Often times, in literature, it does not pay to be inventive or courageous. This is especially true in the more pulpy genres of fiction, like Fantasy, where customers have pre-existing expectations for what they are about to consume. Ms. Miller, in this first of a trilogy, disposes with such safe notions, bravely re-imagining a genre cluttered by banal knockoffs. Yes, Empress of Mijak is both plodding and gratuitous, but the avant-garde force of its central idea powers it over the finish line.
For a 600 page book, Ms. Miller wastes no time establishing her protagonist, hekat, and the ugly world in which she's forced to live. Deep in the desert realm of Mijak, 12-year-old Hekat is so neglected by her family, so unwanted by her society, that she spends half her time chained up in what passes for a childhood home, denied a name and a purpose. She is more kin to rats than human beings, but then women in her world have only one, predictable purpose, to produce children, preferably boys. When hekat is sold to a slaver who sees an uncommon beauty beneath her grime, the door to a better future opens just a crack, just enough for Hekat's ambitions to catch fire and to drive her to learn, then to scheme, and then finally to conquer all of those who ever wronged her. Empress Of Mijak is a chronicle of a rise-to-power of a wronged woman in whom weakness has long since been burned out by the relentless sun, a woman who will stop at nothing to be crowned empress of Mijak.
In casting her villain as the protagonist of the piece, Ms. Miller has given herself the opportunity to explore the evolution of evil. Hekat begins the novel as a pitiable creature, dirty, naked, starving, abused. She's completely taken for granted by all those around her and, as a consequence, claims our sympathies. But as Hekat gains in power and status, it becomes terrifyingly clear that Hekat, rather than fear the darkness inside her, is perfectly willing to embrace evil, to cradle it, to grow it, and to use it as a weapon against her enemies. She is not a reformer of her corrupt realm; she is the latest installment in a long, corrupted line of despots who have ruled over Mijak with iron-fisted cruelty. In this way, Hekat manipulates the reader in the same way she manipulates everyone she comes across, drawing them in by preying on their empathy and then ruthlessly using them to suit her own purposes. This is beautifully executed by Ms. Miller.
Unfortunately, the story itself does not do justice to the villain-as-hero paradigm shift. Much like merciless Mijak itself, the plot and the characters are painfully two-dimensional. The former is, for the most part, a series of events designed to allow Hekat to conquer and advance her aims. The latter are a collection of victims, deserved or otherwise, offered up for Hekat to consume. This may have been Ms. Miller's intention, but more variety is required for 600 pages.
I'm interested to see if Empress of Mijak spawns a new kind of villain fiction. It's wonderful to have ones expectations so thoroughly overturned. It's just a shame the book isn't half as long. (3/5 Stars)
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