A Blight of Mages

By Karen Miller

A story of the time of the sorcerers, Morg and Barl, and the building of the Wall ... this series about the Kingdom of Lur is a bestseller in the US and UK and is fast being translated into many languages ...
Barl Linden is one of the greatest mages Dorana has seen, but she is still socially inferior to those she works with. In fighting for the right to be treated as an equal, Barl comes to the attention of the all-powerful Council of Mages. Morgan Danfey is the youngest mage ever to be appointed to the Council. Proud and talented, he senses that some terrible, unknown danger looms ahead for Dorana ... problem is, he can't prove it. When Barl and Morgan cross paths the sparks fly, and a chain of events is set in motion that will changes their lives - and the fate of nations - forever. Praise for Karen Miller 'not just another fantasy writer, she is a sorceress whose spells become books' ticonderoga Online 'Miller's tale ... is seductive' ADELAIDE ADVERtISER 'devious plot twists and an intriguing love triangle' SPECUSPHERE

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Australia
• Release date: May 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9780730498407

Karen Miller

Karen Miller, who has over 25 years experience in the early childhood field, is well known as a keynote speaker and consultant. She has worked as a teacher for Head Start, as national education director for Children's World Inc. and as a national training director for Min-Skools Ltd.

Reviews for A Blight of Mages

[wyskers-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really don't know what to say about this book. I started out really liking it, got bored about a third of the way through, started liking it again, and BANG it ended so abruptly, I was left hanging. Obviously when it was written the author intended to write another book. I'm torn as to whether I want to continue on with the series or not.

[infjsarah · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After a slow start, I really enjoyed this book (as I have enjoyed the rest of the series). It was quite hard to get past Barl and Morgan's arrogance at first and to be honest, they never got over their arrogance even when disaster had occurred. But most of the characters in the book are arrogant in some way. If you've read the main series, then I think you'd enjoy this and it gives a different perspective on the "saintly" Barl and the "wicked" Morg.

[reading_fox · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This, the prequel to the excellent pair of duologies in the Kingmaker Kingbreaker universe is the story we've been waiting for, It is eminently readable on it's own, and I would suggest it as the entry point for the series. Set 600 years before the others, it deals with the romance between the mages of Barl and Morgan, and how it all went wrong. As ever, Karen's excellent characters drive a plot through a well imagined world.Barl is a young unranked mage working in a local Artisan's workshop making clocks. She knows she's better than this and capable of far greater magics, but her passions always run high and self-control is not one of her strengths. This surprisingly, doesn't effect her magical abilities, but does greatly effect her ability to get on with people. Fortunately for her, her brother Rennie is a source of much calm and restraint. Barl is forever getting over-excited, and causing harm, before returning home thoroughly apologetic and contrite - until the next time. Morgan is almost the reverse, although equally highly imbued with magical abilities, he is older, male the sole son of a querulous, ill, father and heir to a great estate. Morgan has great restraint and calm exterior, driven by his father to become one of the land's greatest mages - but also to marry settle down and provide a son for the family name to continue. Recently elected to the Council of Mages he finds these petty politics somewhat distracting from his great works. He is sure he can sense an impending disaster to the land, and only if he can just get these spells to work, will the land be saved. When Barl applies to the Council for permission to study at the Mage College, (something as an unranked mage she does not normally have the right to do - an injustice which seethes through her everyday), she meets Morgan, and power attracts power. Together they can work wonders.Those who've read the succeeding books, will know what comes next, but in some ways this spoils the tension and drama, and I feel this book will best be read as starting point, without that knowledge. Although the ending third is somewhat rushed, it does tie up all the plot points we come to expect with just a couple of minor exceptions. The immortality spell that Barl creates, is mentioned, and then seemingly forgotten throughout the rest of the text. Already a long book, there are a couple of big jumps in time and events which maybe could have done to have been more fully explored - creating a duology of prequels as in the rest of the series. Or else maybe less time could have been spent on some of the earlier scene/character setting. The Olken get particularly short shrift, although enough details are laid for the founding of the future books.The interplay between Barl and Morgan is superb, many great sparkles of dialogue, from the first anguished meetings tot he blossoming of romance, and then the sudden sour realisation that it has all gone wrong. Morgan is perhaps less well crafted than Barl, initially I had no problems but it is never fully explained why he feels so driven to protect the land, or why he suffers no doubts about his course of actions.Overall though his is yet another excellent offering from Karen Miller, something I feel every fantasy fan should read.

[nx74defiant · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I hated Barl. She was so incredibly arrogant. She doesn't get admitted to the "best school"; so she refuses to apply to any other. She believes she is so talented that only the best is good enough for her. Her problem keeping a job is not because she isn't from a first family; it is because she thinks she is better than anyone else. So she thinks she should get only the most important jobs and resents doing the more routine necessary jobs. When one of her co-workers tells her that they would like her to recognize that they are talented mages; Barl first thought is they are not as talented as she is.I could almost care about Morgan, but there isn't enough about why he feels and acts the way he does. I think the author is holding back to reveal more as the series goes on, but I just don't care about these people.

[a_reader_of_fictions · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Originally posted here.

Despite its length, I got through the book in four days, even though I've been busy with other things as well. The writing, characters and world-building all caught my imagination and would not let me go. Before I was even done reading the book (a couple hundred pages in), I went onto Goodreads and marked her other books to read, because I loved reading this so much.

Miller's writing is fantastic. I love the way she strings words together. Her diction and syntax both resonate with me. Obviously, she's fairly wordy--otherwise filling up so many pages is tricky--but I love verbosity. Miller is also funny; it's not the main point of the novel, but there were several lines that definitely made me laugh.

Her characterization is like insanely good. Barl, the main character, if you can choose but one of the cast to focus on, is 22 and as fiery a heroine as anyone could desire. Possessed of mage skills that outstrip those ranked above her (because Dorana's rankings are based not on skill but on status, which sounds a lot like our world), Barl desperately wants to be judged for her talent. She dreams of attending the based college for mages in Dorana, but is repeatedly denied. Barl is passionate, hard-working, cleverer than pretty much everyone, arrogant, stubborn, and bemoans those with a 'child-ridden fate' (40). Of course, I loved her.

I use her solely to illustrate the awesomeness of the characters. In lesser detail, here are some other wonderfully drawn characters. Morgan Danfey is prideful, a bit sexist, alluring and powerful. Remmie, Barl's twin brother, lacks her overt strength, but possesses serious loyalty and steadfastness. Venette is a nosy matchmaker, but she has people's best interests at heart; she is loving, and blinded by those emotions. Everyone feels real and believable, and, like with real people, you don't necessarily always know where you stand.

Ordinarily, I am not often surprised by books. Most plot twists are like ummm, yeah, you foreshadowed that like crazy on page 10 and expect me to be surprised? Well, recently, there have been quite a few that have swept the rug from under my feet, and A Blight of Mages falls into that category along with the YA novel Never Enough. With Miller's book, it's not so much that I couldn't see these possibilities coming as her setup made me root so hard for the other outcome that I was still blindsided.

Something to know: this book is seriously dark, which is part of what surprised me, because it's pretty light and then WHAM. Don't get too attached to anyone, because like a lot of good storytellers, Miller is not afraid to do terrible things to her characters, and there's a good chance some will not survive. There are some parts of this that are going to be haunting my thoughts for some time to come.

A Blight of Mages is a prequel to Miller's Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series, which I really wish I had on hand like RIGHT NOW, because THAT ENDING. Anyway, if you like epic fantasy, you should really, really go get this or Innocent Mage posthaste (depending on whether you like to read series in publication or chronological order).