Empress

Godspeaker, Book 1

By: Karen Miller

Narrated by: Josephine Bailey

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 different path has been chosen. It is a path that will take her from stinking back alleys to the house of her God, from blood-drenched battlefields to the glittering palaces of Mijak. This is the story of Hekat, slave to no man.©2007 Karen Miller (P)2009 Tantor

Good but Bad

The narrator is awesome and fit the characters perfectly. Books should evoke some emotion and this book did so ... so much so, that I won't be reading the rest of the trilogy. The main character became so despised, I don't want to continue.

Disappointing

I was intrigued and eager to see where The Empress would go just after reading the first chapter. The ideas are original and the world development is well-thought out (easily the biggest reason i stuck around til the end). But there's so much that i had to wade through just to find enjoyment. The story began as something new and interesting, but quickly degraded into just another fantasy story. I'm sick and tired of stories that treat female characters like garbage. I thought Hekat had a promising start and, while i still like her character (as warped and cruel as she had become) I cannot stand her. She's the main character and the only female that contributes to the story. The rest of the female characters that appear in the story are slaves, whores, or godspeakers/warriors who have little to do with the story. It's upsetting and ended up making the entire story cheap and not worth reading. I don't regret listening to this on audio, but I could have lived without ever picking up this book.

Tolkien this is not.

If you're looking for a safe, Tolkienesque fantasy world, this is not for you. If you like the clear fight between good and evil, this is not for you. If you like your characters to be perfect, with minor flaws that are easily overcome, this again isn't for you.

However, if you're bored with the all too frequent tropes of genre fantasy, enjoy a more gritty world, and are willing to feel uncomfortable, then this book is stellar. The reason I'm writing this is because I was going back through my library to see if there were any series with a new release, and noticed the 3 star review. This is wholly unfair. It's akin to hating an actor because they played such a brilliant villain, you can't help but hold a grudge.

While I was perusing my library, I often had to play excerpts to remember what the plot even was for many of the books (one as recent as only a couple month prior). Not this book. You will remember this book.

It's not safe, but it is brilliant. You will feel... something.

The performance is fantastic, and I can't think of a book that has lingered in my thoughts more than this one.

Distressing and Amazing!

Although this story is painful on SO many levels, it is brilliant. I have never read such a different, but so well thought out belief/religious system. It is truly frightening in its brutality, but so believable and consistent throughout. The writing itself is clear and descriptive without being filled with endless unnecessary trivia. The characters are multi-faceted and engaging. I was driven by a need to know where it was going in the next two parts of the trilogy. Finally, Josephine Bailey is truly one of the very best narrators I have ever heard!

Gore with and without purpose

I struggled to grasp much of Hekat's motives, but the world building that created this bloody, sacrifice-driven, society was artfully crafted. Will definitely read the next book!