she’s a female and she has to fight back with an unlikely crew. This book is about a 180 from the first book but it’s still a great read and has some really satisfying scenes.

But the protagonist, Rhian, is about the complete opposite of Hekat as you can get aside from the whole “I will be the one in power” thing. And she kind of whines a lot. And her husband is kind of an asshole. She refuses to cause bloodshed meanwhile Hekat bathes in it. Rhian can’t seem to grasp the fact that she’s going to have to do things she doesn’t like in order to keep the kingdom she fought so hard for. Yeah, okay… let’s just drag our feet with this impending doom looming… named Hekat. And once you read the first book you’ll understand why that’s so terrifying.

I think part of my frustration with the third book comes with the fact that there are other nations and religions in this book that were interesting, that could’ve been the force that fights back against the impending takeover from Hekat. There is the nation of people that can hear the wind and can step through a twilight space. There is the nation that wears seal skins and get their visions from their deity in dreams. All of this is done WELL and is COOL and I wanted to see more of that but meanwhile I’m stuck with the protag and her crew calling them all heathens. Like come onnnnnnn.

“Truly, Zandakar, your people are barbaric. I think all you must care about is killing and blood.” Barbaric. He did not know that word but he could guess what it meant. Anger burned him. “Rhian stupid if she let dukes live. Arrow in the body, make poison, kill, does Rhian leave it there?”

And dammit, the love tension in this book auguuugggh.

Zandakar leapt out beside her, flashing her another swift smile. The dry land shifted beneath her feet and her blood became a waterfall, thundering through her veins. She pressed a hand against her thudding heart and made herself breathe normally.

It’s so good. Oh my god. The fight between love and duty and lasdkjfsa, this part I enjoyed. Definitely wasn’t the focus of the book but there was just a little enough to make your heart go “WHYYY.”

Anyway, all that aside, I do love this series. I read it every so often. The second and third book I read to read the progress of Hekat and Zandakar, and the other nations, and you do get a point of view from another leader of a different nation which is nice. It would be nice though if they weren’t morsels and instead had been the whole book.

“Why do you not see that your truth is not the only truth?”

TL:DR - This series is my problematic fave.

[Lyndol Fast · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. 4.5* As I read the three in one version, this book looked like quite a bite back when I started it. Having read the Kingmaker series by her, my expectations were blown away by the experience this book gave.
The first part of the trilogy focuses on Mijak and read/felt much more like Steven Erikson or Glen Cook than Miller's first books. It was very dark and detailed a descent into madness more than anything else. Broke convention for me.
The second book read more like a her other novels and is set in a much more traditional fantasy setting. Part two in and of itself would have warranted 3 stars from me but in light of what I had come through in the first, it was refreshing. Overall, part two felt predictable and less "outside the box".
The third was interesting, a great mix of the two with much more depth given to the Tsung. Again, the third went back to a "Glen Cook" like feel, though it was not near as dark.

I believe that I got the epic/grim fantasy feel partially from the tone, but much more from the world feel. Mijak and Tsung are much not usual settings/countries for fantasy literature, which is the first distinguishing step the book takes. Secondly, magic is never really explained, just a natural fact of the world while the plot is pushed by the characters.

I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. I was very pleasantly surprised!

[Nethmie Dehigama · Rating 5 out of 5]

IDK why but I absolutely love this series. Read it as a teen after borrowing it from the school library. It's so different and gory, but super intriguing. I can understand that it's not for everyone

[Eric Hung · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book brought me mixed feelings. I had originally selected this trilogy to do for an essay of mine, petitioning to my teacher to allow me the opportunity instead of picking from the list of books that the school had provided. It was a challenge that I undertook, and it yielded great results in terms of a paper. However, for the book itself, I must say I was not thrilled to continue reading through it. If not for my paper, I may have dropped it somewhere through the second book in the trilogy. The first book was dark and gritty, which I enjoyed until I realized that at some point I came to despise the main character. At first, I had felt pity for Hekat, but as the story went on, her actions and thoughts made me want to rip things apart. By the end, I was certainly at the point of wanting to burn the book. However, in retrospect, a book that is able to instill such emotions in me is either extremely well written or the opposite. Perhaps that is what Karen Miller intended. If so, I applaud her. She was able to set up an antagonist that I was able to hate so much that I wished to stop reading. However, despite this brilliance, the second book introduced what was supposedly supposed to be the "good" protagonist. Ultimately, it was not Hekat who made me want to drop the series, but Rhian. Her character was simply unbearable, and I simply could not figure out why she existed. Her foolishness frustrated me, and it did not improve. By the third book, I was simply waiting for everything to end. No expectations. Nothing. I just wanted it all to stop, and it did. I will not say that this was a terrible series. In terms of fantasy elements, it was well written. Lands of rituals, religion, and supernatural intrigue. What simply fell short was the development of the characters and story. For those who wish for something different to read, I would still recommend it. However, consider yourself warned. It is not for the faint of heart, nor is it for those who are critical in their selections of fantasy stories.

[Bookman · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first book was ok. The main character of the first book, Hekat, was not likeable so that diminished my enjoyment of it.

