Kameron Hurley: Mirror Empire (2014, Watkins Media Limited)
416 pages
English language
Published Feb. 26, 2014 by Watkins Media Limited.
The payoff is there, but it’s a hell of a challenging takeoff, and takes half of its length before things start to work.
What a difficult book to judge. On the one hand I haven't read a book this unapproachable since I tried to get into the Malazan Book of the Fallen. On the other hand, the world building is incredible, and the reversal of tropes and gender are outstanding.
I wouldn't blame anyone to discard this book after a hundred pages, saying 'fuck this book'. No exposition, a million different terms relating to the world, characters that are hard to grasp. There's a reason the glossary makes up about six percent of the book.
If you decide to stick with it or in my case return to it, you are rewarded with a complex, original story that vastly picks up the pace in the last quarter of the book.
The story is difficult to explain. Most of the main characters are dhai, inhabitants of the world Grasia with a unique magic system …
What a difficult book to judge. On the one hand I haven't read a book this unapproachable since I tried to get into the Malazan Book of the Fallen. On the other hand, the world building is incredible, and the reversal of tropes and gender are outstanding.
I wouldn't blame anyone to discard this book after a hundred pages, saying 'fuck this book'. No exposition, a million different terms relating to the world, characters that are hard to grasp. There's a reason the glossary makes up about six percent of the book.
If you decide to stick with it or in my case return to it, you are rewarded with a complex, original story that vastly picks up the pace in the last quarter of the book.
The story is difficult to explain. Most of the main characters are dhai, inhabitants of the world Grasia with a unique magic system based on the moons. Dhai are pacifists, and in the neighboring Country of martial Dorinah they serve as slaves.
The moon Oma is now ascending, a herald of the apocalypse, and bad shit happens. The leader of the dhai dies, and her hapless brother takes over. A mysterious force starts attacking Grasia, a massive invasion. It turns out that they're being invaded by dhai from a mirror world, a world where dhai are mighty conquerors who are trying to escape their doomed world through portals powered by blood magic.
I am excited for the sequel now, and can only recommend sticking with this difficult book. Ultimately I found it a rewarding read, the most interesting epic fantasy I have read since The Dagger and the Coin series.
3.5 stars because of the described flaws or maybe despite of.
