Empire Ascendant (Worldbreaker Saga, #2)

In this thrilling sequel to The Mirror Empire, Kameron Hurley transports us back to a land of blood mages and sentient plants, star-driven magic, and warfare on a scale that spans worlds... Every two thousand years, the dark star Oma appears in the night sky, bringing with it a tide of death and destruction. Tattered rifts open between worlds; great empires are born, and mighty rulers die. Whole nations succumb to madness. And those who survive must contend with friends and enemies newly imbued with bloody powers. The kingdom of Saiduan already lies in ruin, decimated by invaders from another world who share the faces of those they seek to destroy. Now the nation of Dhai is under siege by the same force. Their only hope for survival lies in the hands of an illegitimate ruler warring with his consort and former lover for control of the nation's allegiance. As the foreign Empire spreads across the world like a disease, one of their former allies takes up her own Empress's sword again to unseat them, and two enslaved scholars begin a treacherous journey home with what they hope is the key to the Empire's undoing. But when the enemy you must overcome shares your own face, who can be trusted?