Review: Innocent Mage

The quick summary to The Innocent Mage sounds shockingly cookie-cutter. A farmer fisherman of low birth, from a rural part of Middle Earth the kingdom of Lur has a destiny. And his destiny is to save the kingdom and all its inhabitants from the Great and Looming Evil that no one knows is coming, save a chosen few who have seen the signs. How this is going to happen no one, least of all the hero, has any idea.

It sounds like typical fantasy. And I suppose that in the vague sketch it may be. But what strikes me most about The Innocent Mage is how the characters themselves rise above the standard tropes. The kingdom of Lur is the last place in the world that is safe from an evil sorcerer named Morg. The Doranen people, analogous to elves, got carried away with their magical abilities and fought a great war that ended with the destruction of their home country. Barl, a great sorceress and once Morg’s lover, retreated to Lur with her people. Only, Lur happened to be the home of the Olken at the time. So Barl struck a deal. She would erect a wall around Lur to protect Olken and Doranen alike if the Olken would agree to let these foreigners rule their land.

They agreed. And in the 600 year since, Doranen and Olken have lived under, essentially, apartheid. Doranen have magic. Olken are forbidden on punishment of death from doing magic. Doranen rule as kings and aristocrats. Olken work as merchants and laborers. They have their places. They do not intermarry. And the kingdom remains stable and protected by the weather magic wielded by the Doranen ruler.

Into this political arena comes Asher, the hero. He leaves his home on the coast to seek his fortune in the City of Dorana so that he can buy a fishing boat for himself and his ailing father. Asher is the youngest of seven brothers, and he has suffered their physical and mental abuse all of his life. It is his fervent dream to make a future for himself that is safe from their influence.

Asher’s speech is rough. Provincial. Even as a reader I had a hard time picturing him as a man of intelligence, simply because of the way he spoke. He’s also rude and opinionated and unlikely to show deference to anyone. It can be fun. It can be irritating. But these are the qualities that make him of great interest to Dorana’s prince, a man named Gar.

I must say, Gar was a surprise. We are told all along that Asher is the Innocent Mage, the man of prophecy. We are told that he will, somehow, wield the kind of subtle magic that Olken possess despite what the Doranen may think. And yet Gar comes to play at least as important a part in the story as Asher. He is a Doranen with no magic, a cripple. And because of this, his parents had to have another child as an heir. All his life, Gar has fought for a place among his people. He has fought for meaning, tried to do his father proud. And all his life he has never felt worthy; and never known friendship. Until Asher.

Their friendship becomes central to this first half of the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology. It is the pillar around which the characters and, seemingly, the prophecy revolve. Asher and Gar change one another’s lives, ambitions, and decisions. And they both manage to be convincingly real, with depth to their personalities that drives their action. This is why I kept reading.

This and because I wanted to find out how Asher, who eschews magic and believes that Olken who meddle with it deserve to die, will become the Innocent Mage. By the last page of the book, though, I am no wiser. And I find myself thinking that maybe Asher isn’t the Innocent Mage at all. Perhaps it’s Gar. Perhaps the prophecy was wrong. After all, the two of them are so entwined… maybe it was simply Asher’s presence that made the Innocent Mage possible, without truly being that hero himself.

Now there would be a twist on the old formula. But as The Innocent Mage and The Awakened Mage are really one very long book, I won’t find out the truth until I read Volume 2. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I looked forward to picking this book up every day. And I can only hope that the next volume fulfills all the promises made here. The characters are wrought and the dominoes are set. I expect The Awakened Mage to be the coming of the Final Days that shapes the kingdom of Lur anew.

Lora Friedenthal