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songwind's review against another edition
5.0
The Mirror Empire is a complex book with a sizable cast of multifaceted characters. Its approach to magic, gender, politics and several other fantasy staples is refreshingly unique.
The only fault in this book is that it's clearly the first book of a series, so it doesn't feel 100% complete. However, there are definite storylines that are completed in this book, so it doesn't feel totally incomplete, as some first books can.
The only fault in this book is that it's clearly the first book of a series, so it doesn't feel 100% complete. However, there are definite storylines that are completed in this book, so it doesn't feel totally incomplete, as some first books can.
skycrane's review against another edition
4.0
This book was interesting. In a good way. When I started reading it, I just wanted to read more to see how the story and setting and characters would develop. The setting and societies are unique, and the premise is just great.
I went into this book knowing basically nothing about it except that it was fantasy, and I think that turned out to be a blessing. Some of these other reviews indicate that people heard about feminist themes or the different societies' takes on gender, and read the book based on that. Those things are there, but to me they aren't really an important part of what makes the book fun to read.
For one thing, it's hard to take any kind of message from a book like this. Each character has their own views that are shaped by their society and their personality. Zezili might be my favorite character. She is a monster. She is a sadistic bully who torments those weaker than her. She lives in an incredibly oppressive society, Dorinah, where people like her (female citizens) have the right and the duty to dominate men and non-citizen slaves. This society is so extreme that I can't think of a single example of any real-world civilization where women were as oppressed as men are in this fantasy country. And even within this awful culture, she stands out as being unusually brutal and cruel. But she's also incredibly brave, intelligent, and loyal, in a way. When she's ordered to do something disgusting and reprehensible (or maybe just wasteful) even by her standards, she's conflicted. Most of all, she's just interesting to read about. I want to know more about this truly messed-up person.
Most of the characters are like this (though few are as monstrous as Zezili). In my view, if you're trying to get some kind of clean moral about gender interactions or whatever from a book like this, then you're reading it incorrectly. Too many different ideas conflict. And the fantastical element makes it impossible to translate whatever morals might exist in the book into the real world. In the second book, certain things are revealed about the history and politics of Dorinah that really shut down any attempt to turn it into some kind of real-world parable.
Of course, there is a moral (any work of fiction will have a moral, whether it acknowledges it or not). But it's complicated and messy and, as yet, unclear. I think the author is mainly grappling with the question of what existential conflict does to a person, and what it does to a people. A major question is whether it's better to be accept extinction or to throw away principle and tradition in order to have a chance of survival. It's not a question that is "answered", because different characters come up with different answers in different situations. It's unclear what works, if anything does.
But putting all that aside, I'd say the main reason to read this book is that it is exciting and new. The world feels alien, but the characters resonate. The magic of the world is strange and, well, magical. The societies and their histories are fun to learn about, and the complex gender relations are merely one part of the cultures that are so interesting as a whole. There are mysteries that stay mysterious even as you learn more about them. Perhaps some elements are different or shocking just for the sake of being different and shocking. But I think that's just fine. One of the best things fantasy can do is show us a strange world that is still in some ways familiar.
I went into this book knowing basically nothing about it except that it was fantasy, and I think that turned out to be a blessing. Some of these other reviews indicate that people heard about feminist themes or the different societies' takes on gender, and read the book based on that. Those things are there, but to me they aren't really an important part of what makes the book fun to read.
For one thing, it's hard to take any kind of message from a book like this. Each character has their own views that are shaped by their society and their personality. Zezili might be my favorite character. She is a monster. She is a sadistic bully who torments those weaker than her. She lives in an incredibly oppressive society, Dorinah, where people like her (female citizens) have the right and the duty to dominate men and non-citizen slaves. This society is so extreme that I can't think of a single example of any real-world civilization where women were as oppressed as men are in this fantasy country. And even within this awful culture, she stands out as being unusually brutal and cruel. But she's also incredibly brave, intelligent, and loyal, in a way. When she's ordered to do something disgusting and reprehensible (or maybe just wasteful) even by her standards, she's conflicted. Most of all, she's just interesting to read about. I want to know more about this truly messed-up person.
Most of the characters are like this (though few are as monstrous as Zezili). In my view, if you're trying to get some kind of clean moral about gender interactions or whatever from a book like this, then you're reading it incorrectly. Too many different ideas conflict. And the fantastical element makes it impossible to translate whatever morals might exist in the book into the real world. In the second book, certain things are revealed about the history and politics of Dorinah that really shut down any attempt to turn it into some kind of real-world parable.
