The Mirror Empire

Worldbreaker Saga, Book 1

De: Kameron Hurley

Narrado por: Liza Ross

On the eve of a recurring catastrophic event known to extinguish nations and reshape continents, a troubled orphan evades death and slavery to uncover her own bloody past - while a world goes to war with itself. In the frozen kingdom of Saiduan, invaders from another realm are decimating whole cities, leaving behind nothing but ash and ruin.

As the dark star of the cataclysm rises, an illegitimate ruler is tasked with holding together a country fractured by civil war, a precocious young fighter is asked to betray his family and a half-Dhai general must choose between the eradication of her father's people or loyalty to her alien Empress.

Through tense alliances and devastating betrayal, the Dhai and their allies attempt to hold against a seemingly unstoppable force as enemy nations prepare for a coming together of worlds as old as the universe itself. In the end, one world will rise - and many will perish.

©2014 Kameron Hurley (P)2014 Audible Studios

Captivating & thrilling

I got this on the recommendation of a friend and I am SO glad I did! It was confusing at first, but keep going & you'll catch on. Some of the most amazing world building I've ever seen. This style reminds me of ASOIAF, but this author is more brutal than GRRM (in a good way!). I loved the array of perspectives-- people of all (& multiple genders), disabled folks, & different cultures. Loved the unique characters. Five stars for sure.

Read the rest of the series!

This series is worth it to finish reading! This book was my least favorite of the series and by the final book you can really tell how much the author has grown as a writer (which is cool). The trilogy comes to a very satisfying end and doesn't go the way I thought it would.

I think that it's complicated characters and plot threads are an asset rather than the detriment that other reviewers seem to think they are. Each character was morally complex in their own way which helped me get even more in to their stories. Even though I do enjoy the complexity I personally found the story much easier to follow and more enjoyable when I caved and bought the paperbacks.

I know that everyone has mentioned the narrator so I'll be quick on that. I didn't like the narration but there were points when the story was especially gory that I thought it was funny to be hearing such a posh old woman reading them.

Suffers from narrator and front-loaded exposition

Unfortunately this narrator manages to make every character sound like an affronted grandmother, except for Lilia, who sounds like a country bumpkin from the Charlotte's Web cartoon movie. I tried so hard to look past this but nearly every line felt delivered counter to the intentions of the author. The best narrators manage to imbue some sense of the character's own personality to the tone, and this one simply doesn't. Every character sounds exactly the same and it makes it an active burden to tell who is who.

For the story itself, it's all very intriguing but takes so long to make sense through the cripplingly heavy exposition, lack of real character details, and the veritable onslaught of named characters.

I think I'll like this book better on a second read-through. Probably in print.

Great book, Narrator could be better.

I got used to the narrator, I hope the last book gets an audiobook.

Ho hum

After reading the wonderfully gritty Bel Dame Apocrypha (which was stunning) I expected a gritty fantasy The narrator had the wrong voices for this type of fantasy. She'd probably be fine for a cosy mystery.