Empress-Karen Miller

Empress
Karen Miller
Orbit, Apr 2008, $7.99
ISBN: 9780316008358

In Mijak, seven Warlords, with each one having a Godspeaker, have divided the land into fiefdoms. However, poverty is rampant as the soil is failing. Most assume the Nameless God is punishing the wicked. In that realm a hysterical woman pleads with her man to keep this one. However he is adamant that the she-brat will be gone once the Traders arrive as he cannot afford another worthless female to feed. He warns the woman with his fists that she has cursed his seed with five bitches and to give him strong sons who can work or face the Godspeaker.

Thus when the Traders come to the hostile north they purchase the nameless she-brat. In chains Hekat as she is now called arrives at the flourishing capital city of Et-Raklionwhere she is sold in bondage to warlord Raklion. The she-brat may be a domestic slave, but she has ambition and intelligence. Hekat learns the secrets of power and how to keep it by observing and listening as most in the inner circle fail to notice a slave even one as beautiful as she is except as a sex object. Manipulating rivals becomes her tool of choice. Hekat climbs in power until she becomes the EMPRESS of Mijak with a vision of turning the country from seven fiefs into the most powerful empire ever one bloody battle at a time.

This is an exciting epic fantasy starring a powerful heroine whose ambition makes Lady Macbeth look like a kindergarten student claiming she will become a nurse. The strong support cast starting with Hekat’s parents and enhanced by those in the capital bring to life a country where women and children have no rights and betrayal is an acceptable practice. Especially fascinating is The Godspeaker, a frightening individual even in the shadows. Character driven, the first of the Godspeaker trilogy is a strong opening act that will have fans seeking Karen Miller’s previous saga, Kingmaker, Kingbreaker.

Harriet Klausner