Of course, there is a moral (any work of fiction will have a moral, whether it acknowledges it or not). But it's complicated and messy and, as yet, unclear. I think the author is mainly grappling with the question of what existential conflict does to a person, and what it does to a people. A major question is whether it's better to be accept extinction or to throw away principle and tradition in order to have a chance of survival. It's not a question that is "answered", because different characters come up with different answers in different situations. It's unclear what works, if anything does.
But putting all that aside, I'd say the main reason to read this book is that it is exciting and new. The world feels alien, but the characters resonate. The magic of the world is strange and, well, magical. The societies and their histories are fun to learn about, and the complex gender relations are merely one part of the cultures that are so interesting as a whole. There are mysteries that stay mysterious even as you learn more about them. Perhaps some elements are different or shocking just for the sake of being different and shocking. But I think that's just fine. One of the best things fantasy can do is show us a strange world that is still in some ways familiar.
noranne's review against another edition
3.0
Very interesting start to a series. Unfortunately I found it somewhat enamored of its own cleverness (guess what--behavior that is boorish in men is no less boorish when you give it to women instead) and I had a very hard time with a key aspect of the worldbuilding that kept me from fully engaging with it. Also most of the characters are awful people. Intentionally, I think, but that doesn't make me find them any less awful. And while I like having some gray characters and people to root against, it becomes tiring when every single person seems to have few to no redeemable qualities. Much of the plot relied heavily on coincidences that made me roll my eyes, so that was a little disappointing.
With all that said, it is definitely different and most of the worldbuilding is fascinating. It took me a while to understand the plot, but once I did it was entertaining. And it is well-written for sure.
A good book, looking forward to the rest of the series, but not quite all I had hoped it to be.
With all that said, it is definitely different and most of the worldbuilding is fascinating. It took me a while to understand the plot, but once I did it was entertaining. And it is well-written for sure.
A good book, looking forward to the rest of the series, but not quite all I had hoped it to be.
alexscholls's review against another edition
2.0
All right. I've been thinking about this book for a few weeks now that I've finished it.
I'll start with some good things about it:
The world was unique. It was truly like nothing I've seen before: the culture, the setting, the people. I can appreciate that.
The writing was good. Not terrific, because it had the attitude that because it was an "adult" novel, it could throw information at the reader and the reader would absorb it as fast and even faster than it was being thrown because the reader is an ADULT. Sorry, that's not the way this works. An author still has to introduce information gradually and clearly for the reader to understand and absorb it.
It "kept me reading." I put that in quotes because this might have been the absolute weirdest fantasy I have ever read. I wanted to keep reading just to find out how much weirder it could get (if that was possible).
Now, the bad things.
Purportedly, one of the things that makes this book famous is that it "redefines gender roles." Mainly for women. But it does not. It just makes women into men.
One of the cultures the book focuses on is one where women are the warriors, the landowners, the slave-holders. One character, a renown warrior, keeps a "husband," who is considered her property and is basically her sex slave. She treats him as an animal, because he is physically inferior to her (slight, and male), and because she owns him an can control him. I don't see how this is redefining gender roles. This is just switching the "roles": now women are doing the abusing and men are taking it.
This, of course, does not put anybody in a good light, male or female. And, granted, this is one character. But when an entire culture is based off of the concept that women have all the power and this is what they do with it, what is the author trying to say? That women have to be barbaric men in order to be interesting as characters? In order to break out of traditional "gender roles?" What does this say about women in general? Do women have to become "men" in the traditional sense (possess martial ability, strength, dominance, and aggressiveness) in order to have value? Why are "traditional" attitudes for women (empathy, self-sacrifice, humility) not valued as strong qualities? I think that's the question we should be asking our society and our literature, and the aspect we need to change.
A real redefinition of gender roles would be to assert that many human qualities (both male and female in the traditional sense) are valued as strong, regardless of what gender is displaying them. Redefining gender roles would be to assert that there are none. A man can be strong by yielding, as can a man. A woman can be strong by empathizing, as can a man. We are all human, and so can display all these human qualities and be strong. But this book simply maintains our society's pre-determined, rigid "roles" and substitutes men for women. Disappointing. And mildly infuriating.
I actually really thank this book, because it helped me to truly define my frustration concerning the portrayal of women (and men!) in fantasy literature. I'd add that to the "good things about this book" list.
On the whole, I was unimpressed with this work. Its scope was daring, its cultures rich, but it did not live up to purported expectations.
I'll start with some good things about it:
The world was unique. It was truly like nothing I've seen before: the culture, the setting, the people. I can appreciate that.
