Fans of speculative fiction are often plagued by books with
a good concept and poor delivery. Whenever I see The Innocent Mage in shops I try to tell my peers what it’s about
and they tell me that it actually sounds very interesting. I will concede that
the concept is intriguing, one can read apartheid allegories into the setting
and the story deals with one character’s coming to accept his place in the
world. The ingredients for a good fantasy book are there, but ingredients alone
do not make a good meal.
The novel suffers from the writer’s infatuation with the
rugged protagonist as he is consistently portrayed as a real man, not like all
the other toffs. The majority of the novel is spent with this arrogant
character and his ascension to better paid jobs. We are aware of a threat and
potential antagonist but until Karen Miller remembers what she was supposed to
be writing about we are lumbered with paper thin snobs who simply dislike our
protagonist. That’s it. For over two thirds of the novel Karen Miller spins a
tale of petty arguments and childish characterisation.
The most conflict that arises in the novel is the execution
of a teenage boy and in fairness the emotional gravitas of this event is
handled well, however the reason it is handled well is because the focus turns
to the protagonist’s friend, the most interesting character in the story. We
follow a chosen one, Asher, but the nature of this is not revealed to us until
past the half-way point and even then it is handled with a lack of clarity that
plagues any bad narrative invoking a prophecy. Up until that point the
character with the most development is Asher’s friend and employer the Prince.
We know his birth was troubled and a defect he suffers means his painful burden
must be passed on to his younger sister. When this is touched upon it is
intensely frustrating because of the knowledge that the narrative will drop this
decent plot point to talk about the arrogant protagonist and how great he is.
The Innocent Mage
could have been so much more. That’s what’s so annoying about it. Karen Miller
devised a fascinating concept, great conflict and potentially good character development,
but for some reason she decided to drop a bunch of boring awful characters into
it, and they ruin everything.
Karen Miller, The
Innocent Mage, ISBN: 0-7322-8079-6
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