The second book was pretty good until about 3/4 of the way though. At that point the arguments the characters were having got old fast and my enjoyment was diminished.

The third book was not good. I can sum it up for you here.

Argument number 1: Zandakar is not trustworth...Oh, yes, he is!!!
Argument number 2: Here is my/our opinion/s...I don't care I'm the queen and I'll do what I want.
Argument number 3: I don't believe what you're saying despite the miracles shown to me...Here's another miracle..I don't believe you.

That's pretty much the book right there. Perhaps it's realistic that people argue about the same things over and over with the same logic, but it certainly doesn't make good reading.

I almost gave it 1 star because after the final battle started, they started arguing about the same 3 things again and I almost didn't read past that. I was able to finish it at least, so I'm giving it 2 stars.

[Hollie · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of a kind read, but I found myself losing interest as books continued

I purchased this series all as one book. While it began strong, it faded fast. I found myself halfway through the series with little desire to continue forward. I lost interest fast. I did, however, manage to finish this. It was long, and there was a lot of irrelevant information and details. I found it overall to be tiring, and I can't say it’s a series Id personally recommend. I enjoyed the original concept, and creativeness this offered, but that’s about all I appreciated regarding this series. It just seemed to go on and on.................... I tired of the plot and characters before completing book 2. I should have just stopped there.

[Stanislas Sodonon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long time since I've "binged" (God, I love that term!) a whole trilogy.
I came to this series totally by accident, reading the title of it's first volume in a FB thread.
Having never heard of the author, I was intrigued and went to look for it. Luckily for me, I found the whole trilogy in Ebook format.

I read a few review first, just to get a feel for it, and I was puzzled at the mixed reactions. Some love it to pieces, some hate it to shreds. But all acknowledge the skills of the author, and almost all the negative reviews I found were purely on the subject matter: writing about the bad guys.
I had to make my own mind, especially as this book came up in the GrimDark circles.

So here is what I think.

The first Chapter
Uncompromising. Brutal. Uncaring. Aloof. Not even naming the characters.
It was hard to get into, because experience has set so many expectations.
But, once I got past the discomfort, I was sucked in.
A very good tone-setter for the whole atmosphere of the book.

The Good
Hekat.
My girl. Tcha! The God sees her in his admiring eye.
What a character. Such forcefulness! A pleasure to read.

Mijak is a hard place. A place ruled by death and fear, terror so ingrained into its denizens that it is not even questioned anymore. Softness is weakness. The God is everywhere. Some people complained about the excessive use of God-this and God-that. They've obviously never lived in authoritarian cultures. I have, and it made absolute sense. When God is not a concept, but a manifest presence in everyday life, When God rules all aspects of the society, then it's obvious that even the daily semantics will have theology imbued into them.
The moral conflicts are so beautifully crafted throughout the series.
I think I enjoyed the Mijak volume the most. It was the most surprising and fresh part of the series.

The Bad
Rhian.
I couldn't stand the girl.
She spent the whole series walking on a carpet of Deus Ex Machina, all the way to the final moments.
She was overhyped and underperforming. She felt like a badly written pamphlet against misogyny, with very little to back the argument up, but talk of birth right.
When I compare her to Hekat, she is but a pale, annoying, small thing that got everything handed to her on a silver platter, but still kept yapping about as if she'd done anything but being carried from scene to scene. Urk!

To be honest, I didn't click with any of the Ethrea characters. They felt... tasteless, spineless.

Zandakar was just a wasted character, a wasted opportunity.
I just couldn't reconcile his background and education with his meek behaviour in Ethrea.
It felt... too convenient.

I had lots of WoT moments with the whole Knife Dance thing. Yuck...
In fact, all the fighting scenes were very, very weak. Other GrimDark authors have spoiled me, on that front.

As the book progressed, I felt myself slowly forced back into traditional Fantasy, and it was... disappointing, after such a refreshing start. So the Mijak God isn't a God after all, but some kind of bloodthirsty Evil force? How... convenient. (sigh)

Conclusion
It started very well. But it lost steam on the way, and became downright NobleBright boring towards the end.
That's a 3 stars for me.

[Beccabrewing · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a huge disappointment to me, so huge that I gave up on fantasy for a while. (As a long life fantasy reader who used to sneak Mercedes lackey and robin McKinley books into middle school and place them in my textbooks to read during class, this was a BIG DEAL for me to stop reading fantasy for a bit).

It was a disappointment because the first book was so so so... good. So different from the Tolkien/ GRRM / Jordan imitators. This was an epic fantasy that smacked, reeked, OOZED otherness... in the first book. Hekat was a fascinating character, who lived and thrived in a fascinating culture.

And then... the awful second book. And awful third book. Suddenly there is some good, forgettable princess? Maybe a duchess? Maybe I don’t give a shit? Living in europe? Who is going to battle this great character Hekat and save the world, with the help of Hekats exiled son.

Yawn. I didn’t care about this new character and never did. I wanted Hekat to destroy new character woman’s kingdom because that kingdom was so uninspired and bland.

Although Hekat is a character I hated because she is tyrant/despot, at least I want to read about her & her culture. Because she and it were fresh and new and not medieval clones.

