Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse
Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse was an excellent book and this (Mirrored Heavens) is #3 in the Between Earth & Sky series, which is one of my favorite series.
This post will contain meaningful spoilers. For a non-spoiler introduction to this series, read my post on Book #1 Black Sun.
Spoilers!
The rest is spoilers. Big spoilers. Spoils book 3 which necessarily spoils books 1 and 2, at least in part.
So the spoilers begin.
Let's start with a recap of books 1 and 2. Xiala got Serapio from Cuecola to Tova at Lord Balam's request. Naranpa was ousted as the Sun Priest and killed kinda but she didn't die or was revived and now she has the power of the sun god in her. Serapio killed the majority of the order of the priests (except naranpa since she was ousted and Iktan because xe had a standin at the ceremony) and now Tova is in shadow and under the rule of the crow god reborn (serapio).
The serapio bit was initiated by his mother who just wanted to get revenge on the priesthood for the Night of Knives where her enitre family was killed and many members of her clan.
But she's dead and Lord Balam and his Cuecolan cohort have other plans. They want war and to take over Tova. This book is the preparation and enaction of that war.
The book as a whole is FANTASTIC. Naranpa goes to a little northeren village and finds a former Spearmaiden (former warmongers and practitioners of dream magic) to teach her how to walk in the dream realm and god realm. Iktan and Xiala have traveled with Golden Eagle to Hokaia - Golden Eagle is a Tovan clan but has turned against the other 3 Tovan clans and wishes to rule Tova. Serapio murders everybody who's been left behind in the Golden Eagle's district.
Lord Balam has been practicing dreamwalking too and blood magic. Iktan thought Naranpa was dead, but Balam and the head of Golden Eagle both knew she was alive and kept it from xir. Xe went after Balam but narrowly failed to kill him, and went after Golden Eagle's Matron and successfully killed her. Iktan finds Naranpa in the northern village.
Nara has been practicing the dreamwalking and getting much better at it. But it is now time for war. So she and iktan and the old woman go into the God's graveyard into the caves (catacombs?) where the dreamwalking power will be most enhanced. Naranpa does the dreamwalking and ultimately ends up getting stuck in the god's realm or dream realm and we will learn later that she stays in a coma for 6+ years.
Throughout the book Okoa (of crow clan) is kind of back and forth between being loyal to OG crow clan and loyal to serapio, but he ends up on Serapio's side. Originally he was going to murder Serapio, Serapio converted him and he was re-united with Benundah, his giant crow (this was great news, very nice moment).
Serapio and crow clan (and the other two remaining tovan clans) do much work to prepare for the war coming from the east, fortifying the city on the river-side. War will be coming by ship.
Xiala has returned to her Teek homeland, to islands. Her mother is killed by one of the Cuecolan lords. The Cuecolans want Teek ships which are very fast, but ultimately the Teek overthrow the Cuecolans and drive them out. xiala turns into a mermaid-like creature and commands leviathans to destroy the majority of the cuecolans who had come to her island. Fuck yeah!
But the Cuecolan lord makes it back and she warns Balam. It hardly matters anyway. Xiala makes it to Tova and will defend the sea-faring part of the mission. Xiala had also disovered Balam's plan.
So Lord Balam, with his blood magic and the sacrifice of, like, 100 prisoners is able to open a portal to the WEST of tova where a great deal of the fighting force goes. Well, thanks to Xiala, Serapio is made aware of the the western attack, and the Crows and Insect Riders (I forget their names) go attack the western encampment.
Okoa was the head of the security for the Crow clan before he defected to Serapio. The new head of security kills him during this battle in the west (Okoa thought they were allies, so did I). But the Cuecolans and Golden Eagle and Hokaians (this is a whole nother city and faction of people and it's interesting but I've glossed over it. Spearmaidens originate from Hokaia.) are defeated.
All of the buildup here was FANTASTIC. But then it all ended so quickly, and felt like it was all kind of for nothing. The Tovan victory was too decisive. Too fast. I wanted an epic battle, or series of battles, ideally where Tova ultimately wins, but not by such decisive margins.
Okoa's death sucks. I'm not mad at having sad shit in the book, like this is okay plot wise and I'm not critical of his death, but I personally hated it cuz I loved Okoa. Naranpa's brother died, but that might have been book 2 and oh boy that's a whole nother leg of the story I'm just skipping here.
There was also SO MUCH buildup to Naranpa's great dreamwalking thing ... and then it was literally nothing. I think that her getting stuck in the dream/god realm is good storytelling, but she should have DONE SOMETHING IN THE WAR before that. But all her effort just went to literally nothing. She wanted to help defend tova, and trained extensively, and there was much story to it, and then all she gets is a coma. Give her the coma, but also let her powers play a meaningful role in the war first. (also love Nara, hate the coma, but the coma itself is fine storytelling).
So all-in-all we have this 3 book buildup to this great war that fizzles into nothing in all of like 20 pages. The series is INCREDIBLE. But the conclusion is anti-climactic and a bit of a letdown. It is still in my list of favorite book series and I truly love them.
After the war is done, we fast-forward like 6 years. Serapio disappeared for awhile. Xiala had his kid. Xiala goes and finds him and they are going to probably have a happy ever-after. It's a bit boring, but it's fine.
Nara is still in a coma. Iktan is an ambassador for ... Tova? I think? Xe got a powerful position and it's cool. I dig it. Xe is still hoping to find a way to wake up Nara. I hope xe succeeds. Oh, I forgot to mention the love story between Iktan and Nara.
I believe the sun returned to Tova. I don't remember what happened to Cuecola.
The aftermath of the story is ... it's fine. It tied up too many loose ends, if you ask me. Leave me wondering a little bit, yaknow? Create new stories of interest, new conflicts. Make me want another book, even if you're not going to write one. I could honestly do without the aftermath at all. That yearning for more is part of the joy of finishing an excellent book series.
Um, but the aftermath is mostly fine. The actually war itself was such a letdown. I just really wanted more from that.
Either way, this series is still a huge favorite and huge recommend from me. But now that you've read this review, the main story is pretty well spoiled. But there is still much for you to discover in the details, and much joy to be had in the nitty gritty. So yeah. Bye!