The Innocent Mage

By: Karen Miller

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

Length: 20 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

"The Innocent Mage is come, and we stand at the beginning of the end of everything." Being a fisherman like his father isn't a bad life, but it's not the one that Asher wants. Despite his humble roots, Asher has grand dreams. And they call him to Dorana, home of princes, beggars, and the warrior mages who have protected the kingdom for generations. Little does Asher know, however, that his arrival in the city is being closely watched by members of the Circle, people dedicated to preserving an ancient magic. Asher might have come to the city to make his fortune, but he will find his destiny.

©2007 Karen Miller (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A solid epic that posits political intrigue, ethereal prophecies and a rags-to-riches hero against a vivid if familiar fantasy backdrop." ( Publishers Weekly)

It's half of a book

Would you listen to The Innocent Mage again? Why?

Probably not. It's a slow burn.

Any additional comments?

Doesn't feel like it was written to be two books. It feels like they closed their eyes and picked the end of the book on a random page from the full (2 book) story, and said "Let's end this one here." I was expecting the book to have some sort of conclusion that was expanded on in the second book. Instead it stops halfway through the climax, in double to triple the amount of time it should have taken. The story doesn't start until the 16th hour. The ending of the first book doesn't start until 5 minutes before it's done. Important parts are rushed and trivial things are drawn out. Quite a few plot points were lead up to, made to seem important, and then just discarded. Key story arcs were foreshadowed too much or were predictable. It's not bad, per say, just really slow with no sense of progression. The narrator was really good though.

Nice read

This is not normally the sort of book I choose. There have been times in my life when it was, but not so much right now. Still, it was a good story, although I will probably not read the sequels, if it's your sort of story at all, I'm sure you will want to read them. Even among the "hard boiled detective" stories I'm reading right now, this was enjoyable.

fully emermisive and rivivting

Well worth the time, and that ending will have you in ah! The whole performance had me spellbound and wanting more!

Fun Read! Can't wait to read the next book!

I need to look into more series by Karen Miller. I believe she has a prose that I would love to devour.

one of my favorite books of all time!!!dee

one of my favorite books of all time!!! amazing story, reader, and author! a must for any sci-fi fantasy reader/listener!!!

Heroic Fantasy well written

This was my first experience with Karen Miller's work. I enjoyed both books in this series very much. This is Fantasy with characters I could understand, a lot of raw emotion, and a rich background story only hinted at. Looking at the other books available, I can see that the history behind the Innocent Mage is out there as well. Miller breaks a couple 'rules' of writing and does it very well. She writes in dialect, and she calls real things by made up names. These rules are meant to be broken, but it takes a good fantasy writer to do it. She succeeds. The narrator of these books handled the dialect very well but does not return to read the series that comes after, and that may be a difficult switch. I was looking for long fantasy novels where I could get involved with the characters and not have my attention wander. Miller gave me that and I will continue to read her novels. The only criticism I have is that she seems to be dancing around a religious allegory and that was a bit distracting. I may be confusing the basic progression of "The Hero's Journey" with religious allegory... something to think about. It may also just be my imagination, and if so, she has touched on an issue in Fantasy I strongly believe in. We have to be able to believe in the character's world before we can believe in them. If it is too alien, we shouldn't just be dropped into the deep end unless we already know how to swim. That doesn't say it very well, but I've read books where I've drowned, and a few brilliant works that I have learned to swim in. I prefer to wade in and swim out to the deep end when I'm comfortable. These are well worth the time to listen to.

Bit long but interesting characters

My dad recommended this book to me about three years ago. Just goes to show you how long my reading list is that I'm just now getting around to it. I enjoyed listening to this one. Yes the plot is (very) slow, but the characters are interesting and well written. With the exception of the villain, Morg, who shows up in the last.. fourth? of the book and he's just such boringly evil for the sake of evil, mustache-curling villain and I can't stand him. But I am interested to see how the prophecy around Asher plays out. There is a cliff hanger - ha, CLIFF hanger, but at the same time I could see the cliff coming from a mile away that I wasn't too shocked by it. I am glad that I have the second book ready and waiting for me.

yea

it exceeded expectations, the book kept me listening for hours and the reading and characterization he put in was FANTASIC. I'm pretty sure I've listened to this book about 3-4 times now. looking forward to listening to the empress next!!

couldn't turn it off.

I wanted to listen to this book constantly. alas, life does not permit one to shirk all responsibilities in order to listen to an audio book.

Ending was not good

Any additional comments?

The story was decent until the final chapters. At that point it seemed the author was in a rush to finish the book. Characters that distrusted and disliked each other, and would not speak, suddenly became friendly. The story continued in this fashion until the end. I was quite turned off and will not complete the series.