As much as I liked this book there were some downfalls and I nearly stopped reading it half way. Seems like the second book gave the me encouragement to keep reading. PROS - The different PoVs in each chapter, whether it be from Asher, Rafel, or his Doranen childhood archenemy Arlin, were characterized in their own ways of speaking and seeing the world, and I found this quite amusing, especially when it came to Arlin. There were usually no abrupt time changes (apart from the different sections) which made the chapters flow smoothly despite the change of focus characters. - The speech that was used for each character and the development through that speech seemed pretty clever and was quite enjoyable to read. The story follows a few different characters, but the main ones start out as children and develop into adults by the end of the book. Miller not only makes this happen through detailed descriptions and allowing us to hear their thoughts and ways of seeing the world, but also by starting the voice of the children appropriately to the age. They muddle sentences, have an adorable way of communicating, and they are meek and submissive to their parents and other adults. As the story develops and they grow older, their language grows with them. The changes from child to adolescent and finally onto adult are processed very well, and make up for the slow start in the beginning of the novel. CONS - While the different PoVs made it enjoyable to read, the only downfall regarding this was the extensive attention on a particular character or time period, and hearing the same thing repeated chapter after chapter felt too ‘dragged on’ and exaggerated. For me, reading Lur’s ongoing deteriorating for three chapters straight felt like too much.- The constant swearing and angry out-bursts were very similar to the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series, and while emotions seemed quite realistic and pure, I found that there had far too much talking between the characters and not enough action. It was basically pages and pages of Rafel spewing resentment and Asher trying to be a Father and dealing with his own despair at being powerless to help Lur. Not even pages really. Chapters. The same arguments between the characters were in practically every chapter, and all the yelling and tears got old fast. About half the conversations were unnecessarily repeating the same idea over and over again. Please, just get on with the story already.- I felt that there was a lack of connection with the characters, and they specifically felt over exaggerated, especially during the arguments. All of them seemed to be really extreme: either extremely cocky, extremely arrogant, extremely stupid, extremely fragile, extremely helpless, extremely annoying or extremely ignorant. There were a few high points in the book where I actually felt sympathetic and emotionally understood them, but overall, I didn’t think they were very realistic in terms of personality and character. Like, who argues with their son over the same topic every day just because they love him? Most of this book is all set-up and preparation, so don’t be too surprised when you reach the end of the book, only to find the epic cliffhanger and no proper ending. I can’t really say that I recommend The Prodigal Mage, but the overall story is great, and in order to go on with the sequel – The Reluctant Mage – you’ll have to get past the boring parts first. Overall, I still think it is a fantastic story! This book continues with the story in Kingmaker Kingbreaker, except the main focus is on Asher's children.Excited by the stories of their father, Asher's children want to set out for adventure.The books are originally not meant to be linked together but it feels like it's all 1 big story.As always, Karen Miller does a great job at writing down different accents of the various interesting characters.
What do You think about The Prodigal Mage (2010)?
Not as good as the books before it. More gore than I would like. Surprise ending though.
—shelbert
cliff-hanger. hate the way it ended but good book.can't wait for the next.
—Vivien
