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eroviana's review against another edition
2.0
I picked this one up because I had read the Godspeaker trilogy which I actually enjoyed and would recommend to fantasy fans without a second thought. The Innocent Mage, on the other hand, is a tale that you struggle through. I wasn't even interested when the book ended in a cliffhanger; I mean, who cares? These characters are not in the least interesting!
I don't even know if I'll continue with the second one. Probably not, I'm really bored.
I don't even know if I'll continue with the second one. Probably not, I'm really bored.
capincus's review against another edition
4.0
The main character is a bit of a prick, and it took me a good 200 pages to like him at all. There's minimal action, ie: one combat scene and no one even dies. I really shouldn't have liked this book, but I did. Enough to finish it without even starting another book (a rare occurrence) and to pick up the sequel.
winterscape's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 stars
I don't know if this was a case of the "right book at the right time," but I thought The Innocent Mage was fantastic. It's full of tropes, but they work. I've been so dead tired with fantasy novels that contain two hundred action/battle/fight scenes and a body count of over ten thousand. The Innocent Mage is about how two people become unlikely friends. It's about Andy Bernard's joke from The Office ("His birth name was Walter Bernard Jr., but after his younger brother was born, his parents decided that the new baby better embodied that name."), but not played for laughs. It's about family, and dealing with the mortality of your parents, and sibling relationships, and how being an outcast can manifest differently in different people. But, it's also rife with magic (soft, not overly explained, easy to digest old-school magic) and political machinations against the backdrop of a pseudo-medieval Western Europe-esque countryside, which to be honest, I was missing and was nice to revisit. One of my favourite little touches was the written accents and how it's shown through dialogue over time as a character begins to lose it.
It would have been a 5 stars from me, but the ending gets a little bit away from itself and starts to focus on the ramp up to world destruction, which is fine, just not what I'd been savouring.
All in all, love it, will definitely be buying Karen Miller's other books.
I don't know if this was a case of the "right book at the right time," but I thought The Innocent Mage was fantastic. It's full of tropes, but they work. I've been so dead tired with fantasy novels that contain two hundred action/battle/fight scenes and a body count of over ten thousand. The Innocent Mage is about how two people become unlikely friends. It's about Andy Bernard's joke from The Office ("His birth name was Walter Bernard Jr., but after his younger brother was born, his parents decided that the new baby better embodied that name."), but not played for laughs. It's about family, and dealing with the mortality of your parents, and sibling relationships, and how being an outcast can manifest differently in different people. But, it's also rife with magic (soft, not overly explained, easy to digest old-school magic) and political machinations against the backdrop of a pseudo-medieval Western Europe-esque countryside, which to be honest, I was missing and was nice to revisit. One of my favourite little touches was the written accents and how it's shown through dialogue over time as a character begins to lose it.
It would have been a 5 stars from me, but the ending gets a little bit away from itself and starts to focus on the ramp up to world destruction, which is fine, just not what I'd been savouring.
All in all, love it, will definitely be buying Karen Miller's other books.
shimauchiha's review against another edition
2.0
well ... let's just be blunt, there was no orginality in this book whatsoever.I am not exaggerating even a little bit. there wasn't a single thing even remotely new in the whole book, from characters to the way magic works and the history and everything else. that being said it wasn't really a bad book. there was just nothing particulary good about it either.
we had the whole "magic is forbidden and there is a circle who still secretly perserve it" which is possibly the biggest cliche in the fantasy world. then we had the "nice just prince who befriends a rude peasant " and finally the classic "peasant who has no idea about his own destiny but is actually the subject of aN ancient prophecy which involves saving the world!" of course there are thousand of books with exactly this plotlines and a lot of them are great. the problem is when you put all the biggest cliche's in the history of fantasy together in one book then you have to at least have something to make up for it!
