Heart Of The Mirage: Book One of The Mirage Makers

And there are some twists, it has to be said, but all the interest for me lies in the relationships between Ligea and her slaves and the people she meets in Kardiastan. The plot, such as it is, never really rises above the ho-hum, although there are one or two nice reveals along the way. The other characters are quite interesting, more interesting than Ligea herself, in fact, and at least some of them behave logically and sensibly, unlike her. She seems to follow her emotions when it suits the plot and logic at other times. I liked her best when she was reading the books helpfully provided by the Mirage and working things out for herself, using the incisive brain we were told about many times, but rarely saw.

The magic - sigh. Yes, let's talk about the magic. This is one of those worlds where those select few who have magical capability can do pretty much anything they want with it, except things that would make the plot too simple. They have to learn how to use it, and there is a price to be paid for it, but sometimes it seemed as if, whenever there was a crisis, someone would say - but didn't you know, you can just do X? And Ligea does X, and lo, she is saved. Well, that's not really very interesting. Once we get away from Rome - sorry, Tyrans, and into Kardiastan, the world-building perks up a bit.

The Shiver Sands and the Mirage are fantastic creations, and the author is always wonderfully inventive with animal life. I loved the gorclaks and shleths, and the descriptions brought everything - the buildings, the people, their clothes, even the earth - to glorious life. And if the plot went on pretty much as predicted, still it was fun and a dramatic ride. But the ending - that was a real bummer. But no, Ligea reverts to her illogical, and frankly downright stupid self, and there's an all-too-convenient bit of arm-waving regarding one of her slaves, presumably for plot-related reasons.

It was very disappointing. I've already bought the rest of the series, so I'll undoubtedly read it at some time, but I'm not in a rush. Sep 03, Kelley Ceccato rated it liked it Shelves: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Enjoyable, but ultimately disappointing. The good news is that Larke has a strong, engrossing writing style. It's not exactly lyrical, in the Juliet Marillier mold; it's a bit tougher, a bit grittier than that. But it catches my fancy here, just as it did in my first experience with Larke's work, The Aware.

Larke also delivers a vivid portrait of an intriguing, conflicted protagonist who, in the course of her journey, discovers that everything she knows, everything she believes in, is completely Enjoyable, but ultimately disappointing. Larke also delivers a vivid portrait of an intriguing, conflicted protagonist who, in the course of her journey, discovers that everything she knows, everything she believes in, is completely wrong.

Rather than fall apart, she re-evaluates herself and her place in the world. She goes through three different names -- Ligea, Shirin, Sarana -- as she makes fresh discoveries about her identity. Yet even though I liked Ligea the name I'll use for purposes of this review and found her story interesting, I came away let down.

The book just didn't quite live up to the expectations The Aware had set up in me, due to three main issues: First, one of the things I liked best about The Aware was the friendship between Blaze and Flame, and the fact that even though Blaze fell in love, ultimately her bond with her female friend proved more important. That note of female solidarity, of a supportive and affectionate connection between female characters, is altogether missing from this book.

Other than Ligea herself, the only two important women are a bitter, treacherous slave and a crazy-jealous harpy. Female secondary characters are no better; they're either horrible the governor's wife, the posthumous foster mother or undeveloped Zerise, Gretha, Jessah -- just names, nothing more. Second, while Ligea is never content to be passive, and is always looking for ways to back up her beliefs with action, I can't help noticing that in this book she accomplishes very little.

Though she puts up a good fight, she never gets to defeat an enemy on her own; someone else a man, of course always has to save her.

I'd have thought that a woman as capable and powerful as Ligea would be Rescuer as often as Rescued. Maybe that comes in the sequels. Third, despite the immense power she discovers in herself, it turns out that Ligea's importance is rather limited. In a conservative turn of events, she turns out to be a Womb, important not for herself or her capabilities but for the male child she will bear. The Kardi Magor society is sold to us as gender-egalitarian, yet we see little of that here. Ligea may be the protagonist of the first book, but ultimately the world will be saved by Boy Power.

Despite my issues, I'm intrigued enough by the world and the situation to read the next two books Jun 30, Katie rated it it was ok. Well, if I wasn't convinced that the YA genre is already so diseased that very few- if any- books could be considered good or simple above average, this book made me want to burn the entire genre at the stake. Not only is it what I consider to be a perfect encapsulation of everything I loathe in these types of books- I'll get into what exactly those are in a bit- but also adds elements I find utterly repugnant to be presented to a presumably young demographic as positive in any way in the presen Well, if I wasn't convinced that the YA genre is already so diseased that very few- if any- books could be considered good or simple above average, this book made me want to burn the entire genre at the stake.

