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tachyondecay's review against another edition
It pains me, because everyone is so hyped about Kameron Hurley, and I want to be hyped too. Alas, this first foray into her writing was not a successful venture. Despite spending exactly a week with this book, I am just barely halfway through. It was this realization that made me decide to cut my losses. I am not going to finish The Mirror Empire.
Principally, I just don’t care about any of the main characters and their fate. I genuinely do not care to find out how this book ends.
That isn’t just a problem with the characterization (which is poor) but also the plot, which is stretched thin. For example, Lilia’s entire plot in this first half of the book is “go back and forth between two travel companions, both of whom she hates, and ending up exactly nowhere.” Zezili is a fearsome general who spends her time whinging that her empress is going to get everyone killed, but after half a novel, she still hasn’t done anything about it. Likewise with Ahkio or Roh—these characters are moving slower than molasses.
I was in a reading slump earlier, one which Felix Ever After rescued me from. This book has threatened to send me spiralling back into the slump. Sigh.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cannibalism, and Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual assault