The Mirror Empire

The Mirror Empire opens on the eve of a recurring cataclysm, when a dark satellite rises and the magic drawn from the heavens shifts with it. In the frozen kingdom of Saiduan, invaders from another realm are leaving whole cities as ash, and the pacifist Dhai, once enslaved by Saiduan, are asked by their former masters for help.

The story follows several people at once. Lilia, sent through a blood-opened portal by her mother as a child, grows up among the Dhai without knowing she can draw on the power of the star Oma. Ahkio is thrust into leading the Dhai when he is least prepared.

Roh is a young man with a talent he is still learning to use, and Zezili is a feared captain in the Empress's legion, torn between her duty and her heritage. Mirrors open onto parallel worlds, and the people on the other side may be doubles of those who live here.

It is a war between worlds told through shifting alliances, betrayal and several points of view, in a setting of sentient plants and magic that waxes and wanes with the stars. The Mirror Empire is the first book of Kameron Hurley's Worldbreaker Saga, published by Angry Robot in 2014.