Karen Miller, The Innocent Mage

This was the first book I read by Karen Miller, and it is a great pleasure to pick up a work by a new writer and enjoy it as much as I enjoyed The Innocent Mage. The book in some ways is actually light on action and fantasy, what it does do is build, complex, vivid characters who matter and brings them to life within the framework of an intriguing backdrop. The book has a hero who is believable in Asher, and a threat which is nebulous, which makes it much more effective when it kicks in at the end and steps into the foreground. The world that is envisaged by Karen is not cookie cutter fantasy and is filled with potential for a couple more books. I give The Innocent Mage top marks and would now happily spend money on anything penned by her hand in the future.