Empress (Godspeaker, Book 1)

by Karen Miller

Book Overview

In a family torn apart by poverty and violence, Hekat is no more than an unwanted mouth to feed, worth only a few coins from a passing slave trader. But Hekat was not born to be a slave. For her, a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316008354
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Orbit
• Length: 717 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 1.5" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

not my usual genre but i loved it!

this isn't the type of book i usually read, but i picked it up randomly at goodwill. strong female main character and not what you expect either! i binged the first book and immediately ordered the two other books in the series. again, this usually isn't the genre i'm interested in but i couldn't put it down.

Dark, Disturbing, and Just Right

So, I've read a few of the reviews on here so far about this book, and I'm frankly appalled. Not at the book, at the reviewers. "It's a horrible book, nobody and nothing to identify with!" - that's the point, boys and girls. If you identified with the characters in this book (well, with notable exception), then I hope to never run into you in a dark alley. I am not going to give away the book, or the ending, or the characters. Well, maybe one of the characters. The main character of this book is Hekat - and you are not supposed to like her, or want to be her, or even live in her world. She looks down on "slaves" while being one herself, and refuses to accept her lot in life. This is good, right? Well, why look down on slaves as being inferior if you feel you aren't supposed to be one? The inherent contradiction in her character is what drags you in. You don't identify with her, you identify with the people she abuses and destroys. She uses them to her own ends. She has "god" on her side, and there's some pretty powerful mojo backing her up in that. There's a couple of "why exactly did that happen?" moments (such as WHY exactly she ends up with some items), but they are few and far between. God exists in this world. Is it the "god" we're used to? Not by any stretch of the imagination, but it DOES exist. It's brutal, uncaring, and it speaks to these people. Some more directly than others. Why people are berating the author for completely fleshing out a world, a society, a religion, and characters... I simply cannot fathom it. Every page, I want to know more, I want to see who did what, and what happens next. The gore fits the world. The author does not put it there for the sake of saying "look, death and blood and raaaargh!" - it's there to explain something, and to show that even the most "evil" beings have a reason for what they do. It's what makes the best villains. I was never scared of Sauron, because he was a nameless, faceless, and rather boring "character" - he didn't exist. Hekat, her little "kingdom," which becomes an empire... it frightens me. It makes me fear for the future of the world in which it exists. Not because "the evil hordes are coming" - but because "Hekat is coming, and the hordes are following her." Not that this series will be the next Lord of the Rings, but the villains are FAR more fleshed out, and not just "there." I just finished book 2 in the trilogy, and can't wait for book 3. Don't do yourself a disservice by skipping this series, you'd regret it in the end.

Simply the Best

I read an excerpt of this book on Sci-fi.com and decided to give it a chance despite the bad reviews and I'm glad I did. I absolutely loved this book. The character development of Hekat was completely believable. I think the reason for most of the bad reviews was that a woman could be so focused, so dedicated, strong, and ruthless qualities usually found in a ambitious male. We as a society are attracted to such qualities in our entertainment and in a war situation, so what's the difference? Are there people out there who actually believe that a person born and raised in a very abusive environment will grow up to be a cute and cuddly doe eyed girl "I think not." These are the characteristics that allowed her to excel and become an effective Empress. The description of the vastly different countries was wonderful and made me see it in my mind. As far a religion goes, how many religions especially Christianity are without a violent history. I only wish that there was a religion that challenged and punished so-called speakers of God. All the characters had a destiny to fulfill. Everything they endured helped to mold them and make them major players in the God final plans. I hope that part two and three are even half as interesting and that Ms. Miller does not allow others to determine the course her female characters take.

Great Read: Brutal book

The entire book is over 700 pages, and I loved every page of it. It is a brutal book, full of gore, drama and magic. The main character starts out as a unloved child sold into slavery by her father. At first you sympathize for her though out much of the book, but then by the end you notice that she is not exactly what you would think of as heroine of a story. Pretty much incapable of feeling anything but her people's god's will, and the brutalizing and murderous rampage that god presses for her people. The trilogy as a hole so far it is amazing, the first book (Empress) sets up for the second book (The Riven Kingdom) greatly. Only down part is that the third book does not come out until next year. I Don't want to wait!

