Kameron Hurley, The Mirror Empire

[thistlepong]

I've read the book and I'm confused about how everyone is related to everyone else in the book.

In particular, a young female protagonist makes an assertion of authority near the end of the book that I just didn't understand. Someone explain, please.

The pacifist vegetarian cannibalism thing was interesting (and very relatable for me, minus the cannibalism). The gender thing seemed interesting - the polamory/polygamy seemed unrealistic.

How everyone is related to everyone else is kind of a big request... Lilia Sona is Nava Isoail Sona's daughter in the mirror-Raisa of the Tai Mora. She's unrelated to anyone on Raisa and has no counterpart there. But Nava's counterpart Isoail Rosalia is one of Dorinah's most powerful parajistas.

Not entirely sure which assertion of authority you mean.

[Starkess]

I think he means when Lilia claims

that she is the rightful Kai.

I, too, wondered if there was some connection that I was missing, but I decided that she just said it because it sounded good and to help with her plan to

appear like Faith Anya.

And that she doesn't care what the consequences of making a claim like that are, because when does she EVER care about the consequences or anyone but herself?

I couldn't stand Lilia, if you can't tell. Or most of the characters, honestly, but I think Lilia is the one that sent me over the edge on this book. I mean, I liked it, but it could have been so much better.

[Little Valkyrie]

There's a response she did here detailing some of the gender aspects in the books, and how much more they're going to come out in the next two volumes:

intellectusspeculativus.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/guest-post-beyond-he-man-she-ra-writing-non-binary-characters-by-kameron-hurley/

I personally find gender one of the LEAST interesting things to explore in fantasy fiction, but I know that's a total YMMV and this may really appeal to some readers.

[lokisnow]

Just read, blazed through the book, actually. Pacing was it's strongest point as the short chapters and constant plot never stop moving. The big problem was the sink or swim opening chapters which throws a metric ton of vocab and names and places at you. On my Kindle you can't read the map and I had no clue their was a glossary until I finished the book, so the first few chapters were a bit opaque and bewildering.

Probably my favorite thing though was the staccato description and prose that avoided all the over description nonsense that drags down and plagues a lot of genre books.

I was also impressed she resolved the big mirror plot and Lilia's mothers plot in the first book, a trilogy of that would have sucked, one book was more than enough. Also nice foreshadowing throughout that Lilia's tai mora / rasia dhai ethical system is a seriously fucked up hybrid, I kinda love how I never understood her.

On the other hand, her perspective on herself hides too much from the reader which gives us a bit of a bullshit deus ex machina retcon to give her superpowers under super control.

One thing are the dhai called vegetarians cannibals because they eat no meat except the religious ceremony of eating their dead?

[AncalagonTheBlack]

The conclusion to the Worldbreaker Saga,Book 3: The Broken Heavens will be published in Fall of 2017

Fans should note that there will be a little bit of a lag between publishing EMPIRE ASCENDANT (out this October, but you can and should pre-order now) and THE BROKEN HEAVENS, which isn’t due to come out until Fall of 2017. That lag has to do with the fact that while AR was in transition, I got an offer for THE STARS ARE LEGION from Saga Press (and another untitled SF book due out in 2018). So your 2016 book from me will be THE STARS ARE LEGION followed by THE BROKEN HEAVENS in 2017.

[lokisnow]

I sent this as a birthday present to one of my friends and she enjoyed it as much as I did. It's surprisingly satisfying even in retrospect, I'll probably be passing at least a couple more copies out as gifts.