Mirrored Heavens

Wow wow wow. “Mirrored Heavens is the culmination of a dream,” Roanhorse writes in her end Acknowledgments. An amazing and exquisite and satisfying one, and I’m so ashamed to have doubted that she would finish the series. This is a worthy finale to a powerful epic.

Also brutal. So much intrigue, plotting, treachery, betrayal, cruelty and death. And kindness and love and complexity. Roanhorse kept me on my toes, played with my sympathies and my heart. What I most admire about her is that when she writes about gods she makes them truly, utterly incomprehensible. <i>That is how gods should be to us!</i> By understanding that, she creates a world that is fascinating and, more importantly, fair. Not in the justice sense; I mean in the sense of not cheating. Nobody is all good or all evil or simple. Evil things happen, as do good things, and some people try their best to swing things one way or the other, and ... well, the story is a good one, rich and fulfilling all the way to the last page.

Warning: like with Fevered Star, Roanhorse makes no allowances for readers who might not remember every detail of the first two books. So, reread them or prepare for a rocky ride.

Mirrored Heavens is the third (and final!) book in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy. If you are not familiar, this is a fantasy series set in what feels like the Indigenous Americas. The book uses multiple points of view to follow the leaders of various clans who are fighting for power. By the time we get to the third book, the real battle is between a few of the gods and their human vessels.

This book (and series) is really, really wonderful. It has it all? Original world-building. A suspenseful plot. Delightful prose. But the strongest point are the complex characters. There are many characters, but not so many as to be confusing. And no one is one-dimensional. You might want to separate them into “good guys” and “bad guys,” but it's very hard to do. And yet, it all resolves at the end. Ending a series is a tough thing to do well, but this one managed it.

Strong recommend! I think the first book (Black Sun) is the best, but the other two are very very good as well. Totally worth reading, and now the trilogy is done so it's binge-able as well.

I really, really liked this finale. The whole trilogy is a win for me, and I recommend for epic fantasy fans or if you're looking for non-Euro Western fantasy. This does reinforce the idea that I should not start an epic fantasy series until it's done, because I was lost from time to time after a big read gap between this one and the second book.

Serapio, perwujudan kelahiran kembali Dewa Gagak, dan dinobatkan sebagai Raja Gagak, kini memerintah Tova. Namun musuh menghimpun kekuatan untuk melawannya, baik di kota yang jauh dan dalam kota Tova sendiri, seiring dengan rencana para pemimpin wanita klan-klan untuk menggulingkannya. Jauh di lorong Maw, ramalan baru tercipta, kali ini dari Dewa Dubuk, Serapio akan sial apabila tidak ramalan itu tidak terpenuhi.
Xiala terbawa kembali bersama kaumnya Teek, bersamaan dengan penaklukan Teek. Xiala adalah harapan terakhir kaumnya. Namun dengan laut yang tidak berkomunikasi dengannya lagi seperti dahulu, Xiala harus berkorban untuk menggunakan kekuatannya dan menjadi Ratu Teek sejati.
Jauh di utara gurun, Naranpa, perwujudan Dewa Matahari, berusaha mencari cara untuk menyelamatkan Tova dari visi dalam mimpinya. Namun kini mimpinya dibayangi oleh Dewa Jaguar, yang juga memburu Naranpa.
Ekspektasi aku untuk penutup seri ini cukup tinggi, karena ini salah satu favorit aku. Seperti biasa di penutup seri, ada saja momen “kehilangan” dan sebagai pembaca harus menerima penutup yang realistis ini.