A review by jimsfekas
The Mirror Empire, by Kameron Hurley
2.0
I really wanted to like this book. I've very much enjoyed the author's non-fiction writing, including her Hugo-winning essay from 2013. Sadly, I gave up on the book halfway through out of sheer frustration with two of the core characters. First, there was the genocidal (or ethnic cleansing) general. I don't really care for ethnic cleansing in a main character, but the bigger problem was that it was written so casually that you could almost miss that several thousand people have been killed. There's literally no emotional weight to it.
Second, I got tired of reading about the character whose entire plot is driven by the fact that she's an idiot who makes stupid decisions. I gave up when she made yet one more stupid decision and accidentally got an innocent little girl killed. If I'd been reading a paper book, I would have thrown it away. As it was, I decided to move on to something less annoying.
I'm still deciding whether to pick it up again. Maybe it gets better in the second half and I'll change the rating. I'm not optimistic, though.
Second, I got tired of reading about the character whose entire plot is driven by the fact that she's an idiot who makes stupid decisions. I gave up when she made yet one more stupid decision and accidentally got an innocent little girl killed. If I'd been reading a paper book, I would have thrown it away. As it was, I decided to move on to something less annoying.
I'm still deciding whether to pick it up again. Maybe it gets better in the second half and I'll change the rating. I'm not optimistic, though.