Scan barcode
A review by jackiehorne
The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley
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...