unfortunatly this book didn't. even if we could pass the unorginality of the plot, that still leaves us with the characters! and oh god i don't think i've ever seen so many cliche's together in one story since probably Cinderella! "the nice on-the-brick-of-death king" "the kind sacrefising queen" "the i-love-all-my-subjects and am-desperatly-in-search-of-a-friend prince" "the bitchy spoiled princess" "the hard working honest and sharp tounged peasont" and last but not least "the all powerful immortal evil handsome sorcerer who was once in love!" yes we have all of them in this book together! cool right? :))
you should understand exactly how unoriginal everything was when i tell you the biggest originaly in all the book was;
1)a magic that controlS weather!-seriously you can almost see that in any book with magic in it!-
2) a wall that protects a kingdom -at least this one is a bit harder to find but not new either!-
3)the heros brothers are mean! - OMG so they aren't the usual kind loving brothers! wow!-
practically the only good thing in this book was the relationship between the prince and peasant that even though overused, is still always fun to read!
to be fair if you don't mind cliches this is a decent read. it has a good pace and the writing is acceptable. and as i said before there isn't really anything bad about it. and there isn't really anything good about it.
it all depends on what you want in a book and how many fantasi's have you read before it! ;)
we had the whole "magic is forbidden and there is a circle who still secretly perserve it" which is possibly the biggest cliche in the fantasy world. then we had the "nice just prince who befriends a rude peasant " and finally the classic "peasant who has no idea about his own destiny but is actually the subject of aN ancient prophecy which involves saving the world!" of course there are thousand of books with exactly this plotlines and a lot of them are great. the problem is when you put all the biggest cliche's in the history of fantasy together in one book then you have to at least have something to make up for it!
unfortunatly this book didn't. even if we could pass the unorginality of the plot, that still leaves us with the characters! and oh god i don't think i've ever seen so many cliche's together in one story since probably Cinderella! "the nice on-the-brick-of-death king" "the kind sacrefising queen" "the i-love-all-my-subjects and am-desperatly-in-search-of-a-friend prince" "the bitchy spoiled princess" "the hard working honest and sharp tounged peasont" and last but not least "the all powerful immortal evil handsome sorcerer who was once in love!" yes we have all of them in this book together! cool right? :))
you should understand exactly how unoriginal everything was when i tell you the biggest originaly in all the book was;
1)a magic that controlS weather!-seriously you can almost see that in any book with magic in it!-
2) a wall that protects a kingdom -at least this one is a bit harder to find but not new either!-
3)the heros brothers are mean! - OMG so they aren't the usual kind loving brothers! wow!-
practically the only good thing in this book was the relationship between the prince and peasant that even though overused, is still always fun to read!
to be fair if you don't mind cliches this is a decent read. it has a good pace and the writing is acceptable. and as i said before there isn't really anything bad about it. and there isn't really anything good about it.
it all depends on what you want in a book and how many fantasi's have you read before it! ;)
lorune's review against another edition
3.0
Slow paced start, weird main character, but still left me with enough incentive to pick up the 2nd book which is better then the first.
thebookhaze's review against another edition
1.0
I read up to Chapter 10 out of 31 of this book, and I decided not to waste any more time on it.
I had high hopes for this book, but the deeper I got into the book, I just started getting bored. Nothing was going on, everything was just telling, not showing. The characters started getting on my nerves, with all the waiting, waiting....
I read a few other reviews about this book on goodreads, and some of them described exactly what I felt about the book. I didn't like Asher, I didn't believe his character at all, I didn't like Dathne, I didn't like the story, and I didn't want to finish reading the book.
I had high hopes for this book, but the deeper I got into the book, I just started getting bored. Nothing was going on, everything was just telling, not showing. The characters started getting on my nerves, with all the waiting, waiting....
I read a few other reviews about this book on goodreads, and some of them described exactly what I felt about the book. I didn't like Asher, I didn't believe his character at all, I didn't like Dathne, I didn't like the story, and I didn't want to finish reading the book.
frunge's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
margitmaple's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
alannajane's review against another edition
5.0
One of the very best fantasy books that I have had the pleasure of reading in recent years. Fabuloudly written, nail-biting adventure with deeply compelling characters. I can barely wait to read the sequel (possibly the only bad thing about being in rural Costa Rica right now!!).
oscarlavista's review against another edition
3.0
One of the better examples of the author giving each character a distinct voice. Their motivations and values were reinforced by this distinctiveness and it was easy to track each player through lines of well written dialogue. I enjoyed the balance of politic vs pure fantasy but the pacing at times felt like a real slog.