The Accidental Sorcerer by K.E. Mills (a.k.a Karen Miller)

The one thing that Karen Miller has done with this series is make very lively characters. There are ups and downs, and the fact that she is able to keep the humor going almost throughout the whole book without it getting unbearable really makes this book amazing. It is one of those gems where, after not reading it for a long time and re-reading knowing I liked them, gave me a very nice reminder of why I liked them. To me, in this series, her writing style reminds me a lot of Terry Pratchett. And on a side note, this speaks to her talents as an author because I own I believe all of the books she has come out, and throughout the different series that she has made they are each very nicely distinct.

The Rogue Agent series is the most humorous of her books, and that I believe is mainly because of Reg. Reg is amazing, and the amount of sarcasm that drips from her beak just tickles me to death. Gerald Dunwoody is a very nice main character to follow around; and in this book he is essentially have a life crisis. He is a middling wizard and then something amazing happens to him, turning his whole world upside down.

What is very interesting about this series is how Karen Miller deals with magic. It is essentially if magic and science had a baby, the outcome would be how their world is. Essentially in order to be a reasonably successful wizard and learn more you are going to be at the same time a scientist. This whole idea of the magic/science hybrid going on is further solidified in how different magical properties and scenarios are described. In a way it makes magic seem less mystical and more understandable.

If you are an avid reader, you will blow through this book and probably the whole series, laughing through most of the way (or at least chuckling a couple times). If you are a fan of Terry Pratchett I highly encourage you to check out the Rogue Agent Series. If you are not so much a fan of Terry Pratchett or are just looking for books that are a little more dark than these ones then I highly encourage you to look at her other books that she has come out. They are significantly darker, but just as good.

The Falcon Throne - Karen Miller

So, this book was very very good. I sadly wasn't able to read this book as fast as I would have preferred. This was mainly due to the fact that I have been battling off being sick and it left me unable to really do anything after working all day. But that is besides the point. I believe that this book is a really nice beginning to what could be a good rival to the Song of Fire and Ice series. I don't want to spend this whole review comparing it, but I think one thing that is pretty neat is the smaller scale of things; meaning less characters to deal with and a smaller area to get familiar with. And that is enough of that.

What I found extremely intriguing was the theme that there is someone out there that is trying to alter events to an outcome that we do not realize totally at this point. And of course there is quite a bit of death of people you want to die and people who you don't want to die. I really do not want to say anything, but there were a couple of things I was really upset about happening. I think that Balfre is a very good bad guy, in the sense that he does quite a few of bad things but he is intelligent about it. Personality-wise he reminds me of Joffrey but with quite a bit more brains.

To continue with the speculation, it is going to be interesting to find out why Roric, Balfre, Liam and Casinia (I think I spelled her name wrong but I don't have my book in front of me) are important to Salimbene. And because they all come from the same area of the world what effect they are going to have on the rest of the world. And I firmly believe this is going to have a greater effect then it looks at first glance. This is mainly because I really love this author and I want this book to be on a very nice scale of epicness. I definitely am very upset that I have to wait for the next book to come out, however, I am looking forward to reading this book again when it does come out.

There was also a fair share of moments when I wanted to take the characters that I initially started to like and shake some sense into them when I could just see how the bad things were going to go, or when they were stupid. Which is a good sign to me because it shows me that I am getting attached to the characters.

The book in my opinion leaves off with everything starting to get darker for the majority of characters, and with the possibility of some hopeful things coming true. There was also a nice dash of irony that I am hopeful plays out with a more positive ending. And then the grand mystery of whether or not what Salimbene wants is good, bad, neutral or dreadful. Is the Oracle something that will have the great ramifications the I envision happening? I am upset that I have to wait!

Let me know if any of you have read and what you think might happen :)

Dark Lady's Chosen - Gail Z. Martin

To start things off, out of the four books in this series I really honestly feel that the last one was the best. With the 3rd one being second best. It felt like the series was really coming into its own with the last two books, and especially this one. There was a lot more going on, you got to see it from numerous different perspectives and it was laid out very interestingly. The majority of the book takes place in the space of 7 days. And those 7 days were very interesting indeed. What I found the most interesting at the end, when it looks like everything was going to crap that the bad guys back in the Margolan capital had forgotten that their King who they were plotting against was a Summoner; or it just seemed that way. However, they were probably hoping that the ghosts did not want to hang around to tell their story or that Tris would be so angry and upset that he wouldn't listen. Either way, it was a very satisfying conclusion.


The loose ends were tied up, most of the good people came out a little beaten up. But it also ended with the idea that things are still not going to be good for awhile despite getting over this giant obstacle. It is very likely a lot of people in Margolan are going to go hungry, and potentially catch the plague that was started by the dark mages. Despite the war ending in Dark Haven, it is still quite possible that there will be some malcontents wanting revenge or to just stir up trouble. But at least the Flow is fixed, and not going to be exploding anywhere at any time. But this also leaves you wondering what is going to happen to the baby, and I personally was left really wanting to know more about Carina and Jonmarc's future twin daughters. I would have been so happy to have another series focused on them because they are honestly my favorite characters in the series.

Getting back to the 7 day layout, everything was moving really fast in those 7 days. It also really exemplified how much it sucks that they have to communicate by letter. So many things could have gone wrong with the timing being off. But I also felt like it was pretty realistic with what happened in the space of a day for each perspective being looked at. It kept the suspense up, because so many things were changing from day to day. It also really made you aware of how many things were going on simultaneously; which is sometimes difficult to get a sense of when you read some other books unless a certain event is specifically referenced between characters as a sort of orientation point. It also helped to keep everything neat and orderly so you wouldn't lose track of when something was happening; especially in the case of Carina and Jonmarc having things happen both during the day and at night, and on other days just at night.

Again, with the previous three books this book was a very fast read. And not because of it being short of substance. But it was honestly a good story going on, the suspense kept you going. This series is a very good one and I do recommend it to people when they are looking for a quick read. I have read the series more than once, not including re-reading it again for the sake of doing a review with the book fresh in my mind.

Queen of Someday - Sherry Ficklin

I had not intended on reading another book randomly in the middle of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series. But...I came across a post on Facebook linking to this book as being available for free on Amazon for Kindle. I figured why not get it to read on a rainy day....or on a day when I forget my book and so I had this to read. This is loosely based off of Catherine the Great of Russia. And is in essence a historical fiction. In my world history class I enjoyed learning about Catherine the Great, and once I realized that this is who this book was based off of I was very interested. The only disappointing thing about it was that it ended and I would need to get the other books to finish however long the series would be.


To start from the beginning...Sophie (before she converts to a different faith and takes the name Catherine) immediately becomes awesome when she attempts to fight off assassins with a dagger and does an admirable job of it. She is dealing with having to be forced into a marriage in order to save her family from extreme debt and ruin. Her character develops to the point where she has accepted her lot in life, especially when the alternative is to marry an Uncle. But then when she has finally accepted it, she falls in love with someone who is not her betrothed. I thought it was very interesting with the combination of those two using poetry to communicate secretly and the situation being similar to that of what happened with Helen of Troy (and a similarity that the characters themselves mention). And like that story, things do not go their way. At all. As much as I hated what happened to Sophie...this was an engrossing read. From what I can tell this going to be a series and I really can't wait to read the rest in this series. This is like the Paper Magician, in which I will buy the first book and the second book whenever I get my hands on it.