Expertly crafted, but not a fluffy book

I typically do not review, because I can often approach books from an oddball angle compared to the typical reader, but I figured I would put my two cents in, because Karen Miller is a very good author, and I'm a bit mystified why they aren't releasing her books in hardcover yet. She should have her books out in hardcover! Regarding the book proper...Empress has a very...Robin Hobb-esque feel to it, in that Karen Miller is EXCELLENT in writing believable, but unlikable, characters, and in that she's very good at making cultures for her characters, and making the characters react appropriately from WITHIN that culture, even if that reaction isn't a nice or virtuous one. This book follows Hekat, who starts out as a young girl in an abusive, frightfully poor family. By the end of the book, she is Empress. Now, the standard format for such stories usually centers around a character that is likable--by the time the little starvling works their way to ruling the kingdom, everybody loves them, they are close to being canonized as a saint in the local religion, and the reader is overjoyed that they "got what they deserved" after being mistreated for so long. That is NOT the case here. Hekat is self-centered, prideful, cruel, determined, a liar, self-deluded, and more. And as a character she is beautifully portrayed. But, as the reviews below show, she's not a likable character, so if you as a reader need characters that you like or love, this is not the book for you. In my case, it doesn't matter that I dislike Hekat--I find her journey intensely interesting, and it's fascinating how she, in a very true-to-life manner, exploits others in her rise to power. Karen Miller has very successfully thrown out one example showing why people who are complete scum can rise to power; reading Hekat's life is like watching dominoes fall, except I-the-reader didn't realize that the dominoes were falling until, to switch my metaphors, the avalanche was barreling down on me. It wouldn't be out of line to say Hekat is somewhat like a female Hitler, except that there's no obvious ham-handed Nazi-influences in the book. There may be some subtle ones, but you have to be pretty analytical or well-versed in history to find them. Personally, Hekat reminds me of an Egyptian Queen for some reason. Probably the scorpion/desert references. Aside from the excellently crafted characters (likable and not-likable), Karen Miller is also very good at crafting a culture that is alien to us; she shows how the religion is linked to the people, how the government works, how a system of magic might influence a culture and its religion at its deepest roots. This isn't just a "copy what everyone else has done and change the colors so it doesn't look like a total ripoff" that's fairly common in fantasy. I believe someone else mentioned stilted speech from all the characters, but I didn't read it like that--I read it as their speech patterns being affected by their culture. It

Surprisingly Enjoyable

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed reading this book! I was looking for a new SciFi author to try out and decided to skim through this book while in the book store. Generally Im pretty picky because I dont like getting into a book that feels mass marketed like some of the starwars series out there. I am FAR from being a speed reader. 5-10 pages in an evening is plenty for me, but I found myself well past page 200 after the first week! In the beginning of the book I found myself rooting for Hekat as she clawed her way out of her wretched life. Her character showed such pride and self confidence that you couldnt help but to be on her side. Then as the book progresses, it got harder. I still rooted for her, but at times she seemed almost vile and uncaring. Her sense of being untouchable, hard, and unloving creates more of a feeling where you hope that she will soften somewhere. This side of her character made the reading interesting for me. Usually the "hero" of a book is a good character that you want to root for because they're good even with flaws. Hekat on the other hand is still a good person, but can be downright cold and calculating in the ways that she goes after her goals thru serving her god and his plans. She is a ruthless, inspiring warrior, that delivers death without remorse. This is truly a dark fantasy book. Hekat is the ruthless character you will love to hope for a softer side. Even with a hard and love-less character, I found the book to be a sheer delight. I think some of the other review here were a bit harsh on the author. I also couldnt shake the sense of feeling like a story out of one of Frank Herbert's Dune characters... maybe that was one of the reasons I loved it so much. Sometimes the book does seem to have a bit too much gore, but I never felt that the author was trying to focus on that aspect of it, nor did she go overboard on details of gore. The author is well written and expresses the landscapes and characters with vivid details that make them come alive. I WILL read the rest of the series, and specifically came on here to look for more novels written by Karen Miller. Buy this book, read it, you will enjoy it.