The Innocent Mage: Kingmaker, Kingbreaker - Book One - Softcover

Karen Miller was born in Vancouver, Canada, and moved to Australia with her family when she was two. Apart from a three-year stint in the UK after graduating from university with a BA in communications, she's lived in and around Sydney ever since. Karen started writing stories while still in elementary school, where she fell in love with speculative fiction. She's held a variety of interesting jobs but now writes full-time.

Miller, and Hachette's new mass market imprint Orbit, debuts with a solid epic that posits political intrigue, ethereal prophecies and a rags-to-riches hero against a vivid if familiar fantasy backdrop (sure to provoke déjà vu in fans of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire). Fisherman's son Asher seeks his fortune in the capital city of Dorana, home to the royal family and the magic-using race called Doranen. After a chance encounter, Asher begins working in the palace as assistant/apprentice to Crown Prince Gar; meanwhile, an underground sect watches Asher and secretly guides his fate, believing him the key to an ancient, apocalyptic prophecy. The erudite Prince Gar, meanwhile, has concerns of his own: flagging popularity (over his decision to take lowly Asher under his wing) and his combative sister's inheritance, the weather-controlling magic that keeps their kingdom secure. Though Asher's cynical salt-of-the-earth act is overused, and characters can be frustratingly pouty, Miller's prose is earnest and engaging, and his complex story accelerates nicely toward a brutal cliffhanger finale. Hints of an epic confrontation to come will leave readers eager to find out, in forthcoming installments, where Asher's destiny leads.(Sept.)
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