The Mirror Empire

When a shadowy force threatens their world, an orphan blood mage, novice fighter, and illegitimate ruler must unite fractured nations - and confront their own darker natures.

Did you hear that sound? That is the sound of the bar for epic fantasy being raised to a new level of awesomeness.
Hurley sidesteps the default medieval Western Europe fantasy setting. Instead she creates a completely unique and highly compelling universe, or actually universes.
A world filled with deadly carnivorous plants, swords protruding from the wrist that looks like lightsabers, a couple of intriguing political systems and a very cool magic system based on the ascent and descent of stars.
The Mirror Empire is the first part of what promises to be an amazing epic saga. A story that revolves around the question how far one is prepared to go to prevent a genocide. A genocide not commited by some evil faceless overlord, but by a mirror version of yourself.