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A review by moarheadcanons
The Riven Kingdom by Karen Miller
3.0
Leaving Hekat behind for a while (with the exception of 4 "Mijak" chapters where we catch up with her), "Riven Kingdom" takes us to a European-style country embroiled in a church-vs-state standoff. Though not nearly as amazing as Hekat, "Riven Kingdom's" female lead, Rhian, is still pretty great. She's powerful, smart, and devoted -- that her entire story is devoted to who she'll marry (to lose or gain power) is annoying, but understandable given the setting, and it's dealt with in an OK enough way (the 'love triangle' set up was eye-rollingly obvious, however). I didn't like RK as much as I loved Empress, but I'm not sure anyone would fare well after Hekat.
I'm not too sure how much I love the dichotomy that RK sets up, between Hekat's god and Rhian's -- it's a bit euro-centric ('OUR god is nice and shiny and kind, and THEIR god is weird and creepy and EVIL'), but I'll wait for the wrap up in "Hammer of God" to make any judgements on that.
At any rate -- as a second in a trilogy, RK is OK, but I'd recommend waiting a bit after finishing Empress to start on it, as the style/tone/feel shifts so dramatically it almost feels like a completely different world (which, I guess, it is!), and it felt really jarring to go straight from one to the other.
I'm not too sure how much I love the dichotomy that RK sets up, between Hekat's god and Rhian's -- it's a bit euro-centric ('OUR god is nice and shiny and kind, and THEIR god is weird and creepy and EVIL'), but I'll wait for the wrap up in "Hammer of God" to make any judgements on that.
At any rate -- as a second in a trilogy, RK is OK, but I'd recommend waiting a bit after finishing Empress to start on it, as the style/tone/feel shifts so dramatically it almost feels like a completely different world (which, I guess, it is!), and it felt really jarring to go straight from one to the other.