Not only is it what I consider to be a perfect encapsulation of everything I loathe in these types of books- I'll get into what exactly those are in a bit- but also adds elements I find utterly repugnant to be presented to a presumably young demographic as positive in any way in the present day. To avoid hiding this review, I will only be going over the story with a very large brush so that you get the core ideas that the book is presenting without going into spoiler territory. I haven't been this angry at a book in a while, so buckle up.

I wanted to give this book only one star, but the book itself isn't an abomination to mankind. I would consider it to be a few notches above that, but only a few. The protagonist lady lives in a mostly militarized nation as some high-ranking official's adopted daughter. The nation itself is trying to conquer most of a desert land, but they're constantly routed by a rebellion there.

They can't get more information than that because the local people are borderline hostile towards outsiders. Since protagonist lady came from there, they order her to gain the local people's trust and route the rebellion. Overall, the setup for this is pretty good and decently paced. However, during part two of the book, things take a nosedive faster than anything I've read. Normally, problems that plague a book can range from tolerable to unbearable, but in my eyes there is one key factor one must consider- is the book good enough despite them?

Does the book stand on its own despite the flaws? Did you have an overall good experience with the book? I'm going to answer those questions with No! First of all, this book is riddled with lots of tropes of YA books. From basic ones such as first person perspective and shitty over dramatic romances, to other ones such as protagonist is very important to ending conflict, supreme ability to master magic powers when the plot needs to get her out of a jam unconsciously rather than training to use those powers over time.

Now, all of those by themselves would kill most if not all of my interest in reading further, but this piece of trash not only has the gal to make the protagonist an outright Mary Sue, but has explicit incest between first cousins! Not only that, but eventual first cousin pregnancy! Believe it or not, none of those aspects I listed are ever portrayed as a bad thing. Only when protagonist lady thinks her first cousin is actually her goddamn brother does she try and break things off with him and try and abort the baby! And when she finds out that that's not the case, she wants to romance him and have his kid!

I shouldn't have to tell anyone this in goddamn , but incest is bad. Ruins the gene pool. But apparently I do, 'cause this book is promoting it. How any of the reviews of this book are anything but negative fills me with despair as to what humanity has become. Incest is shitty and so is this book. Glenda Larke, you are now on my shit list for trying to convince a graphic of primarily adolescent girls that incest is worthy of anything besides shame and disgust.

Sep 05, Rebecca rated it really liked it Shelves: Got engrossed in this book and sat for about 4 hours until I'd finished it. And now I'm itching to read the next one! The author notes at the start that this story was inspired by real histories of indigenous children being stolen from their parents in Australia and South America and being forced to reject those cultures and assimilate into supposedly more "civilised" societies.

From that, Larke weaves a story of one similarly stolen child in a fantasy world and how, as an adult, she is sent on Got engrossed in this book and sat for about 4 hours until I'd finished it. From that, Larke weaves a story of one similarly stolen child in a fantasy world and how, as an adult, she is sent on a mission that opens her eyes to what has been done, not only to her personally, but also to the people she came from.

I really liked the world-building and it always helps when maps are included. The magic system is explained gradually as we need to know - the reader is not overwhelmed with information as can happen in some other books. Ligea is an interesting character - as a spy, she's done things that should make the reader dislike her, but the further the story progresses, you come to sympathise with her as we learn about her origins and the turmoil of having her self-image turned upside down.

I think the only downside is that this book ended! Luckily, my local library has the second one so I shall read that as soon as I can. Nov 06, Jason McCoy rated it liked it. I don't know if I can recommend this book or not. The main character is poorly driven with unclear goals, the setting can be confusing and muddled, and the overall plot is not gripping. That being said Glenda Larke is such an amazing story teller that I found myself caring regardless.

It's just one of those books that I'll look back on and pull apart, but I also can't put it down when I start reading it. Looking forward to reading the next one. May 09, Dawn rated it really liked it. I had real problems at the start of this book: Was it really a fantasy, or a quasi-historical novel based on the Romans? I'm glad I persisted. It's an enjoyable and smooth-flowing story with a high quality of writing, well-developed characters, and a side order of mystery.

