The Mirror Empire

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By Kameron Hurley

Publisher Description

An ambitious tale of magic, war, and parallel worlds that pushes the boundaries of epic fantasy—from a two-time Hugo Award winner

On the eve of a recurring catastrophic event known to extinguish nations and reshape continents, a troubled orphan evades death and slavery to uncover her own bloody past . . . while a world goes to war with itself.

In the frozen kingdom of Saiduan, invaders from another realm are decimating whole cities, leaving behind nothing but ash and ruin. At the heart of this war lie the pacifistic Dhai people, once enslaved by the Saiduan and now courted by their former masters to provide aid against the encroaching enemy.

As the dark star of the cataclysm rises, an illegitimate ruler is tasked with holding together a country fractured by civil war; a precocious young fighter is asked to betray his family to save his skin; and a half-Dhai general must choose between the eradication of her father's people or loyalty to her alien Empress. Through tense alliances and devastating betrayal, the Dhai and their allies attempt to hold against a seemingly unstoppable force as enemy nations prepare for a coming together of worlds as old as the universe itself. In the end, one world will rise—and many will perish.

Stretching from desolate tundras to steamy, semi-tropical climes seething with sentient plant life, this is an epic tale of blood mages and mercenaries, emperors and priestly assassins, who must unite to save a world on the brink of ruin.

File Under: Fantasy [ Orphaned Child | World at War | Blood Magic | The Fluidity of Gender]

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109 Reviews

3.0

Vivivik

Created about 2 months ago

SilentCurse

Created 3 months ago

Odunayo Yem'Dresh

Created 3 months ago

“3.5 The presence of certain triggering content really soured my enjoyment. I get it’s grimdark, but did (almost) every “romantic” relationship be paedophilic/grooming or incestuous I’m one of those crotchety 25 year olds that really doesn’t like having kids/teens as significant characters in non-kids’ media. Honestly I’m really questioning why Lilia & Roh had to be like 15/16. Especially with how I felt it made no sense for ones so young to be given their responsibilities, also the ick factor of their “relationships” would’ve been avoided if they were bumped up to early 20s. That’s just me I freaking hate kids lol. The Dhai poly stuff didn’t annoy me as much as it usually would. Probably because it wasn’t presented as a romance or “good” but a weird cultural thing. It was honestly so excessive too that I really couldn’t take it seriously enough to be annoyed with it. A poly relationship with 3 people sure, but marriages involving double digits??? Nah that’s crazy. The Reverse Patriarchy of Dorinah was interesting to say the least. I’m equally disturbed by the people who think the author is some anti male feminazi writing out some revenge fantasy AND the people who do uncritically enjoy it as a “sexy” revenge thing. Both are gross. Hurley has written that she doesn’t buy into the “benevolent matriarchy”, that just because women as a class (not individual women) are in charge that doesn’t mean the society will be better for it. So she decided to portray a matriarchy that’s as putrid as all the other male dominated cultures we see. It also exposes some readers’ bias. When there’re fantasy stories with femicide, young girls being sold into child sexual slavery, rampant rape, and being victims of abusive men, nobody bats an eye. It’s seen as “normal” “just how things are” and those who criticise them are being sjws complaining about nothing. But flip the genders and suddenly people get that it’s wrong. I do feel that it got a bit extreme in getting its point across, there were aspects that just kept piling on that made me go “I get it!” I loved Taigan he/she/ze wa Awesome. Go immortal amoral genderfluid assassin mage! Go! The setting and worldbuilding was classic Hurley; queer, original and squishy. Really appreciated the gnarly elements AND the appendix/glossary. Hurley knew she was throwing a lot of fantasy bullshit at the audience and prepared accordingly.”

Created 3 months ago

The Man With Wax Wings

Created 3 months ago

“I would only recommend this book if you like watching train crashes. In short, this book is bad. BAD bad. There were no good storylines. POV characters have no distinguishing traits aside from name and level of horniness. Characters made idiotic decisions with no consequences. The magic system is an afterthought. The world itself is gray and lifeless, which is honestly impressive for a fantasy book. Any interesting ideas that Hurley has (conscious plant life, interdimensional travel) go unexplored because we change POV every 4 pages. I'd be angry at how poorly this book was paced if I cared about a single character. This book tackles world building in the same way an angsty adolescent makes a tackle in flag football. The magic system is barely explored or even explained at all. People called "jistas" are born with powers that are essentially unexplained. How has the presence of magic effected society? How are gifted people treated differently from ungifted people? There's a vague caste system that revolves around being "gifted", but there's such little social commentary in this book that you can ignore it. As with most multiverse literature, Hurley is incapable of making a cogent story that involves parallel timelines. The only rule in this story is that you need blood to open interdimensional portals, and it feels like there are near-infinite realities that are all trying to conquer the world that the story takes place in. Why? Because the plot demands conflict. That's genuinely the only reason. Hurley tries to be progressive. The back cover of my version directly references "the fluidity of gender". This made sense to me - a universe with blood magic seems like a perfect setting to explore the normalcy of transgenderism. However, the one transgender character transitions against their will in a horrible, painful event brought about by the ascendence of The Evil Star. I'm not kidding. Pronouns are also a topic of discussion. You can tell that Hurley heard Japanese honorifics and wanted to apply it to this story, but she does this by directly telling the reader things like "Nasaka used the male-passive pronoun for me, which was insulting". If this is a part of your fantasy world then please at least put in the effort to have these honorifics included IN THE DIALOGUE. I learned about Show Don't Tell in the first grade. Come on. The Mirror Empire constantly emphasizes the matriarchy. However, Hurley places women in the exact position as men in real-life patriarchy. Instead of an introspective on how women interact with power, we are instead force-fed rape fantasies and abuse fetishes. There's no narrative purpose to any of this, either, aside from powerful people being female.”

About Kameron Hurley

Kameron Hurley is the author of the novels God's War, Infidel, and Rapture, a science-fantasy noir series which earned her the Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer and the Kitschy Award for Best Debut Novel.

She is a two-time Hugo Award winner (Best Fan Writer and Best Related Work) and she has been a finalist for the Nebula Award and the Locus Award. Her latest novel, The Mirror Empire, will be published by Angry Robot Books in September 2014.