The writing was good. Not terrific, because it had the attitude that because it was an "adult" novel, it could throw information at the reader and the reader would absorb it as fast and even faster than it was being thrown because the reader is an ADULT. Sorry, that's not the way this works. An author still has to introduce information gradually and clearly for the reader to understand and absorb it.
It "kept me reading." I put that in quotes because this might have been the absolute weirdest fantasy I have ever read. I wanted to keep reading just to find out how much weirder it could get (if that was possible).
Now, the bad things.
Purportedly, one of the things that makes this book famous is that it "redefines gender roles." Mainly for women. But it does not. It just makes women into men.
One of the cultures the book focuses on is one where women are the warriors, the landowners, the slave-holders. One character, a renown warrior, keeps a "husband," who is considered her property and is basically her sex slave. She treats him as an animal, because he is physically inferior to her (slight, and male), and because she owns him an can control him. I don't see how this is redefining gender roles. This is just switching the "roles": now women are doing the abusing and men are taking it.
This, of course, does not put anybody in a good light, male or female. And, granted, this is one character. But when an entire culture is based off of the concept that women have all the power and this is what they do with it, what is the author trying to say? That women have to be barbaric men in order to be interesting as characters? In order to break out of traditional "gender roles?" What does this say about women in general? Do women have to become "men" in the traditional sense (possess martial ability, strength, dominance, and aggressiveness) in order to have value? Why are "traditional" attitudes for women (empathy, self-sacrifice, humility) not valued as strong qualities? I think that's the question we should be asking our society and our literature, and the aspect we need to change.
A real redefinition of gender roles would be to assert that many human qualities (both male and female in the traditional sense) are valued as strong, regardless of what gender is displaying them. Redefining gender roles would be to assert that there are none. A man can be strong by yielding, as can a man. A woman can be strong by empathizing, as can a man. We are all human, and so can display all these human qualities and be strong. But this book simply maintains our society's pre-determined, rigid "roles" and substitutes men for women. Disappointing. And mildly infuriating.
I actually really thank this book, because it helped me to truly define my frustration concerning the portrayal of women (and men!) in fantasy literature. I'd add that to the "good things about this book" list.
On the whole, I was unimpressed with this work. Its scope was daring, its cultures rich, but it did not live up to purported expectations.
ally_o's review against another edition
4.0
Incredibly interesting, but would have been better to read in print rather than kindle b/c of complex world building and the need to check the glossary often. Looking forward to the sequel.
kenleyneufeld's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
jackiehorne's review against another edition
3.0
Four intertwined stories set in a world on the verge of cataclysmic change in this epic fantasy with fascinating gender politics. Hurley's world-building is imaginative and compelling, particularly her construction of different visions of gender and sex and power (which is why I picked up this book in the first place). A culture with five genders (male dominant, male passive, female dominant, female passive, and ungendered), in which some women have multiple husbands, and some men have multiple wives. Another culture where women are physically larger than men, and so are the dominant gender (really really creepy to read about a female general treating her husband as an object, and he acting like a submissive miss: "She took her husband, then—right there next to the table. He was the one thing in her life that she controlled completely. And she loved him for it" [80-81]). A third culture which appears to value only men. And a mirror world where the gender dynamics are not entirely clear.
It's pretty difficult, though, to read an epic fantasy about not just one, but multiple cultures trying to commit genocide against other cultures--how do you pick a character, or a culture, to root for, or even relate to? One of the four characters we follow is the female general mentioned above, who also leads mass killings at immigrant camps, but it is clear that Zezili is not meant to be the villain, at least not in the conventional sense. I'm still struggling to understand the moral stance the author is asking the reader to take—is killing others ok when your world is coming to an end? Perhaps this will become clearer in the next installment of the series...
It's pretty difficult, though, to read an epic fantasy about not just one, but multiple cultures trying to commit genocide against other cultures--how do you pick a character, or a culture, to root for, or even relate to? One of the four characters we follow is the female general mentioned above, who also leads mass killings at immigrant camps, but it is clear that Zezili is not meant to be the villain, at least not in the conventional sense. I'm still struggling to understand the moral stance the author is asking the reader to take—is killing others ok when your world is coming to an end? Perhaps this will become clearer in the next installment of the series...
flerpi's review against another edition
The author put more effort into describing the gender roles and social customs of her fantasy world than the actual plot of the book. The book does raise interesting discussion points on gender, but the balance between worldbuilding, lesson-telling, and plot is so off that I couldn't finish it Also, the character Lilia is so gratingly stupid that she actually manages to kill someone with her idiocy.
meanieinspace's review against another edition
4.5
Admirably violent, only the resolution in the final book of the series is a bit too clean for my taste.
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.