Empress

I always believe that books that evoke strong emotions shows how extraordinary it is. I am very much impressed by this book and I have enjoyed it very much.From the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series, I've gotten a taste of how Karen Miller loves to paint and portray her world. I believe this one takes it to the next level. Others have said that she has sloppy writing and bad sentence structure. I say this is her style. She chooses to paint a different world with a subtly different language. The criticism for using the “god-“ prefix as being bland and unimaginative, I found to be just yet another example of how she chooses to portray the Mijaki society.The stress is on how very much their religion plays a part in every aspect of their lives. I originally found the odd accents and words in [b:The Innocent Mage 1051620 The Innocent Mage (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker, #1) Karen Miller http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327918882s/1051620.jpg 1561779] to be odd; but I grew to love it - it's an aspect of her character building, giving her characters an extra level of depth. It's the same with this book. Especially when you contrast it with the people of the Riven Kingdom (book 2), the contrast is that much stronger - from the way they live, the way they speak, and they way they interact. I find myself liking this approach to world-building.Her characters are all very strong and very well fleshed-out. From the arrogant, ambitious, and fanatical faith of Hekat, to the quiet acceptance and resilient faith of Vortka, they are all wonderful characters. Hekat, being the obvious protagonists, draws the most ire from readers. She's designed to draw hate, but I find her character extremely interesting. And given that the Mijaki are a warrior society threaded with a harsh and powerful religious belief, all her character are entirely believable. One only has to look at our real-world warrior societies to draw similarities, especially the Aztecs and the Incas with their ritual and frequent sacrifices.The next bit that I find extremely intriguing and thought-invoking is her magic system - the ambiguous nature of this god entity that so controls the lives of the people of Mijak. The way she describes their communing with god, their omen readings, and their tests of faith, we have parallels in our world as well, and most of them are not divine, but mere chemistry andd biology. Yet she also describes smiting, sacrifices turning to ash, healing, and enchanted stones; these are obviously magical in nature. So the ambiguity is this: does the magic come from the divine, or is the magic inherent in its people or perhaps just the godspeakers? I love this ambiguity (though obviously other may prefer more certainty), and I find it to entirely fitting given the society of the Mijakis. A strongly religious society would never stop to question the source of the magic. They would merely accept it as so.The finale sets the stage where Hekat's ambition (though she believes it to be faith) drives her to set her massive and brutal warhost loose upon an unsuspecting world, destroying all non-believers as sinners and demons. This act sets the stage for a rift between her and her devoted son, Zandakar, as well as the plot continuation into book 2.I've started book 2 and I'm already looking forward to the finale to see how she intends to pit two very different societies against one another.