2 stars because it takes a lot of skill to write a despicable character I want to read more of and don’t necessarily want to be defeated.

I hate that this spiraled into medievalism in books 2 & 3. The author should just burn those books and rewrite 2 & 3 with the interesting character and not the duchess.

[Christine Materi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This trilogy had so much promise, but it's just too unfocused and poorly written to deliver.

I'm surprised at the editor--all the repeated, useless dialogue was especially bad. Over and over again..."Tcha!" "I think you are not!" Plus just how many times did Riann stamp her feet and insist that she's the Queen, God damn it! It gets old really fast.

The ending is rushed and anti-climatic, the plot is bloated and has poor pacing, the characters are trying to be well-developed but aren't, the whole thing is just disorganized. It's really a shame, because the world building and premise could have made for a really good tale.

[Gema · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely an epic! I highly enjoy this series. I've read it multiple times. You start off following a young Hekat and she's super feisty! She definitely gets what she wants. The second book follows her and her sons and in the third book you see the culmination of the battle between her empire and the nation that wants to stop her from conquering the world. There's magic, the gods powers are real, and a young girl who fights to become a Queen in her own right against the men who would try to control her. These are some lengthy books so if you want an epic, this is it.

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a good portion of this series a few years ago. I remember enjoying it and then suddenly hating it. It's one of the few books I've picked up that I didn't just think was boring but off putting as well. I couldn't stand how the main character developed or where the story was going. When my distaste for the story wasn't so fresh I was going to force myself to just finish it but I don't see the point. Three stars for the portion I did like.

[Jayden Hopkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was a satisfying fantasy read with colliding worlds and ok characters. I feel like parts of the book that needed to be short were drawn out waaaay too long, and parts that needed to be longer were cut short. Some of the characters were also incredibly 2 dimensional and only seemed to have one running personality trait. Despite that, I did enjoy the majority of the book, although I'm glad to be finished

[Cole]

Gud

[Marc · Rating 1 out of 5]

So. Terribly. Bad.

[Victoria Nguyen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read the first book and could not continue. I actually really hated this book. Reading a book where the protagonist was an antagonist (and an immensely hateable one) was not pleasant at all. Hekat is an obsessed, delusional, sociopath with no redeeming qualities. You feel bad for her because of her abusive upbringing but her actions (even towards people who were kind to her) make you hate her. It's like the author wanted to present to you this perverted twist on a traditional hero who grows up out of poverty and abuse and finds success and happiness. Hekat is that anti-hero. if that was the author's intent, then great, she succeeded. But I wish I had not spent my money on a book that was not an enjoyable read at all.

[LOL_BOOKS]

BOOK, INO YOU'RE A FANTASY BOOK, BUT SOMEONE WHO WAS SO SEVERELY ABUSED THAT SHE CAN BARELY TALK PROBABLY ISN'T GOING TO HAVE NORMAL INTELLECTUAL CAPABILITIES.

EMPRESS BY KAREN MILLER. THE PROTAGONIST WASN'T EVEN GIVEN A NAME AND WAS BEATEN EVERY TIME SHE TRIED TO TALK UNTIL SHE WAS 12 YEARS OLD AND SOLD TO SOME SLAVETRADERS. AFAICT THE ONLY LINGERING EFFECTS OF THIS IN THE BOOK WILL BE THAT SHE TALKS/ACTS LIKE A CAVEWOMAN (UNTIL THE SLAVE TRADERS CIVILIZE HER) AND HAS AN INNER CORE OF BURNING HATRED. THE AUTHOR SHOULD HAVE EITHER MADE HER AN ACTUALFAX CAVEWOMAN OR GIVEN HER LESS INTENSE ABUSE.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm one of those people that tends to push something out of my head if I don't actively need it. This habit can be a b*tch sometimes.
I honestly don't remember any specifics about why I couldn't read any more of this tome, at well over 1,000 pages. I mean, I read over 200 pages, I'm not sure if I was trying to give the book a fair chance or I was hoping it would get better.
I'll try to go back to this book when I have nothing else going on.

[Nancy K. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fifteen hundred pages of stilted, self centered, redundant dialogue. It appears the author felt everything had to be repeated a minimum of three times. There was nothing like able about the main character "Hekat". The constant animal sacrifices lacked reality.

[Jason Murray · Rating 2 out of 5]

skip it.

[Matthew Bauman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't like it.

[Shelley Ionescu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could've covered it in about 1000 less pages. Not great on style, but a decent, somewhat predictable story.

[Jym Paschall · Rating 2 out of 5]

it starts out pretty decent, but then gets mighty ugly for awhile... then it shifts completely in the middle. it gets better and turns into an alright story by the end

[Roguecorgi · Rating 2 out of 5]

ok started decent but main character had very little depth...

[Kathryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cassandra Clark

[Denise Going · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story but found the detailed descriptions of the war scenes excessively long.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed it. Different and engaging, it kept me enthralled up to the end.

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series is good... but I think there's a lot of fluff text.

[Jenee Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

AWESOME TRILOGY!

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the omnibus. It took a long time.