Review: Awakened Mage

Summary: The king of Lur is dead, and his once magicless son, Gar, is now the only heir to the throne and the WeatherMagic that keeps the kingdom safe from the evil Morg. Only Morg has already infiltrated the kingdom of Lur, and his plan to bring down the protective wall by crippling the WeatherMagic is well on its way. Only Asher, with the help of his friends, can stop the immortal Morg and bring peace to Lur and the lands beyond.

Commentary: Okay, okay, so Asher really is the Innocent Mage. No devastating, unexpected twists, despite the possibility. But just because Asher is the mage of prophecy, the Olken who can wield his own magic as well as Doranen magic, does not mean he has to like it. And it does not mean that he has to answer the call that prophecy has made.

True to his gruff, opinionated character from the first installment, Asher has his own ideas about just about everything. But he is also as loyal as ever. Gar asks for his help in WeatherWorking, a bloody business that leaves the new king a wreck each time. And despite the fact that Olken are killed for dabbling in magic, Asher agrees to help—because Gar asked it of him. Because Gar promised him that he would rather die than let anyone harm him. And never having had a bond with anyone as strong as the one he had with Gar, Asher took him at his word.

It becomes a disaster, as Asher feared it would. And he goes from Olken Administrator, most revered of his people, to a traitor destined to die. But he is also destined to save the kingdom. And the secret society that has known him only as the Innocent Mage of prophecy come to his rescue.

The threads of the story are woven slowly but skillfully. And you can see the hurt and betrayal building, inevitably, before the book takes you there. Even still, seeing these characters you have spent so many pages with hurt one another as they do is a heartrending experience. I found myself much more interested in discovering how their relationships would resolve than I was in how they were going to defeat Morg. Yes, yes, evil destroying the kingdom, but Asher hates Gar!

The book is thoroughly character driven. Miller has such a great sense of who these people are that reading the book is more often like watching a movie. The prose falls away, and all I am left with is the images of the characters and the sounds of their voices.

Also oddly of note for me is the fact that Asher and Gar’s friendship is characterized by devotion and yet never crosses that slashy line. Many of the books I read have overt homosexuality, and many more fandoms lend themselves to it readily. And yet I was never once tempted to think that maybe Gar and Asher would — or even wanted to — cross into sexual territory. That they could be so close to one another, so needful of each other, and not blur the lines was artful and precise characterization. I give Miller a lot of credit.

Anyone reading The Innocent Mage has to read The Awakened Mage. It is not so much a sequel as a second half. Together, they are one long book, with one long story. And it is a story that I highly recommend to others. In fact, I have given my copies (as a set) to a friend already so I could spread the word.

Lora Friedenthal