The Mirror Empire is the first book in the Worldbreaker Saga by Kameron Hurley.
Finished on: 29.6.2024

Content Note: domestic violence, rape, genocide

Plot:
Years ago, Lilia’s village was attacked and her mother used her magic to send Lilia away from the attack, leaving her stranded with people she doesn’t know, but promising to return to her mother. But she can’t keep her promise, at least not right away. Working as a maid in a school for the magically gifted and powerful, Lilia has little chance of setting out on her journey, and she wouldn’t even know where to go. Just when she finds out her first real hint as to the location with the help of her best friend Roh, a stranger comes to the school, bringing with them news of war – and seeing something in Lilia that prompts them to take her away with them.

The Mirror Empire is a challenging novel. I think it took me over half of the (not particularly short) novel to understand the basics of how the worlds here function and are structured. If you don’t mind a lot of confusion and having to put a lot of trust into Hurley as a storyteller, you will be rewarded for it, though.

The Mirror Empire gives us a complex universe. It has a creative and complicated magic system that needs some time to be understood. It has several differnt peoples with very different cultures that include different gender systems that need some time to be understood. And then, there is the fact that there is actually not just one world here but (at least) two, and it needs some time to get those two worlds straight, too.

That’s a lot. And to complicate matters further, the story is told from multiple points of view, and the characters all have different allegiances, bases of knowledge and levels of power to deal with what they are confronted with (also, very different when it comes to their likability). So, it is really no surprise that I spent the first half of the novel wondering whether I should have made notes, drawn some diagrams, or found another way to keep track of everything. I powered through instead, but I suspect that a second reading once familiar with the rules and general outline would probably reveal a lot to me that I missed the first time.

In short, Hurley’s book is damn ambitious and far from an easy read. At times I did wonder whether it was worth the effort. But she always managed to keep me interested, and be it only with the way she reimagines gender relations. We have one culture that is patriarchy, only in reverse with women being the oppressors. We have several different gender systems, as mentioned, and one culture that is polyamorous as the norm. It was interesting to see how these ideas take shape and what implications they have.

I was also interested in the characters. Lilia is probably the most traditional character, in the sense that we often get books that feature young women as the protagonists that have secret magic abilities. She is disabled, which does set her apart from the traditional, but the other point of view characters are even more unusual. Not all of them are actually good people.

A lot of truly fucked up shit happens in the book, making the reading experience even less breezy fun. But I, for one, am glad that I stuck with it to the end – and that there is more to read in this world. I am sure things will get even more complicated from here on out.

Summarizing: whew.