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ehzoterik 's review for:
The Awakened Mage
by Karen Miller
According to Karen Miller, the word "prophecy" is synonymous with six hundred year old "conspiracy." By the end of this book, I felt myself agreeing wholeheartedly with the alleged main protagonist Asher. If one more person mentioned the word "prophecy" I was going to somehow find a way to reach into the pages and choke the characters to death.
When I think "prophecy," I think of Nostradamus. I think of something someone predicted was going to happen, spoke of it or wrote it down once upon a time, and then it got forgotten. Generally for centuries at a time. Then one day something happens that seems mighty familiar, and some blow-hard who had it in his head to read some morbid poetry some long dead dude wrote once upon a time claims, "Hey! He predicted this! How come nobody saw it coming? It happened just like he said!" By the time prophecy happens, it's too late for anybody to be prepared for it because, well, it happened.
According to these books, prophecy is something entirely different. It's more like a religion. Then again, religion in this book is based off a woman who died six hundred years previous who wasn't really anyone miraculous. She wasn't born from a virgin, and she didn't preach anything other than "thou shalt not do magic unless ye be Doranen like I was." So what did all these people who weren't Doranen like she was do? They believed the words of some seer about catastrophe coming and her people being to blame and created a secret society to keep an eye on current events for generations to come to make sure it happened.
Again, when I think "prophecy," what I don't envision are a bunch of people orchestrating events in their favor just to make it so. I don't see people knowing about it for six hundred years and then some day the descendant of the first guy who said it having a vision of some other guy and claiming him to be The One. All through these books, everybody but The One knows that he's The One. Well, at least everybody within the super secret society of prophecy believers.
Once again I was stuck with a fantasy novel riddled with cliches, and the ending didn't really surprise me all that much. Prophecy held true as no one could have it expected it, and I confess I teared up a little. But that's only because everybody lived happily ever after... Except the one character who was most likable through the entire two book series. I still didn't like Asher very much, though admittedly I could sympathize with him in some parts.
And, again, I'm still not sure why I liked this book enough to read it through to the very end. It's like the pages themselves, for both books, were magically enchanted to keep me reading. I still feel like I've read this story somewhere else once before. "A new twist on an old tale." I still get that feeling. Like a prophecy I heard once upon a time but just can't completely remember in all its mysterious detail.
When I think "prophecy," I think of Nostradamus. I think of something someone predicted was going to happen, spoke of it or wrote it down once upon a time, and then it got forgotten. Generally for centuries at a time. Then one day something happens that seems mighty familiar, and some blow-hard who had it in his head to read some morbid poetry some long dead dude wrote once upon a time claims, "Hey! He predicted this! How come nobody saw it coming? It happened just like he said!" By the time prophecy happens, it's too late for anybody to be prepared for it because, well, it happened.
According to these books, prophecy is something entirely different. It's more like a religion. Then again, religion in this book is based off a woman who died six hundred years previous who wasn't really anyone miraculous. She wasn't born from a virgin, and she didn't preach anything other than "thou shalt not do magic unless ye be Doranen like I was." So what did all these people who weren't Doranen like she was do? They believed the words of some seer about catastrophe coming and her people being to blame and created a secret society to keep an eye on current events for generations to come to make sure it happened.
Again, when I think "prophecy," what I don't envision are a bunch of people orchestrating events in their favor just to make it so. I don't see people knowing about it for six hundred years and then some day the descendant of the first guy who said it having a vision of some other guy and claiming him to be The One. All through these books, everybody but The One knows that he's The One. Well, at least everybody within the super secret society of prophecy believers.
Once again I was stuck with a fantasy novel riddled with cliches, and the ending didn't really surprise me all that much. Prophecy held true as no one could have it expected it, and I confess I teared up a little. But that's only because everybody lived happily ever after... Except the one character who was most likable through the entire two book series. I still didn't like Asher very much, though admittedly I could sympathize with him in some parts.
And, again, I'm still not sure why I liked this book enough to read it through to the very end. It's like the pages themselves, for both books, were magically enchanted to keep me reading. I still feel like I've read this story somewhere else once before. "A new twist on an old tale." I still get that feeling. Like a prophecy I heard once upon a time but just can't completely remember in all its mysterious detail.