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A review by jrayereads
Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse
4.0
This was definitely one of my most, if not THE most, anticipated book of year for me. I absolutely loved the first two books of this trilogy and could not wait to see how it ends.
First, some non-spoiler thoughts.
Overall, I’m happy with the trilogy as a whole. Roanhorse’s writing is stellar and she is VERY good at creating compelling, complex, and sympathetic characters that you root for even when you don’t fully agree with their actions. The complex political and religious forces at play made this whole series incredibly engaging with a lot of moving players and I often wasn’t sure who to be rooting for because I was so connected to characters on all sides. The queer rep was well done and beautifully integrated into the story. I love seeing nonbinary characters treated with respect and the gender dynamics between characters was really well thought out within this society. I’m white, so I won’t speak to how successful the Indigenous rep is, but I did enjoy it a lot.
Okay spoiler time:
As a final book, there were a couple missteps for me. I think the time spent with Balam’s perspective weakened him as a character and made him more of a cartoonishly evil power-hungry run of the mill bad guy when there were opportunities to have much more interesting conflicts within the world that was set up. The second book did a lot to make Naranpa and Serapio foils for one another, since they are both avatars for opposing gods. Naranpa was a small town girl who fought and sacrificed to get to her position as Sun Priest at the beginning of her story. She escaped poverty but also lost the close relationships she had with her family due to her new status. Serapio, on the other hand, was set on a path created by his mother and her co-conspirators. His entire life was dedicated to one purpose - but it wasn’t a path he chose. They both have very different relationships with duty and responsibility and agency when considering their servitude to gods, but also the society and world around them that pushed them into the positions that they are in.
Unfortunately, Naranpa (best girl in the whole world) is WOEFULLY underutilized in this final book. She and Serapio don’t interact at all, I believe. I wish the core conflict of the story had less to do with these scheming, hand rubbing bad guys (keep them, but make them more external forces that put pressure on our main cast) and more on Naranpa and Serapio having to grapple with their own choices and the very interesting dynamic of them not hating each other but being opposed because of their gods. We got a lot of that with Serapio, but Naranpa is arguably the ONLY other character who understands what it’s like to be a vessel for a god and having to wrestle with that that means for her place in power within society (except for Xiala, but her connection with her god doesn’t come until much later). What’s with Naranpa having this dream walking conflict with Balam when he doesn’t really have any other connection to her? What’s with the Darth Vader style parentage reveal that’s supposed to impact Serapio somehow but resulted in an underwhelming fight scene between them? What’s with the ending where we dont even see NARANPA WAKE UP AND RESOLVE HER STORY???? The throughline for interesting conflict was already there WITHOUT Balam and Tulun taking up so much space within the narrative.
Whew, okay. That was a lot of rambling and I hope it made sense. Overall I really love these characters and this world, and this is still one of my favorite series of the year so far. My criticism comes from a place of DEEP love and respect for this story and even though I loved it, I wish a couple things had been different. I will absolutely be closely following Roanhorse from now on and I hope others will give this trilogy a shot as well.
First, some non-spoiler thoughts.
Overall, I’m happy with the trilogy as a whole. Roanhorse’s writing is stellar and she is VERY good at creating compelling, complex, and sympathetic characters that you root for even when you don’t fully agree with their actions. The complex political and religious forces at play made this whole series incredibly engaging with a lot of moving players and I often wasn’t sure who to be rooting for because I was so connected to characters on all sides. The queer rep was well done and beautifully integrated into the story. I love seeing nonbinary characters treated with respect and the gender dynamics between characters was really well thought out within this society. I’m white, so I won’t speak to how successful the Indigenous rep is, but I did enjoy it a lot.
Okay spoiler time:
Unfortunately, Naranpa (best girl in the whole world) is WOEFULLY underutilized in this final book. She and Serapio don’t interact at all, I believe. I wish the core conflict of the story had less to do with these scheming, hand rubbing bad guys (keep them, but make them more external forces that put pressure on our main cast) and more on Naranpa and Serapio having to grapple with their own choices and the very interesting dynamic of them not hating each other but being opposed because of their gods. We got a lot of that with Serapio, but Naranpa is arguably the ONLY other character who understands what it’s like to be a vessel for a god and having to wrestle with that that means for her place in power within society (except for Xiala, but her connection with her god doesn’t come until much later). What’s with Naranpa having this dream walking conflict with Balam when he doesn’t really have any other connection to her? What’s with the Darth Vader style parentage reveal that’s supposed to impact Serapio somehow but resulted in an underwhelming fight scene between them? What’s with the ending where we dont even see NARANPA WAKE UP AND RESOLVE HER STORY???? The throughline for interesting conflict was already there WITHOUT Balam and Tulun taking up so much space within the narrative.
Whew, okay. That was a lot of rambling and I hope it made sense. Overall I really love these characters and this world, and this is still one of my favorite series of the year so far. My criticism comes from a place of DEEP love and respect for this story and even though I loved it, I wish a couple things had been different. I will absolutely be closely following Roanhorse from now on and I hope others will give this trilogy a shot as well.