riley_rose's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
lyrrael's review against another edition
4.0
So… I made the mistake of reading The Language of Knives (short story) at the same time as this. And the two paired just give a whole new meaning to bringing relatives to dinner. Okay, having said that, and having read the Bel Dame Apocrypha, I knew what I was getting into here: Hurley is a master (mistress?) of the creation of TRULY unique worlds with intricate worldbuilding, but also being able to delicately throw that information at the reader. I have absolutely zero doubt that she’s figured out plumbing for each of her cultures, but she has the grace not to explain it to the reader. I have to admit that most of her writing leaves me in the mind of China Mieville, who I consider the king of the New Weird genre, but honestly? I think she’s better at it. Unfortunately for me, I’m not a huge fan of New Weird, so while I enjoyed the uniqueness of the setting, it also had a tendency to get under my skin. THIS IS NOT TO SAY this is not an awesome book, because it is -- it is to say that I’m not one for this much complexity in my reading.
indefinitelyme_reads's review against another edition
3.0
Aggressive world building, no romance. The world is vast there are many differencing races, magic, politics going on. War may be coming. All in all i did not enjoy it felt very heavy as the world building and than there was mention of marriage but not romance aside from one character saying she would rather be home F**** he husband.
coaxmetal's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
raven_morgan's review
5.0
Review eARC received from Netgalley.
Here's a secret for you: I burned out on epic fantasy several years ago. I was just *over* seeing the same old tropes, the same old worlds, the same old characters.
And then Kameron Hurley's "The Mirror Empire" was announced. And I warily thought, hey it's Kameron Hurley, maybe this one is going to be different.
(As an aside, if you've not read any of Hurley's online essays, you damn well should)
Some of those tropes are here, of course, but Hurley uses them in such a way that I did not care one bit. The world(s) that she has created are fascinating, with an awesome (and at times, more than a little disturbing) magic system.
I was there at the use of blood magic, and the carnivorous trees and plants, but then Hurley tossed in another layer: the way she looks at gender and gender roles through her fantasy world is just amazing.
I did have some issues balancing the immensity of the world and cast (which may be entirely by fault as a reader), and it did feel at a few times like there were simply "too many notes", in terms of too many things happening, with not enough time given for the reader to get a handle on it all (which again, may be entirely my fault as a reader, and you'll probably see a hundred reviewers who had no problem with it at all). I'm planning on re-reading this, now I have a handle on the world, and I suspect it'll be much easier upon re-reading to keep it all sorted in my head.
If Goodreads allowed half stars, I would probably in all honestly give this one four and a half stars on the first read, simply because of some of the issues I had keeping some characters sorted, but I'm choosing to round up to five stars instead of down to four, simply because the world is so damn awesome.
Really looking forward to seeing whatever Hurley chooses to write in this world, and I suspect this is going to be showing on some awards ballots in the future (and deservedly so).
Recommending to anyone and everyone.
Here's a secret for you: I burned out on epic fantasy several years ago. I was just *over* seeing the same old tropes, the same old worlds, the same old characters.
And then Kameron Hurley's "The Mirror Empire" was announced. And I warily thought, hey it's Kameron Hurley, maybe this one is going to be different.
(As an aside, if you've not read any of Hurley's online essays, you damn well should)
Some of those tropes are here, of course, but Hurley uses them in such a way that I did not care one bit. The world(s) that she has created are fascinating, with an awesome (and at times, more than a little disturbing) magic system.
I was there at the use of blood magic, and the carnivorous trees and plants, but then Hurley tossed in another layer: the way she looks at gender and gender roles through her fantasy world is just amazing.
I did have some issues balancing the immensity of the world and cast (which may be entirely by fault as a reader), and it did feel at a few times like there were simply "too many notes", in terms of too many things happening, with not enough time given for the reader to get a handle on it all (which again, may be entirely my fault as a reader, and you'll probably see a hundred reviewers who had no problem with it at all). I'm planning on re-reading this, now I have a handle on the world, and I suspect it'll be much easier upon re-reading to keep it all sorted in my head.
If Goodreads allowed half stars, I would probably in all honestly give this one four and a half stars on the first read, simply because of some of the issues I had keeping some characters sorted, but I'm choosing to round up to five stars instead of down to four, simply because the world is so damn awesome.
Really looking forward to seeing whatever Hurley chooses to write in this world, and I suspect this is going to be showing on some awards ballots in the future (and deservedly so).
Recommending to anyone and everyone.
milla_r's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
rens_bookshelves's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Self harm
xoa's review
2.0
Another one for my dnf pile. Got most of the way through, but it's been taking me SO long and I just don't really want to finish it.
This one just felt confusing and not terribly interesting - there's a LOT of people and factions, plus the duplicates in the mirror world, and I just can't keep track of who's who, where anything is, or what anybody wants or is up to. I didn't find any of the characters especially interesting and didn't like any of them - it's not really a character-driven piece, it's much more geared towards the plot, so nobody's very distinct or deep - so... nothing making me want to keep reading til the end. A shame! Kameron Hurley's worldbuilding concepts are really original and interesting and good, so I wanted to like the actual book...
Maybe I'll come back to this and give it another try someday - if I read it all in one go it's probably much easier to keep track of what's going on.
This one just felt confusing and not terribly interesting - there's a LOT of people and factions, plus the duplicates in the mirror world, and I just can't keep track of who's who, where anything is, or what anybody wants or is up to. I didn't find any of the characters especially interesting and didn't like any of them - it's not really a character-driven piece, it's much more geared towards the plot, so nobody's very distinct or deep - so... nothing making me want to keep reading til the end. A shame! Kameron Hurley's worldbuilding concepts are really original and interesting and good, so I wanted to like the actual book...
Maybe I'll come back to this and give it another try someday - if I read it all in one go it's probably much easier to keep track of what's going on.
bookshelfmonkey's review
2.0
This really just wasn't it. I feel like it just missed the mark time and time again.
3/10
3/10