Kameron Hurley’s The Mirror Empire Review Round-Up

Kameron Hurley’s The Mirror Empire, a potential Hugo and Nebula candidate for 2015, was released on August 26, 2014. This is Hurley’s first foray into epic fantasy, and The Mirror Empire is getting some strong pre-release buzz. For the purpose this blog—Chaos Horizon is dedicated to predicting the Nebula and Hugo award winners—The Mirror Empire seems to be this season’s most-promising candidate for a breakout book, a la Ancillary Justice last year. Hurley won two Hugo’s just a few weeks ago (for Best Fan Writer and Best Related Work), and has previously been nominated for the Nebula for her novel God’s War. While you’re here, check out the Too Early 2015 Hugo Prediction and (this Friday) the Too Early 2015 Nebula Prediction.

Pre-release buzz and promise don’t mean much unless reviews are good, so let’s start collecting those:

About the Book:
Kameron Hurley’s Web Page
Kameron Hurley blogging about The Mirror Empire
Amazon.com page
Goodreads page
Publisher’s Web Page (Angry Robot)
Reviews on Angry Robot’s Web Page

Mainstream Reviews:
Tor.com Review
Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)

Reviews by WordPress Bloggers:
The Scrying Orb
Drunken Dragon Reviews
Ristea’s Reads (5 out of 5)
Bibliotropic (5 out 5)
Looking for a Good Book (3.5 out of 5)
Joe’s Geek Fest
Bookwraiths (added 8/30/14) (2 out of 5)
Avid Reviews (added 8/30/14) (8.5 out of 10)
Violin in a Void (added 8/30/14) (6 out of 10)

Not a ton of reviews yet, but the book is long and we’re in the early days. Most reviews have been positive. People seem to like the ambition and complexity of the world, including some of its dismantling of fantasy conventions. Other reviewers have noted that this is the first novel in a series, and, at times, can feel like such—leaving some good material for later on.

Let me know if there are any other reviews I should add. I’ll be updating this post as more reviews come in.

I’ll be getting a chance to read the novel over the next week or so, so I’ll come back with my impressions later on.