Auf diese Reise nimmt sie zwei ihrer Sklaven mit, Brand und Aemid. Durch die Befragung deckt sie schnell etwas Geheimnisvolles auf, welches ganz Kardiastan zu dem macht was es ist und muss sich selber entscheiden auf welcher Seite sie steht. Es gibt Gesetze, die das Leben in der Theorie einfacher und gerechter machen sollen. Doch das Ganze hat auch seine Kehrseiten. Die Charaktere sind auch gut gelungen. Ligea, eine selbstwusste, gerechte Frau ohne Bedenken, muss lernen sich selber zu finden.

Tyran ist nicht das perfekte System, ihr Adoptivvater hat sie benutzt, ihr Vater hat sein Volk verraten damit sie leben kann. Als er frei ist, bleibt er bei Ligea. Denn er liebt sie und hofft dass sie eines Tages dies erwidert. Tyran ist der Name des Exaltrachs und zugleich ein Wortspiel. Tyrannen sind einem ein Begriff, skrupellose, machtgierige Herrscher. Nichts anderes ist der Exaltarch.

Ihnen ihre Kultur zu nehmen und eine andere aufzuzwingen. Das passiert auch heute noch, wenn ein Land "befreit" wird. Die ist ein aktuelles Thema. Das Cover passt gut zum Buch. Da ich von Glenda Larke eh begeistert bin, hat es gepasst das ich dieses Rezensionsexemplar von Blanvalet bekommen habe. Es ist spannend, aufregend und es gibt vieles neues zu entdecken. Dabei wird das Ganze gemischt mit der Suche nach sich selber und mit der blutigen Geschichte Tyrans.

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Sep 05, Allistor Kirkland rated it liked it. The first time I tried reading this I ended up giving up because I disliked the main character. After finally completing it, I still dislike her, but for other reasons such as it was hard to tell how old she was as sometimes she would act like a sixteen-year-old girl and other times she would have the maturity of a forty-year-old woman. I liked the story well enough and the ideas behind it were interesting, but the characters all fell flat for me.

The Heart of the Mirage

The main character had a habit of repeating hersel The first time I tried reading this I ended up giving up because I disliked the main character. The main character had a habit of repeating herself constantly, or the author would write out her thought process over two pages, only to repeat it a couple of pages later as she told another character her plans. Things that were obvious to the reader from the beginning kept being brought up again as if to emphasize the point even though we already knew what was going on, and the plot twists were boring, if anything.

You could obviously tell that this book was written by a woman because, apart from Garis who only had a very minor role , all the men basically acted like women because all they cared about were their feelings for her. Major things such as Tem's plans to free Kardi from slavery where pushed aside and for pages and pages all they would talk about were their feelings for each other and either a how happy they were or b why they couldn't be together.

Though the fact she betrayed most of them was an issue, they got more upset that she didn't feel the same way about them as they did about her, and the web of relationships that could have been interesting became dull mainly due to the fact that none of the men reacted how a normal person would. Her slave who has been in love with her for over a decade is still by her side and constantly reminding her he is in love with her, yet the main love interest never sees this as an issue, never gets jealous or upset about the fact that she spends the latter part of the novel sleeping with him every night.

But the main issue I had with this was the incest. I know the Tyrians were based loosely on the Roman Empire and that marrying your cousin wasn't out of the ordinary, and I know the author was probably trying to make Kardi seem barbaric in that they encouraged brothers and sisters to marry and have children but it just got all so mixed.

She is so horrified at the thought she might have fallen in love with her brother that she basically becomes catatonic and despises herself for it, yet as soon as she finds out they are cousins, everything is okay. Not only that, but she just randomly adjusts to the fact that more than a few of her friends who are married are siblings and it never becomes a problem again.

Review of Heart of the Mirage – Book 1 of The Mirage Makers by Glenda Larke | Brainfluff

As well as that, it's never fully explained why the Mirage Makers need an unborn child. I would understand if they wanted an innocent five year old who is still filled with wonder at the world and is old enough to understand speech and such so that the Mirage Makers could learn from him and defeat the Ravage, but they choose an embryo that is barely one month old and would contribute literally nothing to then. From what was said in the book, the child would grow up as it would have if it was human, only that it would be part of the Mirage, but it makes no sense whatsoever.

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And even if they claimed it was 'magic', a child learns from it's surroundings so just because it was originally human doesn't mean it's going to somehow possess humanity when it finally grows up which also doesn't make any sense because they said they needed a child right away to defeat the Ravage and yet they also said that the child needs to be raised by them. All in all, this book was good to pass the time, but if you're looking for an in-depth fantasy novel that whisks you away to an amazing world, this isn't it. Mar 09, Jennifer rated it it was ok.

