The reluctant mage steps up from the depths of awful plumbed by it's predecessor but that only means it's my second least favorite book of hers, not my first. Miller is a talented author who is revisiting the world of her first series. I have been so frustrated by these books. In many ways it's because a lot of the gains of her first series are lost. In fact, much of what I loved about this world is gone.
The Reluctant mage features Deenie, a character I found fun and interesting. She's going to battle the ever present Morg and hopefully rescue her brother Rafe, the irritating protagonist of book one. If Deenie was the major heroine I might have been in love but she's not. Ewan is introduced and takes up a good portion of the time which I was frustrated by. He's much less interesting.
Recurring in this book is Miller's tendancy to have people argue over everything all the time. Literally a fifth of the book is all about people fighting over what the main character has decided. To make it worse we suffer through this and then most of the action happens off screen. Very annoying.
All in all I really hope that this world is done and she can go back to writing awesome stuff.