This is one of those books that compelled. As complex as book one was, I still suspected I would remember enough. Indeed that was the case. Because a lot of what was set up in ME happened in EA, it pulled me through.

I did in fact say something accusatory when I got to the Epilogue. I won't repeat it here. Poor Kameron. I'd apologize, but not only would I not mean it, she loves it. Writers live for that reaction.

Don't wait for book 3. Begin now. Suffer with us! Seriously, I found the time to simmer between books incredibly important.

Amazing. ( )

start with book one The Mirror Empire and then once you’ve been sucked into this ‘verse go read this one.

Just like with the first book it took me a couple of chapters to really get into this book. I should have really reread the first book, I’m terrible with names and remembering who is who, and there are plenty of characters to remember in this series. Once I’d gotten them somewhat straight in my head I was totally immersed in this story.

Usually I like a character to cheer for. I don’t think I could cheer for anybody in this book. Pretty much everyone is at the end of their tether and they are all doing anything and everything they can think of to survive. To help their people survive. Sometimes that involves slaughtering worlds. Not really characters you’d want to ask around for tea.

It is a book that expects you to use your brain, this is far from brainless entertainment, so if you are looking for fluff look elsewhere. It also surprised me by showing me how much I expect gender to be pointed out to me. One character refers to themselves using non-gender specific descriptors, ze and hir, and while I was familiar with those words, and have read them in non-fiction, to read whole chapters was a different experience. I kept looking for a he or she, which, obviously was not forthcoming.

It is a fascinating book, because, as I already said, the characters do terrible things, almost no body is without blood on their hands. And that is a central theme of this book, people being forced into actions and reactions, situations creating “monsters” and what exactly people are willing to do to survive.

In a tweet Hurley described this book as her “Empire Strikes Back”, so yeah, be prepared for the grim and the dark! ( )

I was not as captivated as I was with the first book but still pretty great. Expecting good things in the next one when Hurley kills everyone else. ( )

Longer review in the morning when I'm done reeling from the death toll*.

*ASoIaF is for PISSBABIES

One of those second-in-series that blows the first book (which I also loved) out of the water. I went back and edited Mirror Empire down to 4 stars, which is something I tend to do a lot (Ancillary Justice, Half a King, etc). Certainly not an indictment of "The Mirror Empire", but ME sets up, and "Empire Ascendant" DELIVERS. More world(s)-building, more points-of-view, more Tarantino-style action, more blood magic. Sadly, not more cannibalism. Some of your faves die (maybe), some of your faves torture each other. You cry. Just another day being a Kameron Hurley fan. ( )

Kameron Hurley is not afraid to kill off major characters, that's for sure.

This was a fast-paced and very readable sequel, which may seem like faint praise until you remember that the first book was extra challenging due to its wide variety of societies, each with a complex social structure totally unlike anything you're familiar with on earth. In this book, the settings were well established, so it's easier to dive right in to the story. And there is no lack of action.

It took me forever to read it, though, for two reasons:

1. The motivations of the "bad guys" are so exquisitely human that it is impossible to root against them. Someone has to die, but you don't really want any of them to (with maybe one or two exceptions).

2. It is a novel composed 99% of suffering. Narratively it makes sense, all of it hangs together, and there's nothing that feels gratuitous. But the torture, war, murder, disfigurement, and general brutality was too much to take in large doses, for me at any rate.

Still, I do highly recommend it. Hurley is doing something with these societies that is not being done by other fantasy authors, and I am looking forward to book #3. (But please dear god let someone have a happy moment in it!) ( )