Literature The Riven Kingdom
This is a good example of Moral Dissonance at its height. Does every book set in a fantasy world really have to have a protagonist with modern values? Coming hot on the heels of Hekat in Empress, whom Miller really made come to some sort of self-awareness through struggle and end up a convincing product of her society, Rhian's opinions are simply handwaved. Nothing is done to really show her coming to an awareness of feminism in a paternalistic culture. There are no women in high places (except an abbess) to set an example. Mijak at least has female warriors, so there was a convincing reason for Hekat to become a soldier.
Authors in modern fantasy fiction are obviously striving to include strong female characters. However, some either fail to make gender a non-issue and to give them more subtle reasons for contesting a civil war, or give that character no visible way of coming to the realisation that they are regarded as a second-class citizen and earn their position. Rhian goes too quickly from princess to queen and comes across as a 21st century westerner dumped into Swordsandsorceryland - which makes the plot very boring because we don't see, unlike with Hekat, how she really challenges the men around her to take her seriously in the first place. Just because is not a good enough reason for a character to be completely at odds with their society's values. Why did Eberg educate her beyond her station when he had two perfectly good sons? I have no problem with this concept - maybe he foresaw their premature deaths in the same way that Dexterity received his visions - but it needs to be made clear.
Marlan is too transparent a character to exist either. As written, he is one-dimensionally evil and that makes his story just as boring as Rhian's; again, we don't see his journey either, particularly why he is a priest that doesn't believe in God. That would have been a book in its own right.
A very disappointing continuation to the excellence of Empress and although it is a good quick read, it really is just a 'There and Back Again' story with a bit of convenient deus ex machina at the end. I had high hopes after Empress but now can't really be bothered to finish it.
Literature An interesting idea with a bad execution
How often have you read a fantasy novel in which religion played a major role? I'm not talking about the presence of a priest as a minor character as a concession to the pre-modern setting. I mean a story that really examines the role of religion in a society, where it actually drives the characters' actions, rather than being a background detail. Yes, there's stuff like Katherine Kurtz's Deryni novels, but most of the time, the religion is just a background detail. What Karen Miller has done here is placing religion front and center. It's a refreshing idea, but the results are mixed.
The first book, Empress of Mijak, is by far the most interesting. Moving away from a traditional fantasy setting, Miller presents Mijak: a harsh society based on cultures like the Sumerians and the Hittites with an oppressive religion that permeates every detail of the inhabitants' lives. It is a triumph of worldbuilding and I really enjoyed the first half of the novel. However, by the time I neared the end I had grown rather tired of the characters' highly formalistic speech patterns. Also, the constant interference of the god took a lot of tension out of the story. At no point during the second half did I feel like Hekat was in any real danger.
The Riven Kingdom introduces us to Ethrea, a bog-standard medieval fantasyland. It's an easier read than Empress, but it is much less interesting. Again, divine interference takes a lot of tension out of the story. Too little happens in this book to justify spending 700 pages on it and there are too many repetitive conversations that don't give us any new information or insight but merely pad out the story.
And then there's Hammer of God. Dear Chalava, the first 600 pages is almost nothing but repetitive conversations. If I have to read about one more council meeting... The final clash between Mijak and Ethrea is wrapped up rather quickly, although sastisfyingly brutally.
What was Karen Miller trying to say with this trilogy? That religion can be a force for both great good and great evil? That you'll never lose with God at your side? In the end, none of the protagonists' journeys really resonated with me and the whole thing left me feeling curiously empty.