Well I just finished book 3. And yes I read all 3 because the core story was interesting. My problem with the trilogy was the incest. I understand that in many past cultures, royalty practiced incest. The whole keeping the bloodline pure.

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The author did not write explicit sex scenes but it was mentioned several times throughout the trilogy and it set a tone for me. I wanted to really like this trilogy because I enjoyed the Stormlord trilogy but I couldn't. Ah, another Larke novel, another reading experience fraught with emotion and action and intrigue and awesome. Tyr has indeed conquered far and wide, with the unruly Kardiastan being one of their conquests, and there are stark similarities with Tyranian references to baths, etc.

Many of the places where Rome conquered, they inserted their own buildings and troops, like they did in Kardiastan, but unlike those places, Kardiastan refused to be assimilated. Their rebellion is fraught with a quiet, stealthy defiance that I enjoyed reading about. At the start of Heart of the Mirage, Ligea was stuck up, blind and willfully ignorant of the evils of the empire and her own contribution to their poor treatment of the conquered.

She and her former slave, Brand, go undercover as escaped slaves and quite by accident, Ligea finds and has relations with the rebel leader, Tem. She is torn between her loyalty to the Tyranian general who raised her and the struggles of the Kardi group, including the kindness and charisma of Tem.

Brand is quiet, intense and intelligent, a phenomenal secondary character for the selfish, cunning Ligea to go around with. Would she betray the empire and help Kardiastan overthrow the yoke of Tyranian tyranny? They do crazy things, sometimes the MCs die and new ones come into the forefront. This was the start of another very strong series for Larke. Jan 04, Caitlin rated it really liked it Shelves: The complex cultures and rich histories of the Tyrans and Kardiastan was what I enjoyed most about Heart of the Mirage.

Combined with the magical elements to the book and the strong main character, Ligea, it made a unique fantasy story that promises to continue into the next books in the series. As I said, my favourite part of the book was learning about the two main nations in the world- Tyrans and Kardistan.

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The Tyrian Empire is very romanesque-with a strong and enforced social hierarchy starting at the Exaltarch and the high born, and ending with the peasants and slaves. Tyrans prides itself in having strong culture and knowledge, with many of the people sharing the view that all other people are uncivilized and uncultured, and therefore must be conquered and converted to their way of life. I loved the contrast between the Tyran and the Kardistan cultures, and we see our own main character Liega, a firm believer in the ideals of Tyrian life, come to question these beliefs as she learns more about not only then Kardistan culture and history, but her own.

Speaking of Ligea, her character is so well written and dynamic throughout the story. At the beginning of the book we are introduced to a determined and strong member of the Brotherhood with a talent of sensing an individuals feeling and whether they are lying or not-a great skill to have as an interrogator for an underground covert organisation. Under the guidance of her adopted father, a prominent General, she ascends the ranks within the Brotherhood, despite not only being a women but also a Kardistan native in a place that dislikes those from other lands or cultures.

She believes strongly in the Tyrian way of life-in slavery and the conquest and conversion of other nations and people. At first, she devotes herself to her new assignment with zeal. And there are secrets in Kardiastan, secrets that will inevitably force Ligea to choose between her upbringing and her birthright. The first person narrative grabbed me and drew me into the story, which zips along at an impressive pace while giving a strong sense of first Tyran society and then the constrasting situation in Kardiastan. While I saw some of the plotpoints coming, there are plenty of unexpected twists that kept me turning the pages as the narrative tension continues ramping up right to the conclusion.

I was pleased to note that while there are a number of dangling plotlines waiting to be tied up in the two subsequent books, the storyline in this first instalment was brought to an entirely satisfactory ending. It always peeves me to get all the way to the end of a novel in a multi-book series and find that I have to wait till the next volume before a main plot point is resolved.

Well, I do have a problem with the name of Tyr — and its inhabitants, the Tyrans. While obviously based upon Roman society, with slavery as the cornerstone of its society, I do think that Larke should have trusted her readers a bit more to recognise the faultlines in such a society without leading us by the nose in using such a blatantly unsubtle name. But other than that, I found the book a thoroughly enjoyable, engrossing read and have already started on the sequel, The Shadow of Tyr. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account.

Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Our small family living in a 5th wheel following Dads work as a rock fall technician I'm a bilingual teacher, and have decided that this summer I wanted to get back into the world of reading. I needed an outlet to share some of the books I have been reading that have been by far amazing reads.

I hope I can help spread the interest of good books with others like myself.